DEV Community: Gerald M

Using Google's Bard to Get a UX/UI job.

Gerald M — Thu, 18 May 2023 13:25:19 +0000

So Google at it's I/O summit recently launched Bard which is an experimental and conversational AI chatbot that responds to prompts.

The intelligent chatbot competes with its older brother ChatGPT and has some excellent features, holding greater potential to become the next big thing as far as AI is concerned, within the next couple of months.

I talked a developer at Google and he confidently explained the power this AI model would have in the next three months as compared to its competitor. He demonstrated what I'm about to show and I was pretty convinced.

My hope is that we've al tried playing around with Bard and if not, you're missing quite a lot. I'm a jolly good Designer and there's nothing I enjoy more than a perfect intersection between User Experience and amazing visuals. Bard combines all this and gives excellent results.

So, I tried to get a job with bard, rather prepare a pathway that will help me land a role in a couple of steps which I believe can help an entry level Designer. Here's how I did it.

1. I Identified someone who I consider a mentor in the design space. In my case, I picked UI Adrian and asked Bard this;

Next, I asked this:
2.Show me the basics of UX/UI Design and refine to the most important details.

Apparently, Bard gave me a response with an overview of the basics of UX/UI Design which was quite detailed for someone looking forward to start a career in design.

I went further and asked for an intensive 2-month action plan to groom myself into becoming a UX/UI Designer.

3. Create an intensive 2 month action plan that I can use to learn all about UX/UI Design.

This was quite impressive, breaking down the months week by week and specifying what action to take in each.

But I wasn't satisfied and so I asked Bard to further refine the plan into steps I would take each day in week one.

4. Break down Week one further and get into the finest details.

Bard has the ability to respond to prompts in different drafts and I went a step further to see how the rest turned out. The second draft was much more detailed and a suitable avenue for implementation.

It's possible to regenerate new drafts and get as much information as possible.

It kept getting better and I was impressed seeing information on the design process as well as relevant and up to date tools used by designers on a daily

Well, I now have a roadmap and so do you if you're starting off as a designer. AI is quite a powerful tool to use and we can use it to our advantage as far as learning and other benefiting matters are concerned.

Consider Bard your sidekick💪🏾 in interview preparation, job description analysis and fine-tuning your resume to match a preferred one.

Maximize the power of this tool and I'm pretty sure sooner or later you'll land that role you've been desiring. Not only for designers but for all tech and applicable non-tech roles that you've been desiring.

I hope you found this article insightful and if so, leave a comment and share on socials..
Feel free to point out or correct or add on to where I missed an important feature.

Cheers!🥂

Starting off as a UX/UI Designer.

Gerald M — Sun, 03 Oct 2021 12:10:23 +0000

Being a designer means you bring things to life, from a thought, into a concept that will actually be used by people you've never met. In this year alone I've seen more designers, most self-taught, confess that this is the best career choice they've made because they enjoy what they are doing.

I have a developer background, precisely frontend development and in my time, I got introduced to Dribbble. What an inspirational site! I could see all the trends in design implemented. This is where every designer should start, from inspiration and beyond!. In line with this, here are a few easy steps on how to start off as a UX/UI Designer today.

1.GROW YOUR PASSION WITH INSPIRATION

You need somewhere to conduct a study and view trends in the design world. You need motivation to start and competitors to match up to. Find all these on:

2.ENROLL IN A DESIGN COURSE

There are a number of sites/online institutions that offer Design courses at a fee or even for free. My personal favorite and recommendation is Uxcel. They have a great interface, easy to learn with, which means they teach and implement.

3.START OFF WITH A DESIGN TOOL

Every designer has to choose their preferred design tool where they can implement their prototypes.Try Figma, Sketchand Adobe XD. These are the main tools, try each and find your favorite, as for me I love Figma(Very good in collaboration).

4.LEARN, PRACTICE, POST

With the above tools and courses, visit dailyUI, signup, and you will receive daily design challenges to keep you on toes. Post your designs on Behance and Dribbble as much as you can to keep perfecting skills and concepts you've learnt.

5.CREATE A PORTFOLIO

A portfolio is like an online resume. Its a webpage that showcases who you are, what tools you have used, processes, experience and previous designs that you have worked on. You can create your portfolio in two ways. One, code it all in HTML, CSS & Javascript or use sites like Webflow,Quest ai and Uxfolio to do it with no code.

With that, I believe you are on the right path to getting a role as a Designer, either in interface, experience or even product. Remember, keep on practicing and learning. To making more users happy🥂.

Oh, some bonus sites for stuff you might need in between your journey:Evernote, ui8, lsgraphics

Cheers friends!

Born to be a UX/UI Designer.

Gerald M — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 21:18:41 +0000

Where it all began.

I love art and I have always been an artist since way back in primary school. In high school I fell in love with code and couldn't take my eyes off the green lines on the console. In my first year of Uni, I made my first website with HTML and performed a few tweaks to beautify it using CSS which made me feel like a god😂😂😂. Here is where I was drawn to perfection in web applications and as time flew, mobile apps.

Inception

After attending a 20 week bootcamp, I learnt the basics and cores of web development in the most advanced way I could afford. From simple HTML5 to javascript then Angular JS and later REACT. I graduated as a Fullstack developer and went into the world of development where I started off as a frontend developer.

Inspiration & Journey since.

Designs on sites like Dribble, Behance and Pinterest blew my mind away and for any project I started, I'd find myself always trying to beautify the frontend and ended up submitting the project with a faulty backend😂😂.Comments such as "Gerald, you're good at frontend," made me so happy and tuned my mind to the direction of Interface Design. Here is where my passion for UI Design was born.

I self taught myself with resources from Youtube(FLUX, Punit Chawla and many more) and a couple of courses on Skillshare. Fortunately I got a freelance job which has been my pillar of experience, helping me grow and discover more in the UX/UI field. Today, I'm proud of the step I took into design, fixing things to make someone happy as they look at their devices, as they click that link in expectancy to feel awesome and have a smooth run.

Word of Encourangement.

To anyone who's starting off in UX/UI Design, keep on pushing, don't give up, keep on building, keep working on those components😉.