Transcription
Um, one, two, three, action. All right, so this is a completely unplanned video. I never planned to make this video. I literally just have like a SP of thoughts and ideas in my head that I feel like I need to share. Um, and which is why I'm making this video.
So, this is going to be raw, completely unfiltered, no editing, nothing because I just really want to speak my mind about like what I think is the state of like the UX design industry right now and what I think is happening, what I think 2026 um has in stock for UX designers that are already in the industry or people that are looking to transition into the industry as well. So, there might be a lot of rambles in this video um so just permit me. I'm literally just speaking about stuff just the way it comes to my mind.
The first thing I want to address is the big elephant in the room. The fact that so many people are really not sure about what their next line of action should be. Should I still decide to become a UX designer in 2026? Should I even stay in this career path? It's been so difficult to get a job. There's been so much um competition in the industry. Even if you have a current job that you don't exactly like and you want to move over to another job, it feels so difficult to just get interviews or to even be able to pass that interview. It feels like the recruiters, the companies have a higher hand because they have a lot of options to pick from because there's so many people in the market. There's so much talent in the market and constantly you just have like this doubt in your mind and this question in your mind if if it's even worth it even considering this as a career path at all.
And all of this is something that I have been thinking about personally as well. Every year for the last 3 years I've made a video about how to become a UX designer for the next year. So I made a video about how to become a UX designer in 2023. I believe I made a video about how to become a UX designer in 2024. and I made a video about how to become a UX designer in 2025. But for 2026, I've been slowing down on that video because I think things may be a lot different than it has always been. I think the same career advice that worked 5 years ago, 6 years ago, even 3 years ago, even 2 years ago might not be sufficient anymore. The amount of like technological leap that we've had in the last one year is ridiculous. Like if you play back just go back one year and you see what is happening even with like capabilities of AI right now and you play back one year and you see how much advancement has happened you'd realize that we are living in a completely different time and the fact that is happening so fast is not making some people to really understand the amount of technological leap that we are making and I if I sit here and I tell you that it doesn't affect how you should think about your career or how how you should think about becoming a UX designer or how you should think about progressing your career as a UX designer. If I tell you that it doesn't affect it, then I'll be lying. I won't be honest with you.
So, in this video, I want to try to be as honest as possible to tell you that, you know, obviously all of those things are there, the competition is there, the market is really, really tough. Um there's so much doubt that designers have in their minds and your doubt is valid. But one thing that I definitely know and that I'm seeing being like almost I would say I'm at the forefront of industry. I work in a very very designled organization and I see where everything is going is that there's so much in stock. There's so much hope for designers that are genuinely passionate about this career path. I mean it like when I say genuinely passionate, you're not just trying to become a designer or UX designer because oh it's a tech career and I can work remotely. That doesn't make sense anymore. A lot of companies are asking people to come in 3 4 days a week. So that's not a justification for wanting to join tech anymore. You're not saying that, oh, um, I can make a lot of money. Honestly, for you to be able to make, you know, over six figures, if you're in if you're in Europe or in America, you have to be really talented. You have to be good. And even in your own country, for you to be able to make at the top level, you really have to put in the work. So again, if that is your motivation for becoming a designer, you're going to you're going to get tired by the time you keep chasing stuff. But for people that are genuinely interested, that that really love this career path, that genuinely like solving problems in creative ways, that genuinely see um a need to have like an impact on the world through design decisions that they make or just like to create things and make things happen. There's so much hope. This is the best time to literally influence your your career path. This is the best time to think about how you can take your career path and then go ahead and do whatever you feel like you want to do do with it. There's no other time that you have so much power on what you can do for yourself than right now.
