To be, or not to be — a UX generalist or a UX specialist?
That is the question, perhaps not precisely as Shakespeare phrased it, but certainly as every UX professional encounters it at some point in their career.
Of course, in the constantly-evolving field of user experience design, this question can often be presented as an existential debate worthy of the Bard. Is it better to be a “jack of all trades,” practicing both user research and UX design? Or — as the end of that expression, “master of none,” implies — would a rising talent in this field be in fact better advised to specialize in a particular domain, knowing that companies in need of their set of skills will likely come knocking?
Senior UX designers at two fast-growing Colorado tech companies do have answers to that age-old question. But, first, they dispute its premise. As employees for Kin + Carta and Daxko recently explained to Built In, determining whether or not you should be a specialist or a generalist is ultimately less important than striking a balance between both disciplines and remaining open to wherever finding and pursuing your passions leads you.
Though she’s now a senior UX designer at Kin + Carta, Kate Lelek didn’t necessarily see herself at the digital transformation consultancy when first entering the field. Back then, user interface design was her chosen field, a far cry from the bigger-picture UX design that has since become her main area of interest.
“You don’t have to have everything figured out right away,” Lelek said. “You can always change directions as your career progresses.”
Cory Casella, senior UX designer at Daxko, couldn’t agree more. At the outset of his career, Casella worked in sales, marketing and animation before finding his true calling in UX. Even then, it wasn’t until earlier this year that he found his ideal fit at the health-and-wellness-focused software startup.
“I’m new to Daxko, having started in early March, but I can confidently say I have never been at a company that valued learning and growth more,” Casella said.
Below, Lelek and Casella discuss their career paths, learning not to stress about generalist and specialist silos, and what advice they’d give other UX professionals entering the field.
Kin + Carta leverages a combination of strategic consulting, software engineering and marketing expertise to help companies convert their operations into digital businesses profitably and sustainably.
At what point in your career did you begin to develop more specialized UX design skills? What drew you to this particular area of expertise?
I always recommend that every new designer spend a few years being a UX generalist, as it allows them to gain experience and add skills to their repertoire. That is what I did. I originally thought that my expertise was user interface (UI) design, because I was really focused on pixel perfection and crafting beautiful experiences. However, I’ve found that, while I still care about that, I’ve become more passionate about the holistic experience and ease of use for technical products. To me, the challenge of presenting highly-technical processes in an intuitive way is more rewarding, even if it’s less glamorous than artfully crafting a consumer-facing product. This specialized craft is rewarding to me because it gives me the opportunity to directly impact and improve people’s day-to-day lives through the products they use.
What opportunities exist on your team for designers to expand their skill sets and explore new areas of their work?
One of the advantages I’ve found in working at a consultancy is that I’m able to work on a variety of projects with different subjects, structures, maturity levels and skills required. It is within this consultancy that I’m also a part of an ever-growing design team, with each member bringing their own experiences and expertise. We do a weekly critique where designers present what they’re working on to get feedback from the group. This has been crucial to not only receiving constructive feedback, but also getting the opportunity to hear how someone else may have solved a similar problem or even working through solutions together. We also host monthly learning sessions where team members have the opportunity to present on a topic they are passionate about. I love these cadences we have, as I appreciate every opportunity to learn from my peers.
Not every team is like this so, if you don’t have these structures, seek out communities for peer feedback. If you don’t work at a place that allows for diverse projects and experiences, talk to your manager about exploring new skills on the job. Expanding your skill set is beneficial to you, your team and your company.
I half-joke that a certain level of imposter syndrome is healthy.’’
How do you strike the right balance between deepening your skills in specific areas while maintaining a good foundation and staying up to date on the broader UX trends and best practices that affect your work?
I believe the balance, as well as how to appropriately strike it, varies greatly by individual. Some people like podcasts, others like going to several day-long conferences, and so on. What works best for me is following designers and companies on social media that post articles about specific topics, like Nielsen Norman Group. This way, I can read about new trends and studies while being on the couch, and it feels less like work.
Ultimately, find what works best for you. Fundamentally, you have to seek out and be open to new information. Don’t ever let yourself get too prideful and think you know it all, no matter how many years you’ve been doing your job. I half-joke that a certain level of imposter syndrome is healthy. Be confident in what you know, but always push yourself to explore how you can be better and learn more.
With its suite of membership management solutions, Daxko, parent company of Zen Planner, is a software and integrated payments provider for the health, fitness and wellness industry.
At what point in your career did you begin to develop more specialized UX design skills? What drew you to this particular area of expertise?
My first job out of college was in sales, for a very small consulting company. I was their third employee. In my sales role, I found we needed marketing materials, a better website and so on, so I started teaching myself design and web design. Over the course of a year, we grew to eight people and got bought out by a software company, where I moved to a marketing role and got more into design and even some animation. That job led to a job in e-learning, where I started doing course design, UI design and animation more in depth.
From there, I got my first job in UX as a UX designer for a medical software company, and fell in love with UX. I had a hand in research, wireframing, high-fidelity mockups, prototyping, user interviews and more. I was smitten and tried to learn as much as I could about as many aspects of UX as possible. My background in design led me more into a visual design role, but my passion lies in strategy, creating product roadmaps, building design systems and figuring out what the needs of the end users really are versus what people think they should be. Then, the job entails crafting solutions to fit those needs. I am definitely a UX generalist.
What opportunities exist on your team for designers to expand their skill sets and explore new areas of their work?
I have a lot of Figma and prototyping knowledge and experience, and to harness that we started a Slack channel and an internal repository for walkthrough videos of tips and tricks. We are planning to turn this into a Twitter account to share knowledge with other folks outside the company, which has been encouraged from the top down. Weekly, we have a UX group meeting that includes a teach-back from a different team member. These are led by all team members in a rotating order, giving everyone the opportunity to teach and to learn. In addition, there is a UX sync in which UX team members are paired off for a month at a time, meeting once per week to discuss their ongoing projects, give feedback and receive it. All the processes in place, as well as just the general sentiment toward knowledge sharing, is incredible.
Everyone has a different mind and will gravitate toward learning different things.’’
How do you strike the right balance between deepening your skills in specific areas while maintaining a good foundation and staying up to date on the broader UX trends and best practices that affect your work?
As with anything, you will probably gravitate toward learning more about the things that interest you at baseline. That’s just human nature. If you don’t have a passion for accessibility, you are probably not going to seek out information about it unless it’s specifically required by a project or client, even though it’s important. That’s why the team teach-backs we do in our UX team are so valuable. Everyone has a different mind and will gravitate toward learning different things. Rotating the speaker across the team each week gives you different perspectives and viewpoints.
As for trends, especially with regards to visual design, I generally research similar products or solutions for the problem I am trying to solve. I will look at what competitors are doing or seek out other solutions that a similar pattern will solve, on sites like Dribbble or Designspiration. There are also a lot of great UX accounts to follow on Twitter or Instagram, for daily inspiration. I frequently screenshot patterns I like when I see them in the wild as well.
