What do you know about the UX/UI designer job? Probably you may think that it’s all about creating clean interfaces, icons, and illustrations.

However, there’s more to this. As a UI/UX designer, you need to learn further. You must know more about who your web design users are. This will help you create usable features. And, when you create functional features, your users can easily achieve their goals. For example, you should always improve the ease of usability to benefit users.

Your ability to propose the right website design solutions will be significant to the success of this role. And, to come up with appropriate website development solutions, you need the right design skills.

Irwin, the Chromatix Owner, said that your web design nowadays must win the customers’ trust. This is important if you’re to enhance the desired returns. He says that website design is a plan to arrange elements best. It’s what will help you achieve specific purposes.

You need to recognise that the purpose of your work will extend beyond designing for screens. That’s why you must be able to align your design with developers where necessary.

Besides, the Chromatix Owner, in his ‘we’re true web purists’ words, promises that his team of experts will custom make websites so that your phone won’t stop ringing. Thus a great website for you!

What You Should Know to Become a UI/UX Designer

The user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) designs are still considered new fields. Thus, there are no official requirements for becoming an approved UI/UX designer.

Many professional UI/UX designers come from different fields. And, each individual may bring transferable skills like:

• Software development
• Visual design
• Digital marketing

More so, your educational background as a UI/UX designer is not immediately obvious. We can say that a degree in web or graphic design may help. But, UI/UX design mostly concerns how people think.

This means that a person with a background in psychology can be skilful enough to work as a UI/UX designer. And, they can do as much as one with a background in graphic design.

It’s no surprise why the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals the employment growth projection for web developers and digital designers. The jobs are projected to increase by 13% between 2020 and 2030. This is a higher increase rate than the average for other occupations.

More so, 17,900 job openings on average are anticipated every year for web developers and digital designers. This is still bound to happen between 2020 and 2030. And most of these openings are expected to escalate from the need to replace workers shifting to different occupations.

Essentially, some skills are unique to each UI and UX role. For instance, UX designers typically need organizing and interactive web design skills. On the other hand, UI designers need typography, animation, layouts systems, and colour theory skills.

However, there are shared skills between UI and UX that a website designer needs. Some may involve collaboration, visual and communication skills.

Read on to learn more about the 7 must need skills for aspiring UX/UI designers.

1. Information Architecture Skills

Information architecture (IA) is a significant UI/UX design factor. It focuses on:

• Organising information
• Structuring websites and mobile applications

The above focus points purpose to help users navigate sites to find the information they need.

Information architecture concerns many things. It involves how organised your web pages are to conversation channels within a chatbot. This means that your content must be well-structured and labelled properly for users to find it.

A user-friendly and well-designed information architecture ensures that users spend less time and effort in finding information. And that they’re successful in finding what they’re looking for.

The main information-architecture tasks involved among web design companies include:

• Establishing common features in a content
• Creating groups of similar information objects
• Linking documents one to another on similar topics

As a UI/UX designer, you need to consider users’ needs for knowledge around the designed product. This is especially when it concerns a complex software application. Thus, an app or website’s content must be clear and understandable.

2. Wireframing and Prototyping Skills

Wireframing and prototyping skills form the basic steps of product development. The skill offers web designers the chance to conduct user testing at every web design stage.

This forms the foundation for good user experience and user interface designs. UI/UX designers use this skill to determine the particular features to display on a website. They use wireframing and prototyping to establish:

• Which features to omit
• Where to position specific content
• How to visually present features and content to offer the easiest and most efficient user experience

You must know how to represent UI elements in diagrammatic form. This includes elements like:

• Images
• Menus
• Call-to-Action buttons

With approved wireframes, you’ll also need to work on mockups. These are initial product models designed to test a concept or procedure. In such cases, you need to familiarise yourself with common prototyping tools like Marvel or Invision.

Most importantly, as a UI/UX designer, you must produce wireframes and prototypes faster. And the results should be effective.

3. Coding Skills

As a UI/UX designer, you need to become a coding expert. It helps to think like a developer. And, it’s even more beneficial to use the coding language. It enables you to communicate better with developers, so you’re both speaking one language.

Thus, it would help if you start by having basic Javascript, CSS, and HTML skills. This is what gives you the ability to make minor website changes. Remember, you’ll most likely be testing and re-testing website features at a faster pace. And you must code minor changes even without the need for a developer.

Besides, coding skills will help you to work best with software engineers. This is where you can understand software architecture controls. Hence, you can formulate more realistic designs.

4. Analytical Skills

As a UX/UI designer, it helps to understand that when a product or feature is sent to production, it doesn’t mean that usability testing is done.

So, your work as a UI/UX designer is to monitor product usability data continually. As a result, you can find ways to improve the existing products. At the same time, you can use data to conclude on new product ideas.

Anytime you create a website or an app, you must test it. Understanding the numbers, ratios, and percentage results and representations is crucial. It will enable you to evaluate the performance of your design quickly.

5. Visual Communication Skills

There’s more to visual design in UX/UI than how a website looks and feels. For example: What happens when you see standardised user elements like the playback button?

Definitely, when you see such an icon, you quickly know that it’s clickable. And you also understand what it signals. That’s the power of a visual cue.

So, effective visual communication skills concern using more visual cues to guide users. This means lowering the need for using written user instructions.

As a UX/UI designer, you must know how to integrate some visual cues to guide users.

The visual cues help users to:

• Understand where they should go next on a web page.
• Know how to find the information or features they need.
• Know what other actions they should take to satisfy their needs.

6. Interaction Design Skills

Interaction design skill is fundamental for a UX/UI designer. It allows for the creation of successful digital products. And, most importantly, products that centre on in-built interaction designs.

The web designs should enable users to accomplish their desired tasks using minimal effort. Interaction design involves elements like:

• Motion
• Sound
• Aesthetics
• Physical space (how and where the product is used)

All these affect users’ interaction with particular products. So, as a UX/UI designer, you must be concerned with:

• Information access
• Effectiveness of the screen layout
• User flows

7. Writing Skills

Good UX/UI writing skills can boost your ability to design excellent experiences for users via microcopy. They are a major element for website navigation and the overall user experience.

Effective UX/UI writing is useful and concise. It also reflects the brand’s tone and values. The user experience writing works together with visual design and interaction to create a user-friendly environment. This is where the user can realise their goals quickly. This can be compared to a well-written essay from professionals in their field.

Key Takeaways

A UX/UI designer is presently considered one of the most in-demand careers in the field of creativity. Understanding the necessary skills a UX/UI designer needs is fundamental.

UX/UI design is a people-centred job. Thus, the candidates focused more on their skills will be at a higher edge than those with credentials only.

So, entering the web design industry does not only require regular training. You also need the right skills. This is what will make web designers meet the increasing business demands.