How to Become a Senior UX Designer 2 Times Faster.

Did you know that a senior UX designer in the UK could earn up to £120,000 while a junior UX designer earns between £25,000 to £40,000? That's about 1/3 of what seniors earn. And guess what? This isn't just a UK or a US thing. Whether you're in Nigeria, India, or anywhere else in the world, moving from junior to senior can triple your salary. But the problem is, it usually takes about 4 years to make that jump from junior to senior. That's a long time. I mean, look at what a kid born 4 years ago So how can you fast-track your journey from junior to senior UX designer? That's exactly what we're going to talk about. I'm going to break down 10 things senior UX designers know and do that juniors don't. By the end of this video, you know exactly what you need to start doing today to close the gap between you and that senior title. And if you're a senior designer already and you're not doing these things, you would know exactly where to fix up. To make it clear, we're going to follow 2 characters: Tom, a junior UX designer, and Jane, A senior UX designer. They both work at a fast-paced digital banking startup. We'll see how Tom and Jane's approach to their work as designers differ and what you can learn from Jane to level up. Let's get into it. Jane is a master of her tools, while Tom depends on his tools. When Tom is faced with a new problem like reducing a drop-off rate when customers are setting up an account, for example, he thinks what he needs to do is to redesign the entire onboarding flow. So he immediately jumps into Figma and starts starts redesigning every screen of the onboarding flow. Jane, on the other hand, reads through some previous research that's been done, then spends half an hour on their data analysis tool to study the data and realizes there's an abnormal drop-off during the verification process. So she focuses on redesigning the identity verification part of the onboarding flow instead of redesigning the entire flow by sketching out some ideas. Without Figma, Tom is lost and can't think of any design solutions, while Jane is the master of her tool. So she chooses which tool is best for each stage of the design process. The takeaway here is to not let the tools dictate your process. Start with the problem first, not the software. Jane designs with rationale while Tom designs on vibes only. Tom's designs look good, but when the team asks why he chose a particular layout, he struggles to explain why. He just designed based on what looked nice. Jane, on the other hand, always has a rationale for her design decisions. She can explain how her design improves user retention or reduces friction in the app because her designs are rooted in research and data. Let's take a scenario where they're both redesigning a loan application form. Tom creates a visually appealing form with a lot of fields on a single page. He didn't think about how long a user should expect to keep filling a form before they abandon it. Jane, on the other hand, understands that users can get overwhelmed by lengthy forms, so she grouped related fields, split the form into 3 steps, and added progress indicators, and then clearly explains why designing that form in that manner is more likely to result in a higher completion rate. The point here is to always back your design decisions with a clear rationale. Vibes are great. I mean, I don't mean to kill your vibe, but keep in mind that rationale is what wins stakeholders over again and again. Quick one before we move on to the next point. Can you believe that only 15% of people that watch videos from this channel are subscribers? That's less than 2 out of every 10 people. Come on. That's not good enough. If you're watching this video right now and are not subscribed, hit the subscribe button. And my promise to you is to help you become a designer that will be several steps ahead In this fiercely competitive industry. Now, back to the video. Jane explores multiple design solutions for one idea, while Tom sticks to the first idea. When trying to come up with design solutions for a problem, Tom tends to fall in love with the first idea he comes up with. He spends hours perfecting that one idea, only to find out it doesn't actually solve the problem. Jane, on the other hand, explores multiple solutions for the same problem, and she breaks down the pros and cons of each solution before settling on one. She understands that the first idea is really the best idea, so she keeps exploring. The point here is to think like a senior designer. Don't marry your first idea. Explore, iterate, and then decide which direction is the best. Jane connects her design solutions to clear business outcomes. Tom connects his design solutions to vanity metrics. Vanity metrics are metrics that look good but don't lead to any meaningful business results. Let's say, for example, the team is working on a new feature to design a savings goal tracker that motivates users to hit their savings goal. Tom feels proud when his design looks sleek and modern. He can't wait to put the designs on his social media so other designers can tell him how awesome his design looks and he can get a lot of likes. The number of likes a design gets is a vanity metric. Jane, on the other hand, understands that sleek design is great only if it truly motivates customers to hit their savings goals and help the business drive up the number of customers that are creating a savings account. So Jane spends additional time reading through business documents that Tom finds boring, and this is how she's able to understand the outcomes The takeaway here is to always ask, how does this design help the business grow? Jane makes engineers' lives easy. Tom makes engineers' lives hard. Tom's design files are so chaotic. When engineers look into his files, they don't understand what's going on. The components are not organized. The interactions are not clear. The flows