This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey friends, hey listeners, thanks for tuning in. I am on the road going to San Francisco today. Excited to meet with some readers and listeners there. Day two of my book tour, chrisguillebeau.com/tour. Would love to see you if I happen to be in a city near you.
Now coming up today on the podcast, we have a question from the UK. This is Lena, she is a graphic designer based in London with a recently completed course in UX/UI design under her belt. I'll talk about that in a moment. She is hoping to harness her new skills to venture into consulting. So what is UX or UI, also known as user experience, user interface.
Imagine you're visiting a website or you're using a mobile app. Well, the UX and UI designers are kind of like the behind the scenes wizards who make sure everything works as well as it should, nice and smooth, ideally, and also that it looks great. So it's all about the user experience and the user interface. Making the journey through the website or app as easy and enjoyable as possible. So this is actually a pretty big field.
If you think about all the different websites and apps that are being made, you've got the actual functionality, then you've got the graphic design and branding. But between those two areas of responsibility, you've got everything that UX and UI does. So big field, lots of demand for it, of course. Let's explore how Lina can make a successful transition. Detailed question coming up just 30 seconds from now.
Stay tuned. [Music]
Hello there, I'm Lina from London. I've been working as a graphic designer for years for an advertising agency. I found your podcast while searching for entrepreneurship inspiration, and it's given me a new perspective, so thank you. Recently, I completed a course on UX/UI design, and I'm thinking of starting a side hustle in UX/UI consulting.
Given the demand in the market, what steps should I take to transition into this area and differentiate myself from other consultants? [Music]
All right, Lina, congratulations on completing the course. I think you've chosen a field in which there is much demand, and it's also a field that there's a lot of flexibility. So there are lots of jobs, there are lots of freelance opportunities, there are opportunities to go out and make your own business in this field and industry. So I think first things first is to think about what you want in terms of your lifestyle, in terms of your ideal working conditions, and so on.
But whatever form it takes, to ensure a successful transition, couple of things you wanna do no matter the outcome. First, you wanna build a portfolio. You may have done some of that during the coursework, but if you're just starting doing some projects, can you do projects for friends, can you do some projects for small businesses, maybe some local businesses, offer to do a bit of a UX or UI audit, that can be really helpful. Lots of websites have accessibility issues, they have functionality issues, things break over time, and the website owner doesn't always know it. I mean, I've had this experience, I'm sure on my websites, there's lots of stuff that is not great or could be improved.
And sometimes you don't know, but when you get an audit that lists everything out and just makes it really clear, then that helps a lot. So I would say build a portfolio, number one thing you can do, then some networking, of course, join online forums, join communities, connect with other professionals in the field, and this can lead to client referrals. Now, if you wanna get started right away, like if you wanna begin offering your service, then Fiverr and Upwork. Go to fiverr.com, go to upwork.com. There are lots of people out there doing that, but if you price low and just try to get some experience, you can have your first client within a week.
Now, ultimately, you want to go beyond that. You don't want to price your services low, you want to have good clients, but it's a start, right? Build a portfolio, get some experience, see what you can do in terms of referrals. You've chosen the right industry. It might help to specialize at some point.
Lena has a background in graphic design, so maybe you could consider doing UX/UI design for ad agencies or media companies, some kind of unique selling proposition to not just be the jack or chill of all trades, but even just offering the basic service. There is demand these days, so congratulations. Good luck. Listeners, if you have a question, sign us on school.com/questions or come see me in person all month for the next 30 days, in fact, not just August, but much of September as well, chrisguillebeau.com/tour. I'm in lots of different cities, and thanks so much for your support of Gonzo Capitalism.
New book is out this week. Please order a copy if you've not done so already you can get it from Amazon, your local bookstore, whatever retailer you prefer. And of course the podcast rolls out every single day. More coming up. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
