In today’s world, technology is an unending tool and skill everyone must possess to connect globally and fit into a fast-rising society.
While there are many tech skills available today, UI/UX, or Product design, is one of the most in-demand skills as it cuts across all spheres of human endeavour.
In an interview with Techpression, Akinmoladun Falusi, a product designer and the founder of the brand “Deep Tech Space”, shared his experience on how he got started in his career as a product designer.
He started his career during the pandemic in 2020 when everybody was indoors. At that time, the pandemic was about three months, so he explained that he had to get something done. Later, he got the idea to study UI/UX, and during his search on how to get started, he was informed to start learning with the Google UI/UX course.
He explained that ‘“I have to talk to some other people on Twitter. So should I take a free course or a paid course?” And they said, “If you do a free course, you will not be serious, so they recommend a paid course.” When one starts with a free course, he explained that there might be a lack of commitment, but in a paid course, you will know that your money is involved.
So in 2020, he started taking the Google course and others, and since then, he has been thriving in the industry. He had also realised that Product Design is the next thing because before, it was all about programmers and code doing their thing.
But now there is design, web interface, prototyping, wireframes, and others before transferring the job to the developer, which makes their job very easy.
Since he got started, he revealed that he had taken many courses, including a Google UX course, another on Adobe, Figma, a movement animation course, and others. Therefore, he advises others aspiring to start their careers not to always rely on free courses. Remarking on the free courses he took, he said, “It was going, but I wasn’t getting the response from the person. I was just watching the video.” It is important to interact with other people. “You know when you have assignments, you have tests, and other people have to check your work and correct you.” But those might not be possible in a free course; one will assume everything is right.
He was learning through 2020 and building projects in 2021, and in 2022, he had a dream to enlighten others.
Read also: 15 Most In-Demand Tech Skills In 2023
Challenges to Being a Product Designer
Generally, some of the biggest challenges to online learning are electricity, data, and time. In his mentoring and training journey, many people have time commitment issues, while others have no or little access to a PC.
He added that it is also important to keep in mind the capacity of the Laptop to work with, as most of the software available today requires a higher capacity and an internet connection.
However, he said apps like Corel, Photoshop, and Illustrator are just used for some designs, while the main task lies with the internet-based software.
For those just starting, he stated that having prior design experience is not necessary and that most things can be done with Figma now. He explained that “I didn’t start with Corel Draw; I started with Google Picasa, Photoshop, and Scriptor, and now Figma has taken over.”
Moreso, in most cases, designers can’t work alone because, when creating an app, you have to test it so that other people can give you their opinion about the app. After all this has been done, it also requires a lot of backend processing, which the developers will do before shooting it outside. Framer works well for the web.
So basically, a product designer designs how the app looks and interacts while the developer transforms it into something usable in general.
What has been the motivation so far
He stated that his sources of motivation are his mentors and also his brother, who is a cybersecurity expert. Over the years, he started to see growth due to his consistency.
At the start, there will always be a time when you will get tired, but in all your design, make sure you are using it to solve a problem.
Nowadays, no-code software like Framer and the like is evolving, and they can help you transit your design into a live website rather than going to a developer.
Being a tech skill, he stated that it is something profitable that people can capitalise on.
What is UI/UX all about?
Basically, it is everything you can see on the screen, be it applications, browsers, and the like.
It might be a bit confusing, but the main goal is to design software that is mobile that you can use. In short, creating something you can press on your phone.
UI is the face everyone sees, while UX is the Bones, Veins and the body’s inner system that makes it function.
Before the advancement of UI/UX, developers did develop apps, but they lacked many of the functionalities we have nowadays, so this involvement is a great plus for the industry. “When you check some websites today, the interaction will make you want to check them again, not just a direct click like before.”
When creating an app, it’s very important to solve a problem that might involve fintech, logistics, real estate, and the like. It is also important to create a unique feature that will make it different from already existing ones.
Deep Tech Space: Inspiring others into the tech space
He revealed that the brand name came from the insight that technology is deep because the more you dig, the more you see. He sighted an example: before, we had the analogue, manual, and now we have the automatic, and in the age to come, more technology will emerge. All this revealed that technology is deep. So he has the goal of imparting knowledge to other people in the tech space, which entails CSS, HTML, and all others. And bring other people of the same ideology together to form a community.
Another of his objectives is to get involved in secondary schools and institutions to teach them about technology. He explained that “Imagine if I was in primary school or secondary school and I was able to learn something about product design. By the time I get to maybe SS1, I would want to boost up that skill to HTML and CSS”. There are now secondary schools that offer coding in their curriculum, which is a good thing, and by the time they finish, they will have been good at it and can make a living for themselves. All this will enhance the country’s productivity and give people chances to build many startups in the years to come.
A lot of people out there don’t know what to do, even after graduating.
Technology is the next wave, and everybody will have no choice but to adopt it. An instance is the cash scarcity period, where most market women have to adapt to banking mobile apps to carry out transactions.
Moreso, technological inclusion is crucial nowadays because people believe all you can do on the internet is commit fraud, whereas many opportunities abound there.
Read also: How to cope with changing workplace and the new digital age
Words for incoming tech stars
The most important thing to do is to get started and stay focused even though there are many interesting other things that can distract you.
People starting out their careers should learn to stay on one track and be good at it first before trying to do many other things because technology is deep. Many people started out with many things and got confused along the way. But when you perfect one, you can easily move on to another because many programmes are still coming later.
One of the things he believed is that “If you don’t try, how will you know it can’t work?”
Over the years, he has trained several students, and even while some of them are working, they are still learning digital skills.
Therefore, he announced that he is always ready to mentor and train people interested in becoming experts in their chosen fields.