Is UX Design the Next Gold Rush?

Folks, life in Georgia has been a little crazy lately. The US had this big presidential election, and our state has turned out to be pretty important in the final vote count. My wife and I are excited, but exhausted too. It’s been a journey, especially with the role Georgia has played.

I don’t usually like to get political, but so many people are breathing a big sigh of relief now that the election is wrapping up. Change is on the horizon, and I really think that is a good thing. We’ve had too much negativity and it’s time to move forward, to be a united group of states like our name implies.

So aside from that bigger picture, what’s new with me?

Competition and a Daytrip

For one thing, I’m competing soon. If you didn’t know already, I love jiu-jitsu. Since this is my first time competing,  I’m really looking forward to getting out there and really testing myself against others. This feels like exactly the right time to get out of my comfort zone.

I’m pushing myself in jiu-jitsu to compete and make new connections there, as well as to stay fit in general. Right now I’m working my way up to faster run times: I can do a mile in about 13-15 minutes but I’m going to eventually cut that in half. Maybe even get to my fifth grade record: a 5-minute mile!

Sometimes you have to live a little though, and I say that as someone who cheated on my diet bigtime recently. My wife and I went on a day trip out of town, and when we got to a donut shop it was all downhill from there. Who can resist a maple glaze with bacon sprinkles? Unbelievable.

By the end of the day I also had indulged in a ribeye, some mashed potatoes, strawberry shortcake… let’s just say I need to lose about four pounds now before my jiu-jitsu competition!

UX Learning and Investment

I want to revisit something that came up in my last post, because it rubbed some people the wrong way. I was talking about people who seemed unwilling to invest in their growth and just wanted their entire UX journey to fall into their lap with no effort.

It’s important to me that I make this clear: investment doesn't just mean spending a bunch of money on a bootcamp or resources. I’m not saying you shouldn’t look for freebies, or blow a wad of cash on anything you’re not excited about. But you do need to invest in your UX journey, one way or another.

Investment doesn’t have to be money alone. It’s really a mindset. What are you willing to do to learn and grow? Are you going to put serious time or money (or both) into this path? Or are you going to wait for someone else to make it easy for you?

Because I guarantee you that waiting around for freebies is a slow, slow road to success (if you even get there).

The Burning Question

Okay, on to a question that’s been on my mind. And the suspense is kind of killing me. Here it is:

Is UX design the new gold rush?

I don’t care if you’re reading this in your dorm room, at work, or taking a bite of a sandwich, if you’re into UX design at all then take a moment to think about this question. Is UX design the new gold rush?

Because I see some parallels when I think about that original Gold Rush, when so many people were flocking to California to mine gold and get rich. It was a mass exodus, with so much buzz. And who really got rich? The newbie miners?

Not so much. It was the people selling supplies, who were passing out shovels and such at the right moment. The people who were able to position themselves and profit from all those excited people rushing to beat each other to the gold.

What does that have to do with UX design?

Think about it. To get into UX design, you really don’t need a formal education or qualifications to get started. It’s not like becoming an accountant, where you probably need an accounting degree. It’s not like trying to join a law firm with no law degree. And it’s definitely not like becoming a surgeon with no prior medical training!

In other words, people from almost any walk of life can get into UX. And I’m an example of that, considering that I got my first UX job before I even finished a bootcamp or had a pretty paper certificate to hang on my wall. Which is amazing!

So why does that make this like a gold rush?

Because even though UX design is so accessible to people from a lot of different backgrounds, not everyone is going to make it. At least, not everyone trying to make a career or UX design is going to.

There are a lot of people positioning themselves and their products to take advantage of the excitement around UX.  There’s a huge influx of new bootcamps and online courses coming out right now.

Why? Because since you don’t need a formal degree to get into this field, there is a market for people who want to learn and need the validation or a certification or system. It’s a brand-new field, so it makes sense that people are going to look for ways to capitalize on it.

A UX Design Bootcamp Costs HOW Much?

I’ve been doing a bit of digging, and some of these damn bootcamps cost as much as a master’s degree! I’ve seen options all the way up to $15,000 or more.

There’s Interaction Design Foundation, Flatiron, Design Lab… all with their own unique options and a range of pricing. Georgia Tech, Kent State, and many other universities are starting to offer bootcamps or courses on UX design.

Springboard (which is where I got started) has options that can include just UX design or UI/UX. The option I chose cost about $5,000, but there was a $10K option too.

Of course, there are also smaller commitments, like the on-demand courses that can cost a few hundred dollars per year, or 3-4K total. Even some mentorships or coaching could fit in here.

What if it Doesn’t Work?

Okay, so we see that there are a lot of ways that people new to UX design can start learning, or seek certifications of some kind.

What if that doesn’t help? Let’s say you paid $3,000, or $10,000, or even $15,000 to go through one of these UX design bootcamps. But for some reason, you never get a UX job. Or it takes a year or more to get a response to your applications.

That’s why I’m calling this a gold rush. So many of us are headed to where we think the opportunity is, but only some of us are going to make it.

How would you feel about that?

Know Your Goal

You have to identify your goal if you want to measure your risks accurately. Is your goal to get a full-time UX design gig?

I have a lot of friends who do a UX bootcamp and then either partner up with someone or start their own business. Which is awesome.

But I also know people who never got a UX job.

I’m not saying that to discourage you, but it’s important to be realistic. Back before the pandemic shut down all the UX meetups I used to go to, it seemed like a lot of people were not finding jobs even after a year or more of searching. But all the while, so many UX bootcamps and online courses were being marketed to them.

Like selling shovels during the gold rush.

Now, to be clear: you do need shovels if you’re digging for a goal, and you will need resources if you want to learn something new. So there’s nothing wrong with investing in your UX design journey. Just watch out for what you need, and skip the rest.

Being Well-Rounded

If you know your goal, you can decide how best to invest in learning beforehand. What route do you want to take? Do you want to dive deep into the UI design side of things? Do you want to focus on UX research, or strategy?

I’m always a little surprised when people seem excited about this field but don’t want to learn design, colors, or get better at the visual side of UX. And when I meet them, I usually advise them to work on that anyway!

The age of the specialist is almost over. Gone are the days of narrow skill sets: if you want to succeed in UX design you should develop skills on the visual side. You should really make sure you can deliver on what’s expected. Because the odds are good that companies or clients in your area do not just want to hire one font person, one wireframe person, one color theory person, and so on.

They’re usually looking for unicorns, no pun intended. The kind of people who have some core specializations but are comfortable with a lot of indirectly related tasks.

Picture your core UX design skills at the center of a wheel, with all your related knowledge and practice connected like the spokes of a wheel. If you don’t have a well-rounded set of skills and knowledge, things will just not roll forward smoothly.

What Next?

Okay, so maybe you’re wondering whether you have a well-rounded set of skills or whether there are areas you need to improve. Are you making choices that make sense for your goals? Is your inner ugly unicorn shining through to potential employers? There are a few key things you can do:

• Ask yourself what your goals are

• Decide how much time and money you’re willing to commit to your UX design journey

• Be wary of buying too many shovels - or signing up for pricey programs unless you really want to make the most of them

• Find a mentor who will tell you like it is (and who won’t sugarcoat things for you, that’s your mama’s job)