Shadowing Practice: How to Become a UX Designer in 2025 (No Degree or Bootcamp) - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Do you want to break into UX design but can't afford going to schools?
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Do you want to break into UX design but can't afford going to schools?
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I'll show you how you can do it in just six steps.
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A little bit about myself.
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I'm currently a senior product designer at Lyft.
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And before here, I've been at a couple of other companies like Big Bank or Fintech Unicorn Startup or sometimes B2B companies.
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And to be fair, I did go to schools related to UX design.
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When I was in Korea,
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I double majored in visual design.
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When I moved to Canada, I studied multimedia design.
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But honestly, looking back, I think my career would have looked the same even if I didn't go to these schools.
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Because UX design is something you learn a lot from the experience when you're working,
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rather than listening to lectures or sitting in classes.
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So in this video today,
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I'll be giving you a step-by-step guidance on how I would restart my career in UX design in 2025.
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And I'll be sharing a lot of resources I handpicked based on my expertise in this industry.
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So let's get it started.
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So step one, let's start from building your foundational knowledge.
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These are the books I would recommend.
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O'Reilly makes a lot of great books related to UX,
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and most of these books are surprisingly pretty short.
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So go to the bookstore,
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buy these books, and you're going to pick up core UX principles with clear examples really quickly.
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And honestly, these books saved me from a lot of difficult interview questions,
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so I highly recommend them.
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So let's go to step two.
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The second step is about learning from portfolios.
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There are a lot of websites that create top portfolios from UX designers or product designers.
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So my recommendation is go to those websites and check out at least a thousand portfolios.
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I said that a thousand.
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It sounds a lot, but you're going to learn so much from it.
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At first, you're going to look at a portfolio and you will think like,
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okay, everything looks cool.
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But then as you look into more and more,
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you're going to start building your taste.
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You'll start noticing what you think stands out versus what are the areas that fall short on on certain portfolios.
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That's how you build your skills in building and evaluating portfolios.
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Collect the link and analyze what makes you think it's good versus bad.
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Everything you write down here will feed into the portfolio you will be building.
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Now step three, build your projects.
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It's time to build your own case study.
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The type of project you will have to focus on is passion project.
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Let's say while you're using DoorDash app,
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even though you don't work there,
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you'll notice some UX problems.
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So from that problem definition,
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you can start your own UX design project.
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You can do your own research such as talking to some DoorDash drivers,
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business owners that work with DoorDash,
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or other users that order food from DoorDash.
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And by doing so, you could show how you think,
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how you apply your UX principles,
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how you run a design project,
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and how you eventually solve a problem.
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You really can choose any mobile apps or web products that you use in your day-to-day life.
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So how many projects do you need to start up?
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I always say quality over quantity.
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So sweet spot is having three projects on your case study,
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something is really really high quality.
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So the reason this works from hiring managers perspective is
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because they want to see if you can deliver high quality work repeatedly
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so three projects in high quality is enough to prove this anything beyond
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that is good to have
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but hiring managers will not check it out anyway one bonus
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thing before you go to step four working on your ui
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so ui skill i think is something you can really quickly
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pick up by looking into a lot of products with intention to learn what makes it look good
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but you just have to practice how to make it
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so what i recommend is doing something called UI challenge for 100 days.
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I did it when I was a student and I found it really helpful.
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So what this website does is it gives you a prompt
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every day to work on different UI in a limited amount of time.
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So when you do it,
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you're forced to design something which makes you look into a lot of UI examples and apply what you learned there.
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And when you practice it for a hundred days in a row,
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you will gain UI skills to build strong portfolio cases.
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So now let's go to step four,
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which is about building your portfolio.
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Framer, Webflow, Wix are the most commonly used tools these days,
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and I personally use Framer to build my current portfolio website.
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It's really easy to use.
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You can build a lot of things without having to code.
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If you're feeling overwhelmed to start from the blank space,
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on their website, they'll give you a lot of templates you could start from.
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Step five, get your portfolio reviewed.
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So you have been building this portfolio based on your perspective and your research.
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Now it's time to plug in someone else's perspective
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and this is where mentorship comes in two websites i recommended
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and i have used are adp list
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and mentor crews i was a mentor at mentor crews actually
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but i don't provide mentorship anymore but you're going to find a lot of mentors
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that you could learn from adp list is free
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but mentor crews is paid i find paid mentorship really worth it
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so let's think about this from capitalism perspective you are their clients
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which means that these mentors will put a lot of effort into reviewing your portfolio to make sure
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that you will land the job through this portfolio.
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And I'm saying this from my honest experience.
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So if you want to improve your portfolio,
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resume or interview skills in a short amount of time really efficiently,
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I highly recommend paid mentorship.
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It could get expensive, honestly,
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but treat it as investment.
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Once you land a role in UX design,
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you're going to make way more money than that.
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Finally, last step, it's about building your network and contributing to a community.
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I made a short video about LinkedIn networking before and you can pick up all my tips on that.
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And a spoiler, I'm going to make more long-form videos on how to build and grow your LinkedIn network.
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And on top of this,
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networking is not just about your LinkedIn.
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There's so many Slack communities out there you could join.
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These three are the ones I used to be part of and learn so much from it.
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You could go there to connect with people or sometimes like ask for help.
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For example drop your portfolio link
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and ask for some advice on how you could improve it
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so many people there will be willing to help you out the beauty of this community is
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that you're going to learn from not only getting help
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but also when you're giving help let's say somebody asks you to review their portfolio
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when you're reviewing it you're going to think about all the
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learnings you got from a lot of portfolios you have checked out
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or other ux principles that you have learned about and
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when you're sharing your advice you're practicing on how to do a really great design critique.
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So being in these design communities have a lot of benefits
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so make sure you're going to be part of them and contribute to it.
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So that's it!
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Hope that gave you some clear ideas on where to start and where you should go next.
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I know UX design job market these days sucks
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and I honestly don't think it's going to get any better but also that does not mean that it's impossible.
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You just have to put the right effort and keep it going
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and I'm here to help you understand what type of effort you will have to put into it.
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And officially this is making my first long form YouTube video.
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If you want me to cover specific topics,
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drop the ideas in the comments.
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I'll definitely check them out.
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And likes, comments, and subscribes will help this video reach the right audience just like you.
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Okay, I'll see you in my next video.
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Bye, see you then.

