5 UX challenges to try today
I’ve been on a journey recently, whereby I am trying to refine my UX skills. I’ve tried to mix up my learning skills through videos, blog posts and books to name a few. But I wanted something that would provide me with more practical experience within a small-time frame during my day.
I’ve done some research and have found some amazing daily challenges that provide small incremental learning opportunities throughout my day.
I’ve listed the 5 challenges below and have included a link to each of these challenges and an approximate time required per exercise to complete:
1) Adobe XD Challenge
The Adobe XD Daily Challenge is a 10-day challenge, whereby you get the chance to learn different UI skills and trends. The courses starts every month and you also get the chance to review previous cohorts tasks.
Although the videos are around 30 minutes long, realistically the challenge would be around an hour to complete, due to going back and forth on the video to review the techniques featured.
Challenges include: creating micro-interactions, music videos, dark mode and adding animations to mobile sites.
You even get the chance to upload your work to Behance and get feedback from others either through the Discord channel.
*Please note that although it has been started that its free to download, but as a disclaimer I’m not if its “free” or a “free trial”.
Approximate time required per exercise: 30 minutes to 1 hour
Here is the link for this: https://www.behance.net/challenge/xd
2) UX Daily Writing Challenge
The UX Daily Writing Challenge is micro activities focusing on improving your UX writing skills being sent via email.
Within the email, there is a scenario of the challenge, message, and character length, but you are allowed to be as free as you like with the content. The most important thing that these challenges push is the idea of “what message would the end-user like to see when in this position?”
You can get inspiration on ideas on what to write and context through their site.
Exercises include: writing promotional adverts for a shopping app, flight cancellation messages and email error messages.
Approximate time required per exercise: 15 to 30 minutes
Here is the link for this: https://dailyuxwriting.com/
3) Designercize
Looking for some practice for whiteboard challenges when preparing for your design interviews? Look no further than Designercize!
When you first enter the site, the interface itself looks very retro, but don’t be fooled!
Randomly generated, you can set how long you want to work on the task and helps to provide challenges either at an easy, medium or hard level.
It provides some insights into the initial problem, who its for and who its looking to help. Although this is meant to simulate what a whiteboard challenge could be like, unlike the other exercises, there is no mechanisms for feedback on what you did.
Approximate time required per exercise: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Here is the link for this: https://designercize.com/
4) UX Tools
This one is still relatively new to me, but I find these exercises great for providing a starting point on user research and ideation.
They break down the design thinking process into small chunks, so gives you a chance to refine which skills you want to improve on.
They provide a scenario, tool kit of what you for the exercise and tutorials for how to complete the tasks.
Exercises include: Information Architecture, Competitor Analysis and Journey Mapping.
Approximate time required per exercise: Depends on exercise
Here is the link for this: https://uxtools.co/
5) DIY Challenge
So, I’ve been kinda cheeky with this one, but hear me out! How many times a day have you come across a website or app, whereby you have been frustrated with the user experience?
With this exercise, either take a screenshot of the site or app in question and use the 10 usability heuristics to break down why this design does not work. Then look at the competition to see if there are any interfaces as recommendations for improvements.
This exercise is great to regularly review your design process and to improve how you look at problem-solving.
Approximate time required per exercise: 15–30 minutes
Although this is not an exhaustive list, these challenges are a great starting point to provide short bursts of incremental learning in UX. I would recommend taking on two as a maximum for doing the challenges per week; anymore and it could be exhausting.
If you’re interested in receiving mentorship from me, whether it’s for a one-off call or for short-term or long-term membership in UX Design, feel free to book a 30-minute consultation with me through my Calendly link. I look forward to helping you grow in your UX Design career!
