Acing My First Design Challenge
My fourth post on Medium might as well be an honest one. As a Flatiron bootcamp grad, there are a series of tasks I’m required to do that will hopefully land me a role as a UX designer. I’m less than a month into the hunt and I’m at interview 3 of 4 for two roles, so maybe Flatiron actually knows what they’re doing. Anyway, one of the required tasks is to explore different design challenge websites. I can’t say I’ve been exploring as much as I’ve been hooked on Designercize.
Designercize claims that, “just 15 minutes a day gives you:
- Better design thinking
- Faster design decisions
- More dates with attractive people
- Mastery of the whiteboard
- Dynamite interview skills
- Happiness and success in all your endeavors”
While I can’t say that my dating life has dramatically improved because of this little site (I’d say it’s already at an 8 out of 10), I can say that my last two design challenges/ whiteboard challenges have gone very well and I can contribute that success to Designercize.
The website generates a random design challenge based on what you’re designing, and who and what you’re designing for (ie. a dashboard for a dating app designed for musicians). Designers can then determine the level of difficulty and the time limit they’re looking for.
This site was such a great help for me as a junior designer to cement my whiteboarding process. I now know I
- Identify the problem
- Outline any assumptions/ constraints
- Define the users/ clarify the problem statement
- Create the task flow
- Begin wireframes
You may be thinking, “Marissa, that’s just the UX design process,” I’d tell you, you’re right but when you’ve got four people focused only on you and only 30 minutes that step by step process can easily fly out of the window. I’ve found much greater confidence presenting my design ideas, leading brainstorming activities, and leveraging digital whiteboarding apps (I’m an Invision and Mural pro, now). To all the new designers out there, I can’t recommend Designercize enough when looking to practice whiteboard challenges.