don't make sense. So they have to keep asking him for clarifications. Jane, on the other hand, is every engineer's dream designer. Everything is so well organized. She creates reusable components and includes notes to describe anything that might be unclear to engineers. She understands that smooth collaboration between designers and engineers is key to shipping great products. Now let's make this a bit more practical. So let's say the team is building a new feature. Working with Tom makes the engineers spend more time than necessary because of the frequent back and forth, while working with Jane saves the team 2 weeks of development time. And this is how Jane is able to justify the high salary That she ends. Always keep this in mind. Engineers are the people that you would collaborate with the most. Make their lives easy and they will look forward to working with you. Jane keeps an inspiration board for new ideas. Tom reuses templates from existing ideas. Whenever Jane and Tom get stuck and they need to come up with fresh ideas to solve a problem, Tom looks for UI templates online or from Figma community and makes a few changes to adapt it to his designs. Jane, on the other hand, has an inspiration board where she collects ideas from other digital products, apps, and just things that she finds around the world. She uses tools like Mobbin to see screenshots of real apps and also looks at conceptual ideas from Dribbble. Then she combines these ideas from different sources to create a new idea that solves the problem. The takeaway here is to build your own inspiration library. It's a lifesaver when you hit a creative block. I've found that UI templates can be too generic, so they make your designs look cheap. Jane asks a lot of questions. Tom doesn't ask enough questions. Tom is hesitant to ask questions because he doesn't want to seem inexperienced. While Jane asks all questions about user needs, business goals, and technical constraints. She's not worried about looking dumb or inexperienced. She knows that the more she understands, the better her design solutions will be. Let's say the team is discussing a new feature like a credit score tracker. Tom stays quiet through the entire meeting while Jane asks, who is this feature for? How will it benefit the business? What data do we need to make this work? The answers to her questions help her understand areas to focus on to deliver a design that meets user needs and business goals. Don't be afraid to ask questions. This is how you learn and grow. Jane weaves stories into her design presentations. Tom presents the screens he designed. When they are presenting their work to stakeholders, Tom presents his designs by saying, here's what I did, then he clicks through a few slides without paying attention to how engaged the team and stakeholders are in the presentation. Jane, on the other hand, tells a story that helps the team and stakeholders understand the problem and connect to it. Then she presents the solution and why it's important. At the end of their presentations, the stakeholders can't really recall what Tom presented, but they can remember Jane's presentation because of the story she told, and this made them back her idea. The takeaway here is to learn to tell a story with your design. It's not just about what you made, but who you made it for and why it matters. Jane can juggle multiple design projects simultaneously. Tom can only focus on one project at a time. It's common to find Jane working on 3 or more projects simultaneously. She could be starting a research and discovery session on one project, working on new prototypes of the mobile experience for another project, and conducting a usability test for, for the third one. She's mastered how to prioritize projects and manage her time across what she's working on. And this is why she's trusted with more responsibilities. Tom, on the other hand, usually works on one project at a time. He's likely focused on improving one feature. He hasn't mastered the art of time management and prioritization, so he can't be trusted with multiple responsibilities yet. For Tom to become more like Jane, he needs to start asking for more projects. Understanding how to manage multiple projects is a key skill for senior designers. Jane pushes back when necessary. Tom does whatever he's asked to do. There are scenarios in a team when stakeholders will request for features that might not meet user needs or business goals, or the request might meet business goals but create a terrible experience for the user. In scenarios like this, someone like Tom might just go with the flow and start creating designs for the request without pushing back. He's simply doing what he's been asked to do, even though he has a feeling it could lead to a poor user experience or business outcomes. Jane, on the other hand, shares her opinions and pushes back politely by suggesting other solutions to achieve the same outcome. For example, let's say the executives want to add a chatbot to the app because their competitors have a chatbot on their own app, and the team understands that they are technically limited to create a fully functional chatbot that can actually resolve customer problems, but they still want to go ahead with that decision. Jane would present data and research-driven evidence that customers are usually frustrated with chatbots and also justify why implementing this feature could be bad for the business in the long run. Then she would suggest alternative solutions like like an help article with good search functionality or well-designed frequently asked questions. The main point here is to not be afraid to form your opinions and speak up. This is how you show leadership. If you're ready to be more like Jean and you want to take your design career to the next level, then watch this video next where I break down the 3 skills that can help you get ahead of 90% of designers. I'll see you in that video.