Discover the unique user experience path that Everett McKay, Principal at UX Design Edge, followed in this twelfth episode. Find out more about Everett at http://www.uxdesignedge.com/
Everett McKay, principal of UX Design Edge, shares insights into his career journey, current role, and advice for aspiring UX professionals. This interview explores his transition from software development to UX design, his unique approach to blending design and coding, and his philosophy on intuitive design.
Current Role and Career Path
- Current Role:
Everett is self-employed, running his company UX Design Edge. He balances client projects and entrepreneurship, currently developing his own product—a mobile app built with React, combining UX design and coding. - Career Background:
- Started in software development, gravitating naturally toward UI/UX design due to his enjoyment of creating great user experiences.
- Worked 10 years at Microsoft on Windows client and server teams.
- Took over a UI design basics course at Microsoft, which sparked his interest in training.
- Founded UX Design Edge in 2010, initially focusing on training before transitioning into consulting and design projects.
- His coding background allows him to implement projects faster and more cost-effectively, giving him a competitive edge.
Insights on UX Career Development
- Non-Traditional Pathways:
Everett emphasizes there’s no single path to UX design. People can enter from various backgrounds such as:- Software development
- Project management with design knowledge
- Content creation
- Tech support (a rich source of user experience insights)
- Advice for Newcomers:
- UX is a marathon, requiring patience and continuous learning.
- Identify the type of role and skills that match your interests and strengths.
- Cultivate passion and focus, as UX design covers a broad range of disciplines.
- Always assess your value contribution by asking: Would I hire myself to do this work if I were paying? This encourages accountability and self-improvement.
- Keeping a Diary:
- Document ideas, observations, and bad user experiences regularly.
- This habit helps build a personal knowledge base to draw from in future projects.
- Everett recommends capturing insights as they occur rather than relying on memory.
Concept of Intuitive Design
- Everett’s latest book, Intuitive Design, addresses the challenge of defining what makes a design “intuitive.”
- After extensive research, he found most design literature rarely defines “intuitive.” Notably:
- Jeff Raskin equated intuitive with familiarity, but Everett argues this is insufficient, citing Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things which highlights why many everyday objects are not intuitive despite being familiar.
- He proposes a framework viewing UI as a conversation between product and user, identifying eight steps of intuitive design to make this “conversation” clear and objective.
- This framework helps reduce subjectivity, enabling designers to assess and create intuitive products based on measurable criteria rather than personal opinion.
Key Takeaways
- Blending coding and UX design can increase efficiency and enable solo project execution.
- UX design career paths are diverse; skills from many disciplines can lead to success.
- Constant self-assessment and documentation improve professional growth and design quality.
- Intuitive design is more complex than familiarity; it can be understood through a structured framework centered on communication.
- Focus on a small set of trusted tools rather than trying to master everything.
How to Learn More
- Everett McKay’s books, including Intuitive Design and UI’s Communication, provide deeper insights into his UX philosophy.
- UX Design Edge offers training and consulting services.
- Everett actively shares knowledge through talks, courses, and writing.
Transcript
[Music]
Marc: Welcome to another episode of UX Pathways. Today I’m honored to be joined by Mr. Everett McKay. How are you?
Everett: Very well, Marc. How are you?
Marc: Doing great. I’m excited to talk with you. I’ve been a fan of your work—I’ve read your book, we’ve exchanged messages—and I’m looking forward to diving into your career. Let’s start with your current role.
Everett: Currently, I’m self-employed. My company is UX Design Edge, where I’m the principal. At the moment, I’m doing two things:
- Client projects, and
- Entrepreneurship—I’m designing and implementing my own product.
I’m keeping the details of that project close for now, but it involves UX design and writing code. I’m developing a mobile app using React, and what I enjoy most is the ability to design freely and implement instantly. Being able to handle both sides—design and development—has been incredibly rewarding.
Before this, I had a traditional career. I worked at several small companies, then spent 10 years at Microsoft on both Windows Client and Windows Server teams. While there, I took over teaching a course called UI Design Basics, originally taught by Scott Berkun. I taught it for about four years.
When I eventually left Microsoft, I realized I loved teaching. With both a technical and design background, I could speak to a wide audience. So I started UX Design Edge in 2010 with a focus on training. For years, business was strong—until COVID, when on-site training essentially disappeared. Fortunately, I had already begun transitioning into consulting and design work. And that’s where I am today.
Becoming a UX “Unicorn”
Marc: I remember hearing your talk about the “UX Unicorn,” and it’s interesting how your current work reflects that—design plus coding. It seems like that philosophy shaped your career.
