Zoom call about UI design with Laura Mellor – Part 2

I spoke with Laura Mellor back in January 2021 about transitioning into a freelance UI design career on a part time basis, you can watch part1 here. Since then she’s been on a course and we caught up where I summarise her questions below with useful links. See the full Zoom call at the bottom of the article.

Can you jump straight into freelance with no real experience?

I’d probably say no to this – you’ll need some projects before claiming that you’re an expert, plus working alongside people will help boost your confidence. Build up your experience and maybe go on Dribble and learn techniques or redesign an app that may interest you. Get a feel for design and best practices. If you don’t have any real work to show, create “fake” work – otherwise known as concepts, use http://fakeclients.com to get a brief

Next, make it visible

Get a portfolio together and make it personal to you, here are a few platforms to get started with.

Squarespace
https://www.squarespace.com/websites/create-a-portfolio

Portfoliobox
https://www.portfoliobox.net/

Webflow
https://webflow.com/

Semplice
https://www.semplice.com/

Or find a good developer to help craft your vision 👍

If I have no experience how do I work for an agency to start with?

I’d look work at an agency for free if you have no experience, show ideas / experiments or redesign a platform and show how it could be improved –  potential employees love to see problem solving skills aided by design. Look up creative agencies nearby and seek to get involved.

As a new freelance ux designer what software should I use?

Sketch was my all time favourite tool, but when it came to collaborating it became a bit tricky as you’d get numerous file versions that had slightly different iterations, also some devs didn’t work on Mac so they couldn’t open the Sketch file meaning you had to use a 3rd party tool called Zeplin. 

Figma is multi platform and is free to use as a single license and you can easily duplicate the file and the devs can access what they need without having to bother you. It also has built in prototyping rather than using an external too like Principle.

https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us

Resources for user testing

UserTesting – is one of the most popular platforms among usability testing tools, you can quickly get feedback from real users in video or note format.

HotJar – is one of the key usability testing tools. Over 900,000 organisations currently use Hotjar for usability analysis and in 2021 the tool was recognised as one of the leading services in EMEA.

UserZoom – a popular platform suitable for large companies, as it has around 120 million potential test participants.

Watch the Zoom call

Sit back, relax and listen to questions and answers below👇