How to be a freelance UI/UX designer from a developing country

Leaving in an adobe hut drawing wireframes for fin-tech apps in the mud.

Almost…
Leaving in a rented one-bedroom apartment, close to a noisy boulevard and parking lot that sells second-hand cars from the better parts of Europe.

Seating in my living room early in the morning writing this hoping I’ll be recognized as a part of the global design community. And be awarded the attention of wealthy foreign clients that are eager to pay me as an equal.

Thinking of how different my life would be if I was living in the US, the land of endless opportunities.
Feeding myself success stories of other designers that seem impossible to be replicated in the place I live.

But is it really impossible and should I even compare myself to someone that is living in an environment surrounded with an abundance of opportunities?

Environment

The environment is what shapes our thoughts and thoughts are what we do before taking action, and our actions reflect the results we achieve. So in essence, if you are in the wrong environment your results will suffer.

But isn’t the internet another environment? Your brain doesn’t care if it’s real or not, it is happy that it is being fed. Your friends and family, on the other hand, will not be so thrilled.

Imagine you juiced your brain in design goodness all day and at the end of the day, you are up at a child’s birthday party on the grown-ups table. Moms passionately talking how the school system is fucked. Dads are all about cars and football. And you stand there pretending to look normal and hoping that somehow the conversation deviates and people start talking about software design.

That was me last week.

Back to the environment.
What I’m proposing is basically living in a simulation of your own creation. Using the internet to supplement your real environment with the right dose of education and motivation, so you are perceived as a viable member of the global design community.

“Yeah, yeah but this is some American shit, this will never work in my country.”

This is what I use to think and what most of the people I know tell me when I mention I’ve learned something on the Internet.
But here is the thing, I don’t need to work in my country. I’m not really looking for respect from the grown-ups table at a kid’s birthday party. I’m looking to connect remotely with people who value what I do. And for that, the most common environment is the internet.

“Yeah, but they can see it on my face and the location on my profile that I’m a from a poor country.”

Sure they can. But this is it. And let’s say you can’t or don’t want to change those. Just make sure the rest lines up, so you blend with the rest of the “locals” on the internet. There is more stuff people will judge you on. So if you nail the reset people will count you as equal. Here are a few.

Writing

I was really bad at this at school in my native language. I’m shit at writing. I started doing it this year. But even at that shitty level writing has benefits. Helps me learn English. Gives me credibility in front of people who don’t know me. When you try to put vague thoughts into writing they become short and clear sentences that you can actually use to communicate clearly. So, start writing shitty. And don’t forget to proofread. There are really mean people that care about grammar on the internet.

Speaking

I’ve watched a ton of American and British movies and TV shows in my first years of discovering the Internet. My brain is loaded with cliche phrases that help me communicate. Find а foreigner friend that you can speak to. If you know to ask the right questions and communicate your ideas people don’t care about your weird country or your face.

Specialise

This is hard and comes with time. But the sooner you do it the better.
The urge of proving you can do anything you put your mind to is a noble one. It comes from the fact I’m the underdog and I feel I have to prove myself. But it also shows that I am amateur. And there is nothing wrong of being an amateur. Just know they are paid less.

But for making more money as a UI/UX designer you need to specialize.
I know it sounds counter-intuitive but should trust me on this one. It’s fine to try different things for a couple of years but do it with this in mind. What is the niche that I’ll enjoy working in 10 years time? Find something and stick to it for a while.

Think about problems you can solve with UI/UX design.
Could be solving a common business problem that appears across industries. Like conversion optimisation. Help online businesses optimize their website so more people signup for a free trial.
Or improve user onboarding for web apps.

Or you could specialize in a specific industry. So you build deep expertise in one field like fin-tech for example. You can be the UI/UX designer that knows the specific problems of the financial industry and how to solve them with UI/UX design. This is powerful because with time you can become the go-to expert for one industry.

Don’t ever try to specialise with an aesthetic trend or technology. These things come and go with time. Don’t be “I do only Material design”. Or “I design using the cutting edge tools for design”. This gets old quickly and doesn’t bring real business value.

Conclusion

Just don’t whine about been born in the wrong country and other things that you cannot change. But work on the things you can. Know those good things happen slowly. And don’t forget, no one cares about you. And that’s a good thing.