I can hear my super traditional Filipino mom criticizing me for making yet another career “transition” at this point in my life, wishing that I would stick to one thing and be really great at it, and staying with one company for the rest of my adult American privileged life. Well mom, I’ve spent the past 5 years or so developing my copywriting craft…attending school, following blogs, working at agencies…all to further my development. And guess what? It’s time for me to evolve. Also, please let me know when you’re making some sinigang again. I made the decision that this fall I will be attending classes at General Assembly in Seattle to study UX Design. Why? Well for one, papa needs a little more money. UX designers make over 100k in Seattle according to Glassdoor, and I like the sound of that. I like that a lot. It’s also a pretty common industry to get into for people my age or slightly older. Most importantly though, it’s because I don’t believe it’s actually much of a career change at all. There are quite a few similarities between the two career paths (graphic designers are in this boat as well) that make it seamless. What similarities you ask? Well here’s a few for starters: 1. Know your users. Copywriting, as well as UX design, graphic design, and many other disciplines, starts with knowing your users/customers. By narrowing your field of focus to a target set of users, and not just everyone, you’re solving a specific challenge to a specific set of people. This involves both quantitative and qualitative ways to looking at research to determine root cause. 2. Techniques of persuasion. This may be more of a copywriting thing, but knowing how to position your products/service is the core tenant of copywriting. You want X, we have Y as a solution to your problem. Knowing which emotions/logic to invoke is part of what makes an effective copywriter. UX can be similar, but I would say UX focuses a little more on how to make the experience easier for the user to find what they want. Either way, they’re both about improving experiences. 3. Visual Creativity. I get this question a lot as a copywriter; “Don’t you just write words?” No, Mr.Condescending tool bag, we don’t just “write words”, we develop ideas and concepts to effectively convey a product/service. A lot of times that means developing the right imagery/illustrations to highlight the point. UX also involves visual aids, and a proper UI designer will boost that point even further. For the entire blog and more, follow Leonardo Raymundo on Medium!