Annie Tran is using her creativity to carve out a career in tech
Like most creatives, UX/UI designer Annie’s pathway has been colourful and nonlinear. Stumped on what to study after high school, she initially studied commerce and worked as a consultant.
“I worked with a variety of clients on different projects, and people from various backgrounds,” Annie says of her first corporate role. “But I soon realised two things: I loved problem-solving and I wanted to be designing things.”
Before uprooting her career completely, Annie took a part-time course in UX design, which confirmed for her that creativity (not consulting) was her calling.
Psyched up
For Annie, enrolling in a Graduate Certificate of UX and Web Design at Torrens University’s Billy Blue College of Design seemed like the natural next step.
“My goal was to learn the fundamentals and address any skill or knowledge gaps,” Annie says of her time at Billy Blue. “I really focused on creating case studies for my portfolio to showcase my skills and experience.”
One of the most valuable skills Annie learnt was how to use psychological principles to inform design decisions. This has proven pivotal in her first UX/UI role at Transport NSW, where a big part of her job involves understanding user needs, problems and behaviours.
“This knowledge helps me design digital products that are effective, intuitive and engaging,” she says.
Smart art
When she’s not analysing her users by conducting surveys, collecting data and doing user-testing, Annie spends her week designing simple and engaging user interfaces for the Transport NSW website and Opal travel app.
Her advice to students keen to future-proof their pathways? “Pursue a degree in a related field, connect with professionals on LinkedIn and familiarise yourself with the design tools for your field,” she says. “Also, attend design meet-ups to learn about the latest trends and build your network, before you even start studying!”
Annie’s study + career path to becoming a UX/UI designer
- Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Marketing), University of Sydney
- Senior consultant, EY
- User experience design course
- Service designer, Transport for NSW
- Graduate Certificate in UX and Web Design, Billy Blue College of Design at Torrens University
- UX/UI design lead, Transport for NSW
Choose your path at Torrens
- Diploma of UX and Web Design
- Bachelor of UX and Web Design
- Graduate Certificate of UX Design
Learn more at: torrens.edu.au/courses/technology
This profile was brought to you in partnership with Torrens University, and a version of it appears in Careers with STEM Technology 2024.
