What is UX / UI Design?
If you've heard the term UX/UI design, you might be wondering, "What is UX/UI design?" What does that mean in practice?
UX/UI design is becoming more trendy as more and more things happen online. Today, in the "Internet of Things", almost everything should pay attention to user experience.
What do UX / UI designers do? And what even is a user experience?
Here are topics and common questions about UX / UI design that this article will cover...
UX stands for “User Experience” and UI stands for “User Interface”. These are two professions of his that are closely related and often lumped together as they often work in tandem.
Cover everything you need to know about UX/UI design . let's start.
What is UX design?
Simply put, user experience design is the process of planning the experience people will have when interacting with your product.
UX design focuses on the interactions that human users have with everyday products and services. The goal of UX design is to make using these products and services, both digital and physical, easy, logical, and enjoyable.
You may have spent a lot of time looking for reviews of new coffee makers. Basically, we're not just looking for a new device, we're looking for a product with features that will give our users a great experience.
For example, features such as anti-drip spout, automatic shut-off, and reusable basket all meet user needs and are easy to use, giving users control and freedom of use. This is similar to how a UX/UI designer thinks when developing his web application. The user wants her experience to be simple and intuitive.
The term “user experience” began to be used in the 1990s. It was invented by Apple cognitive scientist Don Norman before Apple became the household name it is today. He focused on user-centered design, which puts the user at the forefront of the product design process. "Ease of use" may be a familiar term, but it wasn't very popular at the time.
But, not only are physical and digital products part of UX, but it?encompasses all aspects of the end-users interaction with the company, its services, and its products.
About the U in UX: determine what is important to the user
So, let’s start at the beginning: the “U” in UX. Why?
As Apple founder Steve Jobs said, “You have to start with customer experience and work your way back to technology, not the other way around.”
A user is someone who lives, eats and breathes in your product. As a UX designer, your job is to provide your users with an enjoyable and useful experience.
But first we need to know who they are. By designing user personas (this is done by a UX researcher with a backend and data-driven role in him), find the ideal user and understand their wants, desires, and current solutions. Complaints can be investigated.
The bottom line: You have to know who your user is to make something that works well for them.
By putting the user's personality at the forefront of the design process, we ensure that the user's weaknesses are removed, resulting in a user-friendly product that users will rave about for years to come (or until more and more new products are developed). guaranteed. better version).
Once the user personas have been established, it is the job of the UX designer and their team to consider each step the user takes to using the product. Every part of this journey should be memorable and bring value to the user. By understanding the target audience and her journey, the designer can satisfy her customers every step of the way.
For example, consider Matt's user experience on Carvana, a popular website for selling and buying used cars.
Matt is looking for a new car. Tired of haggling with dealer salespeople, he sees an ad for a Carvana vending machine. He visits his Carvana website. Excited, he saved some cars on his wish list.
Still unsure, he consulted a Carvana salesman, then an acquaintance who recently used Carvana. Feeling ready, Matt finally chose a car and entered his payment details. A week later, a shiny new car arrived at my doorstep. This is without a doubt the best car buying experience Matt has ever had.
In this example, it's clear that Carvana puts Matt at the center of their business. They knew who their target users were and what their vulnerabilities were (I hate haggling with vendors). And we've thought through every step of the mat buying process to ensure that the whole product is user-friendly, incredibly convenient, and downright magical.
This is the definition of good user design — to make products that are useful, usable, and desirable.
What is UI design?
UI design (user interface) is a user-centric approach to designing the aesthetics of digital products. Essentially, it creates the look and feel of the user interface of your website or application. An interface is the graphical layout of an application. These interfaces should not only be functional, but also easy to use and visually appealing.
UI designers focus on the visual touchpoints that allow users to interact with your product. This includes typography, color palettes, buttons, animations, and other images. Think of all the things you can do within your app. Slide to delete, drag down to refresh, enter text, and more. All visuals and animations that enable interaction with your app must be designed. UI and graphic design have many similarities, but they are not the same.
This is where the "no" of Matt's Carvana experience happens. Can you easily scan the filter options on your website, are the filter options working correctly, etc.? Do I have to log into the system or can I use my existing account like Google or Facebook to log in?
User interface can also refer to other interfaces:
In summary, a UI designer is a graphic designer whose goal is to create product interfaces that are visually appealing to users and allow them to easily complete their tasks.
