After taking a step back from her art direction career for a few years, Brittney Singleton is eager to jump back in and grow her new career in product design. Having just graduated from Dribbble’s Product Design Academy, Brittney joins us today to share her story and offer advice to budding product designers.
Tell us about your background. Do you have any previous design experience?
Hi, I’m Britt, and I’m a multidisciplinary designer specializing in visual, UI/UX, and brand design. I started out as a web and graphic designer back in 2010. My career took off, eventually landing me an Art Director position at a large bank. But then, life happened. I got sick. Extremely sick, leaving me bed bound for a few years after I was diagnosed with Lyme disease.
I’m not completely recovered, but I found some help in 2019, and I returned to the design world only to see how much had changed, especially in the digital space. I knew I needed to catch up, and I wasn’t sure where to start. I’d always been present on Dribbble, and once they announced the product design course, I jumped on it. It was the deep dive into UI, UX, and product design that I needed to get back on track
Why did you choose Dribbble’s Product Design Academy?
Dribbble has always been reputable and seeing the care they put into choosing the mentors was a major deciding factor for me. My mentor and my fellow peers were all so inspiring. I definitely plan to keep up with them.
Tell us about your favorite course project. What did you work on?
I actually loved the ability to do an extra free-choice capstone project. I chose a passion project of mine. As a reader, I used to use Goodreads all the time, but lately, it’s been a challenging and cluttered experience littered with ads.
So, I took a stab at rethinking it. I treated it like a real project, considering what it would be like if I had to sell it to their team of executives. I knew they wouldn’t buy a complete rebrand (or even a total redo) so I focused on cleaning it up, implementing user requests after conducting surveys, and trying out a new solution for the ads so they don’t take away from the app itself.
What have you been up to since graduation?
I just accepted a new position as Senior Visual Designer at Able.co. I’m so excited!
What advice do you have for new or aspiring product designers?
Go the extra mile. If you want to land a job, you’ll need more than one project in your portfolio, even if it’s fake. Take the time, think through it, and complete it even after the course. Projects don’t have to be large and overwhelming, either! Make a new sign-up screen for an app you love, or tackle a new module animation for something that already exists. And lastly, develop an eye for design. Spend the time looking through what’s trending and popular, and analyze why! ■
Want to keep up with Brittney? Explore her work and follow Brittney on Dribbble.
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