With a background in graphic design, Antonio Vidakovic is ready for a career change to product design. Having just graduated from Dribbble’s 16-Week Certified Product Design Course, Antonio joins us today to share his experience and offer advice to new designers.
Tell us about your background. Why did you decide to learn product design?
I’ve worked as a graphic designer for four years, primarily at my current company and on freelance projects.
Why learn product design? Funny story. Two years ago, I made a bet with my girlfriend that I was going to learn programming and get a job offer in one year. Keep in mind, I had never seen a line of code in my life and with my background in marketing, math and logic weren’t my strongest skills.
After managing to learn Swift and finally getting a job offer for a junior position in 7 months, I wasn’t sure that programming was something I wanted to do full-time. I decided to pursue product design to merge my love for design and interest in programming.
Why did you choose Dribbble’s Certified Product Design Course?
I chose to enroll in Dribbble’s Certified Product Design Course because of the ability to work with designers from all over the world in small groups, and access a design mentor for any of my questions. I’ve made a ton of cool friendships with some of the people in my cohort, and I’m visiting one of them in Portugal next year!
Tell us about your favorite course project. What did you work on?
I loved working on capstone projects! I worked on designing an Email Client app, the Crypto Wallet app, and I did an additional study on the FlixBus iOS app. The most crucial thing that I learned while doing these projects is to spend quality time doing research and don’t rush into the design.
What have you been up to since graduation? Where do you see yourself in a year?
I’m currently applying to various UX/UI junior positions here in Croatia to get a chance to develop my skills further and become a better designer in the end.
What advice do you have for new or aspiring product designers?
Learn as much as you can from your mentors and colleagues. Connect with them and create many designs because that’s how you will learn most. ■
Want to keep up with Antonio? Explore Antonio’s work and follow him on Dribbble.
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