I’ve made a huge mistake, I thought to myself, as a realization washed over me in the middle of an interview for a product design role.

我對自己想，我犯了一個巨大的錯誤，因為在接受產品設計職務的采訪中，一種意識被淹沒了。

“This is not what I want to do.”

“這不是我想要做的。”

It wasn’t a shock, necessarily. I had been fighting this feeling for months. I had known for a while that product design was not how I wanted to use these newly-developed skills in human-centered design.

不一定是震驚。 我幾個月來一直在與這種感覺作斗爭。 我已經有一段時間知道產品設計不是我想要在以人為中心的設計中使用這些新開發的技能的方式。

But I left a career to pursue a boot camp. I invested a lot of resources into this. And product design, while competitive in this tough job market, is still lucrative.

但是我離開了職業，開始了新兵訓練營。 我為此投入了大量資源。 產品設計雖然在這個艱難的工作市場中具有競爭力，但仍然是可觀的。

But product design doesn’t capitalize on what I know to be my strengths.

但是產品設計沒有利用我所知道的優勢。

我怎么到這里了？ (How did I get here?)

I had been an administrator in various positions in higher education for well over a decade. I had assessed my strengths and researched lots of different career paths before deciding on the UX route. I had lots of enjoyable experiences leading people through change, managing teams, and improving individual performance, so I knew I wanted to keep my career people-focused. I’m also a systems thinker, so I explored strategy-oriented fields, but none felt like the right fit — project management was too detail-oriented; change management was too limited in scope; product management was too big of a leap without prior technical experience.

我擔任高等教育的各種職位的行政人員已有十多年了。 在決定使用UX之前，我已經評估了自己的優勢并研究了許多不同的職業道路。 我有很多有趣的經驗，可以帶領人們進行變革，管理團隊和提高個人績效，所以我知道我想讓我的職業生涯始終以人為本。 我也是系統思想家，因此我探索了面向戰略的領域，但沒有一個人適合自己-項目管理過于注重細節； 變更管理的范圍太有限； 沒有事先的技術經驗，產品管理的飛躍太大。

I chose to pursue UX design because I thought it was the best combination of these interests. I gravitated toward the theories of human-centered design — iterative improvement plus empathy.

我選擇追求UX設計，因為我認為這是這些興趣的最佳組合。 我趨向于以人為本的設計理論-迭代改進與同理心。

I knew I would need additional education, but didn’t want another Master’s degree. I would need to choose a field that would provide entry-level opportunities from a boot camp. And that boot camp would need to provide the hands-on, practical experience that would help land that first job.

我知道我需要進一步的教育，但不想再獲得一個碩士學位。 我需要選擇一個可以提供新兵訓練營入門級機會的字段。 而且該訓練營將需要提供動手的實踐經驗，以幫助他們找到第一份工作。

In my boot camp, we were forced to choose a focus on either UX or UI. I had no interest in UI, for the aforementioned reasons, so I eagerly dug into the UX process. I loved pouring over research; connecting the dots; synthesizing data into artifacts like personas, journey maps, and task flows; brainstorming solutions; pitching ideas; strategizing approaches; testing and iterating concepts through the use of low- and mid-fidelity wireframes and prototypes. I was taught that these were things UX Designers did.

在我的新手訓練營中，我們被迫選擇專注于UX或UI。 由于上述原因，我對UI沒有興趣，因此我急切地探索UX流程。 我喜歡傾注研究； 連接點； 將數據合成為角色，旅程圖和任務流等工件； 集思廣益的解決方案； 宣傳思想； 制定策略； 通過使用低和中保真度的線框和原型來測試和迭代概念。 我被告知這些是UX設計人員所做的事情。

After completing my program, I quickly discovered that UX Designer roles, as strictly as presented in my boot camp, are largely a myth.

完成我的程序后，我很快發現，嚴格按照我的訓練營中介紹的UX Designer角色在很大程度上是一個神話。

If being on the UX job market for several months has taught me anything, it’s that the word “designer” is reserved for those with UI and visual design skills.

如果在UX招聘市場上工作了幾個月使我學到了什么，那“設計者”一詞是留給具有UI和視覺設計技能的人的。

All the entry-level roles are called Product Designer or UX/UI Designer and rely heavily on UI skills.

所有入門級角色都稱為產品設計器或UX / UI設計器，它們在很大程度上取決于UI技能。

Job duties that just one year ago I learned as ‘traditional UX design’ activities have been repackaged into titles that eliminate the word “design,” like UX Researcher, UX Architect, or UX Strategist. And access to these roles tends to be limited to individuals with senior-level experience.

