Who is a UX designer?
A user experience designer is responsible for all elements of a product's development- design, usability, function, branding, and marketing. Their work encompasses the complete end-to-end journey of a user's contact with a product.
UX designers are in demand across all industries, from fintech to healthcare. Jobs in UX design come 2nd to corporate recruiter jobs in terms of work-life balance.
Are you looking for a job in UX design too? Then, you are in the right place!
Read on to understand in-depth how to become a UX designer.
- How to become a UX designer?
- What are the available UX design courses?
- How to become a UX researcher?
- What is a UX designer’s salary?
- How to become a UX designer with no experience?
- How to become a UX designer without a degree?
- How long does it take to become a UX designer?
How to Become a UX Designer?
The field of UX design is vast and lets you use creativity and problem-solving skills to build people-centric products. It does not require a degree as such to start but it requires a deep understanding of the people and technology.
There is no single path to becoming a UX designer. A UX designer must know and master the design principles, user research, strategy, product development, and market research.
A career in design and product development or a similar field would be a good starting point. Then, continuous learning of UX concepts and honing of skills would help. We have summarized the steps to becoming a UX designer below.
How to Become a UI-UX Designer in 6 Steps?
Here’s how to become a UX designer in 6 easy steps:
1. Learn the Key UX Principles
Learn the 7 key principles of UX design and use them in your projects. The UX design principles are:
- Always focus on the user: Ensure that the product is easy to use and built with the end-user kept in mind.
- Be consistent with the design: Maintain consistency with the design throughout. For instance, if it is a website then the web pages must look similar- place buttons at the same place on every page.
- Follow the principle of hierarchy: The principle of hierarchy allows you to plan your product so that it is built in a form that is naturally flowing. For instance, when planning a website, you could have content pillars that create a natural flow of information. You could use a sitemap(a site menu) to logically interlink content.
- Understand the context: How do the users generally interact with your product? What time of the day do they generally interact with your product? Identify such patterns and implement the gathered context in your product strategy.
- Give user substantial control: The product shall work for all kinds of users. Provide advanced control features to users for a better experience.
- Focus on accessibility: Your product shall be equally accessible to all. Make the design disability-friendly for a better user experience.
Using the UX design principles, develop strategies based on user research to have better product designs. Get skilled at wireframing and prototyping to develop designs.
In addition to these technical skills, soft skills such as project management, cooperation, and communication are important too.
Since UX design is a fairly new field and no degree single-handedly teaches UX design completely, courses and boot camps for UX design are becoming popular. Many companies today prioritize demonstrated skills and experience, so boot camps for UX design are getting popular.
You can pick from the following UX courses:
2. Learn Essential Design Tools
UX Designers use many wireframing and prototyping tools. Some of the wireframing tools are:
Photoshop is used for interface design.
InVision and Sketch are used for prototyping as well.
Some of the tools available for advanced prototyping are:
3. Develop Skills Required for UX Design
The essential UX design skills are:
- Envision a product: Developing wireframes, prototypes, user flows and mockups.
- Create visual elements: Develop a clear understanding of color theory, design layout, etc and use applications such as Figma to create those elements.
- Understand your user: Master your user, understand who they are and what they need.
- Learn project management: Use popular methodologies such as Agile to develop products.
- Develop applications: A basic understanding of designing applications to understand the realities of product development.
Work on your UX projects to practice and perfect UX design skills. It will help you in gaining experience and develop your UX design portfolio. Also, decode the job description to know about the skills required by employers.
Also Read: How to decode UX designer job description?
As you do more projects, you'll improve the soft skills required for a UX Designer job. You would learn project management, communication and collaboration, etc.
4. Develop Your Portfolio
Once you have built your skillset, it is time to develop your portfolio.Your portfolio should be a true expression of who you are. Be genuine and authentic.
Follow the principle that less is more. It is not important to include every project that you might have completed in your portfolio. Choose the projects that are relevant to the company.
Also Read: How to draft a UX designer resume?
5. Apply to UX Design Jobs
UX design job titles are pretty diverse. You can come across the following UX design job titles while searhing for a job:
- UX Designer
- UX Researcher
- UX Strategist
- UX Architect
- UX Product Manager
- UX Analyst
- UX Engineer
- UX Developer
- User Researcher
- Usability Tester
- Information Architect
- Experience Designer
- Interaction Designer
- Information Architect
- Product Designer
- Visual Designer
- Content Strategist
6. Network with other UX Designers
The hidden doorway to any industry is typically regarded as networking. Especially in a creative field like design, networking has many benefits.
Whether it's with like-minded beginners or industry experts, connecting with other designers can inspire and drive you. You'll also find a plethora of new ways to study, communicate, learn, and simply have fun.
Pro Tip: If you're not quite ready for offline networking, online networks like Slack are a great place to start. Designer Hangout, Junior UX Community, Dear Designers, and Team Sketch are among the 28 Slack communities you should join as a UX designer.
Now that you understand how to become a UX designer, let’s look at some of the frequently asked questions related to UX design.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a UX Designer's Salary?
UX designers earn $1,06,174/yr on an average in the US, ranging from $85,000 to $128,000 for a senior role.
Also Read: UX designer salary in 2022
Is Ux Design a Good Field?
Yes, it is a good field of work with plenty of opportunities. According to Glassdoor, there are presently over 5,000 open UX design opportunities in the United States alone.
Does UX Design Require no Experience?
According to a digital skills survey, 65 percent of UX Designers started their careers in design to gain competitive advantage.
While having prior experience in design or design-related profession is beneficial, it is not required. More often, coming from different backgrounds can help you gain skills useful in UX design too.
How Long Does it Take to Become a UX Designer?
It generally takes 2 to 4 years to become a UX designer.
How Long Does it Take to Become a UX Designer Without a Degree?
It can broadly take 2 to 4 years to become a UX designer without a relevant degree. Also, you do not need a degree to become proficient in UX design, but you do need the right hard and soft skills to be considered for a role in UX design.
Key Takeaways
UX design is a booming field. If you are looking to become a UX designer
- Learn key UX design principles- user research and strategy, wireframing and prototyping, user interface design, and responsive web design, among others.
- Learn how to use key design tools for wireframing and prototyping, such as Sketch, Adobe Illustrator, Principle, etc.
- Develop UX design skills with practice that are required by employers, from early market and user research and persona development to wireframing, prototyping, and user testing.
- Build your portfolio using websites such as Behance to send it to the employer.
- Apply to the various available job openings in UX design and network with fellow UX designers through online and offline modes.
Visit Hiration’s Resume Builder for a smooth resume-building experience. We provide 24/7 chat support.
Additionally, reach out to us at support@hiration.com for any other queries.
