What does it mean to be a lonely wolf UX designer ?

Agh... loneliness, we are no strangers to it. As a UX designer, there´s a good chance you also have been jealous of the team of back and front-end developers, chatting... having their inside jokes, meanwhile... you have to book a call with yourself to get feedback because there are no other UX designers at the company.

Yeah, life can be sweeter if you are part of a team, so let´s talk about how different the life of a lonely UX designer is, and who knows? maybe your boss reads this and gets you a UX friend.

You do a little bit of everything and your BFF is impostor syndorme

Does the team need a video? research? testing? writing? Name it and you will get it. If Leonardo Da Vinci could have a modern job description, it might be similar to the ones lonely UX designers have (might be exaggerating on that one). We do a bunch of stuff and don´t get me wrong, it can be super cool but because we have to get a ton of tasks ready, sometimes you might think your work isn`t good enough.

Being a generalist, you may feel as if you are spread a bit thin. You may also wonder at times if you´re "doing it right" -Leah Buley

You need to spread the holy word... the UX word

"So... what is the thing that you do exactly? " We all have heard this at least one time in our lives, and honestly could you blame them? UX is a relatively new career. I mean... it´s been 20 or so years since our lord and Savior Don Norman baptize UX.

And, in an effort to continue with the religion theme, we need to spread the good word about what UX is. If you are a team of one UX designer, you might already have to explain what UX is and how critical it is to use it correctly.

It is a hard task to do but HE (Norman) gives the hardest tasks to HIS (Norman) strongest disciples.

You are learning on the GO

Yep, It would be awesome if we had someone to go to if we have questions, but like any other first-time single mother, you have to learn as you go and the trickiest part is that you might be doing it wrong without even noticing. The good thing is that I got your back and you can ask for a peer review if you need to. ( btw this is not an ad, my help is totally FREE)

In conclusion

Lonely UX designers can go thru a lot... we do tons but still, we feel like we can do better. You might feel alone on your career path and that sucks, but I want you to know that it doesn't have to be like that. Be part of a community of other lonely wolfs and start a pack, also, don´t be afraid of asking for help, we all need it from time to time, and that doesn't make you any worse.