Like so many millennials, Taylor Ho’s preliminary gateway to coding was customizing layouts for his MySpace profile as a youngster. These early days of writing HTML/CSS purely for self-expression finally led him to graphic design and net improvement. Now, he’s a Principal UX Designer at Twitch.
“I’m a powerful believer that every ability you decide up is inevitably going to feed into the subsequent issues that you simply do,” Taylor says. “When you’ve got the proper mindset, every thing stacks up.” In Taylor’s case, he taught himself to program with PHP (he even used Codecademy) to enhance his design sensibilities, and stored an open thoughts to studying new issues.
Although Taylor isn’t writing production-grade code every single day in his function at Twitch, he views all of his design concepts by means of an engineering lens. “I sit type of at that line between design and code,” he says.
Study one thing new at no cost
Taylor, who’s of Native Hawaiian descent, can also be the co-founder of Hawaiians in Tech, a listing and group for Native Hawaiians who work within the tech business. Final summer season, the group hosted its first hackathon, which was themed round constructing family tree instruments.
Right here’s how Taylor networked his option to a job at Twitch, why his developer background helps his work as a designer, and his recommendation for people who wish to break into tech.
What bought me within the job
“For me, it began with customizing HTML banners in MySpace. This was earlier than social media was what it’s now, the place your content material is type of your self expression. Again then, MySpace was like your visible show and the way you represented your self. My highschool didn’t provide a graphic design class, however we did have a display screen printing course. That course launched me to an instantaneous software of graphic design, and from there, it simply proliferated.
I joined a video manufacturing group, as a result of digital cameras had been getting rather more highly effective. We began gathering so many movies that we would have liked higher management of how we put them out into the world. I stated to my buddy, What if we construct an internet site?
Being the self-taught, motivated particular person I used to be, I ended up getting a e book to be taught WordPress, simply so I might construct this web site. This meant I used to be additionally studying PHP on the similar time. Having a vacation spot in thoughts made it simple for me to get by means of the ache of studying this language. Wanting again, I can’t imagine that PHP is the language I began with. I used to be selecting up issues on Codecademy and different websites, simply discovering all of the stuff I might get my arms on, and something that the web needed to provide.”
How I bought within the door
“It had loads to do with networking. The primary 12 months that I moved to San Francisco, I used to be actually chilly calling locations to see in the event that they’re searching for a contractor. This was a very attention-grabbing window of time, as a result of I pivoted from pondering that I used to be a Entrance-Finish Software program Engineer that had a powerful knack for design due to my previous expertise, to truly saying, I’m a Designer who can code.
Throughout that 12 months I picked up all types of initiatives. I went to this design convention, and met somebody by dropping into the Slack channel simply saying, Hey, I want a trip. I don’t have a automotive! I drove to the convention with them, and that particular person ended up being my first referral once I bought my first job at Unity. When six months had passed by at Unity, I had proof that I might work at a giant firm. This made for a a lot simpler transition into making use of for an organization as massive as Twitch. My thoughts was blown once I landed the job.
As a result of I’ve a developer background, pixel precision is a giant factor for me. I attempt to produce designs that engineers can belief.
Taylor Ho
Principal UX Designer at Twitch
In 2020, JSConf was hosted in Hawaii. I used to be fortunate sufficient to get to discuss being a Native Hawaiian in tech, which was a tremendous alternative. The speak is on YouTube, and somebody randomly hit me up a pair months later saying, ‘Hey, I noticed your video, and it spoke to me.’ Over the course of our dialog, we got here to appreciate that we had been folks in an business the place we each beforehand felt like: I should be the one one.
We thought, what if we had been to begin exploring, serving to different folks discover that group on a platform or web site? There’s a ton of actually cool web sites proper now about variety and illustration throughout completely different industries, whether or not it’s design or tech, so Hawaiians in Tech builds off of the concepts and the shoulders of different greats. We’re continuously looking for methods to broaden past illustration and this listing of our efforts.”
What I really do every single day
“I’m a Principal UX Designer at Twitch. What meaning is I’m chargeable for sustaining a really attention-grabbing and essential house, which is our ‘Channel’ web page. I additionally am spending quite a lot of time within the ‘Browse’ house. Discovering content material and watching content material on Twitch are my major focus areas. My job additionally entails being a advisor/advisor for different groups that wish to design and construct.
I’m a reasonably versatile designer — jack of all trades, grasp of none, possibly. I do design from begin to finish. I work with product companions to discover unfastened concepts that they’re eager to chase down, and it’s my job to carry it again to the person expertise. We’ve a actually nice UX analysis workforce, and half my work is studying the analysis that they put out that’s out there to us.
Sometimes I’ve my arms in code, as a result of I do quite a lot of prototyping. Our core UI workforce put collectively this actually stellar prototyping device, the place you simply must know primary React, HTML, and CSS. We use TypeScript as properly at Twitch. As a result of I’ve a developer background, pixel precision is a giant factor for me. I attempt to produce designs that engineers can belief. I don’t need them to must guess if the spacing is what I meant or have them to have a look at my schematics and be like, Uh, ought to this be that far? I bought you. I thought of that.
After experiments are full, I take a look at outcomes with Knowledge Analysts, attempting to make sense of what ended up occurring all through the expertise. Due to my proximity to UX, I’m in a position to affect pre-, throughout, and post-experiment product choices. It’s such a enjoyable house to be in. I adore it.”
Right here’s what you want to get began
Taylor credit a lot of his profession success to his enthusiasm for studying. “I’ve a willingness to select issues up based mostly on the wants of the scenario,” he says. If you happen to’re taken with working as a developer sometime, you’ll continuously be studying new issues and selecting up new expertise.
Whether or not you’re in the beginning of your programming journey or are switching careers into tech, it’s essential to work on real-world initiatives that encourage you, somewhat than solely specializing in coding concept and rules, he says. (Try our catalog of coding initiatives for inspiration.)
Need to be taught extra about UX design and analysis? Our free course Introduction to UI and UX Design will educate you about key design rules and the right way to create your personal wireframes. You can too begin with our UX analysis programs, Study Consumer Analysis: Generative and Study Design Considering: Ideation.
And if you wish to construct a powerful coding background earlier than leaping into the world of UI/UX, make sure you try our full catalog of beginner-friendly coding programs and paths.