Welcome back to the UserFlows Podcast, my name is Thomas Morrell and this is a show where we talk about UX design and careers. I interview designers about their journey into the field and break down how they've been successful in their roles so we all can learn together. Today I'm joined by Shalyn Oswald.

Shalyn is a UX Design Instructor at General Assembly. Which a lot of my previous guests were once students at GA. I'm very excited for this conversation.

Show Highlights

1:25 - Shalyn's Background in UX Design. Game Jams, and networking.

2:20 Going from UX Design Student at General Assembly to becoming a UX Instructor at the same company.

4:30 - Making the switch from practitioner to teacher. Acquiring greater communication skills.

⭐️ 6:00 - Educating people about what I do and what I don't do. Empowering people to understand the power you have as a UX Designer. Respect it.

9:12 - (Ruined by design) Ethics in Design. Giving people the system to do their job well. Technology is here to help and not to hurt and as a UX designer, you can do good or do harm.

12:00 - Embracing Human-centered design from all angles.

12:30 - What are the General Assembly courses all about. What does a typical experience look like? The intensity of the program. Learning to ask questions. Learning to not take feedback as a negative, but as information.

15:20 - What it's like as a General Assembly instructor. Get into the weeds with your students. The personal aspect of how you learn.

⭐️ 20:10 - The biggest obstacle UX students have is getting over being able to fail in order to learn. Quieting the perfectionist mindset.

25:50 - Who's the right type of person for the General Assembly course? Hint: It's everyone, but you'll have to be okay with the fast pace and the pressure.

30:35 - Lessons learned moving from Practitioner to Teacher. Feedback is a necessary evil both giving and taking.

34:20 - What people don't quite understand about what gets taught at a boot camp. You get out of them what you put into them. You have to judge the boot camp grad and not the past performance of another grad. The same way you would judge one college grad vs another.

35:40 - There is room in design for everyone. Diversity in design is about diversity in thinking, thought, understanding, humor, and more. See the value in the person and not the course.

41:00 - Where they go for inspiration and information.

47:00 - What's next on the horizon. A short sabbatical and then something new.

49:09 - Getting in touch with Shalyn. LinkedIn and Twitter.