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I found the realm of User Experience one of the more wonderful sides of Software Engineering (and life).

Recently, I've installed Google Analytics on our website and I'm trying to study the data it provides and how I can use it to read what the users want. I've found it as the most fun and fulfilling task to do in all of my work life (which is not long, 1.5 years to date).

I've decided that I want my career path to veer towards this road.

Where and how should I start?


EDIT: I've changed the title to remove the focus on being a "UX Expert". My objective is to be set on a good path to start learning, and the previous title might have had different perceptions by people.

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  • I'd rather not aim to become an expert. because when you think that you are an expert or advanced, thats when you stop learning.
    – Blue Ocean
    Aug 6, 2015 at 5:40
  • One doesn't usually learn to be an expert. Expertise usually comes after learning and gaining a lot of experience applying said learning.
    – DA01
    Aug 6, 2015 at 6:43
  • Hi all, I've edited the title to remove the focus on the word "expert". Thanks!
    – Zaenille
    Aug 6, 2015 at 6:52
  • Start working towards 10,000 hours - ux.stackexchange.com/questions/1863/…
    – Adit Gupta
    Aug 6, 2015 at 7:58
  • @Razor9012 I disagree. We try to become an expert, and you can reach that goal, but being an expert you realize that you can still learn. The moment you realize that you can't learn anymore, you cease to become an expert.
    – UXerUIer
    Aug 6, 2015 at 11:10

2 Answers 2

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Not that I'm an experts so take this with a grain of salt but:

  1. Look at questions here on UX stack exchange. Try to come up with a good UX for it, then read everyone else's answers to get feedback and learn more.

  2. Start your own projects, this will force you to learn by necessity. As you run in to new problems you will come up with new solutions. Test them with your users and see which solution is better and eventually you'll learn the best for every situation.

  3. Read. There are plenty of sources both hard copy and online that are great resources for UX. of course a great place to start is NN/g. They have plenty of helpful articles for every situation you could run into.

In the end the key idea is to keep trying things and keep learning. The more ideas and concepts you have in your toolbox the better off you'll be.

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  • 1
    +1 Big fan of The Magic School Bus approach (Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy!) personally. Aug 6, 2015 at 2:28
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    @TimFitzGerald that's how I live my life lol. But really making mistakes is one of he best ways to learn (you'll never forget)
    – DasBeasto
    Aug 6, 2015 at 2:33
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User experience is not limited to digital by the way. There are so many examples of user experience in the real world. You can look at how products are designed and used by people in the real world and ask yourself how can they be improved. You can also look at how people interact with spaces and how they can be improved ( how subway stations could be optimised to save peoples time and effort )

I believe it's important to be able to empathise, that is putting yourself in the users shoes.

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