A Look Into The Life of a UX Designer

3 min read

Written by Sennah Yee

UX Design has become increasingly in-demand, but what exactly do UX Designers do? We chatted with Juno Bootcamp grad Katrina Bautista, who currently works as a UX Manager at Shopify.

Like many, Katrina’s intro to design and tech began with customizing Myspace, Geocities, and LiveJournal layouts. She didn’t always know she’d be a designer - she was initially working towards becoming a translator, but ended up pursuing a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Design at NSCAD, later working as a designer at a PR and Advertising agency in Nova Scotia.

It was Katrina’s translator mindset that helped her think more deeply about her design career and how she could level up by designing interactive experiences for the web:

“The translator in me said, go find somewhere to learn how to speak the languages of software. To understand code and wield it as another tool in your design toolbox.”

Soon enough, Katrina came across Juno’s Web Development Immersive Bootcamp - and then did what she describes as a “hard reset” on her life: she moved from Nova Scotia to Toronto, and left her agency job to dive into code, tech, and the startup world.

“Without knowing a soul in Toronto, Juno came with structure, challenges, and some sweet people to do it all beside,” says Katrina. “It introduced me to a way of thinking and working that I could embrace fully as I transitioned into a new area of growth for myself and my career.”

Juno was a lightning rod for people from all backgrounds who shared this crackling, creative, forward-thinking energy and were just looking for a way to harness it.

Should UX Designers Learn To Code? Here Are The Advantages:

Learning to code makes it much easier for UX designers like Katrina to articulate and validate their design decisions to other teams - it's also a great way to stand out.

“Coding made me a better designer because it allowed me to think a few layers above other designers in a very competitive field,” says Katrina. Having a coding background also let her sit alongside developer teams and contribute to strategies.

At the end of the day, we are builders. We do the things we do - code, design, program - to make things people can really use and trust.

“It’s important to never lose sight of that," says Katrina. "And the way to work collaboratively towards that goal is to learn a bit of each side so you have a common language to produce the best work as part of a team relationship or a client relationship."

What is UX Design and What Do UX Designers Do?

User Experience (UX) Design is a human-centered approach towards a product (goods, services, offerings, and/or experiences). The role of the UX designer is to build or improve a product so that it is useful, usable, and desirable for its users.

"Designers use the range of tools and skills we’ve built up - visualization, wireframing, facilitation, UX research, empathy mapping, and so on - to help non-designers feel excited and confident that their ideas can be made real," says Katrina. "And not just real, but better - through validation, iteration, and constant questioning and redesign."

She also shares the importance of alignment and communication in the field:

"Metaphors really matter. You’ll often hear clients ask for things like 'Uber, but for plants' or 'the Airbnb of horse stables.' For non-technical folks, comparison is a bridge towards understanding."

An ability to simplify something complex is what will set you apart as a UX designer, and I often encourage people to build up that muscle.

For example, for her work on data privacy at Shopify, Katrina often uses the metaphor of housekeys to explain securing a developer’s API credentials and their access to a merchant’s shop data:

“You want a certain level of copying to happen to make expansion or software extension on your platform possible, the same way you’d make a copy of your housekeys for your dog walker,” she explains.

“But you want there to be security, because you don’t want your dog walker making further key copies for someone else, or for a key copy to fall into an untrusted person’s hands.”

Student Stories

About Katrina’s Journey

Before Juno
Designer
After Juno
Product Designer - Nascent
Currently
UX Manager
Shopify

Working at Shopify

Katrina started working at Shopify in 2016. She began as a product designer before working her way up to senior and staff designer. “I’m now a UX manager leading a wonderful gang of devs and UXers in Shopify’s Ecosystem team,” she says.

What exactly is ecosystem UX?

“Ecosystem UX is one of the most energizing problem spaces that I feel grateful to work in,” says Katrina. “It’s focused on the design of network effects and overlapping systems.”

In her role, this means focusing on how to help merchants customize their Shopify store with a range of apps, themes, and integrations to make their business be truly their own.

“The fact I get to work on the platforms and surfaces that make that possible is really fulfilling for me,” says Katrina. “It’s important to me to see the work I do make a real difference in a person’s livelihood and independence.”

A typical day for Katrina at her UX job is a mix of:

Doing user research through both qualitative and quantitative methods - everything from studying click patterns and heat maps, to doing a quick SQL query to get a median number of app installs for our userbase, to calling merchants and app developers to talk to them directly about their problems and needs
Translating insights into useable forms: wireframing, mockups in Figma, project briefs that cover the data driving decisions, prototyping
Supporting her reports and mentees across everything from honing their product decision making to improving their design craft

Outside of her day job, Katrina also offers her time coaching other designers and startup founders. “Instead of being paid for my time, I ask that the companies I mentor donate to a charity that supports opportunities for underrepresented folks,” she says.

