Hanna Duker from South Africa 🇿🇦 started as a UX Designer in Cape Town, South Africa 🇿🇦

ARCHITECTURE TO UX

Hanna Duker

What’s your career background?

Before I transitioned into UX I worked as a professional architect for ten years. I have a masters degree in architectural design and also completed two years of a social work degree, with a psychology specialisation. I had experience working as a designer and researcher in the public, private and non-governmental sectors, always working within a multidisciplinary team of professionals.

What interested you about UX? 

I was interested in UX design because I wanted to create more of an impact through my work as a designer, as part of a shorter design cycle. I learned that there are some strong commonalities between the architectural and UX design processes, so I saw the change as a natural progression in my career, where impact on the human experience and sustainability could be explored through digital products, rather than buildings.

What did you like about Valentin as being your UX mentor? 

I looked forward to my meetings with Valentin because he brought a very positive energy to our conversations, which I found very motivating in my career transition. He takes a very personalised approach to mentoring and clearly really enjoys engaging with people in this role. His positivity was contagious and it was really valuable for me to have a point of contact with a practicing UX designer as I was studying online.

Did Valentin help you to get a UX role? 

As an experienced industry professional, Valentin was able to share insights with me which allowed me to understand where to best invest my efforts as I was preparing a portfolio. His input allowed me to understand the perspective of hiring managers and panellists, which ultimately helped me to develop a portfolio of case studies that suited the roles I would be applying for. I am now working as a UX Designer in Cape Town, South Africa.

Would you recommend Valentin as a mentor to others? 

For me, personally, having a mentor was very important in my process of transitioning into UX successfully. I really enjoyed working with Valentin because of his friendliness, positivity, and the great deal of knowledge he was able to share. I would definitely recommend Valentin as a mentor to anyone who is looking for guidance as they embark on a career change.