What is a UX designer, and what do UX designers do?
If you have a background (or interest) in design, branding, or technology, training a UX (user experience) designer may be the perfect job for you. First of all, what do UX designers actually do?
UX designers act as advocates for the user.
Not knowing how to use a product or website can make you (the user) feel like you have a problem. But most of the time it's not your fault. Her job as a UX designer is to design with the user in mind. They exist to make products and technologies not just useful, but fun and easy to use.
UX designers start with research before designing a product.
User research usually begins with face-to-face interviews. Through these interviews, we can understand user motivations and frustrations. The designer also runs user-her tests to observe user behavior.
By identifying both verbal and non-verbal impairments, it is refined and iterated to create the best possible user experience.
UX designers also ensure that the product flows logically from one step to the next. If a user has a "goal", what is the most intuitive way to reach it?
User personas and users Looking back at her journey, she should always keep her end user in mind. It also analyzes data and patterns. The ideation stage formulates ideas that will later be used to build prototypes and experiment with real users.
UX design is iterative and the designer's work is rarely "done." Instead, we continually test and improve our products over time.
In sum, UX designers have a wide range of job responsibilities:
The types of projects they work on can vary widely.
UX designers work on apps, websites, and products in every industry. Most of the time, UX designers are not responsible for aesthetic design, but focus on customer interaction and product usage.
However, some UX designers mainly deal with user interaction design regarding the visual design of the app and his website. Others focus on his design services that design the overall experience, such as a guest's stay at a five-star hotel.
What skills do UX designers need?
Because the job is so specialized, UX designers need technical skills such as design and prototyping using tools like Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD. To participate in all aspects of the design process, you also need to understand the design thinking process.
In addition to hard skills, successful UX designers also possess the following soft skills and abilities to function well in the workplace:
What is a UI designer and what do UI designers do?
UI designers often have a background in graphic design, interior design, or fine arts. You are responsible for creating a user interface that is easy to use and satisfying for your users. They are graphic in nature and include, but are not limited to, websites, apps, and video games.
It’s the UI designer’s job to bring the UX designer’s ideas to life.?
Once the UX team has completed the process and handed over the wireframes, the UI designer is responsible for the visual design of the product. On a website, you are responsible for the elements on each screen or page that the user interacts with.
Of course, it should be designed from the user's point of view. So even if they are great artists, design is about the user, not about the user. What do users want? You want to navigate your website easily, intuitively click through pages, and find the information you need without thinking too much. So your job as a UI designer is to provide just that. In short, a product that is almost invisible, intuitive and easy to navigate.
This includes incorporating basic design principles (such as balance and contrast) and learning interaction design. It also means carefully choosing typography, menu his style, buttons, icons, etc. to represent your brand and delight your users.
Tasks of a UI designer might include:
The different types of UI
If you are considering a career in this field, you should familiarize yourself with the different types of user interfaces.
Command-line interface
A command line interface (CLI) is a program that accepts text input to perform functions in a computer's operating system. It's nothing new. In fact, early computers were used this way. A user had to know the language of the machine to interact with the computer instead of clicking the mouse. It's also linear, meaning that you enter a command and the machine responds by printing out or displaying a message on your monitor.
The CLI is a powerful tool that allows developers to install software, run programs, and navigate folders with just a few words. Learning how to work with the CLI gives you more flexibility, especially when working with large amounts of data and files.
Graphical User Interface
A graphical user interface, a GUI, allows users to interact with digital products through visual elements with little text input. This is the primary interface that most people use today. The GUI is intuitive and visually appealing, making it easy to learn and use. For example, windows, scrollbars and folders are part of the graphical interface. Some resources are allocated to displaying graphics, so the GUI can be slower than the computer running his CLI.
Voice-based interfaces
A voice-based interface (VUI, also known as a voice user interface) allows users to interact with the system using their voice or voice commands. Recent advances in natural language processing have enabled the development of products such as Amazon Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google Assistant. Voice-based interfaces are becoming increasingly popular and require less time to learn how to use them, thus shortening the learning curve.
What skills do UI designers need?
Becoming a UI designer requires some expertise. To scale, UI designers need to stay on top of the latest trends, techniques, and technologies. When it comes to graphic design, you need skills such as visual design, interface design, brand design and layout. Also, knowledge of visual design and wireframing tools (Adobe XD, Figma, Sketch, Mockplus) is required. Experience working with Agile/Scrum development processes and learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for rapid prototyping are also helpful.