Tips For First-Time Freelancers

Katrina has worked as a freelance designer since 2014. While she’s spending more of her creative energy nowadays at Shopify, she shares some helpful tips for those looking to start freelancing for the first time after bootcamp:

“I advise actually looking for contract work that goes from 1-6 months, where you don’t need to necessarily structure the projects yourself so much as bring your whole self and creativity and skill to an existing problem and company structure,” she says.

This longer contract work gives you more time to practice your newly learned skills, and "try on" different company sizes/structures so you can see where your passions are - and what other talents you can unlock!

Tips for UX Designers

Katrina shares what she calls her two main Cs: Curiosity and Critical thinking:

Curiosity

Think about asking questions as a skill, something that can be honed like a finely-pointed surgical tool:

• the best UX comes not just from asking why 5 times, as Simon Sinek so wryly guided, but also how 5 times

• embrace the framework of the Jobs to Be Done exercise, which is an incredibly timely and evergreen way of weighing user needs in any situation, beyond any demographic or persona

This will help you quickly sketch ideas that cut to the real core of the problem, rather than its surface symptoms.

Critical thinking

Develop your own Swiss army knife of methods to source a range of data to inform every UX decision. Skills that would improve data literacy include:

• a little bit of SQL and Python to get dashboards and make sense of large datasets and databases

• a little A/B testing methodology and a willingness to see everything as an experiment

• a little proactive Google-hacking

Where To Find UX Design Inspiration

“I believe that if you’re only looking at end products, like final Dribbble screenshots or website showcases, you won’t find the food that will nourish new ideas,” says Katrina.

"Instead, I like to turn to the worlds of science fiction, philosophy, and humour. I often think memes are a great design innovation - at their core they are a shared visual language, like a gif or a photo, that’s then transformed in meaning by changing just the text. And yet something that simple can strike at something really empathetic."

There’s a reason people see a meme and say “it me.” You want your designs to be like that for your users.

Katrina also recommends Kai Branch’s Dense Discovery newsletter: “Kai’s commitment to climate action, ethical tech, and representing diverse voices shines through in his choices of guests and links.”

How to break into tech

Katrina's advice for those looking to get into tech?

“You make your own luck. Privilege does play a factor, so seeking out spaces that pride themselves on inclusivity and have a formal commitment to inclusion, access, and diversity, like Juno, make all the difference,” she says.

If you can find your community, give back to it however and whenever you can, and that will continue to return to you hundredfold.

“So much opportunity arises from taking the risks and steps to put yourself out there. In my case it was to move to Toronto and dive headfirst into a coding bootcamp. That hard reset, that big bet put me in the path of so many opportunities, instead of waiting for them to come to me."

Photos by Anthony Menecola

Ready for a reset?

We know, a career change is a big decision - but it might be just what you're looking for. Check out our free career transition guide below to get all your questions answered:

Download Free Guide to Kickstarting Your Tech Career

Find out more about our Bootcamp and why so many students choose to make a career change through Juno.

Learn about the Bootcamp

Earlier this year I was uncertain of my future. Joining Juno was one of the best decisions I made. From day one, they made me feel at home and equipped me with the skills I need it to land my first job as a developer. I'm ecstatic about this new journey and grateful to Juno for making it possible.
Gabriela Parada
After Juno
Front-End Developer at CarltonOne Engagement
Juno's been given heaps of praise, and miraculously lives up to the hype and over-delivers. Juno's heart is its people. Staff and students are carefully vetted, and are exemplars of humility, kindness, and hard work. You don't just leave with tech skills. You leave with an awesome, uplifting community.
Daniel Pascale
After Juno
UX Content Designer at Paychex
Juno is one of the few institutions that doesn't care about where you’ve been or if your path has taken many roads. A month after finishing Bootcamp, I got a job as a Junior Front-End Developer at a fantastic company. Juno is inclusive and supportive both during and after the program. [It] was the best decision I ever made!
Maren Sigson
After Juno
Software Engineer at Apply Digital
If you were to ask me this time last year if I’d be working in tech, I wouldn’t believe it. Juno gave me a solid foundation to make this transition possible. I received support that allowed me to gain the skills and confidence I needed to land my first job.
Aaliyah Beckford
After Juno
Intermediate Software Developer at CrowdRiff
My cohort was the absolute best, kindest, most wonderful group of humans EVER. Attending this school was one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. Juno gave me more than just my first job in tech as a developer. I also gained a family, a community, and a future that I’m really excited about!
Annie Liew
After Juno
Front-End Engineering Lead at Pastel