15 Tips on How to Become a UX Designer
Practical guide — How you can get started in user experience design in 2022
A practical guide with 15 tips — How you can get started in user experience design in 2022
So you want to be a UX product designer?
I hope this article gives you a little bit of help. Alternatively, watch my video, where you can get a guide on how to get started in the field.
You can find all resources mentioned in this article here.
First off, do you need to go to design school to get into UX design?
My answer is a definite no.
Because school is one thing, and education is another…and these two don’t always overlap.
The best designer I know never attended design school. Never. His design is thoughtful, it’s working, and it’s always beautiful. He’s the best I know. He never went to design school.
Ways to get into UX design
There are multiple ways to get into this field.
Perhaps the most traditional one has a formal education through college or university. You can spend years obtaining a design degree, but you will end up with a great portfolio in the end.
The next one is to attend a boot camp. It can be three to six months long, and it can also be expensive, I heard. I haven’t tried any boot camp myself, so I cannot give you an honest review of bootcamps, which one is good and not. If you have the budget and the time, do a Google search and see what people say about different boot camps, and perhaps you will be able to find something in your local area.
The last one is self-learning which can take as long as you want. You can do self-learning for free or at a low cost. I am going to focus on this path in this article. If you want to see my recommendations for design courses, head over to my website to see the complete list e.g.
My favourite is Interactiondesign.org, where I am a member. They always provide something new and valuable I can learn even after ten years. The course is not free, but I’d highly recommend it.
Coursera — introduction to user experience design
There are a lot of online UX free courses on LinkedIn Learning (it was called lynda.com in the past). It’s completely free with your library card — if your local council provides this option. It’s worth checking.
Learn about interface guidelines
As a designer who starts out, you need to familiarise yourself with the human interface guidelines for
Apple iOS (and perhaps Apple Watch)
Google also provides an extensive UI toolkit for native Android and guidelines for user-friendly website design. Make sure you take a look at the Material design library
Microsoft also offers a design guideline for native Windows Phone, and they even provide a Figma file that you can download and reuse in your design.
Get inspired by other web and mobile design examples
Awwwards.com showcases the best website designs. You can search for portfolios, e-commerce stores, whatever you really need
Behance is not only your social media platform. You can also discover other designers’ work to get inspired, as well as you can create a portfolio page for your design projects
Dribbble is another social site. You need to have a pro account to use all of its features, though. I find it great for visual inspiration but not so much for UX because it doesn’t let you showcase your thought process
Sometimes I go to Squarespace and other website builders to check out their templates. You can preview the template and you can see their desktop, tablet, and mobile version of the site.
Design your self-learning plan
To figure out what you might need to study to get into user experience design, you might want to search for universities and colleges in your local area. Take a look at their requirements and study details, e.g. syllabus, requirements, the degree’s outcome, which tool they teach, etc. You can always reach out to the course coordinator to schedule a session or receive a detailed brochure to find out more about the degree.
Learn UX design fundamentals
There are so many books out there, but only a few of them are easy to read. I would recommend Lean UX (that’s about four hours read). Another fantastic book is called Sprint. One of my other favourite books is Don’t make me think. It’s also an easy read.
However, if you want to get one book, I’d recommend User experience design for dummies. That book is fantastic. That’s all you need to get started.
Learn the principles and theory of graphic design
There are a few graphic design principles that are going to affect every project you’re doing. It would help learn about layout principles such as balance, rhythm, movement, and proportion while considering scale, position, value, and colour using line, shape, texture, and space. I remember first reading about these principles, and they seemed so foreign to me. It took me some time to get comfortable with all of these terminologies.
You also need to be familiar with typography. Luckily nowadays, you can Google typefaces and matching typefaces, so you can pair fonts that go well together, and you don’t need to figure that out by yourself. One thing that works well is pairing a sans serif with a serif font.
I probably wouldn’t buy graphic design books. I would go to the library and check out some of the books on graphic design (or rent them out online).
Design tools
I think if you’re starting this year, then it is easier to learn the essential tools. In the past, Adobe products were industry-standard design tools. We had to learn Fireworks, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro. They were so feature-heavy, and it took a long time to master them.
But luckily, in 2021, there is another industry-standard software, which is called Figma. You probably heard about it. You can create a free account for your projects. You can do all sorts of things in Figma, such as creating layouts, wireframes, icons, building a prototype, and so much more. Find tutorials on Figma on YouTube for free.
Learn basic HTML and CSS
Why? There’s a debate on the internet if designers should learn how to code.
