Creating experiences that make people's lives easier a career in UX Design

My name is Gurur and I'm a User Experience Designer (UX Designer). I'd been in UX for over seven years before joining Kainos and got into more of the design side of things in the latter part of that period. I was always very creative, but never really considered pursuing a career in anything creative. But with my research background and my aptitude for creativity meant it was an easy transition to a UX designer role in the last few years. What I love about the job I like creating experiences that make people's lives easier, as cheesy as that sounds. I like the range of projects, products and people you would be exposed to in this field. We are truly a bridge between the end user and all the people that are involved in creating these products and services. There are definitely challenges. Although UX is now an integral part of every product development process these days, it is often misunderstood by many. It's definitely changing, though. At Kainos people have a clear and accurate understanding of what we do, which is a welcome change, and hopefully this is reflective of the industry on a wider scale. My career path in Kainos (via Hollywood) I had had a fairly varied career so far. I studied modern languages as my Bachelor's degree, then did Master's in screenwriting. After a brief (and failed) stint in Hollywood (maybe that's one for my next blog!) I decided to make a career change. At this point I was hearing more about this thing called UX. So I started working as an Assistant Researcher, went up the ranks, did another Master's (this time in web design) and became a senior UX Designer & Researcher. I've been in Kainos for just over a year now, and I've already been involved in a variety of projects, which is definitely helping me improve. There has also been a lot of encouragement and push to take a more of a leading role as well, which is definitely a plus. Feedback from peers and users I've been fortunate that there have been more than a few occasions where both users and Kainos / client were happy with the designs I made. Getting good feedback for your work in our field (especially in design) has two facets. You get feedback from the client and your peers and managers, but you also get feedback from users who are testing your designs. And when both are aligned, that's the best part of the job. Working with GDS on great user experiences As part of my job, I work in a lot of projects for GOV.UK, which means I get to use their prototype toolkit for the majority of the design work. It's a great piece of design because of its simplicity and accessibility. It gives you a nice challenge of coming up with solutions within its restrictions. It also taught me to work with node.js - and that was much better than finishing an online course! Choosing Kainos was a no-brainer It was obvious to me from when I joined, that Kainos was a company that wanted to push boundaries and was open to change when necessary. Also I wanted to pursue a role where I could be more involved in coding aspect of things, which I knew would be there in a company like Kainos. And it came with great credentials, so it was a no-brainer. Interested in careers in Kainos? Visit our careers page to find out more.