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What I Wish I Had Known Early in UX Design
This episode is in Finnish. The video below is the original recording; this page provides an English summary for easier reading.
Summary
Annika and Tuomas on early-career UX: what they wish they had known, feedback habits, perfectionism, and lessons from first client projects.
About The Good Side in this episode
Mikki is out sick, so Annika and Tuomas host a designer-vs-designer episode on their own. It shows the team can go deep on design without a host, and next week they already disagree on beautiful vs practical design.
Key discussion points
- University gives you a toolkit, not a clear picture of what UX design actually looks like in client work
- Years of experience are a weak metric: a founder’s longer week does not automatically mean twice the learning
- Polishing pixels to perfection before sharing is a classic junior mistake that costs time and triggers bigger changes later
- The client is not always right: you are hired for your point of view, and clients value it when you challenge their assumptions
- Sharing work early and asking for feedback saves hours and avoids late-stage architecture changes
- There is no shame in asking questions: customers and users are domain experts; basic questions are a strength
- Managing stress is a skill: “the house is not on fire” beats chasing perfection on every piece of client feedback
Questions & answers
- Why does UX design feel unclear after school?
- School teaches theory and process, but not what that looks like in practice. Annika and Tuomas both felt that gap: real understanding starts in client projects. Academic process rarely repeats one-to-one at work.
- When should you show design work to clients or the team?
- As early as possible, even when it is rough. Hiding work until it is pixel-perfect leads to bigger changes later. Early feedback saves hours and keeps the project pointed in the right direction.
- Does a junior designer need to know the client’s industry inside out?
- No, and you should not be embarrassed to ask. The client or user is the domain expert; you are the expert on usability and design. Combining both perspectives is what produces good outcomes.
Topics: junior UX designer, early career UX, learning design, client work tips, design feedback, The Good Side, Behind the Pixels podcast, UX career, Annika Tuominen, designer vs designer