Mentoring designers
Since 2020 I work as a UX design mentor at Designlab for students who are new at designing. I help the students over the course of 8 weeks with 1-1 sessions where I give extensive constructive feedback and nudge them in the right direction, as well as giving them written feedback on the designs itself every week. https://designlab.com/seanhangel/
Satisfaction of progression
The UX Foundation courses at Designlab are mostly for people who want change their career or already have a little experience but want to understand the basics. Some of my students have gone on to work for companies after this course. I’m happy to see that I could contribute to their career. It’s fulfilling to see how people improve and become better at their craft because of your help.
A few of the students I tutored and where they’re working now
https://www.linkedin.com/in/russoluli/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjmdegroot/
My mentoring style
Always before giving feedback, it’s important to understand the goal of the design, the context, who the target group is and history (why is it needed). When the designer presents it’s work I ask questions to understand their rationale behind the design decisions. When I have all that I try to nudge the designer in the right direction and let them discover the right solution, rather than giving it to them.
When I give feedback, I explain my reasoning and the theory of design to back it up as well. So not only to help the student on this course, but to provide insight into design theory that universally works.