I’ve always considered myself a creative and detail-oriented person, mostly unintentional. The details in design attract me and help me envision another purpose and other ideas. My keen eye for design started at a young age, being attracted to colors, textures, prints, scents, due to my strong and sensitive sensory. Growing up, my design taste has been more refined but still detailed. I find aesthetic pleasure in the design of everyday things, specifically details that are often overlooked. For example, the cleanliness of a printed text or image, the texture of sand, clay or natural objects, the form of a chair or even an empty space. Simplicity is a beauty of its own from the calmness of a tune or silence in its moment. 

Since my eye for design feels innate, I decided to improve my technical abilities by studying Computer Science. As for technology, it has been apart of my life since childhood — from computer games, electronic & digital toys to styling MySpace pages with HTML/CSS, I just never really happen to acknowledge that I could pursue a career in it. But that’s different now, I am on a journey to becoming a Software Engineer with a focus in Front-end development and UI/UX design. My interest lies at the intersection of technology and art, like creative coding, wearable electronics, design and programming. I want to use my technical skills to be able to create and enhance future innovations. As a web developer and newbie UX designer, I figured why not try to find a role that can merge the two? That’s when I realized UXE sounds and feels like a good fit.

But what is a UXE?

UX engineering is the bridge between design and front-end software engineering.

Responsibilities:

• Transform the design language into a component library, coded in a framework or library

• Promote the adoption of the design system throughout the organization

• Turn low-fidelity designs into high-fidelity prototypes using the component library

• Improve communication and collaboration between the engineering and design teams

• Build the style guide website for the design system

A UX Engineer (UXE) is a Front-End Engineer who sits on a cross-functional design team and helps facilitate collaboration between design and engineering. UXEs has the skill-set of a Front-end Engineer but with working knowledge of UX design principles.

Front-End Engineering skills:

• HTML, CSS, and JavaScript experience

• Semantic HTML & Accessibility

• Strong wire framing and prototyping skills

• CSS Frameworks, Architecture, & Preprocessors

• JavaScript Frameworks

• Build tools experience, such as with Webpack or Gulp

• Responsive design

• Testing and debugging experience

• Understanding of design patterns

• Version control experience

• Familiarity with package and dependency managers, like npm and Yarn

• Some Backend Development experience to foster communication and ensure project success

UX Design skills:

Since UX engineers can work with the design team, engineering team, and product management, they need to be able to have autonomy over their work while also being able to work well with multiple teams.

• Empathy

• Writing & Communication

• Observation

• Problem-solving

• UX Research & Interviewing

• Marketing

• Statistics & Data Analytics

• UI Design Tools such as Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, and Sketch

• UI Design Principles

• Interaction Design

• Proactiveness

At their core, UXEs are Front-End Engineers but employ design skills and are more focused on the UI than the middleware layer between front-end and back-end development.

Aspiration 💻🎨⚡️🦄

I aspire to intertwine the craft of programming and design by developing and designing software that has broad social impact. I am motivated to keep learning, growing and improving my technical and design skills as well as improving and expanding the interaction between humans and computers. I am passionate about bringing both the technical and creative aspects of digital products to life at the nexus of engineering and design.

It’s nice to know that it’s becoming a more known thing and hopefully it continues to grow, because why choose one when you can do both?