Google UI/UX takeaway
Activity Exemplar: Identify good user experience
Here is a completed exemplar along with an explanation of how the exemplar fulfills the expectations for the previous activity.
Completed Exemplar
The app images are provided below for easy reference:
Here is the completed Identify Good UX Design exemplar. To see the completed exemplar for this course item, click the link below and select “Use Template.”
Link to exemplar: Identify Good UX Design.
OR
If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the exemplar directly from the attachment below.
Your responses may differ from the exemplar, but your work should clearly identify one example of each design criteria—usable, equitable, enjoyable, and useful—in the FoodieLand app.
The completed exemplar identifies aspects of the Foodieland app that demonstrate how the app is usable, equitable, enjoyable, and useful.
The FoodieLand app’s buttons were identified as making the app usable.
The FoodieLand app’s translation feature was identified as making the app equitable.
The FoodieLand app’s use of images was identified as making the app enjoyable.
The FoodieLand app’s filter feature was identified as making the app useful.
Now, compare this exemplar to your answers in the template. What did you do well? Where can you improve? Take this feedback with you as you continue to progress through the course.
The role of a beginner UX designer
As you start out on your path to becoming a UX designer, you’re probably curious about the actual work your new career might involve. In this reading, you can explore the different responsibilities that entry-level UX designers commonly take on during a project. You'll also review the differences between generalist, specialist, and T-shaped UX designers.
But first, a quick call out: You’ll probably notice a lot of new vocabulary and unfamiliar terms in this reading. Don’t worry! You’ll learn about each of these concepts in more depth throughout the certificate program. We’ll also provide a glossary of important terms and their definitions at the end of each week of content.
Responsibilities of an entry-level UX designer
As an entry-level UX designer, you’ll have a lot of exciting opportunities to gain experience. When you first start out, you’ll probably take on a lot of different roles and responsibilities.
User research: User research is about understanding the people who use your product. Through research, you’ll learn about users’ backgrounds, demographics, motivations, pain points, emotions, and goals. Your research methods might include surveys, observations, and interviews. We’ll explore user research in much more detail in an upcoming course.
Information architecture: Information architecture, or IA for short, involves deciding how your product is organized and structured. Think of IA as a skeleton that outlines how users interact with your product. Everything in your product should be organized in ways that make sense to the user and meets their expectations.
Wireframing: A wireframe is a basic outline or sketch of a product or a screen, like an app or website. As the name suggests, wireframes look like they were created with wires. They’re mostly lines and shapes, with some text. Wireframes can be drawn by hand or created digitally using software. Wireframing helps you bring your design ideas to life, so other people on your team can provide input and feedback.
Prototyping: A prototype is an early model of a product that demonstrates its functionality. Prototypes can be in physical or digital formats and can vary in complexity. Sometimes a prototype is made to demonstrate one specific feature of a product, like the transition between screens or the way the product physically looks and feels. You’ll make multiple prototypes for any given product throughout the design process.
Visual design: Visual design focuses on how the product or technology looks. As a UX designer, you need to understand the foundations of visual design in order to communicate the connection between a product’s functionality and its appearance to users. You’ll learn some of the most important principles of visual design throughout this certificate program.
Effective communication: Effective communication as a UX designer means connecting with your colleagues through emails, meetings, presentations, and design software. UX design is a very collaborative field, so being able to communicate both digitally and face-to-face with teammates is important. You need to be a good listener, be receptive to feedback, and share your ideas in a clear way.
Specialist and generalist designers
As you get further along in your career, you can choose to specialize in a certain area of UX design or keep your skill set more broad. What exactly are the differences between specialist and generalist UX designers? Read on to learn more!
Specialist: A specialist dives deep into one type of UX design, like interaction, visual, or motion design, and becomes an expert. Specialist UX designers are more common at large companies that have a lot of designers, like here at Google. Some of the benefits of becoming a specialist include:
Focusing on one type of design that you enjoy more than others.
Gaining deep knowledge of one type of design.
Becoming well-known in the industry for your expertise in a particular type of design.
