Become A Self Taught UI/UX Designer in 2023

embarking on a new career journey is hard especially if you're doing it at home by yourself without guidance what should the learning structure be where do you start and how do you get to where you want to be in the end in this video we will explore all of those things so that you can skip the Science school all together now to be fully transparent I went to design school but I don't think you have to because frankly it wasn't design school that made me into the designer I am today you see my design Journey started with an idea I've always been full of ideas and in my early 20s I came across this super exciting idea that just got me fired up it was a physical product and the idea came to me while hanging out with a couple of friends one night and as I got home I immediately started prototyping this physical product idea I spent all night cutting cardboard and duct taping and as I went to bed that night or now early morning I was still so excited it was more than I'd ever hoped for and I took this idea together with an MS paint drawing or a couple of them yes Microsoft Paint and I went to this local startup incubator and pitched my idea and I got in I spent the coming year working on the idea which unfortunately in the end didn't end up becoming anything but that didn't really matter because a passion was born you see while working on this idea I realized that the one thing I liked doing the most was design work and even though after college I promised myself I'd never ever step foot in a school environment again I actually applied to design school and I got in and to be honest the program was was actually very good but in the end ninety percent of my early career design knowledge came from actually doing design work at this local agency founded by people that I met at the startup incubator and through these experiences I come to realize that learning design is not about memorizing stuff or learning about theories it's actually about doing design work in hindsight though could I have been more efficient in my learning and the answer to that is a roaring yes in my opinion there are five things that you need to get ready for a career in UI ux design number one learning how to think like a designer number two getting familiar with basic design principles number three and this is something you're gonna spend a lot of time on which is recreating stuff over and over again number four or building a portfolio of work and number five which is to land an internship now all of these things are equally important and if you learn them in this exact sequence I believe you're off to a much better start than I was so let's start with learning how to think like a designer the most important skill as a designer in the future will definitely not be pixel pushing it will be problem solving being a good Problem Solver will be a skill that any employer in the future will be looking for and in UI and ux design we build stuff for people people with wants and needs and as problem solvers in UI and ux we need to ask ourselves how can we help people achieve the things they want to achieve with the least amount of friction let me give you an example here's a case study from when Uber launched their East scooters back in 2018 the designer started by growing an understanding for what users actually want and need he was making sure that they were solving the right problem now if we're not solving the right problem there's a high likelihood that the experience for the user will take a severe hit so if we take the Uber case as an example the problems of an e-bike Rider might not be the same as that of an e-scooter Rider so in this case the solution we design has to differ between these two types of users so what would be the action point here I think you should really start consuming a lot of material on problem solving and I happen to have a bunch of reference in the description below also in your everyday life when using apps of different kinds ask yourself questions like why did they put this button here why did they hide this feature behind this menu why are they not showing the IMDb score over to number 2 getting familiar with basic design principles this one I neglected a lot you see I was pretty good at memorizing stuff for exams at design school what I didn't do was make an effort to understand them which meant that the information just a week after the exam would probably just not be there anymore so my tip would be to gain a real understanding for this stuff why do things work why don't they work really get into these basic design principles and learn them for example if I had known that the max width of a paragraph shouldn't exceed 50 to 75 characters then I wouldn't have tried to really squeeze this long paragraph into my design layer instead I would just take a step back and then base everything on these proven principles the third point is about recreating stuff over and over again copying and stealing is the best way for you to learn design diving into websites you like and learning what font sizes are used how much spacing is used between elements the contrast in size between elements dissecting and reverse engineering like this will make you realize that there is actually a method to this design Madness and patterns will start to emerge and I'd really recommend combining this copying and stealing with learning the actual design software and I'm using figma as mine so when you run into an issue like how do I achieve this masking effect on this website then you can just search on YouTube watch a tutorial and then get back to work with that new skill in your pocket oh and a Shameless plug here I actually have a playlist with figma tutorials up here somewhere that you can check out if you want to it's also linked in the description below so over to the action point I would suggest that you explore the inspiration sites I've linked below try to find something that gets you inspired and excited then once you've found it try to recreate it try to really mimic it down to a t like total pixel Perfection and then try to find the commonalities and patterns used to achieve those designs soon you'll realize that you can reuse these patterns and commonalities when actually creating your own things in the future which brings us to number four building a portfolio so now it's time to create your own designs but it doesn't have to be 100 your own you could take a survey is that you use daily but I would suggest taking something that has obvious design flaws something that you can actually fix very easily or at least something that has an evident fix of some sort for example even though Netflix like any other company has its own design flaws maybe it's easier to choose a local restaurant's website because it will be less of a Minefield there you will find a lot more design flaws and who knows in the end that might even be your first paid design gig also an important note here when you're creating your portfolio make sure to know what direction you want to go towards if you really like the visual parts of design AKA UI design then make that the highlight of your portfolio if you really like user experience and the problem solving parts of design make ux the focus of your portfolio for example when it comes to a ux heavy portfolio the big sales point you have is your thought process and how you arrive at solutions to problems the earlier parts of the Uber case study is a very good example of what you would want to highlight in a ux portfolio meanwhile for a UI heavy portfolio where you want to focus on the visuals your job is to really highlight those amazing parts of your apps or of your websites that just look terrific and the later parts of the case study by Uber is a very good example of this also apart from the Uber case study I've added a couple of examples of UI heavy and ux heavy portfolios that you can check out in the description below so to the action points then one decide what kind of designer you want to be and get to work two Pick A Part project that inspire you and most importantly that you will follow through with because a half done project is the same as no project and the idea here is to build your portfolio so you want to create at least one thing that you can publish and then you can add on to your body of work on your website on your portfolio whatever it is it doesn't have to be perfect in the beginning it doesn't have to be filled with projects just get one in there now over to the most critical thing make it your mission to get an internship at a place where you have more senior designers this is essential for a couple of reasons first getting feedback on your design work as a new designer is the key it's the key to explosive growth so when you're in the position to receive this feedback embrace it it's gonna be hard like your ego is gonna take a hit believe me my ego has taken many hits in these feedback sessions but it's all worth it because it makes you grow it makes you realize the design flaws you have what you need to work on and how to get better now as an intern apart from getting feedback you will also have the opportunity to build a real portfolio of real projects this will be the start of your career and you will now be able to climb the income the experience and the skill set ladder by simply staying committed to what you're doing when you're looking for internships remember that it doesn't have to be a top agency a super well-known company or a hyped startup I started at a small local agency a couple of years later I was working I was actually freelancing for my dream company in Spotify you will get there if you stay committed so don't rush it it will come ask for the action points well first off Channel your creativity how can you make an impression on these people at the jobs or the places where you want to do an internship one thing you need to keep in mind is that a willingness to do work and a proof of creativity can outweigh a lesser portfolio and less experience in design so what you want to do is to give them a glimpse of what an asset you could be for them and the company in the future disclaimer none of this is easy like anything in life but if you stick to a plan if you stay committed and you never stop seeking Improvement I can assure you that a year from now you'll be landing a design job that's one year to change your life if you have any other questions when it comes to being a self-taught designer and how you get into the design field leave them in the comments below until the next one have a great life we'll talk soon ciao

Channel: Tim Gabe

Views: 44,777

Keywords: ui, ux, product design, ui design, ux design, figma, figma tutorial, ui ux designer roadmap, ui ux designer path, become ui ux designer, learn ui design, learn ui ux design for beginners, how to learn ui ux design from scratch, self taught ui ux designer, self taught ui ux designer roadmap, ui ux design no degree

Id: lgE0ULApU4E

Length: 12min 58sec (778 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 18 2022