Learning and doing the things a senior designer doesn't want to do might just be your way in as a junior designer. In design communities online, I see so many UX designers who refuse to touch code 'because it is not their job'. Regardless of that being correct or not, the fact is that many companies now want you to code on top of your design work. It is where the market is going for product designers. You're fresh out of school and not yet set in your ways, which means you can fully embrace where all of this is going without having to let go of years of muscle memory. What does that mean in practice? Be involved in a PR (or two) per month and deliver your design in a developer-friendly manner. Or even build it yourself. There are enough (AI) tools available to help you on your way. That being said, there's a downside to it, too. Skipping Figma or any other canvas tool is a bad idea. To fully understand what you're designing for, you need to be a critical thinker and deeply care about your work. That's only possible when you're in the trenches doing the work... yourself. Build the thing you design and care about it. Care about it more than anyone else. AI-assisted but never fully AI-generated. I think that's your way in as a junior designer.

Designers want ‘UX’ to have a seat at the table. Yet, all we do is fight about what tool is best. Canvas vs. code, Webflow vs. Framer. Figma vs. whatever. If we as a profession want to be taken more seriously, we have to zoom out and discuss the bigger picture. Real UX talk about how it works and where it needs to change in today’s AI wave, for example. But also; - How to think through edge cases in our work (if you want to keep with tools, but better); - figure out to what degree designers should touch code (if at all); - and what else we can do to stand out when each tool does more or less the same thing. If you want to stand out as a designer, talk about what you have to offer outside of the tools you use. No more ‘Figma is [clickbait-y thing]’.

The tools you use to build a product design portfolio don’t matter as much as some make you believe. We designers fight way too much about what the ‘best’ portfolio tool is. We talk about Framer vs. Webflow, Codex vs. Claude, and no-code vs. code. Discusions like these are almost always a waste of time. I’ve had conversations with designers who were insecure about their WordPress or Squarespace portfolio. They always mention social media discussions as the main reason for their insecurity. “Shouldn’t I use Framer? Or Claude? I’ve read that it is better to use those tools…” This literally happened on a coaching call just last week. Here are two better questions to ask yourself. First up; can you design the portfolio you have in mind using the tools you already know? Answering ‘yes’ here means it is perfectly fine to keep using the same tools. It doesn’t matter if it is WordPress, Framer, or something else. Just go and build that portfolio. Next; do you want to sell design projects using a specific (no code) tool? For example, I’m a Webflow certified partner and maintain Webflow websites for multiple clients. Because of that, it makes sense for me to have a portfolio website built on Webflow. It is my ‘first project’ and a great showcase for potential clients. But that doesn’t mean one’s better than the other. Choosing the ‘right’ tool here is just a good business practice. You could do the same for WordPress or Framer templates.