In their design work, UX designers combine their technical expertise with practical commercial knowledge. While some of these skills are more industry-specific, others are more general in nature.
You probably already have the skills required for a new position in UX design. Have a look at some of the topics that are essential for a UX designer:
1. Research Methods
Intelligent, user-centered design decisions set UX design apart from traditional UI design. Design concepts and assumptions about user want and expectations were (and still are) the foundation of conventional UI design. Research is the foundation of UX design. UX professionals use a variety of user and design research approaches, depending on the objectives.
Prior to committing designs to code, design decisions demand a thorough understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Understanding how to plan, carry out, and analyze research is crucial for UX professionals. Understand the proper methods for conducting and evaluating contextual user interviews, usability testing, design sprints, paper prototyping, and other related procedures.
Related: 9 Habits of a highly effective graphic designers
2. Architecture for Information
The ability to organize content in a way that meets user expectations and aids in goal achievement is crucial. All design elements must be arranged, labeled, and organized using information architecture, which also includes copy and graphic content.
Attempts to accomplish their aims will either be aided or hampered by the information architecture. Learn about the fundamentals of writing, navigation, labeling, and user interface components (e.g., feedback, errors, validation). Users should be able to browse, find what they are looking for, and perform activities with ease.
3. Interaction Design
Transparent, timely, and predictable user interactions are vital for creating top-notch user experiences. While visual design still seeks to convey a message or compel viewers to take action, interaction design promotes wayfinding, decision-making, and goal achievement.
Understanding design patterns, HCI principles, and the most effective ways to give feedback during encounters are essential. Investigating signifiers, gestures, forms, micro-interactions, progressive disclosure, search, filters, and aspects is advised.
4. Drafting in Wire and Prototypes
You can swiftly come up with various design approaches with the team’s help when using research-based low-fidelity and high-fidelity content layouts. Wireframes are low-fidelity, skeleton design concepts that do not include aesthetics or content specifications, whereas prototypes feature an entire information architecture as well as aesthetics.
Static or interactive prototypes are routinely used to test out various design concepts on users and within the team. You should learn how to sketch or use the software if you want to convert concepts into low- and high-fidelity screens that can communicate potential design solutions.
Related: principles of a great web design
5. Integrated Design
It’s common to overlook or dismiss designing for different abilities, cultures, identities, and contexts of use, but doing so is crucial for creating excellent user experiences. Through collaboration with the people the design will serve and attention to how the design will affect their experience, the inclusive design provides a framework for addressing varied needs and expectations.
Accessible, usable, egalitarian, and ethical experiences are what users demand from experiences, and both front-end user interface design and back-end programming make this possible. You should educate yourself on ethical patterns, accessibility, usability, and overcoming designer biases.
6. Creation of Applications
Even though JavaScript, CSS, and HTML are normally written by developers, it could be advantageous for UX designers to have a basic understanding of application development.
Knowing how applications are created can be helpful for UX designers in the following ways:
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You will have more realistic expectations of what your design is capable of.
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You will be able to communicate and cooperate better with the development team.
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Working for small businesses that employ for a wider range of skills could increase your marketability.
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You will know the fundamentals of coding if you choose to work in UI development or UX engineering.
7. Collaboration
You will work with other teams quite a bit as a UX designer. You might collaborate with leadership to specify business goals, user interface (UI) designers to add visual components to a mockup or high-fidelity prototype, or developers to translate your designs into code, depending on the project and its level of development.
To achieve the best results when working as a team, it’s important to understand how to offer and receive feedback as well as how to take into account fresh ideas.
8. Psychology in Context
Understanding how humans think, how we respond to design elements and the benefits and drawbacks of our cognitive processes. Since psychology is the foundation for how people interact with a design, learning the foundations can help you make informed judgments regarding content organization, task flow, labeling, color schemes, interaction design, and everything else.
Every design choice affects how we access the content, how we navigate, what is clear and what is ambiguous, how we make decisions, how long it takes us to complete a task, and how we feel about the overall experience.
You should familiarize yourself with design fundamentals, the psychological effects of color and text, and cognitive biases. You will learn how psychology influences users’ experiences if you have knowledge of this.
9. Prioritization and Time Management
UX designers that can prioritize projects, manage their time well, and attend to the most urgent concerns first are typically sought after by employers. Over the course of a day, you might work on a range of projects (or various components of the same project).
In order to succeed in the field of UX design, practice remaining organized and adaptable in your existing tasks.
Related: Adobe XD Vs Figma: Which one is the best option for mobile app design?
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