Well, for a while, I had been thinking about getting my Hands Dirty with User Experience.

It is probably the most confusing thing to get started with! After a lot (rather looooooot) of reading, referencing and cross referencing, after gaining clarity and losing it along the way, I think I made some decent progress.

I read about how people think and how design of everyday things is quite involved. Most importantly, this space is so much more than cool front end designs for websites and apps. There is a “real world” out there where design is a big deal. I also read about why and how UX is different from UI. Why and how this whole world of design is so obsessed with users and their problems. Finally I also read about the differences between mock ups, wireframes and prototypes and who their primary producers/consumers.

After a lot of reading paralysis (reading without having anything tangible to show), I decided to get my hands Dirty. That was when I realized  I had jumped out of UX frying pan and into the UX fire. Oh my god!! What have I done to myself! So much for being curious.

How many tools. From photoshops to illustrators to Axure (It is not Azure btw, god save Search engines trying to figure out user intents from misspellings), I finally gave up on the search. I decided to use pencil and paper and “draw” my wireframes. Over a period of time, I spent so much time drawing and redrawing the same templates that I got bored and I restarted my search for the right tool.. And finally, Oh Balsamiq!! Oh Beauty!

Here is my wireframe attempt at the home screen of MailChimp Snap app, which lets you send out image based marketing emails to a subscriber list.

Small step for a designer, but a giant leap for an aspirational designer-kind!!
Phew! “Let us C” was so much easier to start!