UX Gaps

After weeks of reflection and research, you finally feel confident about where you want to focus your freelance career: EdTech app design. It's a space that excites you, connects with your strengths, and builds naturally from the projects you already have. But once the excitement settles, it hits you. Deciding your niche was only the first step. If you want clients to see you as an EdTech designer, everything you show and say about yourself has to support that story. Refining Your Portfolio You start with your portfolio. The EdTech app you designed during your bootcamp instantly feels like the anchor, a project that fits exactly where you're heading. But as you read through the case study, you notice that it mostly focuses on final designs, not the reasoning behind them. You go back in and refine the story, explaining why you made certain design decisions, how your research informed the direction, and what outcomes your design led to. You want potential clients to understand no...

It’s been a few months since you decided to go out on your own as a UX designer. You’ve updated your LinkedIn headline — UX Designer, Product Designer — built your portfolio, and started applying for small freelance projects. You’ve joined a few UX meetups, maybe even jumped into an online community or two, hoping to connect with other designers. You’re doing everything you’re supposed to. You’re networking, getting your name out there, and following all the advice about how to get started. And then, at one of those meetups, it happens. You’re standing in a small circle of designers, chatting about tools, projects, and career paths. Most of them work full-time at companies. One’s a UX researcher in healthcare, another designs enterprise dashboards, and another is deep into usability testing for e-commerce. Eventually, someone turns to you and says, “ Oh, you’re freelancing now? That’s awesome. What kind of UX designer are you?” You freeze for a second. You know you do UX — but wha...

After finishing a UX design bootcamp, a new designer is eager to get their career started. They’ve been networking, attending meetups, sharing work online, and even landed interviews. But nothing has felt like the right fit yet. So instead of waiting for the perfect opportunity, they decide to try freelancing. The thinking is simple: “Why wait for a company to hire me when I can start working on my own projects right now?” They tell friends and family they’re available for freelance work, and a few opportunities come up. Maybe it’s a local store downtown that needs a website redesign, and they barter services — “ I’ll design your website if you help me with something in return.” Or maybe a cousin needs a simple portfolio site. These early projects are valuable. They provide practice, portfolio pieces, and confidence. But they’re not real client work. There’s no legal agreement, no formal contract, no defined scope. If something goes wrong, the stakes are low. That’s part of the probl...

 It’s your first week as a junior UX designer on a small, tight-knit product team — one lead designer, one mid-level designer, and two developers. You’re excited to finally put your skills into practice and contribute to real work. Your first project focuses on improving a section of the company website that’s been struggling with performance. After your first stakeholder meeting, you receive a detailed summary document packed with business metrics: conversion rates, drop-off points, and profitability trends. You scroll through it, trying to make sense of everything. The language is full of business jargon — meaningful, but disconnected from the world of users. Unpacking the Jargon You take the document to the mid-level designer, who’s experienced with the product and can help translate the metrics into actionable insights. Together, you review the spreadsheet. They explain: “When stakeholders talk about conversion rates, they mean how many users complete key actions — like si...