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Can any designer/developer hybrid individuals provide career advice to a junior?

Hey everyone! I attended a coding bootcamp this year and upskilled in a design course 2 years ago.

I'm working a short contract as a UX Researcher and love it, but I still want to be creative.

I've recently discovered design/developer hybrid roles (someone who has utilizes their UX/UI and Front End Developer skills, some call them UX Engineer) this year.

I would love to learn more and how to build a portfolio that shows UX/UI and Front End Dev skills.

Does anyone work/know anyone who works as a design/developer hybrid role?
Any help would be appreciated!
Beatrice Opara
Beatrice Opara
Software Engineer

Replies3

  • Thomas Brasington
    Thomas Brasington
    Experience Design Director
    Hi Beatrice, here are some of the approaches that I have used over the last 15 years both for myself and others.

    Your mileage may vary as it depends what aspect of the front end skill set and production process you want to get into but hopefully it helps.

    1. Build prototypes as an extension of your UX research and initial product development phase.

    e.g. We learnt X so we had a hypotheses of Y, I built this prototype with technologies A, B and C to test that. Using real data from our API meant that we then learnt that X was more like Z and saved XXX hours of time.

    2. Stakeholder buy-in
    Sometimes an extension of 1. depending on the project (it could equally be to validate assumptions or test out a new visual identity) Having something that is functional and interactive can save producing large slide decks to sell in new ideas.

    3. Developing delightful motion and interaction patterns
    Figma, Sketch etc athough have great prototyping tools but they do have limits (Framer less so) Being able to showcase how the motions details where refined and come together, particularly with state management is a great skill to have. Not only does it show a creative aspect but how the user experience really functions on a device.

    4. Validating design decisions at scale
    If you are doing a redesign or even modifying a feature for a large web or app where hundreds of pages will be affected - it may not be possible to effectivly stress test that a design works with a static design tool. Demonstrating how you tested that design with real data led to a better user experience and plenty of saved time and money not lost/spent.

    --

    Good luck!

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