3 Ways to Build UX Experience (Even If You Don’t Have a Design Degree)

So, you're interested in UX, but you’re wondering if you need a design degree to break in.

The short answer? You don’t need a design degree.

The long answer? Many top UX professionals began in fields like psychology, customer service, marketing, even teaching. What set them apart wasn’t their diploma, but their empathy, curiosity, and hands-on experience.

For example, Luigi Contini, a former psychologist realized that he could take his psychology background into User Experience design. “There’s a lot more psychology in UX design than you can imagine.” And, there’s Tania Zgerya, who worked in the fashion industry for a decade. Tania burned out from the pace of the industry and found UX design and is more invigorated, looking at digital experiences with new eyes.

There’s a lot of reasons why people gravitate towards UX design and one of them, as noted by Interaction Design Foundation, is that “UX design is one of the friendliest professions for people transitioning from a different career. No matter what your background, you are sure to find common ground and your skills and past experience will always be handy.”

Both Luigi Contini and Tania Zgerya understood the importance of UX design but also that they have to show-off what they learned.

Here are three practical ways you can start building real UX skills with no degree necessary.

1. Get Your Hands on Real Projects

Start practicing user experience the moment your curiosity sparks. The key is to work on real problems with actual users, you might be at a loss finding UX problems right now but there are ways to start practicing UX design.

Here are some examples:

• Offer to help a nonprofit improve their website. Many nonprofit organizations have outdated websites and need to update their website. Offer to help them update their website into something modern and functional (i.e. how to easily donate, or volunteer in the organization. Contact your local nonprofit and help out.
• Join a design sprint or local hackathon. This is a great place to work with people in various tech roles from software developers to product managers. During design sprints it’s an intense sprint to finish a project. It’s a great way to have real world experience and also connect with people. You’ll also get a taste of how it is to work under a time crunch, something most tech startups find themselves in.
• Partner with a startup or friend on a side project. If you have a friend doing a side project (i.e. food booths on the weekends), they don’t often have a budget to create a website or an app. You can volunteer your services and help them design both.
• Redesign an existing product. This is a fun project without any pressure. Take any existing product on or offline that you feel could be improved via UX design and redesign the product with an improved UX design and post it online.

2. Find UX Opportunities in Your Current Job

UX isn’t confined to design teams, UX design is a profession that has common ground from different skills and industries. You can practice UX anywhere, the key is finding where user experience intersects with your current role.

In customer service?

• Create an in-depth user journey map to identify friction in the customer experience.
• Analyze feedback from users/customers and from the analysis design updated resources.

In marketing?

• Run A/B tests on landing pages and gather real user feedback and go deeper and gather qualitative data on user experience.
• Create user persona based on market research and customer data.

In operations?

• Redesign internal dashboards or workflows for better usability.
• Create process maps that help identify inefficiencies and create quick wins.

A UX designer is concerned with the whole process. Use the full UX design process—from user research through to iteration. Document your thinking at every stage. Use every note, screenshot every iteration, every behind the scenes process in how you work on your projects. This is what will make your portfolio compelling and help it stand out.

These initiatives make excellent case studies to showcase your design-thinking process, not just the final outcome.

3. Join a Structured UX Program with Mentorship

Self-study is a solid start but feedback fast-tracks your growth. There are a number of online courses, and youtube tutorials but nothing beats a structured program with experienced mentors, giving real world examples and solutions. A step-by-step program with people who can mentor you and answer all your questions.

In a lot of ways, mentorship matters because a mentor can:

• Help with pattern recognition. An experienced UX professional can help identify patterns you might have missed that would be useful for your study.
• Give feedback for a portfolio review before you send it out to future clients or hiring managers.
• Understands not just how to do UX work, but when and why certain approaches work better within the industry context.

Breaking into UX without a design degree or experience is possible, but it requires dedication, commitment, and strategic thinking. You need to work to prove your skills, but a diverse employment background can be an advantage.

Hiring managers value candidates who can bring fresh perspectives from other industries. Your unique background can help give insight that traditional design graduates might lack.

The key is demonstrating that you can think like a UX professional. Putting users first, solving problems systematically, and communicating your design decisions clearly.

On-Off Group’s UX Certification Program is designed for beginners and career changers who want real UX experience, not just theory. Over 3 intensive days, you’ll work on actual challenges, use tools like personas, empathy maps, and usability testing, and walk away with a finished case study and expert feedback.

You’ll also join a community of learners and mentors who support you long after the course ends.

🚀 Ready To Take the Next Step?

Learn by doing in our UX Certification Program (3-days)

Transform your curiosity into career-ready skills in just 3 intensive days. You'll tackle real business challenges with expert mentorship, master industry-standard tools and methods, and walk away with a polished portfolio and the confidence to land your first UX role.

No design degree required, just curiosity, commitment and a readiness to do a deep dive in user experience design.

Words by: Monique Almario