How it started

A year ago I wrote this article (https://medium.com/@suzanneshea/today-i-completed-my-30th-day-of-a-daily-ui-challenge-9ecd68fe819c) on what I had learned by doing a design challenge at https://hype4.academy/. I then went on to complete a graphic design challenge, an app icon challenge, and a 3D design challenge.

Currently, I am 1/3 of the way through a landing page challenge as well. I am way overdue for an update on what it has taught me as a designer.

Feedback

One of the biggest updates from when I started is that there is now AI and human feedback given on projects. This can be one of the biggest challenges for junior designers to find themselves. Especially “self-taught” designers.

I still feel as though it helps me to leave something and come back to it with fresh eyes the next day. Receiving feedback provides me with an opportunity to challenge myself. I can iterate further and view my work with a more critical lens. Most designs are not made with one version.

This has also helped me in my career. I am used to having to change my designs and not settling for my first creation. Now I am working with a startup building an app. I know how to give and receive feedback and what to look for.

I am able to make iterations based on feedback from the design side and a product side. I am thinking critically about the function of my designs. Design challenges have helped me get here.

Upskilling

We all know that it is not enough to be a UX designer or a visual designer only. Most job postings now ask for an entry-level graphic designer to be a UX designer and front-end developer. They also want a marketer and copywriter.

You know what I am talking about ! But we can’t be all these things. We can explore illustration 3D design and web design and then decide which areas we want to focus on.

Personally, I feel drawn to both graphic design and web design. I like the opportunity to be a bit more creative. This has given me a focus for the future and continuing my learning.

And it has brought me to try and explore different tools. I have been on a journey learning Webflow and will probably add Framer to that list too. I am also currently working to build a website for a nonprofit in WordPress.

Being able to create things that are all your own is exciting and empowering too. For example, I used one of my skeuomorphic designs to create a web checkout form. I used another for a landing page challenge.

Celebrating Small Wins

Most of us experience some form of imposter syndrome seeing all the cool things people make. I try to remind myself that I have not been designing as long as the cool designer person posting on Twitter.

But looking back over a year of my own designs I see progress. It is exciting. And it makes me realize that there is nothing I cannot do when I put in the time and effort. I am excited for another year of more design growth.

Thank you to Michal and the team at https://hype4.academy/ for helping me along. You can grow your skills there too for free and take part in the Slack community. We discuss everything there from freelancing to AI to skincare to who’s pets are the cutest.

Thank you for reading! If you want to see more feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, Behance, and Dribbble. And of course on the Academy .

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