We’re living in some weird-ass times. One of the unfortunate results of a global pandemic is loss of jobs and financial security. While people continue to deal with this, the prospect of entering a new field — especially one that’s slightly better equipped to handle these circumstances — may be interesting.

我們生活在一個奇怪的時代。 全球大流行的不幸結果之一是失業和財務安全。 當人們繼續處理這個問題時，進入一個新領域的前景可能會很有趣，尤其是能夠更好地應對這些情況的領域。

Below, you’ll find a handful of valuable tips for folks looking to enter the fields of Product/User Experience Design. These tips are based on my own experience of transitioning into the field as well as years of mentoring, managing, and hiring designers at companies like Airbnb, Khan Academy, and Big Cartel.

下面，您將找到一些有用的提示，供那些希望進入產品/用戶體驗設計領域的人們使用。 這些技巧是基于我自己過渡到該領域的經驗以及在Airbnb，Khan Academy和Big Cartel等公司指導，管理和聘用設計師多年的經驗。

1.了解不同的角色 (1. Understand the Different Roles)

Technology companies can have Brand Designers, User Experience/Product Designers, Motion Designers, Production Designers, User Researchers, and more! Besides design, there’s also Product Management, Software Engineering, Customer Support, and Data Science.

科技公司可以擁有品牌設計師，用戶體驗/產品設計師，動作設計師，產品設計師，用戶研究員等！ 除了設計，還有產品管理，軟件工程，客戶支持和數據科學。

All of these won’t exist at every company, but it’s worth understanding these roles and how they may or may not align with your interests.

所有這些都不是每個公司都存在的，但是值得了解這些角色以及它們如何與您的利益保持一致。

Practical Tip:

實用提示：

Visit the careers page of any medium or large technology company and see the roles they have available.

訪問任何中型或大型技術公司的職業頁面，并查看他們的職位。

Read the job descriptions to get a sense of what each role is about. This will help you understand which roles best align with your interest. Knowing this helps you better focus your efforts. For example, if your passion is User Research, you probably don’t need to perfect your visual design skills!

閱讀工作說明，以了解每個角色的含義。 這將幫助您了解哪些角色最符合您的興趣。 知道這一點有助于您更好地集中精力。 例如，如果您對User Research感興趣，那么您可能不需要完善視覺設計技能！

To go one step further, reach out to people on LinkedIn who are in the positions you’re interested in to learn more. This won’t have a great success rate, but it’s low risk/high reward.

要更進一步，請與您感興趣的職位的LinkedIn上的人員聯系以了解更多信息。 這不會有很大的成功率，但是風險低/回報高。

2.盡早專注于手Craft.io (2. Focus On Your Craft Early)

Fight the urge to perfect your resume, portfolio, or interviewing skills if you haven’t yet devoted enough time to improving your design skills. Your design skill is usually apparent right away and that’s what hiring managers will care most about!

如果您還沒有足夠的時間來改善自己的設計技能，則可以消除完善自己的簡歷，作品集或面試技巧的沖動。 您的設計技巧通常會立即顯現出來，而這正是招聘經理最關心的！

This industry is competitive — take the time needed to get better first. This of course assumes you’ve got the luxury of some other way to earn income as you develop, which isn’t a luxury we’re all afforded.

這個行業具有競爭優勢-花費時間先取得好。 當然，這是假設您在開發過程中擁有其他賺錢方式的奢侈，而這并不是我們所有人都能負擔的。

Practical Tip:

實用提示：

Screenshot any app or website that’s well-designed (start with Apple Design Award winners). Bring it into your design software of choice and drop the opacity down to ~30%. Recreate the app as precisely as you can atop the original —like digital tracing paper.

截屏設計良好的任何應用程序或網站(從Apple Design Award獲獎者入手)。 將其放入您選擇的設計軟件中，并將不透明度降低到約30％。 在原始數字(如數字描圖紙)上盡可能精確地重新創建應用程序。

Over time, this will help you understand appropriate type choices, color choices, button sizing, layouts, etc. The more you do this, the better you’ll understand “the rules”. After you know the rules, you can learn which ones to break.