一年前，我作為“傳統UX設計”活動學到的工作職責已被重新打包為標題，以消除“設計”一詞，例如UX Researcher，UX Architect或UX Strategist。 而且，只有具有高級經驗的人員才能使用這些角色。

If a role is called UX Designer, it’s typically an interaction designer who sometimes does user research and yet still somehow still needs to have advanced knowledge of Illustrator and examples of “pixel-perfect mockups” in their portfolio.

如果將角色稱為UX設計器，則通常是一名交互設計器，他有時會進行用戶研究，但仍然需要以某種方式仍然需要Illustrator的高級知識以及其產品組合中的“完美像素樣機”示例。

Further, many product companies now have a design system in place, so that elements or components are ready-made for insertion into a wireframe. I’ve wondered how this level of design maturity impacts the designers’ continued development of creative and strategic skills.

此外，許多產品公司現在都具有適當的設計系統 ，因此可以隨時準備將元素或組件插入線框中。 我想知道這種設計成熟度如何影響設計師不斷發展的創意和戰略技能。

I imagine that at these companies, design thinking is reserved for people in senior design roles under the label “strategy” or exists within the realm of product managers situated outside the design department entirely. In this environment, product designers run the risk of simply being assembly-line wireframe production artists. How human-centered can this work be?

我想在這些公司中，設計思想是為具有“戰略”標簽的高級設計人員保留的，或者完全存在于設計部門外部的產品經理范圍內。 在這種環境下，產品設計師冒著成為裝配線線框生產美術師的風險。 這項工作如何以人為本？

At the same time, design thinking is experiencing a surge of interest from other fields that have begun to realize advantages to the process. In fact, I would venture a guess that, given the maturity of design in product companies, the activities associated with human-centered design currently seem more accessible — at least for entry-level and junior roles — in areas like business and education than in design.

同時，設計思想正受到其他領域的關注，這些領域已經開始意識到該過程的優勢。 實際上，我敢作一個猜測，鑒于產品公司中設計的成熟度，與以人為本的設計相關的活動目前似乎比在企業和教育領域更容易訪問(至少對于入門級和初級職位而言)。設計。

The activities associated with human-centered design currently seem more accessible — at least for entry-level and junior roles — in areas like business and education than in design.

目前，在企業和教育等領域，與以人為中心的設計相關的活動似乎比設計更容易訪問(至少對于入門級和初級角色而言)。

So, have I made the wrong choice? Do I have to go back to school yet again? Have I wasted time and money?

那么，我選錯了嗎？ 我需要再次回到學校嗎？ 我浪費時間和金錢了嗎？

怎么辦？ (Now what?)

It’s a scary and vulnerable proposition to approach your own career as an iterative design process. Testing and trying new things will yield dead ends, just the same.

在迭代設計過程中接近自己的職業生涯是一個令人恐懼且脆弱的主張。 測試和嘗試新事物會產生死胡同，就像以前一樣。

It’s a scary and vulnerable proposition to approach your own career as an iterative design process. Testing and trying new things will yield dead ends, just the same.

在迭代設計過程中接近自己的職業生涯是一個令人恐懼且脆弱的主張。 測試和嘗試新事物會產生死胡同，就像以前一樣。

Also the same, then, is the need to approach each dead-end not as a failure but an opportunity to learn.

因此，同樣需要解決每個死角的問題不是失敗，而是學習的機會。

So, nothing is wasted as long as I learn.

因此，只要我學習，就不會浪費任何東西。

Therefore, I have been exploring other avenues where one might carve out a path putting to use skills in human-centered design. After all, an important skill in this work is the ability to pivot!

因此，我一直在探索其他途徑，在這些途徑中，人們可能會開辟一條以人為本的設計中使用技能的途徑。 畢竟，這項工作的一項重要技能就是樞轉能力！

The following areas and roles capitalize on a similar combination of strategic and empathetic skills seen in the rare UX designer role. Many of these are extremely exciting paths that can lead to leadership roles or overlap with adjacent career trajectories.

以下領域和角色利用了罕見的UX設計人員角色中類似的戰略和同理心技能組合。 其中許多都是非常令人興奮的途徑，可以導致領導角色或與相鄰的職業軌跡重疊。

This LinkedIn Learning course was a great overview of different User Experience and UX-adjacent roles.

這個LinkedIn學習課程很好地概述了不同的用戶體驗和與UX相鄰的角色。

用戶體驗研究 (UX Research)

The most likely place to look if you want to engage in traditional UX activities that support the design of a product. As product companies grow larger and more mature in their design departments, opportunities for researchers tend to increase.

如果您想參與支持產品設計的傳統UX活動，則是最有可能看的地方。 隨著產品公司的規模越來越大，設計部門越來越成熟，研究人員的機會也越來越多。

Designers at these companies, though not engaging in the research themselves, still need to understand their users. Dedicated user researchers conduct formative and evaluative research in the form of user interviews, competitive analysis, concept evaluation, and usability tests using various qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Some duties may also overlap with data scientists or product managers, which is handy if those are future career interests.

