#8 Feyi: Switching from Software Development to UI/UX Design
I wanted to become a software developer, frontend developer to be precise. I learnt HTML and CSS but when it was time to learn JavaScript, I left... I posted my design on Twitter and it blew up
Hi, Thank you for joining us for today’s episode of StudentsWhoCreate Interview. Our Student Creative for today is a 400 level student of Obafemi Awolowo University who started as a software developer before switching to UI/UX design. How and why did she switch from software development to UI/UX design? How did she navigate the backlash on Naija Design Twitter when her first design post blew up? How does she combine working full-time and being a student? Read and enjoy!!!
Hi, Thank you for speaking with us. Can we meet you?
My name is Feyisayo Faloye, A 400 level student of the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). I am a UI/UX designer. I have been designing since October 2019 and I got my first job in June 2020. I love to draw but have not done that in a while because of school work.
Thank you! How did you get started with UI/UX design?
In April 2019, I wanted to become a software developer, frontend developer to be precise. At the time, I was really learning, I learnt HTML and CSS but when it was time to learn JavaScript, I was like, No I can't do this. Prior to that, I used to draw since I was 12 and I had a friend who told me that since I draw it will be nice for me to go to a field that involves the use of colour, shapes, and giving things details, that was how he told me about UI/UX and my research started. I started researching in September and by October I knew that was what I wanted to do for maybe the next 5 years. I started learning and started to do a lot of reading and watching a lot of YouTube videos. Most people who start UI/UX design always start with UI first because they don't really know what UX is. From October 2019 till May 2020, I was doing a lot of UI designs, pushing out my designs. I even did the 100 days challenge which I didn't finish. In June, I started to learn about UX at Uranus Academy. Yes, It has been a fun ride being a designer.
How do you combine being a full-time UI/UX designer with school?
It is not easy combining school with being a full-time worker. As a student, I have learned to demarcate my time and I always let my employer know before taking a job that I am a student and would prefer to work a very flexible schedule. For example, if the rest of the company starts work by 9 am, I may need to start by 4 pm, so I just always let them know I can't work 9-5 because that means school has to suffer for that.
Knowing how to manage your time is key, you can't be caught playing around because you know that every inch of your time has to be dedicated to something because you're trying to keep up with two things at the same time and run them concurrently.
What are some of the challenges you face being a student designer?
Number one is that people don't want to pay you the money they are paying someone they are taking full-time. Let's say I'm going for a full-time role at a company and I tell them that I'm a student and we start talking salary. Let's say the salary they intend to pay the person they want to hire is 500K, they would offer me 150K because I'm a student and usually I don’t understand why they change their offering because I know I will be delivering the same quality of work as the non-student hire.
My second challenge is Time Management because I am not a perfect person when it comes to time management. It is a challenge because if your time is not well managed some things will suffer for the other and trust me I have experienced it in full force where for like a month I was not doing school work except for assignments and tests because I was not going to classes and it was sad. There was a day I looked at myself and said "Feyi, wetyn you dey do? Your parent sent you to school and you left school to be chasing money and passion." So these are my two biggest challenges as a student creative.
How have you been able to navigate this challenge of pay and negotiate for better pay?
Firstly, employers want to be convinced that you can deliver the worth for your pay, so what I always do during the interview process is to let them know that they will be getting value for their money when I am asked to introduce myself and so far I have been able to deliver on my job and get the pay I deserve.
Is there a creative community in your school?
Yes, and I am on the core team of two communities. One is Friends of Figma, Ile-Ife, a community of Figma users in Ile-Ife. I am also a part of other communities that are not essentially creative communities i.e. they are tech communities because they have tech people in the community and as a UI/UX designer I can be a part of a tech community. She Code Africa, DSC, and I just joined the core team for DSC OAU as a UI/UX designer.
What is the experience like with these communities?
For a fact, I know that when it comes to mentorship, that is their strong point. They always try to lend a helping hand to students who are just starting out or just give fellow creatives a space where they can rant and share the things they are going through as creatives. Most of the time there's support, mentorship, and a safe space.
On a scale of 1-10, How would you rate the community?
I would rate it 5 because they are getting the job done but I feel like there is no follow up and most time the group chats are always boring and everybody is just there until the day someone comes to strike up a conversation. The challenge is getting community members to be interactive consistently.
What is your creative process? How do you go about a project from start to finish?
My creative process mostly involves asking questions. I ask what, why, and how at every point of my design process. The first question is, Why are you doing this? This is to understand the product I'm working on since I'm a product designer. I try to understand the product that is to be designed and built. Then I start to take surveys of user’s perspective on a particular feature or product. I try to observe how users react to things in their daily environment. I always tell people that the UI/UX design process is just the online process of an already existing offline process. I take surveys and do a competitive analysis of competitors to understand how they have been able to scale as a company and see what they are doing right. Then I draw out the user flows to be clear of the process. Before that, I usually do user journey mapping so I try to understand the user journey through a particular process or task. For example, if a user wants to add something to their cart, how do they go about it. This is followed by wireframing; low fidelity wireframe and the high fidelity wireframe that people mostly see on Twitter, Behance, Dribbble, and everywhere. This is followed by prototyping which is my favourite part of the process. Lastly, user testing is one part I had to learn the hard way because users can sometimes not get what you want them to.
