“I came into product design from a design agency background too, so I built my first case studies around problems I could see: I redesigned a local food delivery app’s checkout flow in Figma, mapped the user journey, and prototyped the fix. Pick one app you use daily, identify where it breaks, and ship a case study that shows how you thought through it, not just how it looks.”
“I came into product design from graphic design too, so I know the gap feels wider than it is. I built my first case studies by redesigning real apps I actually used, interviewing five or six people about one painful flow, and documenting the decision trail in Figma. No one cares if it shipped; they care if you can show why this button, at this moment, with this label.”
“I moved from print and branding-adjacent work into tech product design by saying yes to a Dropbox role I didn't feel fully qualified for, then learning craft on the job. Your six years of visual taste and systems thinking already matter more than a shipped feature. I'd pick one app you use daily, redesign a painful flow in Figma, prototype it, and document what you changed and why.”
“I would pick one tool or app you already use daily and redesign a single frustrating flow in Figma, then write the case study around the research you did on yourself and three people like you. That is how I built my early product work at Michigan, and it translates your print eye into interaction thinking faster than a fake startup concept.”
“I came into product design from graphic and web work, and the gap I had to close was proving I could think in systems, not just craft. Pick one app or tool you already use, identify a real friction in it, redesign the flow in Figma, and write the case study around the decision, not the pixels. I would rather see one honest here's what I assumed, tested, and changed than a polished fake shipped feature.”
“I taught myself UI design before anything else, and my mentor on ADPList drilled into me: learn to actually design interfaces before worrying about research or testing. I started with an eight-point grid, basic typography rules, and color, then built low-stakes projects like a health tracking app and a Shazam exploration prototype where I could fail and iterate without pressure.”
“I started in graphic design too, then moved into UX by reframing my print and branding projects around user problems and adding one Figma prototype to each. Pick an app you already use daily, redesign a frustrating flow, and write the case study as if it shipped: research, decisions, and what you would measure.”