It’s time for me to dig deep in my journey, as I’ve never really sat down and thought about it holistically. It was more like a “one step at a time” process so the changes weren’t so easily recognizable along the way.
When I was in high school I was thinking that I’d love to be involved with sports (as I played football for more than 10 years) or with language. It seems that occupation with language captured my interest though I’ve never thought seriously about teaching students or… designing. So I decided to follow the linguistic path and study for 4 years at the University of Athens.
During university, I went through many different fields and studied multiple subjects (including Ancient Greek, Latin, Semantics, Syntax, and many more). In my second year, I was assigned a study on Phonetics that included research methods such as interviews, A/B Testing, and contextual inquiry. I’ve also learned to use recording software and overall I got more comfortable talking to strange people, listening to them, and analyzing their aptitudes and behaviors. Nothing fancy until here and nothing to do with actual designing stuff.
In 2015 I graduated after completing the 4 years Bachelor’s program in Linguistics. I was age 22 and I had to make a significant decision: either pursue a Master’s in Natural Language Processing (NLP) or start making money as a high school professor and establish a steady career early on. Actually, it wasn’t really a dilemma as back then I didn’t have the money nor the financial support to study abroad (in Greece there wasn’t any Master’s program that satisfied my needs). So, I chose to kickstart my career as a professor teaching mainly Modern Greek, History, Latin, and Sociology recently. Simultaneously, I wondered if I could utilize the knowledge I gained at university to work abroad and sponsor myself for a Master’s. In reality, I’ve never abandoned the dream of studying something technology-focused. Then, I sadly realized that my knowledge was all about the Greek language and culture so it wasn’t really something easily transferable to a foreign country. My goal was starting to be formulated: “A universal versatile skill, technology-focused, that involves helping and empathizing with people”. However, I left that thought aside and started teaching with great eagerness. At first, it felt so satisfying to see your students grow and achieve their goals. It remains until now the most rewarding part of this job.
During my years spent at the school I work, I occasionally took on some projects that involved editing mini-movies, designing social media content (ads, banners etc). That was the first time I used Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and movie editing software such as Sony Vegas. I remember that it felt so overwhelming to try to get through all these programs as I had no idea of all the tools, techniques, and commands needless to say about design theory. However, the satisfaction of creativity was something I hadn’t felt until then and I’ve never actually thought about it. As I went on designing crappy, amateur stuff with much experimentation and hustle, suddenly I experienced a eureka moment.
I just found the skill I was searching for. Design is the one. Except that I didn’t know anything about it. Neither where to start from. An option was to go to design school and receive formal education. The problem was that my day-to-day job didn’t offer me any flexibility. I was working every day (except for Sundays) from 3 to 10.30 p.m. The only solution to this was to resign and study. But…you know, I also had to make a living and feed myself, so resigning wasn’t an option back then. I needed a flexible path that could fit my working schedule. Bootcamps were too expensive for me back then, so the only real option I could think about was self-learning. I went online searching a lot for my initial direction. I wasn’t even sure what were the different available design paths. Graphic design, Web design, Industrial design, UX/UI design and…Product design were roles and disciplines that were going through my screen at that time. Again, no idea what was this all about. However, one thing was clear irrespective of the role I would finally direct myself to. I needed to study and understand the fundamentals.
Google was set on fire… “Best books for designers…”, “Best courses, programs…” and the list goes on. I went to Amazon to grab my first books on design. They were all about Graphic Design and its fundamentals. Color, Typography, Layout, Print, Grids, and so on. It was so amazing to get acquainted with the terminology and the underlying theoretical knowledge that defines aesthetic and functional designs.
Along with the theoretical part, I started to experiment and apply my learnings on actual designs using Adobe suite. My first explorations included illustrations of various things I saw in my house (lamps, a Dualshock controller, my desk, plants, etc). Cool stuff!
As my exploration of the field was getting more immersive one term was emerging more and more: UX. I remember my frustration and thoughts when I first read the word experience next to design.
“But I’ m supposed to design stuff on screen or paper, not experiences. What are they talking about?”
However, it grabbed my attention and so I wanted to find out what was it all about. It was like another eureka moment.
“I have to design for people’s needs, but first I had to discover them. So, this field combines listening to people’s frustrations and trying to solve them by design”
That was something I was doing kind of already, except that my mean was teaching and not design. So, I decided that this was the ideal design discipline for me. Creative, involving people, and rewarding. Another round of courses, podcasts, and books came up. This is when I came across Don Norman, N/N Group, Steve Krug, and the classics of UX. The learnings from this period were more about human psychology, mental models, affordances, and human behavior. It gave me a very solid foundation to articulate my design decisions with more confidence.
In late 2020, I’ve packed myself with just enough theoretical knowledge to implement my ideas on screen. The problem was that I didn’t know exactly what should I design. Marketing websites, e-commerce websites, web apps, or mobile apps? I understood that marketing websites, especially for small businesses couldn’t afford the UX procedures, such as User Research, IA, User Testing, iterations, etc. So, the path was getting gradually clearer and I realized that I should focus my energy and effort into designing digital products. Again, new exciting learnings. KPI’s, ROI, SPRINT, Product Posture, etc. With all these in mind, I finally started last year solving user problems by designing conceptual product solutions and improvements. (You can check my case studies on Medium).
Back to the present, where I feel more confident than ever in my journey. My imposter syndrome is more manageable, I acknowledge clearer my strengths and weaknesses and I feel ready to make the career transition I was trying for all these years. I feel so excited about the whole new world that is unfolding in front of me and I’m eager to dive deep into it.
