New Year, Old Me | UX with Lex

So just like your pant buttons after Thanksgiving dinner, maybe just let go and let loose. You don’t need to be neat and tucked in all the time. (did I hate that metaphor? I’m not sure)

New Year, Old Me | UX with Lex
By Lex Evans

Hello my fellow tweepsters, sorry to say but the title was clickbait. I do in fact, want to aim for a newer and better me. For the first time in my adult life, I’m walking into a new year with a career goal not focused on money. My focus this year is to actively work towards becoming an expert.

You see, I’ve been coasting. Thanks to my ‘pressure make diamonds’ mindset all throughout my schooling, I have slowly adapted that mindset into my career. Don’t get me wrong, when I was still a new little chickadee on my journey into the corporate world I tried ALOT. I gave everything. More than I should have in fact. It’s a fine balance that has become a pendulum in my life. Am I giving too much? Too little?

I’m not here to blame because ultimately it is me defaulting to coasting. But I have found your work environment directly reflects your mindset around your projects. It’s like I always say, a messy house is a messy mind. At least for me. So is my workspace clean? That is a good indicator for me on where I am mentally at work. 

Another aspect is the actual humans I work with. Turns out, having a very laze fair manager is fun and tough at times. It’s given me the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. However, I have also learned a hard lesson. I am just not chill. As much as I’d like to be, when I leave things to the last minute I don’t perform the way I know I can. I miss details and let people down. 

You ask, why does that matter, Lex? You just said in your last article that sometimes it’s worth your own happiness. Yes, but isn’t everything in life gray like that?

When it comes to work, I believe that the better you treat the people you work with, the better the project comes out. Even if the soul difference was the attitude surrounding it. Good vibes really do radiate into everything you do. 

Okay Lex, so let’s get to your New Year’s goals. 

Here’s how I’ll do it.

Work towards becoming an expert at Customer Experience.

• Learn and really know the essentials of interaction design.
  • About Face 4th edition: The essentials of Interaction Design
  • Design for the Real World
• Become an ambassador for our customers
  • Articulating Design Decisions
  • Explicitly challenge, rather than reproduce, structural inequalities in design
  • Design Justice
• Last but certainly not least, constantly reference and check myself with the classics
  • The User Experience Team of One
  • The Design of Everyday Things

Let your Type A flag fly.

• Write the to-do lists that you love so much
• Don’t overthink over-communicating (just no unnecessary meetings obviously)
• Plan a timeline for your projects and stick to them

Good vibes only.

• It is not your responsibility to make others happy, but you are responsible for how you react to things. So make the best of it! It’ll help with your burnout too.

Okay, so that was a lot but I hope you enjoyed it! What do you think, do we like the more personal articles or should I go back to more of a case study style. Or both??? That would be a lot of work but I’m up for it if it helps out.

See you in 2023! Toodaloo!