Clark Saxby

Where are you from? Where are you based as a UX/UI Designer and/or Student?

I'm based in Kamloops—a small-ish city in British Columbia 🇨🇦  We get hot summers and cold winters. We have some of the best mountain biking you could ask for, we're close to a ski hill, and we're close enough to the big cities to keep things interesting 🧐

Which Bootcamp did you choose to enroll in, and why?

I’ve done 2 bootcamps now: UX/UI design, and Design Systems. I enrolled in UX/UI design because as a web developer, I was starting to fall more in love with design but was lacking the confidence and skills to create the things I was imagining.

I was tapping through some stories on Instagram when my attention was caught by Zander talking about something on Webflow’s story. I can’t remember what it was exactly, but the energy was super contagious, and I sort of fell down a Memorisely rabbit hole. Next thing I knew, I was enrolled in my first bootcamp.

What inspired you to pursue UX/UI and become a Designer?

I honestly don’t have the most inspiring story as to why I pursued UX/UI. I think it was just a natural next step as a developer to level-up my abilities.

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And your work station setup across devices?

Along with my computer, my phone is also broken so I can't show you how i use my phone for work 😭 (I take good care of my things, I swear 😅)

On desktop I like to only have the apps I use everyday in the app bar:

• 🕸  Google Chrome for mostly everything web (DuckDuckGo is one good rebrand away from converting me, though)
• ⚡️ Height for project management
• 📜  Notion is pretty much our CRM as well as documentation for everything
• ✨  Figma for design fun
• 🎙  Slack most communication
• 🌠  CleanShot X for screen recordings and more

What's it like to be a student in Memorisely's virtual classroom?

Oh man, it’s the best. The bootcamps go by supafast, but you get to know your cohort so well, and everyone is having so much fun learning together. The relationships you make along the way are just awesome. And on top of that, the instruction is top-tier.

What challenges do you face as a UX/UI Student?

I think one of the most challenging and also one of the coolest things about UX/UI is that there’s just sooo much to learn. It really is endless, and it’s a field that’s always changing/evolving which is super exciting, but can be pretty daunting.

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What work or project are you most proud of?

Optional - if you're at the beginning of Bootcamp don't worry about answering this just yet!

Right now I think I'm most proud of a website we just built for a company called Path & Focus:

Path & Focus | Creative Solutions for Climate Response

I got to flex all of my creative muscles in this one, and I also got to implement everything I learned from both the UX/UI and Design Systems bootcamps.

What (digital or physical) product recently blew your socks off?

Hoverify is always blowing my socks off

It’s literally every tool I need as a developer/designer in one super convenient plugin.

Check it out 👇

A list of super cool things you can do with hoverify:

1. Inspect multiple elements at the same time
2. Pick multiple colours at the same time
3. Get all assets from a site
4. Look at a site on multiple different screen sizes at the same time
5. See exactly what a site is built with

And a bunch more cool stuff.

What tunes do you listen to while designing?

I usually listen to lofi music in the background or to some of my favourite anime soundtracks on YouTube.

A super cool website to listen to lofi music is lofi.co

Share three suggestions for fellow and/or future students?

1. Read “Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleon. It really helps with imposter syndrome, gives some guidance for developing your own style.
2. Give it your all. If you’re new to the industry, you really will be ready for a career in UX/UI after your bootcamp.
3. Always be creating something. The difference in the quality of projects I build now vs. the ones I build even just 6 months ago is night and day, and that’s just because I’m always working on things and pushing myself a bit harder every time.

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