A day in the life of our Junior UX Designer, Chris
In November of last year Chris joined our Design team as a Junior UX Designer. We wanted to share what he gets up to in the AD Studio and how he contributes to both client and AD projects on a day-to-day basis.
Tell us a bit about you and what you do outside of work.
Last year I graduated from University of Dundee in Digital Interaction Design. Outside of work I like to make things. In lockdown I treated myself to a pizza oven and learned to make some pretty tasty stuff! I also have a 3D printer and like to make cool trinkets – I recently made a laptop stand.
What made you pursue this as a career?
I used to create posters for local events and really enjoyed it. I took graphic communications at school and then I found a Digital Interaction Design course at uni. It looked pretty unique so I just went for it.
If you weren’t a Junior UX Designer, what would you want to be?
I don’t know. I think it would still be something to do with design. Probably 3D modelling or animation.
Describe an average day for you at After Digital.
That’s the good thing about working here, every day is different so it can vary a lot. Because we work in two week sprints, we get a good idea of what we’ll be getting up to. We have stand-up every morning so the team can go over any blockers. Then, I could be presenting designs to clients or amending designs from client feedback. I also test sites that our developers have been building and give feedback to them and I work with marketing to make social media assets or update our website. It’s a real mix!
What is the first thing you do when starting your working day each day?
I’ll always log onto slack for project updates and check in with the team or check my emails to see if there's any client updates. I then check Business Resource, our tracking spreadsheet which gives project updates and shows which team member has been allocated to a task.
What is the hardest part of your job?
I’d say probably focussing on a big piece of design work when there's a lot of other little things flying about the studio. It can be hard to just focus on one thing and block out time to tackle it.
What is your favourite part of your job?
Going to Rotterdam to meet the Peppered team has been my favourite thing so far. In person discovery sessions are so much better than online. Getting to see the city, travel and meet clients in their own space really helps with getting to know them.
Top 5 tips or tools that you would recommend for everyday use?
Figma - This is where we do all of our design work. It’s really good for collaboration as we’re all able to work on the same project, in the same file at once. It’s really easy to share designs and prototypes with developers, and with clients. I couldn't imagine working without it.
Notion - From simple note taking for projects, to databases of resources or inspiration – Notion can do everything.
Radio Garden - A website that has all the radio stations across the world. It lets me find new things and stops me from listening to the same old songs on Spotify over and over.
KAP - I use this for screen recordings as it’s easy to use and has good export options. It’s useful for sending things to the team or to clients.
Rectangle - This is my number 1. You can move and resize windows on a Mac using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas. It’s free and awesome.
What advice would you give someone thinking about pursuing a career in UX Design?
Go for it! There are so many emerging disciplines around UX to get stuck into like content design, accessibility and privacy. There’s a demand for designers with an understanding of user-centred principles. UX can be the differentiator between competitors, so I think there’s lots of opportunity for someone starting out.
Are you looking for your next step into digital? We’re hiring for a number of roles, all with different levels in the company. To keep up to date with our team and future insights subscribe to our newsletter and make sure you follow us on Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram.