A sociologist in DesignLand (how I got here and where I'm going)

As a formally trained sociologist entering the domain of graphic design and user interface/user experience, I see sociology everywhere.

My first inkling that I wanted to become a UI/UX designer was in April of 2020. The first wave of the pandemic had just hit the US. I was working as a barista at Wegmans until about July of that year, when I had to quit due to medical problems.

One of my many friends in the tech field in Buffalo suggested maybe I could get a job in tech. I asked if there was a job for the people who make the websites look nice, and they said yes. I started googling UI/UX, and read a number of foundational books including The Design of Everyday Things, and Don't Make Me Think!

I learned about responsiveness and accessibility and thought, wow, this is all very sociological! I took a free online course through Career Foundry (a tech bootcamp with lots of amazing free online resources) that said that UI/UX careers are a great blend of social research skills and artistic ability. Well check and check! After reading everything I could for a few months, I switched to learning code. I earned a certification in responsive web design from FreeCodeCamp.org (another wonderful free resource with hundreds of free tutorials). This tutorial involved learning HTML, CSS, and advanced CSS. I then learned several hours of JavaScript on FCC as well. Over the course of these six or so months I was also networking with other people in the field in the Inclusive Tech Buffalo slack. ITB (formerly Girl Develop It Buffalo) has been amazing in supporting and helping me succeed in my goals. I met with developers and UX designers and people who had worked for Google and Amazon and Monster. This was immensely helpful in guiding me in the way I needed to go, or making any course corrections along the way. Finally, I decided I'd learned everything I could without going to bootcamp. I researched all of the bootcamps and decided on one. However, I did not have the money to pay for it and had been unemployed. It was time to find a job to pay for the bootcamp. I found a job at a temp agency and decided to start a blog as I save up money to go to bootcamp. This is that blog.