Gemma Helyer: Being a Senior UX/UI Designer

Behind the screen

1 Nov

Gemma is a Senior Product Designer who specialises in inclusive and accessible design solutions. She also shares educational UX content on Youtube and Instagram to help coming designs break into the industry.

What’s your official job title, and what’s the most straightforward way to explain what you do?

My official job title is Senior UX/UI Designer, and I align business goals with user needs.

What does a normal day look like?

My days usually start with a design standup where I discuss the priorities of my week with the other design members on my team. Then I head off to dev (development team) stand-ups and see if I can support the build. Then I spend my day either in a workshop, doing research, design thinking, solutionizing or usability testing.

I'm very passionate about accessibility and try my best to drive an inclusive design approach to all work that I do and try to implement that way of thinking throughout the business.

A day in the life of a Senior UX/UI Designer - Gemma Helyer

What's the most enjoyable part of your job?

I love running workshops and getting everyone to collaborate. Everyone's a designer at heart, they just don't always know it. Some amazing idea's and solutions have come from other area's of the business who don't have a background in design and it's great to bring those idea's to life. Workshops help bring out the best in people and get them out of a typical meeting setting. This way they feel more involved in the product and are willing to give it their all.

Other enjoyable area's of my role is usabililtly testing, I love seeing users happy and I love finding pain points that we can solve for the users. We a designers don't always get it right, especially not the first time. So it's great to verify solutions with users.

What did it take to get to where you are today?

Knowing my self-worth. This is not an easy industry, it's highly competitive and sometimes frustrating. But knowing my worth and having faith in my abilities took me a while to grasp. You don't know everything and you won't know everything, even when you are at the senior level you are still learning and growing. Just at this stage you are able to articulate idea's and solutions backed up by data.

I also didn't start out in the world of UX, I didn't know what UX was until 2 years into my career. I graduated as a graphic designer with a love for web design. Then I took it upon myself to learn more about the process and I haven't looked bak since.

What are the main digital tools you could not do without?

Slack, Zoom, and Figma.

I mean since we're all working remote its great to be able to jump on a quick call to discuss something. I hate emails, always have, always will. You can get to the point quicker on a call than what you can do back and forth over email.

Figma is my go to tool for design, I love that its a collaborate software and I often find myself pulling in other design members of the team to solve a problem together. Nothing beats collaboration designing. Outcomes are always better.

Any advice for people wanting to do a similar role to you?

Don't be afraid to try, there's a lot of scare mongering in the industry right now trying to deter up coming designers away from UX. It's not as saturated as they may make out. Yes there are a lot of UX,UI or Product designers out there, but we always need more.

Please take time to learn the process of UX design, it’s not designing pretty products. Learn the craft and start applying. Only you can make it happen, no amount of books you read, video you watch or boot camps you attend will give you the push you need. Take a leap of faith and get out there.

And finally, what do you enjoying doing outside of work?

I love to travel, and be outdoors. Seeing the world is one of my favourite activities.. I try my best to visit as many counties as I can as much as I can. Some of my favourite places I've visited include: The Grand Canyon, Disneyland, New York and Tokyo. I've also visited various countries within Europe: Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Hungary. The list goes on, but I'm not finished just yet…

If I'm not traveling I'm out running, playing with makeup or creating educational content for my YouTube channel or Instagram.