Generalist: A generalist has a broad number of responsibilities. A majority of UX design jobs are generalist positions, especially at companies with fewer UX designers. Typically, entry-level UX designers work in generalist roles, and some people choose to stay in generalist design roles for their entire careers. There are a lot of benefits to being a generalist UX designer, like:
Expanding your skills in many different types of UX work.
Trying a variety of responsibilities and finding an area of UX that you’re especially passionate about.
Keeping your job feeling fresh and new, while doing a variety of tasks.
T-shaped: A T-shaped designer is a specialist who also has a lot of capabilities in other areas. T-shaped designers get their name because the stem (or vertical line) of a T represents their expertise in one area, while the top (or horizontal line) symbolizes their related skills in a broad number of areas. T-shaped designers are great to have on your team, since they come with the benefits of both specialists and generalists. The image below highlights some of the skills a T-shaped UX designer might have. In this example, the person is a visual design specialist but also has knowledge in other areas, like coding and prototyping.
Each designer tends to naturally have a little T-shape in their abilities, even at the beginning of their career. As you start to work on projects, you’ll probably notice where your strengths and interests lie. As you get better at one area of design, you’ll likely find yourself working on that part of design projects more often, which helps you continue to improve in one area.
You can also decide to direct your T-shape by developing specific skills that will open up future job opportunities. For example, you might work extra hard on your prototyping skills, in addition to your general UX design skills, which can lead to new experiences and professional growth.
Your future as a UX designer
There are so many different paths you can take within the field of UX design. After you land your first entry-level job and start working in the field, you’ll get a better idea of whether you want to be a UX design generalist or specialize in one specific type of design. There are plenty of benefits to being a generalist, specialist, or T-shaped designer, so it’s all about finding what works best for you!
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Interact with cross-functional teammates
UX design is a highly collaborative field, where designers typically work in cross-functional teams. Your future teammates might include engineers, UX researchers, program managers, product leads, fellow designers, and others. Working with a diverse group of people across functions helps you learn from their areas of expertise and explore other domains within the field of UX. In this reading, you’ll learn about cross-functional team members you’re likely to work with as a new UX designer.
Teams that UX designers work with
Cross-functional teams come in lots of shapes and sizes, depending on the organization you work for and the project you’re working on. In general, though, there are a handful of key team members that you’ll get to work with as a UX designer.
Engineers: Engineers translate designs into a functioning experience, like an app or a website. They help UX teams figure out if designs are feasible from a technical standpoint and bring that idea to life. Working closely with engineers and involving them early in the design process is critical to ensure your project is set up for success.
UX researchers: UX research is all about understanding what users need and expect from your product. UX researchers use methods like observations, interviews, and surveys to understand users' unique perspectives. Findings from research can inform your design decisions each step of the way. If you work at a startup or small business, there’s a good chance you’ll get to do your own UX research. At larger companies though, you’ll likely work with designated UX researchers who will provide research findings to inform your design work.
Program managers: Program managers ensure clear and timely communication across the team, so that the process of building a useful product moves smoothly from start to finish. Program managers supervise, support, and keep track of the project as a whole. They assign tasks to team members, monitor the project budget, and manage timelines, among other things. Think of your team’s program manager as your go-to source of support when facing any setbacks or issues with your work.
Product leads: Product leads are in charge of ensuring the final product’s success and communicating with stakeholders. Your product lead will define the project’s core goals and deliverables, so you can focus on creating innovative design solutions. At some companies, product leads are known as product managers.
Other UX designers: In many cases, you won’t be the sole designer working on a given project, especially if you work at a larger company and when you're a new designer. For example, as an entry-level UX designer, you might collaborate with a more experienced visual designer who can ensure that your designs adhere to the company’s brand standards for things like color and font. Working with other designers is a great chance to learn and ask questions!
Working together
Creating a strong product requires working with a cross-functional team of brilliant minds, all contributing their unique skills. As a UX designer, you’ll play a vital role that contributes to the team’s success
The influence of company size and industry
Have you always dreamed of working with a close-knit group at a startup? Or landing a job at your favorite company? Depending on where you end up working, your job as a UX designer could be quite different! In this reading, you’ll explore how UX design roles can vary depending on the company’s size and industry.