這些公司的設計師雖然自己并不參與研究，但仍然需要了解他們的用戶。 專門的用戶研究人員使用各種定性和定量方法，以用戶訪談，競爭性分析，概念評估和可用性測試的形式進行形成性和評估性研究。 某些職責可能還會與數據科學家或產品經理重疊，如果這些是將來的職業利益，這將很方便。

For more information, check out the Mixed Methods podcast and Slack community, as well as the People Nerds blog, with this post in particular.

有關更多信息，請查看“ 混合方法”播客和Slack社區，以及“ People Nerds” 博客 ，尤其是本帖子 。

服務設計 (Service Design)

Service design is to customer experience what UX design is to digital user experience. In other words, if you want to design experiences that aren’t necessarily limited to a screen, this is a great place to look.

服務設計是客戶體驗，而UX設計是數字用戶體驗。 換句話說，如果您想要設計的體驗不必局限于屏幕，那么這是一個很好的外觀。

Service Design is extremely popular in Europe but is recently gaining more traction in the states as businesses begin using more user-centric practices in other areas of their business. The process is also being used heavily in healthcare and government as a way to create more effective service models. Service Design teams are being created and demand will likely continue to grow.

服務設計在歐洲非常受歡迎，但是隨著企業開始在其業務的其他領域中使用更多以用戶為中心的實踐，服務設計在各州越來越受到關注。 該過程也正在醫療保健和政府中大量使用，以創建更有效的服務模型。 正在創建服務設計團隊，需求可能會繼續增長。

Check out Service Design Network, Practical Service Design, and the work and writing of Marc Stickdorn.

查閱服務設計網絡 ， 實用服務設計以及Marc Stickdorn的工作和寫作。

客戶體驗(CX) (Customer Experience (CX))

Customer Experience is the strategic work that drives service design. It aligns a holistic view of all the ways in which a customer engages with the business with that company’s overall goals. It seeks to increase customer loyalty and satisfaction with the company’s overall brand and is closely related to other customer-centric areas like “customer success” or “customer service.”

客戶體驗是驅動服務設計的戰略工作。 它使客戶與該公司的總體目標與業務互動的所有方式的整體視圖保持一致。 它旨在提高客戶對公司整體品牌的忠誠度和滿意度，并與其他以客戶為中心的領域(如“客戶成功”或“客戶服務”)緊密相關。

Some of my recent work experience was as a CX Researcher with a company called Highland Solutions. They’ve recently launched Highland Academy if you’re looking for additional skills in this area.

我最近的一些工作經驗是在一家名為Highland Solutions的公司擔任CX研究員。 如果您正在尋找該領域的其他技能，他們最近開設了高地學院 。

For more information, CX Accelerator has a Slack channel and a comprehensive primer. Also, check out the work of Jeannie Walters.

有關更多信息，CX Accelerator具有一個Slack通道和一個全面的入門手冊 。 另外，請查看Jeannie Walters的工作。

學習經歷，教學設計 (Learning Experience, Instructional Design)

Similar to “user” and “customer,” the “learning” in Learning Experience is the overarching strategy term to encompass the content and information architectural work of the Instructional Designer.

與“用戶”和“客戶”相似，“學習體驗”中的“學習”是總體策略術語，涵蓋了教學設計師的內容和信息架構工作。

Check out this amazing overview article written by a practicing Learning Experience professional.

請查看由實踐經驗豐富的學習經驗專業人士撰寫的這篇令人驚奇的概述文章 。

Instructional Designers are everywhere. As learning increasingly takes on a digital format, these roles are in high demand. However, the field suffers from a bit of the same complexity and role confusion as User Experience. You’ll see eLearning Developer and Curriculum Designer, too, which require slightly different skills. So, read job descriptions carefully and do your homework.

教學設計師無處不在。 隨著學習越來越采用數字格式，對這些角色的需求很高。 但是，該領域遇到了與用戶體驗相同的復雜性和角色混亂。 您還將看到eLearning開發人員和課程設計器，它們需要稍有不同的技能。 因此，請仔細閱讀工作說明，然后做作業。

However, many skills of a UX designer are immediately transferrable. In fact, the ADDIE model that instructional designers use is nearly identical to the Design Thinking process.

但是，UX設計人員的許多技能可以立即轉讓。 實際上，教學設計人員使用的ADDIE模型幾乎與“設計思維”過程相同。

Instructional Designers are employed by universities and K-12 schools to help professors and teachers deliver lessons online, but opportunities for higher earning potential exist in the learning & development teams at large companies and corporations. Usually, but not always, these teams are situated within the Human Resources department.