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Why practice speaking with this video?

Engaging with this YouTube video titled "How to Become a UX Designer in 2025 (No Degree or Bootcamp)" offers a unique opportunity to learn English with YouTube through real-life contexts. The speaker shares practical insights into UX design, which not only enhances your understanding of the industry but also enriches your English vocabulary and oral fluency. By practicing shadowing techniques with this video, you can improve your speaking skills by mimicking the speaker’s tone, pronunciation, and pacing. This method is beneficial for IELTS speaking practice, as it allows you to grasp the nuances of conversation and develop a more natural speaking rhythm. Additionally, the structured outline of the talk provides clear sections that make it easier to follow and reproduce your own speaking style.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

The speaker employs various key structures that can be beneficial for English learners to analyze:

  • Conditional statements: "if I didn't go to these schools." This structure is useful for discussing hypothetical situations.
  • Present perfect tense: "I've been at a couple of other companies." This tense helps express experiences and connections to the present.
  • Imperative forms: "let’s get it started." This direct command is great for motivating action, commonly used in tutorials.
  • Comparative structures: "something you learn a lot from the experience." This highlights the importance of learning through practice compared to traditional methods.

These grammatical forms not only enhance comprehension but also equip learners with the necessary tools for effective communication in similar contexts.

Common Pronunciation Traps

As you engage with the speaker’s dialogue, pay attention to these tricky words and expressions that may pose pronunciation challenges:

  • Experience: Ensure the 'x' sound is clear, as this can often be mispronounced.
  • Portfolio: Notice the stress on the second syllable; practicing this can help you sound more confident.
  • Designer: The 'z' sound can be tricky for many English learners; focus on mimicking the speaker’s articulation.

Utilizing a shadowing app while practicing these terms can significantly enhance your pronunciation and speaking capabilities. Overall, incorporating this video into your learning process not only enables you to gather knowledge about UX design but also actively improves your English speaking skills, making it an excellent way to practice.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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