Startups and small businesses
Startups are new businesses that want to develop a unique product or service and bring it to market. Small businesses are privately owned businesses with few employees. A lot of UX designers are excited to start work at startups or small businesses because they can see the impact of their work more quickly and develop a broader range of skills.
Team size: Close-knit team and able to work directly with upper management.
Growth: Opportunity for growth due to taking on many responsibilities (visual design, interaction design, user research, and more).
Creativity: Usually more creative freedom with fewer guidelines and processes.
Impact: Lots of impact on final products, with few people working on a project.
Mentorship: Fewer mentors to choose from within a smaller company.
Responsibility: Most of the responsibility for a UX project falls solely on you, which can be stressful if you have little UX experience.
Speed: Have to be comfortable working quickly and launching work that isn’t perfect, with little oversight.
Big companies
At a big company, like Google, you’re likely to work in teams on a specific project. Lots of UX designers want to work at big companies with the people who developed some of the most well-known products in the world. UX teams at larger companies tend to be more compartmentalized by specialization, making it easier for you to become an expert in one particular area of UX.
Mentorship: A variety of experienced designers and other UXers to learn from.
Growth: Lots of opportunity for growth because there are many levels of designers and management.
Guidelines: Clearer guidelines to keep products uniform and on brand.
Team size: More people working on one project, which means you’re better able to focus on your specific responsibilities.
Specialization: Opportunity to focus on one particular area of design.
Team size: May feel less impactful or important as a contributor with lots of other designers on the project.
Impact: May feel small at a company with so many features and products.
Guidelines: Defined guidelines can be restrictive to creativity.
Design agencies
A design agency is a one-stop-shop for visual brands, products, and services. Working at a design agency can be similar in some ways to working at a small business or startup, except you have multiple companies as your clients. Many agencies tend to work on a broad range of products, so you can explore many kinds of styles and approaches to UX design.
Impact: Lots of impact on projects, if you’re the only UX designer on the team.
Networking: Opportunity to work with senior stakeholders, different teams, and diverse clients.
Exposure: Exposure to lots of companies and industries with different clients.
Resume: Potential to work with large brands and display that work in your portfolio.
Mentorship: Lack of mentorship if you are the only UX designer on a project.
Monotony: Depending on the agency, you could work only on the same type of projects.
Ownership: Might not be able to work on a project from start to finish.
Finished product: Products you work on might not launch, depending on client priorities.
Advertising agencies
A lot of UX designers work at advertising agencies, which are teams of creatives hired by clients to build marketing campaigns. Sometimes called “creative technologists,” these designers work to create ads for brands using UX principles. This is a great option if you’re open to learning some interesting skills outside of a core UX design role.
Autonomy: Little to no middle management means more autonomy over your work.
Learning: Opportunity to learn about other disciplines, like branding, marketing, and graphic design.
Variety: Every project is different based on the client.
Networking: Work with a bunch of different brands, clients, and teams.
Specialization: Wide variation in projects, so you might not be able to hone in on specific skills easily.
Relevance: Work may often involve branding and marketing, and might not focus on UX design.
Freelancers
Freelancers are self-employed UX designers who are hired by clients for their independent services. Being a freelancer gives you a lot of freedom, and it’s a great way for new UX designers to gain experience in the field and add work to their portfolio.
Schedule: Set your own hours since you’re self-employed.
Flexibility: Can freelance while working another job or balancing competing priorities.
Autonomy: Choose the work that you want to do.
Experience: Build your portfolio, especially if you don’t have a full-time UX job.
Structure: No one to report to, which means you have to be responsible for getting work done on time.
Stability: Less stable than working for a company or agency, since work is not always guaranteed.
Business: Manage the logistics of your own business, such as filing taxes, billing clients, and more.
Mentorship: Lack of readily available mentors since you’re working by yourself.
Deciding where to work
Everyone’s goals as a UX designer are different, so think about what’s most important to you when choosing a place to work. Consider questions like:
Do you enjoy a lot of structure and processes, or do you like to define your own work and schedule?
Do you value working on a big team, or are you more comfortable working alone?
Do you want to focus mainly on UX design, or are you interested in broadening your skill set?
Considering your career goals and how you work best will help you start to figure out the kind of company that might be the best fit for you. Good luck!
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