Both hard and soft skills are equally important in today's workplace. If you are a career changer, having soft skills like:
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What’s the difference between UX and UI?
UX design and UI design are often used interchangeably (which is incorrect), but they are two different career paths. Both UX design and UI design focus on the end user, but there are some fundamental differences between the two. Web developer Dain Miller best says, "The user interface is the saddle, the stirrups and the reins. UX is what it feels like to be on a horse."
Let's take a closer look.
Riding example, here again he perfectly explains the role of UX and UI. Although they are closely related, they have two separate roles. Each contributes to the user's ultimate riding experience. Everyone needs to know their target audience and the results they want to achieve.
However, UX design is more focused on user journeys and problem solving. In this case, it's the thrill of riding that counts. UI, on the other hand, focuses on the concrete elements of the product: how the interface looks and works to accomplish a task (such as a saddle).
UX designers typically deal with the conceptual side of the design process, focusing on users and their product experience. Develop user personas and user journeys, research, develop ideas, build and test prototypes. They actually kill ideas.
UI, on the other hand, focuses on the visual and technical elements of the product. Designers create a set of touchpoints that allow users to interact with the product. They help users complete their tasks in a simple and visually appealing way.
In other words, there are common roles such as wireframing, prototyping, accessibility, and some useful soft skills.
UX includes the full human experience of a product or service, from beginning to end. UI design is specific to the individual way people interact with your product or service. It is the “face” of the experience, so to speak.
What is a UX / UI designer?
If these are two separate roles, why are there UX/UI Designer job listings? Although sometimes viewed as a branding-focused UI, both are integral to product design.
The UX designer and her UI designer work together, and depending on the company, he may hire one person to fill both roles. This will vary depending on your industry and company structure, but there may be good reasons as explained below. Moreover, it is imperative that UX designers understand user interfaces and vice versa.
To that end, UX designers who understand interface design and UI designers who are proficient in user-friendly design can incorporate that knowledge into their work. This results in better ideas, more efficient use of company time, and ultimately a more marketable mindset.
Many companies are now hiring combined UX/UI Designer positions because understanding both sides of the equation is critical to creating the best digital products. Additionally, the company may want one of her UX/UI Designers to guide the digital product through the entire creation process. This person can act as a true advocate for the user as they engage with the product from idea generation. It was phase.
What are the key skills of a UX / UI designer?
Overall, UX/UI designers are focused on finding ways to continuously improve products and services. Start from scratch or make existing products easier, faster, and leaner. For example, how often is your favorite app updated? UX/UI designers are constantly collecting data, getting insights, finding the latest trends, and testing to make their products more useful and user-friendly. I repeat.
UX/UI designers have a wide variety of jobs, and positions can be found in a variety of fields. Some small in-house companies may only have the work and budget of one designer. So he can hire one person to fill both roles.
Others want to hire people with both skills to build large, diverse teams and enable growth within their organizations. Product design, on the other hand, combines both UX and UI to create functional and intuitive software programs. There are UX researchers who bear the brunt of their research, and graphic designers who focus solely on design. Sometimes these roles are combined.
Either way, the good news for job seekers is that UX/UI designers are in high demand. UX/UI designers participate in both the design thinking process and visual product implementation. This requires a wide range of technical skills, including UX research, wireframing and prototyping, interaction design, visual communication, and information architecture.
A UX/UI designer must also demonstrate good communication skills, a team player, curiosity and flexibility. To design and run great websites, apps, and physical products, you need to empathically understand your users.
These positions are often confused or used interchangeably, so companies may actually be looking for her as a UX Designer, UI Designer, or Product Designer. Please read the job posting carefully before applying.
Is UX / UI a good career?
In short, yes.
If you have both technical and creative thinking, UX/UI is a good career field to start. We can also help people by improving the products they use every day.
But that's not the only reason to get involved in UX/UI design. Here are some of the main reasons why UX/UI is a great career.
High demand – UX/UI designers are in high demand and have good employment prospects. This is especially true when it comes to websites and apps. It can hurt your business if people don't understand how to use them.
Salary – The region offers growth opportunities and good starting salaries.
