Hustle-bustle

Apr 25, 2021

During our world's lockdown year, I decided to take up the Daily UI 100-day challenge.

My motivations were simple — job interviewers often questioned if I had enough UI design capabilities to cope with most digital design jobs. 🤷‍♀️ People weren't questioning if I could do other designery things, so… why not try just creating pretty interfaces to serve as a portfolio if needed?

Takeaways

Besides building out a portfolio — I actually learnt a lot and had fun during the challenge. Sure, some days were hard, especially when my main gig needed more attention. It was also quite humbling, because I did struggle, and realised that UI design really wasn't my strongest suit. The interviewers were right!

Hustle if you want to get better! Do side projects! Contribute to open source! Volunteer!

No, wait! Encouraging them discriminates the people who don't have the bandwidth to take them up! We're encouraging people to get caught up in the rat race!

At the same time, it got me thinking — was this considered taking part in "the hustle"? How did I find bandwidth to do one (meaningless) UI every day? How do others find time for other projects? Should we be encouraging this across the industry?

What if the best spot on the hustle continuum is different for everyone? What if we could just celebrate folks doing the best they can within their circumstances, without judging others for choosing what is best for them? Accepting that some folks may not have time, and the others may simply enjoy pursuing side projects? Could those with bandwidth seek to find causes to support those without? Indeed, those who can't hustle may not be able to advance as quickly, but aren't we also collectively not advancing as quickly as we could if we stop those with resources and bandwidth from hustling and pushing themselves to the best of their abilities and resources?

I'm proud of the results of this daily UI side project though there's tonnes of shortcuts everywhere, but I wouldn't say this is must-do for everyone. Again, the conclusion is… I don't have a conclusion.