In summary,
Research > User Flow and Journey Mapping > Wireframe > Design > Prototype > User Testing
What are some of the tools you use throughout your design process? What are your must-use tools for a design project?
My number one is Figma, I love Figma. For everything product thinking, I use Miro and I use Jira or Notion for management purposes. I am currently learning Framer.
How would you describe the impact of Covid-19 on you and your journey as a designer?
I would say it has had a very positive effect and, to be honest, I did not want the break to be over, not to be selfish. It was during this period I learned about UX and also the time I got to meet the people I am friends with now. I did HNGi7 internship and most of my friends are from HNG. It was from there I got my first job. The lockdown really helped me as a designer but not as a student because I should almost be done with school but now I still have two more sessions to go.
Have you ever felt like quitting?
Oh yes, I still thought about it two weeks ago
What brought about the feeling?
The first time I had this feeling was in January 2020 when I did my first daily UI challenge and also happens to be the first time I posted my design on Twitter and it blew up and I was getting a lot of lashing from all ends on Design Twitter. That was my first impression of Design Twitter, Design Twitter is the devil but eventually, I learned. Also, every time I embark on a project and it's a lot, I always feel like quitting and I'm like maybe I should just give this client back their money and say I'm not doing again and just focus on my books. There was also a time I was getting a lot of rejection mails, you know when you get a lot of rejection emails, you start rethinking your career, you will start to doubt yourself. There was a time I was getting it every day, back to back, but then, we move.
How did you navigate through these periods? How do you handle the feeling when it comes?
Whenever I start feeling this way, the first thing I do is sleep. I just sleep for like 12 hours, when I wake up, I will call my mom and tell her "Mommy, I am not going to design again", and you know how encouraging mothers’ can be. Most times, I just do the very little things like taking a walk, listening to a podcast that will just boost my energy or sometimes I just go out to spend the money I have made from design which reminds me that I have to do more design to make this money back.
What is the most interesting project you have worked on?
There's a creative agency I worked for in April 2021. I was to work on the NILE UNIVERSITY project, the project is live now. To be honest, the reason it will be one of my best is that it is one product I worked on that was shipped really fast and the thinking process for that project was very crazy because I was thinking it was a normal Nigerian university not knowing they have their own standard. I did up to 4 different explorations and they were like, NO. It was one of my most challenging but still one of my best even though I didn't complete the project because of exams. The fact that I started the project and every other guideline used by the other designers were the guidelines I had set down. It was really fun.
How do you stay creative? How do you keep the creative juice flowing?
One thing I do is feed my eyes. I can spend like 2 hours on Behance because I feel like Behance has a lot of other creative things outside of UI/UX and these other creative things inform my creativity. Sometimes I spend time on Dribbble and Instagram. Secondly, I watch a lot of animated series and movies, not anime but cartoons. Another thing is, I always try to observe my environment, for example, if I see a building with a very nice colour combination, I usually attempt to use the colour combination in my design to see if it works.
What do you do for fun? How do you relax when you're not actively designing?
I don't know if watching movies is fun because I watch a lot of movies and I visit my friends. There are times that I have had a very stressful day, so I visit my friends to go and disturb them. I haven't really had fun like that because I'm in Ife and there's really nowhere to go to, just a few places.
Who are the creatives that inspire you?
The first person is Pelumi Adeyemi. He doesn't post his designs but then he inspires me because he is somebody I can meet if I have a particular problem or need feedback and this feedback inspire me to be a better designer. Also, knowing about his progress inspires me.
The second person is Tunde Mason. The first time I heard about him was the Risevest redesign and I was like who did this because the previous Risevest design was so terrible (if anyone from Risevest is reading, I'm so sorry), it needed an upgrade and he and his team did justice to that.
Another person is Damilola Soyombo because of how her teaching is directed at kids.
Others are Shyone, Lamina, Fiyin Adeniyi, Tunji Ogunoye.
Which creative would you love to work or collaborate with on a project?
That has to be Tunde Mason
What brand(s) would you love to work with?
Apple
What advice do you have for someone looking to get into the design space?
My first advice is that you should be ready for backlash but not in a bad way i.e. you should be ready to take criticism. The second is that you should feed your eyes, read books, but if you don't like to read books like me, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos. Just be informed of the latest design process so you won't be doing things that are out of date. Lastly, be consistent.
Who would you like us to interview?
How can people reach you?
You can connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You can also check out my portfolio
Thank you for sharing with us!!!
Takeaway Nugget: Be ready to take criticism, be ready to ask questions, and be consistent.
Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share the story
See you next week!!!
thank you feyisayo👏🏾👏🏾