My name is Hend Elgohary and I am a Senior Product Designer. This is a long story short. However, my professional story is not even close to being this short. I have been in the field for 4 years now and it was a hella journey!
It all started back when I was working as an Exhibitions & Projects Coordinator for a well-known Logistics company in Cairo. I was doing pretty well in my job but it was more like a passionless robotic job. Even the work environment wasn't helping. Even though I was one of the essential employees, given that I was responsible for some of the most important and prestigious projects handled by the company.,I always had a feeling that this is not where I belong and this is not what I should be doing.
At that time, I was friends with someone in the Software Development field and I will be forever grateful and in debt to that person because if it weren't for him, I would have never realized that Visual Design is what I have always been passionate about. What happened is that this person once said "why don't you study UI UX Design and I bet you'll make an exquisite Designer one day," and then it all started and those three years passed in a blink of an eye. That doesn't mean that those times were easy though.
Like all entry-level UX Designers, I struggled to find resources and studying material. I had no idea how to get involved in the field, what software should I use, how can I start a project, how can I get freelance projects in the first place, where should I showcase my work? All these questions would've blocked my vision unless I had that voice that told me I am on the right track. I started observing and imitating first. I became familiar with Behance and Dribbble and I was amazed by the amount of excellent and breathtaking designs available on these platforms. Then I started coming up with my ideas. I would for example think of an app concept and then start working on it. Everything I ever designed, I showcased and got feedback on learned what needs to be improved. To be honest, I wasn't pretty much interested in watching a tutorial and attending courses in the field, I was more into self-learning and self-assessment based on the works of other well-known designers. A lot of entry-level designers now ask me about courses that they could watch or a tutorial and I stumble because I haven't been much engaged in this method of learning.
A few months later, I got my first freelance project and I was so thrilled yet so scared that I may not be able to do the job properly. But I did it, and that project is now one of the most appreciated projects on my portfolio. It's pretty outdated and old style, but back in time, it was so trendy. You can check it out here.
A few months later, I landed my first full-time job as a UX Designer and I tell you I was LITERALLY over the moon. I finally left the job that was choking me and got a job that I know for a fact I will love and do my best to excel in it. And now, I am proudly a Senior UI UX Designer at one of the leading fintech empires, Fawry, working on idealizing the Forbes ranked #1 fintech App in the Middle East, myfawry App.
Moving forward in time, I started creating UI templates and sharing them as open-source UI resources for entry-level designers. One day, I was scrolling through my Twitter feed and then I saw one of my templates shared by Adobe XD's official Twitter account. Can you imagine how that felt?! I bet you can't, because, until this very moment, I can not put it in words! That template also is one of my most viewed and appreciated projects on Behance.
A couple of months later, I started learning Motion Graphics and practicing it for so much time until I believe I now have adequate knowledge of that branch of Visual Design.
And here I am now, a Senior UI UX Designer with a well-recognized portfolio with a wide range of esteemed clients network. I will forever be thankful for every second I spent learning and working until I got to this point in my professional journey.
And I tell you now, I'm not stopping here!