We’re Not So Different, U X I

Why I think I’m perfect for the UX world

I really hope you get this reference!

Hey guys, my name is Funmilade Taiwo. My friends call me FTaiwo or F.T. Are we friends? You decide.

I’m only writing this because:

1. I could not pass on the title!
2. My days are pretty free right now. p.s. Hire Me if you want me to stop writing!
3. I needed to remind myself why I ventured down the ambiguous field of UX Design.

All of this will make sense with some context.

My background like many UX designers is in psychology. We all took a psych 100 class and never looked back. Now, here we are hosting Sketch vs Figma vs Adobe XD battles on Linkedin posts. Life is funny, isn’t it?

Somewhere between my psych 100 class and rooting for Sketch, while secretly learning Figma, I’ve lived an interesting life.

What have I been doing?

In 2015, I graduated from the University of Toronto and moved home to Nigeria to work with kids with autism. Shadowing the head behavior analyst, I learned how to help children develop social and adaptive learning skills using Applied Behaviour Analysis.

This got my foot in the door of the mental health space, where I took on the arduous but exciting task of trying to improve access to mental health care for young Nigerians. I actually founded a start-up — PsyndUp- . WHO WAS I?

A Snapchat story from 2016 proving that I was working hard in a coffee shop! Founder status!

In 2017, I left my family in Nigeria and moved back to Toronto because Drake had just dropped “Views” and I needed to be back here. It was the track “U with me?” that sold me. I was definitely with Aubrey.

2017 was a rough year to say the least. Like your first wireframe sketches that seem to hold no value, but eventually become the foundation for a beautifully functional product, it defined me.

Wow, I felt that one.

That year, I worked full time at a mental health clinic as a peer support worker bringing to life their digital mental health initiatives. I got to travel the world, advocating for youth engagement and the power of technology to change the way the world accessed mental health care.

Me in Sweden at the IIMHL conference. Very excited to be there of course!

At night, I traded in my emotional support and public speaking skills for a chef’s jacket and growing love for feeding people.

Valentines day circa 2018. A bouquet of parsley for tired service workers.

I’ve always cooked. It might as well be my birthright. The truth is, it’s how I connect with myself and the people I love. There’s something unspeakable about spending hours on a meal that you get to enjoy with a friend. I haven’t always been the most vocal person, but with cooking, I learned to communicate, to accept myself, and to offer that process to people as well.

When I sit with you, watch you unfold and tell me about your childhood, your dreams, who you want to be, and how painful it is learning that, it’s a softer conversation over braised short ribs and brown butter Jollof. Trust me. I even talked to Sisi Mag about this!

In 2020, after losing my job at the mental health clinic (someone tell Doug Ford the mental health system needs better funding), I decided a pandemic would be the right time to enroll in the BrainStation UX Design Bootcamp. Why? I don’t know, keep reading 🤪!

But I do remember a day back in 2017. On a delayed GO train from Cooksville to union station, I ran into a friend from school. We both graduated in 2015. Both decided our fate after that one psych100 course. She, however, went straight to BrainStation’s UX diploma program, while I traveled the world in search of myself. A version of me that made sense of my love for psychology, food, and technology.

Walking to work that day, I knew once again, I’d have to strip myself of my biases as a Nigerian Christian male in a space with people who didn’t look like me, didn’t have the faith I did, didn’t grow up in a predominantly black world, and didn’t love the same people I did. We all had one thing in common though — a desire for a world that worked for us.

That’s what designing feels like. Discovering how people want products to work for them, and then throwing all your effort into making that happen.

Everything in between, like the week spent figuring out what dish I’d make for a friend on the weekend, to the conversations I’ve had with God to help me be more open to challenges that aren’t my own, is process work. Sketches, drafts, version ones, and twos that seem irrelevant at first, but end up being the secret sauce. Why? That’s where the learning happens.

Me being artsy with my sketches for a LinkedIn post earlier this year!

Anthony Bourdain said:

“working in a kitchen teaches discipline, promptness, the ability to absorb criticism, and most importantly, how to read people like a book. The work is thankless and fun and messy, and the world would be a kinder place if more people tried it”

I’m not sure if he was talking about cooking or user-centered design, or me. Either way, I’m currently hacking UX design to marry my passion for people, thankless, fun, and messy work, with a deep appreciation for beautiful functional design.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Linkedin or here on medium for more UX content. Or even better, my food page on Instagram!