I’m starting this blog as an attempt to share my exploration notes in the field of design, general inspiration and give myself a kick up the bum of creative output.
My angle is: I’m working on an eventual career change from quality assurance to interaction design. As part of this I’m teaching myself the skills I’ll need to make the move. In an attempt to help anyone on a similar path I’d like to share career advice that has worked well so far, any interesting guidance I’ve picked up on the way, and anything that just looks and feels nice.
Most designers I’ve spoken to have been involved in web design as part of their career, and this site and blog are helping me to use those skills.
I work in a wonderful team that has that rarest of things, the opportunity to carry out true user-centred design in an agile way. We’ve just made our service public. It helps people who take water out of the natural environment in England to manage their abstraction licences online.
The challenge I currently face though, is finding opportunities to sketch and prototype in my role while focussing on the day job, without treading on anyone’s toes.
Some great advice I’m working on so far comes from Guy Ligertwood’s “A guide to becoming a UX designer at age 40”.
I’m also finding Medium a great source for design thinking. There's plenty to mull over in this post by Andrew Wilshere about becoming a designer without going to design school.
In the meantime, I’m going to try and get my own house in order and make my own site show more clearly what it's there for.