Tiago Oliveira is an MID student and, in this interview, he tells us about his migration process from Industrial Design to UX Design and comments on the similarities between the two areas.

In addition, Tiago shows how organization of studies it was essential for her career change and how the selection processes also helped her learning.

Check out Tiago's story and get inspired!

Tiago, tell us a bit about your background

Felipe, it's a pleasure to be here! And first of all I would like to comment that when I joined MID I had already watched some interviews with students and I kept wondering when it would be my turn! I am very happy to be here today!

Well, I'm 32 years old and I have a degree in industrial design. But before that I studied data processing, which ended up being a bridge for me to study design.

At the time, in 2009, I was already flirting with Web Design and I always tried to study a bit of front-end, but Programming was never my thing and I ended up deciding to study industrial design!

This training helped me a lot because of the baggage I have today about some design concepts and tools.

Part of my desire to migrate from Industrial Design to UX Design was precisely the possibility of using various tools that I learned in college and in other experiences, in a freer way and creating value.

In the experiences I had before migrating, I felt that I didn't create as much value with my work.

Can you better explain what you did as an Industrial Designer?

Already during college, I obtained an internship at a lighting company well recognized in the market.

At the time, I was helping Tangibilize the creative director's ideas, in other words, I transformed the concept of the lamp he created into something material.

In that sense, I would take the drawing he made, converted it to 3D and sent it to the factory.

In addition, I helped with the production of the components, with the assembly, I thought about how it would be possible to send the product to physical stores safely; I analyzed the costs of the product, the manufacturing methods, and all that kind of thing.

In short, my responsibility was present in everything that happens in the act of transforming the idea on paper into a physical product, manufacturable, and scalable.

Reading Tip: Product Manager — Business, Technology, and User Experience

What do you see as the similarity between Industrial Design processes and those of UX Design?

It has a very strong relationship, in fact!

In Industrial Design, I was thinking of The entire product process. From the draft to the manufacture of the physical product, going through all the stages of this transformation journey: costs, ease of assembly, ergonomics, etc.

Stopping to analyze, today, in my work as Product Designer there is also this whole journey, thinking about the entire process of developing a digital product.

The big difference is the greater focus on the user what UX Design cares about.

In my work with luminaires, for example, even if there was interaction with the products, it was nothing compared to the interaction of users with digital products.

In Industrial Design, we understood a lot about the company's internal processes. With UX Design and Product Design, the concerns go beyond that because I need to understand and think very well about who the user of my product is. That is to say, my view outside the company is much bigger than it was in Industrial Design.

So today, working with digital products, I need to think about business strategies and associate them with the needs of those who are going to use the product.

In addition, there are many tools and methodologies that I used in the industry that I still use in UX Design, such as: prioritization tools, problem discovery, root cause, etc.

What was your study process like when you decided to migrate to UX Design?

At first, I tried to study on my own.

I did a lot of research and there was a lot of material on the internet that I thought was good to study. But at the time I didn't have that much time to be able to digest all that stuff.

It turned out that I felt lost and stopped studying for a while, but that spark that ignited to study about UX Design never went out.

Some two years later, I felt that desire to study again. Like the first time, I tried to study on my own, but again I started to get lost because it really was a lot of things.

My anguish occurred because I couldn't properly understand how things worked. I tried to connect the dots between what I was studying and my experiences in industrial design, but that relationship was never clear to me.

At that moment, I realized and I decided that I needed help and I ended up finding Aela and the MID.

In this sense, The MID helped me a lot because I followed his study process: I attended all the classes at the first level, did the project, waited for feedback and adjusted what was to be adjusted.

With this routine, I I began to understand which form of studies worked best for me and I think that's very important. Each person has their time, their rhythm, their needs and facilities. Finding your study style is critical.

When I arrived at level 2 of the course, I had already understood the dynamics of project deliveries and validations. This point is already quite different from what I was used to in Industrial Design, where validation and delivery time are quite different.

