Often I get asked about tips, readings and courses for starting a product design career. The question comes from students taking the firsts steps in UI/UX, designers wanting to shift careers, and sometimes professionals from other areas. Maybe you too are curious about product design?

I believe there’s no recipe for this. The best advice I can give is to increase your exposure to the industry. Find a mentor, do an internship, work in a product development company, visit studios, agencies, startups and others companies where product design happens.

It’s funny I’m giving this advice because when I started to learn about product design it was lonely journey for me. I graduated in Graphic Design in 2009, and during 5 years of studying and looking for a job, I thought I would become a brand designer. But shortly after working in the field I realized I didn’t want to pursue that path (for a couple of reasons, but I won’t digress). So I returned to the University to learn more about digital design, and 3 years later I was working for a tech startup as a visual designer, as the only designer on a team of 3 engineers. I struggled with the technical terms, spent many hours researching and learned a lot about Product Design with the rest of the team.

Here’s a curated list of websites, articles, videos and more that I collected during this years:

Context
Startups, this is how design works

Learning
Hack Design
Udacity Product Desgin Course by Google
52 weeks of Ux

Great vocal designers
Frank Chimero
John Maeda
Luke Wroblewski

Articles and videos
Reorganization by Trent Walton
Atomic Web Design by Brad Frost
You have been lied to by Mike Monteiro
A Shorthand for designing Ui flows
Learning to see

Readings
A List Apart
The Ux Reader by Mailchimp

Toolkits
Design Kit by ideo
Toolbox by HiperIsland

Podcasts
Happy Monday