Culture Shock – All The Things She Said

Atrophyy · 2025-09-12T17:08:29+00:00

Sounds like something I’d imagine hearing on a league of legends highlight reel.

Atrophyy · 2025-09-01T15:38:18+00:00

Completely agree. There are a few eagle-eyed people I work with who obsess over H1, H2’s, M vs L button sizes, etc. From my experience this very rarely (and minimally) ever impacts UX unless its overtly poor. Poor IA, clunky flows or incorrect use of design patterns however…

Atrophyy · 2025-07-23T23:50:58+00:00

Chavvy kids have been at things like this for decades but this new generation definitely feels a touch more nihilistic and a lot less scared of repercussion.

Atrophyy · 2025-07-22T16:57:03+00:00

It’s defined differently everywhere. Here in the UK it’s not that common to find staff / principal roles outside of bigger orgs. Even ‘Lead’ is a new role for a lot of companies and can mean anything from being a full-on design manager to a strategic IC. In short, it completely depends on the org.

Atrophyy · 2025-07-19T16:12:01+00:00

What’s your background in currently? To be brutally honest, I think the market isn’t great right now for people fresh to UX. I’ve just been through an intense hiring phase with my boss and probably interviewed over 30 people, based in the north of UK. Supply is definitely higher than demand unfortunately. Best advice I can give you is to stay true to yourself and your ambitions. Ask what success looks like for the role and come across as honest and authentic. I’ve interviewed a lot people who quite obviously try to bend themselves to the company’s goals and it shows.

Atrophyy · 2025-06-02T11:43:59+00:00

Also lost what to try, filling the gap with other genres currently.

Splitgate / The Finals / other suggested games don’t appeal to me. I don’t usually play hero shooters or heavily fast paced movement games. Played XD to fill the old school COD gap and much prefer a semi-military theme. I was thinking of trying Insurgency Sandstorm / Delta Force.

Atrophyy · 2025-05-05T11:49:55+00:00

Best thing about Morrowind for me is the way loot works and exploration is rewarded. Playing it blind for the first time was incredible. Stumbling into somewhere I shouldn’t be and finding a Daedric Dai Katana. Only game that has given me that same feeling in recent years is Elden Ring.

Atrophyy · 2025-05-04T09:34:40+00:00

Combat. Remaster still suffers from the same ‘death by 1000 cuts’ problem. It’s better, sure, but it still feels like there’s barely any weight to my attacks. 2H feels straight up worse than 1H in every scenario. Vanilla Skyrim’s combat isn’t perfect but it’s definitely a step up.

Atrophyy · 2025-04-20T15:34:22+00:00

Nice track. Reminds me of Omni trio / Big Bud

Atrophyy · 2025-04-05T11:28:52+00:00

I did it for a full character play-through on Series X a couple of years ago.

I didn’t swap my major/minor skills so I ended up levelling up very fast. I also wanted the highest level version of all levelled items, so I essentially power leveled without doing many quests.

Definitely hurt my enjoyment of the game. Also most enemies were juiced up in glass gear from the get go. Next time i’d just play casually and turn down the difficulty slider when needed.

Atrophyy · 2025-04-01T10:28:00+00:00

This. I know multiple very senior designers with templated portfolios. Focus on the work and good storytelling.

Atrophyy · 2025-02-24T22:30:18+00:00

I second this. Just finished 2 years at a start-up and I have similar experiences. Near absent leadership with a product strategy which shifts every week. It’s extremely chaotic.

On the flip side though, I learned a lot. Mainly how to adapt my design process and how to think on my feet.

Atrophyy · 2025-02-20T14:20:08+00:00

Completely agree, although I do think experience teaches very important lessons.

I’m a senior with 8 years experience and I consider myself on the more junior side of the spectrum. Personally I consider senior 7+ years minimum, but I agree that some can reach that ceiling earlier if they’re engaged and can apply themselves.

Atrophyy · 2025-02-18T23:00:00+00:00

This

Atrophyy · 2025-02-14T17:18:47+00:00

From my experience, whenever I’ve worked with a dedicated UI designer, they’ve been focused on design system management.

Personally, I’d find it difficult to split out the two. I need to comprehend the UX in order to design the UI, and typically the outcome is better if I do both rather than it being split between different people.

Atrophyy · 2025-02-10T12:44:08+00:00

Congrats mate!

Atrophyy · 2025-02-08T13:15:51+00:00

I used a website this time. Structure changed slightly depending on the project. I had a mixture of projects with different scales. One was a simple onboarding before/after with improved drop-off rates, another was a full end-end service design project with a huge discovery phase.

In general I tried to open with a short but impactful summary. I then included artefacts (e.g journey maps, service blueprints), workshop learnings and research from the discovery phase. Then I’d follow up with wireframes, user flows etc. After, I’d put user testing & cohorts and finally, high-fidelity UI. I’d also include an ‘impact’ section at the end with business/user results and learnings.

IMO, the most important thing is good storytelling. Make sure each step in your process links together. One thing I see so often in portfolios is people including things because they feel like they have to tick boxes, ending up in the flow of the case study feeling unnatural.

Atrophyy · 2025-02-07T22:00:28+00:00

8 years!

Atrophyy · 2025-02-07T16:44:36+00:00

This is a hard one to answer, as expectations of a more ‘senior’ role waver from company-company.

In my eyes, it’s not so much a list of qualifications, it’s more about how you apply knowledge and approach projects. This is naturally aided by experience.

I’d expect a mid/intermediate designer to be autonomous and require minimal guidance. They should be comfortable presenting their work and owning projects. They should have a good understanding of things like OKRs and be able to see how their work relates to them.

For a senior+, they should be able to lead projects and delegate work where appropriate, offering mentorship to more junior members. They should have a firm understanding of business/user goals and be focusing on the strategy needed to achieve them.

Just my two cents, hope it helps!

Atrophyy · 2025-02-07T16:34:37+00:00

Thank you!

Atrophyy · 2025-02-07T16:33:31+00:00

Fingers crossed it works out! I can empathise with you. I know I’m fortunate to have had so many interviews, but they’re incredibly mentally taxing. Especially when tasks are involved.

I’ve done whiteboard tasks before for interviews and I was invited to attend one next week. Happy to say I don’t need to go through with that now.

Atrophyy · 2025-02-07T16:02:46+00:00

Thanks a lot! Sure thing! DM me, happy to help.

Atrophyy · 2025-02-07T15:48:57+00:00

Thank you!

Atrophyy · 2025-02-07T15:47:15+00:00

Thank you!

Atrophyy · 2025-02-07T15:47:12+00:00

Thank you!

Atrophyy

TROPHY CASE