隨著時間的流逝，這將幫助您了解適當的類型選擇，顏色選擇，按鈕大小，布局等。您做得越多，您就會越了解“規則”。 知道了規則之后，您就可以了解要打破哪些規則。

Apply this same methodology to interaction design by studying popular patterns and recreating them in prototyping apps like InVision, Marvel, or Principle.

通過研究流行的模式并在InVision，Marvel或Principle等原型應用中重新創建模式，將相同的方法應用于交互設計。

3.作為非設計師擁有自己的過去 (3. Own Your Past as a Non-Designer)

Design experience is important for a design job, but there’s great value in the experience you’ve gained in your prior career!

設計經驗對于設計工作很重要，但是您在以前的職業中獲得的經驗具有巨大的價值！

Good design teams know that building a diverse team is critical to building successful products. In addition to ethnic and gender diversity — which are most critical — diversity of education, career path, and location is also valued.

優秀的設計團隊知道，建立一支多元化的團隊對于打造成功的產品至關重要。 除了種族和性別多樣性(這是最關鍵的)之外，教育，職業道路和位置的多樣性也受到重視。

Practical Tip:

實用提示：

Research the role(s) you’re interested in and understand what process they follow. Then, find commonalities between your experience and the new role.

研究您感興趣的角色，并了解他們遵循的流程。 然后，在您的經驗和新職位之間找到共同點。

As a chemist, you learned how to test hypotheses and measure results — something designers do. As a PR expert, you learned to master communication and fight fires — something designers do. As a painter, you learned how to iterate and embrace challenges with your medium — something designers do. As a community organizer you learned to use your passion to rally many people together towards a common goal — something designers do. There are many more examples like this.

作為一名化學家，您學會了如何檢驗假設和衡量結果-設計師可以做到。 作為一名PR專家，您學會了溝通和撲滅火災-設計師可以做到。 作為畫家，您學習了如何遍歷和應對媒介所帶來的挑戰，這正是設計師所做的。 作為社區組織者，您學會了用自己的熱情將許多人團結在一起，以實現一個共同的目標-設計師所做的。 還有更多類似的例子。

4.尋找導師 (4. Find a Mentor)

A mentor with professional experience in your desired field can make a huge difference in your career trajectory! Good mentors can provide all sorts of value for new designers. For example, they can provide feedback on your projects, help you refine your resume and portfolio, connect you to others in the industry, share learnings they’ve had throughout their career, and more. Having a resource like this can be a difference maker when it comes to succeeding.

在您期望的領域中具有專業經驗的導師可以對您的職業發展道路產生巨大的影響！ 優秀的導師可以為新設計師提供各種價值。 例如，他們可以提供有關您的項目的反饋，幫助您完善簡歷和投資組合，將您與行業中的其他人聯系起來，分享他們在整個職業生涯中獲得的經驗等等。 在成功方面，擁有這樣的資源可能會有所作為。

Practical Tip:

實用提示：

Start by studying people who are in jobs that are especially intriguing to you or who have the job that you want 5–10 years from now.

首先研究那些對您特別有吸引力的工作或從現在起5到10年內擁有您想要的工作的人。

Instead of asking them to be your mentor right away, just ask to have a conversation (kindly and respectfully, of course). From there, you can feel out if the relationship is a good fit.

與其要求他們立即成為您的導師，不如要求他們進行一次交談(當然，要有禮貌和尊重)。 從那里，您可以確定這種關系是否合適。

Be prepared to ask specific questions and show that you’ve studied them and their path. After the conversation, follow up and keep the door open for continued conversations. More often than not, the responsibility falls on the mentee to create agendas, create discussion prompts, etc. Take it seriously and they will too!