大學和K-12學校聘用教學設計師來幫助教授和老師在線授課，但是大型公司和公司的學習與開發團隊中存在更高的賺錢潛力。 通常，但并非總是如此，這些團隊位于人力資源部門內。

To learn more, the I’m New Here podcast is a wonderful overview with tips for entering the field. Also, check out the Association for Talent Development, among other professional associations listed in this presentation from UChicago’s graduate program. I also recommend reading the book Design for How People Learn and this series of blog posts. Finally, join the community and find relevant events at LXD.org.

要了解更多信息， “ 我在這里很新”播客是一個很棒的概述，其中包含有關進入該??領域的提示。 此外，還可以從UChicago的研究生課程中查看本報告中列出的其他專業協會以及人才發展協會 。 我還建議您閱讀《 人們如何學習的設計 》一書和該系列博客文章 。 最后，加入社區并在LXD.org上找到相關事件。

組織發展 (Organizational Development)

Related to those human resource departments with robust learning teams, folks in Organizational Development train and evaluate the performance of employees, but they also leverage human-centered design skills to improve processes and systems that help organizations manage change.

與具有強大學習團隊的那些人力資源部門相關，組織發展部的人員對員工的績效進行培訓和評估，但他們還利用以人為本的設計技能來改進可幫助組織管理變更的流程和系統。

To apply the transferrable skills of a UX designer to this field, simply think of it as Employee Experience design. You would be designing the experience of an employee, from the time they are a candidate, through onboarding as a new employee, and into professional development. By doing so, you are designing a company’s overall culture.

要將UX設計師的可移植技能應用于該領域，只需將其視為“員工體驗”設計即可。 您將設計一名員工的經驗，從他們成為候選人開始，到新員工入職，再到職業發展。 這樣，您正在設計公司的整體文化。

Check out this article from the HR Trend Institute.

請查看HR趨勢研究所的這篇文章 。

Beyond this, you may also be involved in designing the systems and processes that leadership uses to make key decisions about the strategy of the business, influencing long-term planning processes, overseeing the successful implementation of new software tools, and testing service models that impact the efficiency of the company.

除此之外，您可能還會參與設計系統和流程，領導層將使用這些系統和流程來制定有關業務戰略的關鍵決策，影響長期計劃流程，監督新軟件工具的成功實施，以及測試影響公司的效率。

This Master’s program at Northwestern University with certificate options is appealing to me and just the visuals immediately draw comparisons to my design thinking education. It’s a whiteboard! And post-its! Suddenly, I can see myself doing this.

西北大學的這個具有證書選擇的碩士學位課程對我很有吸引力，只是視覺效果立即將其與我的設計思維教育進行了比較。 這是白板！ 然后貼！ 突然之間，我可以看到自己正在執行此操作。

商業咨詢 (Business Consulting)

If Organizational Development is interesting to you, you could also make big bucks consulting for businesses. Much of the work is similar to that of in-house organizational developers, but instead of being an employee of a company’s HR department, you get hired by a company to do that work as a consultant.

如果您對組織發展感興趣，則還可以為企業提供巨額咨詢。 許多工作與內部組織開發人員的工作相似，但是您不是公司人力資源部門的雇員，而是被公司雇用來擔任顧問的工作。

This work always seemed intimidating to me, and I always assumed I would need an MBA to do it. While this may still be largely the case, some entry-level work exists for design thinkers.

這項工作對我來說似乎總是令人生畏，而且我一直以為我需要獲得MBA才能做到。 盡管在很大程度上仍可能是這種情況，但對于設計思想家來說，存在一些入門級的工作。

Don’t be discouraged if you’ve spent time and money on training only to find that your career needs to take a different path. Hang in there and start asking different questions. Figure out how you can leverage those skills in other ways.

如果您花時間和金錢在培訓上只是為了發現自己的職業需要走不同的道路，請不要灰心。 掛在那里，開始提出不同的問題。 弄清楚如何以其他方式利用這些技能。

Stay curious. Stay creative. Or, as someone once told me: Don’t be afraid to get weird with it.

保持好奇心。 保持創意。 或者，就像有人曾經告訴我的那樣：不要害怕變得奇怪。

You’ve got this!

你有這個！

Chad Wilson is a design thinker interested in helping organizations improve systems, support learning, and facilitate change. If you want someone who can readily assess opportunities for innovation, connect the dots in data, lead strategic change, and support and grow a culture of continued learning and development, connect with me on LinkedIn or check out my website.

查德·威爾遜 ( Chad Wilson) 是一位設計思想家，他對幫助組織改進系統，支持學習和促進變革感興趣。 如果您希望有人能夠隨時評估創新機會，連接數據中的點點，領導戰略變革，支持并發展持續學習和發展的文化，請 在LinkedIn上與我聯系 或訪問 我的網站 。