Technical Skills – Anyone with the will and drive can learn the technical skills a UX/UI designer needs to succeed in their career.
Soft Skills – Skills such as communication, collaboration, and flexibility are just as important as hard skills. This is great news for career changers with these skills and backgrounds.
Empathy - This domain is aimed at helping others and solving problems in everyday tasks. If you're looking for a career that can make a difference, UX/UI design is the way to do it.
What is the salary of a UX / UI designer?
UX/UI Designer salaries vary depending on experience and location. According to Zip Recruiter, her US entry-level UX designer can expect to earn $77,108 (including salary, bonuses, and overtime).
According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary for a UX designer is $113,109. A UI designer earns slightly less, at $96,278, while a junior position pays him $61,458.
How do I become a UX / UI designer?
There is no way to become a UX/UI designer. If you're passionate about user-centered design, you can teach yourself, attend a bootcamp, or even go back to school. Either way, you need to master a set of technical skills and build your design portfolio.
Self-teaching
If you want to teach yourself UX/UI design, you need some discipline and a lot of time. Given these two conditions, you can find many free tutorials and books online on the subject. You can also meet other local designers for advice.
The pros of self-teaching UX / UI design
The cons of self-teaching UX / UI design
Bootcamps
Digital boot camps are emerging online, offering courses ranging from just a few weeks to six months or more. Like Linkitsoft's product design program, boot camps are the most practical way to quickly gain the skills and experience you need. It's similar to an intensive college semester, although it's different in terms of time allocation and expectations.
The pros of UX / UI design bootcamps
Many students benefit from bootcamp structure
If you can learn most effectively through a combination of independent and guided classes, Boot Her Camp is for you.?
?The bootcamp is also completed quickly and includes a ready-to-go portfolio creation so you can land her new UX/UI job within a few months. Some bootcamps, including Linkitsoft's product design courses, include essential 1:1 career coaching for those looking to improve their interviewing and resume skills.
The cons of UX / UI design bootcamps
Bootcamps are much cheaper than a four-year degree, but they still represent a financial investment and sometimes require a lump sum payment upfront. However, there are loans and subsidies available.
Working with time constraints and remote teams can be difficult for some.
College
If you're looking to go to college or get a master's degree, there are plenty of programs to kickstart your career. The school offers degrees in human-computer interaction, human-centered computing, interaction design, and information architecture, to name a few.
The pros of going to college for UX / UI design
The cons of going to college for UX / UI design
If you're interested in becoming a UX/UI or Product Designer, Linkitsoft Product Design course will teach you everything you need to know to start your full-stack designer career.
Frequently asked questions about UX / UI design
What is a UX / UI designer?
User Experience (UX) Designers work in teams to create products that provide meaningful and enjoyable experiences for users. Responsible for the entire product design process, from branding to design and usability.
UI designers (user interfaces) create interfaces in software or other computerized devices. These primarily focus on the general look, style, and visual elements that users interact with to complete their tasks.
Combining both in her one position as a product designer gives what is called a full-stack her designer.
What does a UX / UI designer do?
UX/UI designers work in a variety of industries to create and improve both digital and physical products. We are committed to research and design to create user-friendly products and services. UX designers focus on the overall user experience, while UI designers are responsible for the visual aspects that users interact with.
Is UX / UI in demand?
Knowledge of UX/UI design is highly sought after. In fact, according to LinkedIn, these are among the top skills for 2021. As more time is spent online, businesses are migrating to serve these users. This means that companies are increasingly looking for UX, UI and product designers.
Does UX design require coding?
UX design doesn't require coding. However, it's always helpful to have a basic understanding of code such as HTML and CSS. Even a little understanding of the code will help you communicate with your developers and set realistic expectations. Learning to code can also help your career in some cases, such as startups where you need to fill multiple roles.
How can I get into UX / UI design?
You can tackle UX/UI design by reading articles, watching videos, and reading popular books. Self-study is possible, but bootcamps are a good option. In our bootcamps, you'll quickly learn the skills you need in a simulated work environment, create a design portfolio, and receive career coaching.
Is UX / UI design a good career?
Yes, UX and UI design are both good career paths. Both are popular occupations with high income and future career prospects. It's also great for altruists because you can do what you love while helping people face everyday challenges. Schedule a 10-minute chat with the prospective student to learn more about the Linkitsoft product design program.