準備提出具體問題，并表明您已經研究了它們及其路徑。 對話后，請跟進并打開門，繼續進行對話。 通常，責任落在受訓者身上，以創建議程，創建討論提示等。認真對待它，他們也會這樣做！

5.加入設計社區。 (5. Join Design Communities.)

Just like having a mentor, it’s useful to have peers you can share with and learn from. Many design communities encourage sharing job postings, giving feedback to one another, and uplifting folks who have been laid off by sharing their portfolios and resumes.

就像有一位導師一樣，擁有可以與之分享和學習的同伴也很有用。 許多設計社區都鼓勵分享工作崗位，互相反饋，并通過分享自己的作品集和簡歷來培養被解雇的人。

Having access to these resources and to people tackling similar challenges can be super helpful as a newcomer to the industry.

作為這些行業的新手，擁有這些資源以及應對類似挑戰的人員可能會非常有幫助。

Practical Tip:

實用提示：

Slack is one of the most useful ways to engage with others in the design community! There are hundreds of different groups ranging from broad to niche, junior to more experienced, etc. Explore these communities and join the ones that feel most relevant. Here’s a good place to start.

Slack是與設計社區中的其他人互動的最有用的方法之一！ 有數百個不同的群體，范圍廣泛，從小眾到初級，再到經驗豐富，等等。探索這些社區并加入最相關的社區。 這是一個不錯的起點 。

Also consider exploring Facebook and LinkedIn for additional communities, Eventbrite for local and remote events, Dribbble for posting work and getting inspiration, Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD communities for having tool-specific discussions, and Twitter for general design and technology discourse.

還可以考慮探索Facebook和LinkedIn，以獲得更多社區，Eventbrite了解本地和遠程事件，Dribbble發布工作并獲得靈感，Figma，Sketch或Adobe XD社區進行特定工具的討論，Twitter進行常規設計和技術討論。

閉幕 (Closing)

I hope you find these tips useful as you consider a potential career shift. Here’s some additional thoughts I’ll leave you with:

我希望您在考慮可能的職業轉變時發現這些技巧有用。 這是我的一些其他想法：

1. A lot of popular design discourse is dominated by white men. Go out of your way to engage in conversations led by people of color — especially women and non-binary people of color. Their perspectives are invaluable and regularly underrepresented in this field.
   許多流行的設計論述都由白人主導。 盡力參與有色人種尤其是女性和非二元有色人種領導的對話。 他們的觀點是無價的，在這一領域經常被忽視。
2. Communication and storytelling are critical parts of a designer’s job. Read books and articles about this topic to develop your skills here and increase your chances of succeeding.
   交流和講故事是設計師工作的關鍵部分。 閱讀有關該主題的書籍和文章，以在這里發展技能并增加成功的機會。

3. Non-profits and social-good organizations are an incredible place to practice your design skills while also making a positive impact on the world. There are fewer opportunities, but they are well worth searching for. My time at Khan Academy bolstered my personal and professional growth in ways I couldn’t have expected.

   非營利組織和社會公益組織是實踐您的設計技能同時又對世界產生積極影響的絕佳場所。 機會較少，但值得尋找。 我在汗學院 ( Khan Academy)的經歷以我無法預料的方式促進了我的個人和職業發展。

4. Research, research, research! This is a critical skill for any designer to develop. While many large companies will have dedicated research resources, most smaller companies won’t. Learn the basics of this as early as possible.
   研究，研究，研究！ 對于任何設計師來說，這都是至關重要的技能。 盡管許多大公司將擁有專門的研究資源，但大多數小公司卻沒有。 盡早學習此基礎知識。

5. I’ve had a number of special relationships with other designers, but I am most thankful for my former manager and forever mentor, May-Li Khoe who is most responsible for how I manage and grow designers. Follow her for lots of great design and non-design stuff!

   我與其他設計師有很多特殊的關系，但我要感謝我的前任經理和永遠的導師May-Li Khoe ，他對我如何管理和發展設計師負有最大責任。 跟隨她進行許多出色的設計和非設計工作！