Because when I was um trying to become a UX designer back then, you know, like the tools were so limiting, right? At the point when I was trying to become a UX designer, my first website was created in Adobe Illustrator. Like I didn't use Figma or Adobe X, it wasn't Adob Illustrator. Like I literally had to create a website like I was creating some kind of brochure or some kind of poster and then that had to be shared with engineers and then we had to figure out what it would look like in real in the real world. And most times, you know, you're just going to be fine with what actually gets into production not looking similar to what you designed. You're just fine with it because you're just happy that it got done. But right now, there are so many tools that can help you bring your ideas to life, that can help you create stuff. And it's never been a better time to be a creative person than it sees right now.
Now, let me go back again because like I said, you know, I might be rambling a bit. Let me go back again to what I think the major problem is for so many people and how I think you can fix that problem. The first problem that a lot of people have is the fact that they feel like there's so much competition and they feel like um it's so difficult to get found from like you know all of the noise that is is is in the industry right now. It's so difficult to get discovered. Um that's one of the biggest problems that designers have right now. The fact that they feel like they have to compete with people that have more experience. A lot of designers will say that, oh, they're even laying off a lot of senior designers and then senior designers are competing for junior designers roles or entry level roles. That's a problem. It is a valid problem. I would be lying to you if I don't agree that it's a valid problem. But the mistake you're making is that when you think like that, you're focusing on things that are outside your control. You don't have control over the next designer that is trying to get the same role that you're trying to get. You don't have control over the competition in the industry. You have no control over that. You don't have control over um what an hiring manager is going to look for. You don't have control over what a hiring manager is going to look for in a designer. You have no control over all of those things. You don't have control over the trends that is happening in the industry. either more people are being hired or less people are being hired. You have no control over that.
What are the things that you have control over? You have control over how you show up with your work. You have control over the quality of the work that you have in your portfolio. You have control over how you present your work. And you have control over how you tell your story when you have the opportunity. These are the four things that you have control over. So instead of focusing on, oh there's so much competition, oh entry- level designers are not even getting roles or all of these other excuses, why not focus on those four things that you have control over. Focus on those four things. How you show up, right? A lot of times you're trying to a lot of people are trying to get UX design roles and they send a message to somebody to say, "Hey, I'm trying to get a UX design role." And then this person comes and checks your profile, checks your Twitter, checks your LinkedIn and they don't see any effort that this person is actually trying to break into this industry. How do you want them to perceive you? Where do you want to build that trust that okay, this person actually is interested in this thing? This person is making a move towards this thing. That's how you control how you actually show up, right? A lot of people are also saying that oh I would love to become a UX designer or Id love to um improve in my career or maybe I would love to get promoted to a senior designer but you're not showing that you actually want to do these things. It is very very important to sit down and write it down. What are the things that are outside my control and what are the things that are within my control and then double down and focus on those things that are within your control because you will never be able to do anything about things outside your control. But you can do 100% about things within your control. And you're going to see the difference because once you focus on things within your control, when you understand how you tell your story every time, you're constantly telling your story, you're constantly pitching yourself to people to say, "Hey, this is the this is the um opportunity that I'm looking for. This is what I've done." The more you pitch yourself to people, the more you see how people react to your pitch and the more you refine your pitch so that your storytelling is better. The more people find you, the more people interact with your portfolio, the more you know things that you need to improve in your portfolio so that you can get an opportunity.
So, think about what these four things are. Like I said, I'm literally just making this video, you know, offhead. I can't even remember the main four things that I said a couple of minutes ago. But think about what those four things are, which is how you show up, how you present your work in your portfolio, how you tell your story, and I can't remember what the fourth one is, but you can also come and outline things that you believe are within your control and start to focus on those things, right?
And if I go go back to addressing the elephant in the room again, which is like, you know, AI and how it is currently transforming the industry. There are so many tools out there that is changing the workflow that designers are familiar with. And if you're a designer that you're currently in the field or you currently have like a job, you're going to be doing yourself a huge disservice. If you are not obsessed with these tools, if you're not obsessed, I'm not even saying you should try these tools. Maybe, you know, you just try it once and then you call it a day. You need to be obsessed. You need to be in these tools building every day, understanding how they work, understanding what their flaws are so that you know the best way to introduce them into your design process because that's the only way that you can stand out in 2026 and beyond.