Everett: Absolutely. I began as a developer, but I gradually realized that creating a great user experience was the part of software development I enjoyed most. My career naturally shifted toward UI and UX design.
In my talk, I make this point clearly: A UX designer does not need to know how to code. Many teams already have developers, and coding isn’t required to succeed in UX.
However, in several real-world projects, having coding skills let me do things that would have been impractical—or impossible—any other way. Budgets, timelines, and logistics often prevent hiring developers just for prototypes or experiments. Being able to do it myself has enabled a different level of efficiency and creativity.
Advice for Entering the UX Field
Marc: You’ve hinted at advice earlier, especially for people entering the field. You came in through a nontraditional path—development—and that shaped your UX thinking. What should someone entering UX today understand?
Everett: Things are very different today from when we started. In some ways, opportunities have never been greater; in others, breaking into the field is more challenging than ever.
There is no single pathway into UX. You can start as:
- A traditional UI/UX designer
- A developer
- A project manager
- A content creator
- A tech support professional
And any of those can lead to UX.
Some roles provide an excellent foundation without looking like “design roles” on the surface. For example, tech support is a gold mine of UX insight. Support teams understand customer pain points better than almost anyone. If someone in tech support is UX-savvy, they may have a natural path into design leadership or UX strategy simply because they understand users so deeply.
So yes—have passion, be curious, study the field, but remember: There are many valid ways into UX.
How to Learn More About Everett’s Work
Marc: You mentioned your book—but I’ve now learned it’s books! How can people learn more?
Everett: My most recent book is Intuitive Design. The earlier book is UI Is Communication. Both explore UX from the perspective of communication and clarity.
“Intuitive design” is a concept I wanted to define in my training, but I initially couldn’t. So I went through all my design books looking for definitions. Surprisingly, almost none defined it.
Jeff Raskin equated “intuitive” with “familiar,” but that definition didn’t hold up under scrutiny. If familiarity were enough, Don Norman’s Design of Everyday Things—a book explaining why everyday objects aren’t intuitive—couldn’t exist.
My conclusion: Intuitive design is not subjective, and it is not just familiarity.
Through my work, I developed what I call the Eight Steps of Intuitive Design, which serve as an objective framework for evaluating and creating intuitive experiences. My goal was to turn something vague into something concrete and actionable.
Everett’s Advice for UX Careers (His “14 Tips”—Selected Three)
Marc: Earlier you mentioned you had a list of 14 tips for people entering UX. You shared a few already—could we hear more?
Everett: Sure. I’ll share the first, the last, and what I consider the most important.
1. Tip #1 — Would You Hire Yourself?
As a UX designer, ask yourself:
“If I were paying for this work myself, would I hire me?”
When you’re spending your own money—as I am on my entrepreneurship project—you evaluate value very differently. It forces you to think about your contribution, your efficiency, and your decision-making.
If the honest answer is “I’m not sure,” then you have an opportunity to grow.
2. Tip #14 — Keep a Design Diary
Ideas come constantly. And we forget them constantly.
Record:
- Ideas
- Observations
- Frustrating user experiences
- Screenshots
- Insights you want to revisit
Over time, this becomes a powerful personal resource. You will see patterns and develop depth in your thinking that isn’t possible if you rely on memory alone.
3. The Most Important Tip — Use a Small, Powerful Toolset
UX can feel overwhelming because there are so many tools and methods. But expertise isn’t about using more tools—it’s about knowing which few tools matter most. Here are my three:
Tool 1: A Decision-Making Framework
Design is a series of decisions made on behalf of users. My framework uses:
- Value Proposition
- Personas
- Scenarios
These answer:
Who are we designing for?
What value are we promising?
How will users achieve that value?
Tool 2: Design Principles
Principles are more useful and enduring than checklists. I curate relevant principles for each project to help guide decisions.
Tool 3: Design the Conversation
A UI is a form of human communication.
I imagine a conversation between the product and the user.
Once I understand that conversation, I translate it into UI screens. This creates a deeper, more coherent experience—beyond just buttons and layouts.
Marc: Everett, this has been an incredible conversation. You’ve touched on career advice, how you entered the field, your current role, and your thinking around intuitive design. We definitely need a Part Two—there’s so much more we could explore.
Everett: I’d enjoy that. This was great. Thank you for the opportunity.
Marc: Thank you for joining the podcast. I’ll be sharing your tips and information with the audience.
Everett: Fantastic. Looking forward to next time.
[Music]
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