I think it’s highly valuable to have a basic level of understanding. You don’t need to be a front-end developer, but understanding how HTML and CSS are structured and how you can inspect elements in a browser, what the building blocks of the website are… think that’s highly valuable. There are great free resources out there where you can learn basic HTML and CSS. My recommendation is Codecademy. Check it out, learn the basics; you might enjoy it.
My experience: designers who can code have a better chance to collaborate. You can build a better relationship with developers as well because you speak the same language.
Build your portfolio
I hear it often from junior designers that they think they can only apply for jobs when they have an online presence. Having a website is excellent, but you don’t need to have an online portfolio to apply for design jobs. You can create a PDF file, upload it into Dropbox or Google Drive, and have a shareable link. Then, you can share that link with potential employers when you apply for a new job. Or, if you want to have an online portfolio, I would recommend Behance because it’s free, and the page layout builder is easy to use.
There’s one thing to remember regarding your portfolio: you don’t need to have real projects in your portfolio. What I would highly recommend showing in your portfolio is your thought process. How you got from A to B, all of the steps, and write a paragraph on each step, add some visuals, and you are done. You must also resist putting all of your work in your portfolio. Just pick the three best that are relevant for the job you apply for.
Practise your new design skills
I would recommend picking smaller brands, for example, your local shops and local companies, and redesigning their online presence. When you look at their website, you can tell which one needs a little bit of love.
I would stay away from large brands, well-known companies. The reason behind that is large companies already employ so many great, experienced designers. It’s unlikely you will come up with something groundbreaking (not impossible, though ;). Better to stay away from them.
Ask for feedback
Ask for feedback as often as possible. Share your work with your designer friends and ask for honest feedback. You need to get accustomed to receiving feedback and acting on it. Receiving feedback is one of the ways that can help improve your design skills. As a designer, we need to take critiques every single day. Try not to be defensive, and keep an open mind.
Get your first design job
Searching and finding your first design job without proven work experience in the design field can be daunting. I know, I’ve been there. What I would do: I would join all of the meetups available in your area. But don’t limit yourself to design meetups. Go to tech meetups as well. Tell everybody you’re looking for a job because you never know which company is hiring. Statistically speaking 50% of the jobs are not even advertised. It’s good to tell people you’re looking.
Search for design agencies and other companies you would like to work for. Send them your resume with your portfolio link. Reach out to them and see if they have something available. Use LinkedIn for building up your connections. Have the courage to message people on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is about connections and networking. So use it.
I believe you can teach yourself design just by using online resources and books, and YouTube tutorials. But you must have the diligence and the patience to go through that. Everything is hard at the very beginning. If I started again, I would probably spend at least four hours practicing one of the disciplines every day. I would practice on projects; I would practise tools, I’d send out my resume, I’d reach out to people, I would go to all of the networking events in my area.
If you’re looking for a job in a different city, I would recommend joining Meetup groups. Start networking. That’s really important.
Always remember, even the best designers were beginners once.
Whenever you land your first job, keep practicing and never stop learning. UX design is one of the jobs that will never bore you. Never. Actually, I don’t believe in boring jobs. I think it’s people’s attitude that matters. So have a good attitude! Also, make sure you have fun along the way. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Before you follow all of the steps above
First, you need to find out if UX product design is really for you. I would recommend finding someone who already has this job and talking to the person. Ask questions to figure out if this job is really for you. Your role will change throughout your career, so talk to designers at different levels. Not only a junior designer but also speak with intermediate & senior designers. First, you need to make sure this is something you want to pursue because it takes a lot of time, effort, and practice to be an efficient designer. So you need to make sure that is the field you want to focus on.
Bonus tip #1: Learn touch typing
This is such an important skill to have. Nobody tells you in design school how much you’re going to write in this career. We’re not only writing emails and Slack messages…we also write Confluence pages, Jira stories, and user research findings. You need to communicate your design decisions in writing. When you start learning touch typing, at the very beginning, you will be slow, but keep practicing, don’t give up. You will get better at it. Resist the urge to look down at your keyboard. Here’s the link where you can learn it for free: https://www.typingstudy.com/ (this is the site where I learnt it too)
Bonus tip #2: Learn to draw
I hear people saying they cannot draw or they are not artistic enough. But here’s the thing.
Everyone can draw.
People are not bad at drawing; they are just bad at observing. What you need to learn is to see things differently. There are many books out there. A few of my favourites: Prestosketching and Visual thinking.
You don’t need to be amazing at drawing, but you need to be comfortable with grabbing a pen, going to the whiteboard, and sketching some ideas very quickly in front of other people. It’s really important to learn basic shapes and how you sketch out some ideas, wireframes, user flows. I would recommend practising for about 15 to 20 minutes a day.
I hope this article provides some value and makes you feel ready to start learning UX design.
The original article was published on nikitisza.com
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