As I progressed through the course and studies, I got the pointers right and always tried to delve into some specific tool or stage related to what I was studying at the time.

For example, in user research, I delved into techniques, ways of doing things, feedbacks, where I needed to pay attention, etc.

What made a big difference in my studies was finding my routine and understanding that I need to focus. As much as I found a lot of material on the internet that made me want to study, I tried to leave it for later and focus on what I really needed at the moment.

This process helped me a lot. A lack of focus can greatly hinder and hinder our growth.

Reading Tip: How to Take Advantage of My Background and Migrate to UX Design?

How did you organize your studies? Can you give us more details?

It was very difficult at the beginning because I tried to reconcile work with studies and it didn't work out very well!

I had a hard time focusing on my studies during this period. With that, I began to understand that I would have to dedicate myself more to make this migration to UX Design.

When I realized that I couldn't keep working and studying, I quit my job at the time. I decided to trust my wishes for change and focused 100% on my studies from that.

I know that it's not everyone who can do that move. And it was a kind of privilege that I took advantage of and that helped me a lot.

Soon after leaving work, I felt a certain strangeness until I was able to adapt to the new routine. I had moved from a more hectic life to a more “quiet” life.

In that sense, I I delimited a study schedule and I set out to extract as much as possible from that period.

In addition, what helped me a lot was planning myself, organizing the course deliveries, Managing time and always keep in mind what I want to do with it.

Understanding what I need to do, use, what I am going to focus on or deliver is very important to establish this study routine.

But one additional thing I learned is that while it's good to have a plan, it's also important to be prepared for Unexpected. In that sense, I think it's important not to take things so seriously because if something doesn't work out, you can handle the frustration.

At the end of the day, Making mistakes is part of the process and of learning.

Another important tip is don't forget the practical part.

Many times I found myself just studying the theoretical part and that was a mistake. We have to know when to get our hands dirty because practical learning is essential.

You've been in the market for a while now. How was your hiring process?

It turned out to be a mix of several things and that was really cool!

When I made the decision to quit my job and focus on studying, I set a goal in my head: by the end of March 2020 I wish I had obtained an opportunity in UX Design.

But then something unexpected came along: the pandemic.

And that greatly disrupted the plans I had made and I ended up having more time to study before actually migrating.

However, even during the pandemic I participated in some selection processes, each with a Case different. I tried to make the most of each of these opportunities and treated them as if they were MID deliveries.

Although I heard a lot of negatives in these processes, their result was very positive for me. I met people, presented works, improved the way I presented Cases for recruiters. Anyway, they were opportunities for a lot of learning.

What I always did was try to apply my learnings from the previous process to the current process. With that, I was always increasing and improving my presentation and interview.

In this process of learning with the processes, I greatly improved my Storytelling, which I consider to be very important and which made a total difference in my presentations.

For my current job, in the selection process, I tried to present the Case making associations between the design process and the company's market. Those details were and are very important!

If you manage to take the time to Build a story on top of yours Case, do it! The presentation experience is essential!

Many companies are combining Industrial Design with UX and Digital Design. What do you think about this merging of worlds?

I think we're still right at the beginning of all this juncture, because the universe created from that is so vast.

At the end of the day, Everything ends in design! Today things are more hybrid. The concept of isolated aspects — graphic, digital, industrial — is unraveling.

Returning to the lighting market, there are products that are able to identify, within a commercial building, which room is consuming the most energy and communicate the responsible persons so that cost management can be improved.

In this process, we have:

• O graphic design: taking care of the identity and communication on the packaging;
• O industrial: thinking about the viability of the product;
• And the UX Design/ Digital: thinking about the user's interaction with the information collected by the product, in relation to consumption and costs.

So the sky's the limit when it comes to the coming together of all these worlds!

What would you say to Tiago in the past, when you were having doubts about migrating to UX Design or not?

I think I would tell you to continue and trust the process.

Be calm, patient and trust yourself because everything will work out!

Reading Tip: 11 Fears That Prevent You from Migrating to UX Design