And if you're just getting into the industry as well, a lot of boot camps and a lot of the UX design things that you've learned, some of them are still relevant. You still need to understand design fundamentals. You still need to understand um how to really how to really get to the root of a problem and how to research, how to speak to users. All of those things are fundamental skills that AI might not be able to do right now and AI can't replace right now. But how about how to build those ideas instead of work working and designing like maybe single screens or um I would normally recommend that you should always copy designs that you've seen online or things that you feel like they're really good from site like mobin and um site like dribble but with the AI tools today you can take it one step further and make them actually work. You can think about your own self and think about what problem are you facing? Are you having a problem with productivity? Or are you having an issue with completing things on your to-do list? Make a to-do list app for yourself that you're going to use every day that you're going to realize what the usability issues are and you're going to fix it. And then when you show up and somebody gives you an opportunity, you have a story to tell about something that works. Not just like a screenshot or like a design. You have a story to tell about something that works and how you built it. There's no way. There's no way that someone won't give you a chance if they see that you're a designer that has gone the extra mile.
Because the mistake that a lot of people are making right now that are trying to get into the the design industry is that they'll say, "Oh, uh, I'm a they say I'm a I'm an entry I'm an entry- level designer or I don't have any design experience." You have to rebrand yourself from an entry-level designer to an early career designer. Which means that you're telling people that well I mean I might not have like a full-time design job yet, but I can stand toe-to-toe with somebody that has two to three years experience because this is what I've been able to do. So I'm early in my career, but it doesn't mean I'm entry level. It doesn't mean that you have to hold my hand when I join your organization to be able to do things that I need to get done. You need to show proof that you can compete with people that are like two years ahead of you. And how do you do that? You need to know what people two years ahead of you are doing and see how you can level up quick. Before now, 2 3 years ago, it's it was difficult to level up quick. But with these AI tools, you can actually level up really quick. But if you're not obsessed with them, if you're not in the tools, if you're not learning it every single day, it's going to be so difficult to understand how they work. It's is going to be so difficult to understand their flaws.
And I understand that it may be difficult to get into these tools because god there are too many tools. You know there are new AI tools that are being that are churned out every single day. So you can be overwhelming. The way I have dealt with that is I don't jump around. I just pick like one or two specific tools for specific use cases and I make sure that those are the main tools that I'm using. And I can tell you, I've made a video about like the AI design tools I use every every time. I'm going to link that video to the description of this video. Um, but I just chose like two tools for each kind of thing that I'm trying to do. For example, for coding, I just make sure that I really understand how to use AI tools like VZO for front- end design and AI tools like Corso for backend design designs. For work, I just use Claude. And then for like things around like my my life and I'm trying to like maybe get more organized or just have like that kind of um conversations that help me get more clarity, I use Chipity for that. And then for image generation, I use tools like Recraft. Um but there are lots of tools like Nano Banana is currently going viral and it's really really good. So you need to get obsessed with this tools. You need to really get into this tools.
Now, all of this is really, really important and I've said so many things in this video. But if you're going to take anything away from this video, if you forgot everything I've said in this video, it is to understand the things that you need to remember, it is to understand that you have full control over your career. You have full control over how to navigate your career. It shouldn't be in the hands of anybody. And you need to do this exercise after this task right now. Think about what your goal for the next 12 months is. What are your goals for 2026? And outline things that are outside your control, things that you can influence like competition, like the state of the economy, like what is happening that you can influence. And then outline things that you can influence, things that are within your control, like the amount of new designs that you can work on, like the amount of things that you can build, like how you can improve your storytelling. Outline all of those things and then completely ignore things outside your control and focus 100% on things within your control. And I promise you, if you're just able to do this exercise and focus on things within your control, you're going to see you're going to have a magnificent 2026. And yeah, that's the end of my ramble. I'll see you in the next video.