It’s been over a year since I started working from home and a lot has changed. I started
a new job in November and was interviewed and onboarded remotely.
The structure of my team has changed and I’ve started coding a little bit too.
If you want to see what my routine used to look like I’ll add a link in the description below
but in this video I share an update on my working from home routine. (clears throat)
I’ve not used this video effect in a while so I’m hoping I’m not too rusty but...
Let’s jump back a few hours to this morning to begin
(rewind effect)
Remember when I used to wake up at 6:30am? Well I still do - sometimes.
I listen to my body a lot and if I feel that if I need the extra sleep I’ll snooze till
7:30am. That's the beauty of working from home. Today I got up at 6:30
because I wanted to get some work done on my YouTube videos before I started work-work.
By time I’ve showered, had breakfast and caught up on WhatsApp
I’m ready to start working on my YouTube channel. I know that I’ll be going for
a run today so I skip my morning walk so I have some more time to work on videos.
Around 8:50 is still my time to check emails and catch up on slack messages.
In my previous role I worked a lot on local council projects
but in my new role I’m focused more on education.
I have a work laptop and a project specific tablet so I try to make sure that my calendars align.
I can see I have a user research session this afternoon along with prep for a design meeting.
At 9:45am I have a daily stand up with the project team.
This looks a lot different to my previous role. Our project team is made up of a user researcher,
content designer, UX designer, business analyst, delivery manager,
product owner, quality tester, a front end developer and a back end developer. We all
hop on teams and discuss what was achieved yesterday and what we’ll be working on today.
Stand up helps keep track of what everyone is
working on in this sprint and also provides an opportunity to share
any blockers we might have and see if other members of the team can help with this.
At my new company we work in agile, which is an iterative approach to working. We work
in 2 week sprints with each sprint building and improving on the lessons from the previous sprint.
Today I shared that I’ll be setting up the iteration of prototype for the service we’re
improving and noting any findings from the user research session that could feed into the designs.
After stand up I go straight in to working on the prototype. My design
tools are different with every project here. A big change is that I no longer use Sketch,
Figma is the design tool of choice here alongside visual studio code.
I use visual studio code to create the prototypes I’m working on using html, css and javascript.
It makes the prototypes more interactive and responsive than Figma and I’m working with an
existing design system which helps speed up the design process. Coding has been a HUGE learning
curve for me, but I’m really enjoying the process. And I think I've got to grips with the basics
I must throw out a disclaimer that not all designers need to know how to code,
it depends on the company you work for and if it’s required on the project. And
even if you don’t know how to code this might be something you can learn on the job - like myself.
Tuesday are run days. During lockdown I did the couch to 5k plan and it got
me into running. I’ve tried working out at home but this didn't really work. So running
has been something that's worked well for me and I’m able to stick to.
It takes me just over half an hour to run and when I get home, I shower and have lunch at my desk.
I’d usually eat lunch in the kitchen but today is a busy day.
Back to work for the afternoon. And I’m supporting Sofia, our user researcher,
by observing and note taking as she runs the session with a user. At first I missed doing
user research as part of my new role, but working in agile you need someone to be working on this
iteratively and it really requires someone on this on a full basis. She’s also a specialist,
which means she has a wealth of experience conducting user research. I learn a lot about the
users' needs for this service as well as learning from her approach to conducting user research.
Once the user research has finished I roll back on to working on making changes to the prototype
and can start to see some themes emerging from the session that we could iterate on for the
next sprint. During this time I get the occasional message in slack about accessibility of a service
and set a date to talk with them about this in detail.
I also answer messages from our developer about the prototype
who’s setting up the test environment in line with the previous user tested prototype.
As we head towards the last hour of the day my mind shifts toward
preparing for tomorrow. Tomorrow we have what's called a Community of practice. All the designers
across the company get together to check in, see how our weeks are going and share company updates.
There will also be 2 short talks given by designers about a project they’re working on. It’s
not my turn to share this week but because I’ve been overseeing and building up the accessibility
community here at Methods I sometimes add a few slides to the presentation
if we have updates on accessibility.
Things are really gaining momentum in this space as colleagues reach out for advice on
their project and I’m excited to see what this will look like in a few months' time. I’m hoping
we’ll have several accessibility champions within the team who can support others too.
I usually sign out at 5:30pm and I grab my headphones and listen to a podcast on my walk,
these could be anything from design, to wellbeing or productivity.
I’m currently listening to Side Hustle Pro by Nicaila Matthews Okome.
This podcast actually helped me get organised and back into filming my videos as when I started my
new role it took a lot of getting used to and balancing social media with work life
and home life was a struggle so I simply dropped social media as a priority until
everything else was back in check. I try to be very mindful not to stretch myself too thin.
In the tech industry you hear about some people getting burned out,
which is work related stress or exhaustion, and I want to do my best to stay well.
Wellbeing is something that my company highly supports,
they give everyone access to the calm app, private health care and promote well being.
Hope you all enjoyed watching my updated day in the life video.
So much has changed, if you have any questions about the new structure of my team
or what it is like learning to code let me know in the comments below.
As always, have a wonderful week and I’ll see you in the next video. Bye *waves*