From Puzzle Addict to UX Pro: How a Girl’s Brain Teasers Became a Career
A puzzle-loving girl turned her obsession into a UX design career. Discover how her problem-solving hobby became a skill companies pay big for.
🛠️ OBSESSION TO SKILL
Obsession Category: Psychological
Obsession: Brain Teasers / Puzzles
Transformation: Turning Puzzle Obsession into UX Design Skill
Girl Turns Puzzle Obsession into High-Paying UX Design Career
While other kids played outside, she was obsessed with solving jigsaw puzzles, Rubik’s Cubes, and Sudoku—sometimes all in one afternoon.
Everyone thought she was just "the quiet, nerdy girl."
But what they didn’t see was a mind being sharpened like a blade—one that would later shape entire digital experiences for major startups.
The Turning Point:
During college, she took a course on human-computer interaction.
It clicked.
“This is just solving people’s puzzles,” she thought.
And she was already a master at that.
From there, UX design became her playground—and her profession.
Steps She Took (Actionable):
✅ Step 1: Learned UX Basics
She took free UX courses on Coursera and read design psychology books.
✅ Step 2: Practiced with Real Problems
She would redesign everyday apps like a calculator or weather app—treating each as a brain teaser.
✅ Step 3: Built a Portfolio
Using case studies, she documented her design thinking, challenges, and user insights.
✅ Step 4: Joined UX Communities
Slack groups, Discord servers, and Reddit helped her get feedback, mentorship, and job leads.
✅ Step 5: Applied Puzzle Logic to Users
Every feature she designed solved a “human puzzle”—what’s the user thinking? Where are they stuck?
What Changed for Her (The Outcome):
Today, she’s a full-time UX designer working remotely for a health tech company.
Her starting salary? Over $70,000.
Her superpower? Treating every problem like a puzzle waiting to be cracked.
That obsession her classmates found strange? It became her competitive edge.
Advice for Others with This Obsession:
Love puzzles? Train your brain like a designer.
Think beyond Sudoku—think user behavior, habits, flow.
Use free tools like Figma or Notion to redesign things you use.
Don’t just solve puzzles—solve problems.
Create a portfolio that shows your logic, not just visuals.
Final Thought:
“Every product is a puzzle. And puzzle-obsessed people make the best designers.”
So if you love challenges, patterns, and logic—don’t hide that obsession.
Companies will pay you to think that way.