Is a career in UI/UX design on your mind?

As brands go heavily digital, UI /UX has become a lucrative career option for many. UI (User Interface) design and UX (User Experience) design are terms often confused in web and app design, and when viewed from the surface they seem to be the same thing.

However, UX is about going a layer deeper into understanding the needs of the user, the problems that need to be solved via design, what information needs to be presented to the user, and in what order U I design is the next step after UX design, which enables designers to decide how the information should be presented to the end-user. It is simply the graphical layout of an application that consists of the buttons users should click on, the text they read, the images, and all the items a user directly interacts with.

Skills required

To be successful in this field, it is necessary to have the foundations correct. These also include knowing essential designing software such as Photoshop and illustrator. With interaction design in UX/UI becoming more popular, the need to diversify skills also becomes equally important. Some of the necessary skills are:

  • UX research: It is very important for a UX designer to be good at UX research. Many of the decisions that Uxers make are meticulously thought out studied, and researched.
  • Collaboration: For Uxers, it is very important to know how to collaborate with others in the design process in order to be successful. Collaboration not only gives an opportunity to work in other areas but also helps a person communicate more efficiently with clients and stakeholders to ensure the resulting product meets both business goals and user expectations.
  • Wireframing and UI Prototyping: App prototyping is a great way to understand key functionality of designs before it is built by developers. Using a prototyping tool can be a great way to impact investment too. They allow designers to test those assumptions they arrived at from their user research, and then validate them with subsequent user testing.
  • UX writing: One of the important areas this skill covers is information architecture, which determines the order in which that content is displayed to users UX writing also deals with creating copy that really speaks to users’ mental models and helps them understand the product better.
  • User empathy: When designers understand someone's problems, they're well equipped to finding a solution to the problems.

A few responsibilities

  • Apart from using the skills mentioned above, a UI/UX designer will have the following responsibilities.
  • Creating user-centered designs by understanding business requirements, and user feedback
  • Translating requirements into style guides, design systems, design patterns, and attractive user interfaces
  • Designing UI elements such as input controls, navigational components, and informational components
  • Creating original graphic designs such as images, sketches, and tables
  • Identifying and troubleshooting UX problems
  • Incorporating customer feedback, usage metrics, and usability findings into design in order to enhance user experience

Job potential

Globally, numerous tech companies hire UI/UX designers. Besides, qualified UI /UX designers can list themselves on various freelancing websites and work with international clients too.

The job has immense scope and opportunity for advancement. Any typical UX designer might start off in a junior product design role and may eventually even move up to become Head of Design.

Picture Credit : Google