Become a UI/UX designer in 2024 - A step by step guide

this is the roadmap that i wish i had when i was starting out to become a product designer i came up with this roadmap with the goal to becoming an all-rounded product designer if you wish for a systematic way of learning there are courses and bootcamps out there i did not take any courses or bootcamps i learned from practicing googling reading and watching free tutorials like this one there are no right or wrong approaches do whatever works for you there are six steps in this roadmap step one knowing what you're getting into don't rush into ui erect just because it's trending or because your friend tells you that you'll get a higher pay if you become a ux designer instead understand what this profession is all about why do companies hire product designers what problems are you expected to solve what are you expected to do as a product designer you will be collaborating with stakeholders a lot in order to understand what problem that you're trying to solve or ensure that you're solving the right problem you will need to collaborate with your stakeholders or talk to your users cross-collaboration between teams helps shape better products so know who your stakeholders are when you start drafting wireframes and turning those wireframes into realistic prototypes you will test with users and present them to stakeholders once the designs are finalized developers will start building them it's your responsibility to follow through with the end-to-end process the exciting part comes after launching the product where you get to analyze how it's performing and work with stakeholders to find out how you could improve the designs and take it to the next level here are some things you should know when you're entering the field first of all you're gonna know the difference between ui and ux and why you need to be good at both in a product both ui and ux are crucial one cannot live without the other one of the ux law called aesthetic usability effect it describes that humans tend to perceive attractive products as more user friendly so in order to produce products that are attractive and still user friendly you gotta have both ui and ux you will also need to know that visual design skills are a must after all you are a designer learning basic design principles will help you design products that are user friendly and you also need to know that ui ux design is not graphic design you will focus on the interaction between the user and the product you need to be clear that you don't need to learn how to code although a little technical knowledge would help step 2 understand the process start by understanding the design thinking process which goes like this advertise define ideate prototype and test keep in mind that this is just a framework every step is not set in stone so depending on what goals you have some projects don't need to go through the full design thinking process and then you enter the delivery phase where your designs actually go into development and then you measure the outcome so essentially all these processors follow the same principle iterative discovery delivery and improvement i've also made a detailed video on each stage of the design thinking process i'll include the video at the end and also in the description so you won't miss anything as a designer you will also need to be in the right mindset always remind yourself i am not the user do not assume what the user wants or what the user would do step 3 develop your skills first of all soft skills you will also need to have communication skills meaning how do you communicate your designs with clarity empathy how do you think from a user's perspective collaboration skills you're not gonna be working alone so know who you're collaborating with learn about their importance learn to work with different people and be receptive to feedback product thinking knowing what makes a product successful will shape you to become a better designer presentation skills explain the thought process behind your designs and develop storytelling skills to present your designs workshop facilitation skills learn how to facilitate or run design sprints to help the team work towards a common objective and critical thinking thinking in an organized and rational manner i'm a huge advocate of keeping up with market trends and learning from industry experts this is why i subscribe to trends.co the sponsor of this segment here are three things i like about trends.co it helps you spot the next market trend months before everyone else so if you want to start a business or to understand more about businesses this would be useful for you every week you'll get new business ideas that are vetted by their team of business analysts straight into your inbox the second thing i like about trends.co is their virtual live q and a sessions where they feature topics on advanced marketing techniques building businesses or mental models the third thing i like about trends.co is the community you get to connect with founders investors and learn from them you're able to start fruitful conversations exchange ideas with like-minded people you are able to stay motivated in building your next big thing for only one dollar you could get a 7-day access via translatco rachel howe the link is in the description down below thank you trends for sponsoring this segment moving on to the next set of skills that you need to have craft and execution you'll need to learn about user research know when you need research and when you do not need research learn to document your research findings in an organized manner learn how to conduct your research how to structure your research to uncover what users want and how to present your research findings to help align stakeholders on a unified direction there are two types of research quantitative and qualitative quantitative research are stuff like survey analytics card sorting qualitative research is the ones like user interview or usability testing you will need to also learn how to work with data that you get it and learn how to come up with meaningful solutions based on those data so learn how to analyze data to understand user behavior and know what are the important metrics to measure user flows user flows are essential in communicating the flow of the product so learn how to map user flows keep in mind that user flows are not to be confused with user journeys in terms of tools you can use stuff like fake jam mirror or mural information architecture understand how information is structured and organized in a product learn a design tool i recommend figma familiarize yourself with the design tools core features learn the basics of setting up design systems or interactive components and learn how to animate stuff while you're framing wireframes are useful to layout content and functionality of your product so effective wireframes focus on the user flow and information architecture not the visual design prototyping learn how to prototype your designs by creating prototypes people could interact with the designs and test out the experience so that you as a designer can find out what are the issues with your design and how might you improve your user experience visual design color typography hierarchy contrast things like that should not be overlooked after all you are a designer you need to be good at these things these are the foundation and basics ui design grids icons components learn how to craft design systems style guides things like that is important and also ux design skills this includes interaction design which is the design of the interaction between users and the products study design guidelines like material design human interface guidelines to understand the best practices of design recommended by apple and google and you should also know where to find design inspiration inspiration on illustrations and also where to find royalty-free illustrations and icons so that you can use them in your work writing as a designer i know your job is to design but writing establishes the harmony between your messaging and the designs great writing will help you elevate your designs you will also need to learn frequently used jargons and terms which i've included a long list of terms in notion step four craft your case study to showcase your skills design process and your thought process you will need a minimum of two case studies be sure to go through the proper design process in your case study and do not cut corners i made a video on how you can design your case study so don't worry links are in the description step 5 put yourself out there now that you're on track it's time to get more exposure you can connect with like-minded people joining global or local communities and tech products or design it helps you get to know people and learn from the experiences i also highly encourage you to document your learnings as i just linkedin or twitter your learnings can be documented in a written form by documenting your learnings it increases your chances of being seen by recruiters or companies i also encourage you to tell your friends and family that you're starting out in uiux design because they might help you spread the word around so that you can get a job feel free to also book mentorship sessions to get feedback on your case study your portfolio or your resume a place like that can be adp list which offers mentors around the world before you hop on to a mentorship session prepare the questions that you like to ask do your homework before asking for help continue to refine your case study based on all the feedback that you get continue to improve your skills and don't stop learning step six apply for jobs now that you've got your case studies ready you've already talked to people in the industry i think it's time for you to start creating your portfolio and your resume and start applying for jobs know where to look for inspiration on how to structure your portfolio case study and resume a website like best folios is a great place to start so refine your resume at this stage and double check your case study and portfolio for any careless mistakes make sure all your links really work and apply for jobs include a cover letter if you have to remember to tailor your application to the job that you're applying for because this increases your success rate even if you're not interested in the company treat each interview as a learning opportunity to do your best because you will need to build momentum and practice until you get it right know your role a product designer should not be expected to code or to do graphic design work or shoot videos for marketing if the company expects you to do work outside of ui ux design understand that this would affect your growth as a product designer unless you would like to try new things you know and explore different stuff then well that's up to you you will also need to learn how to present your work so remember the list of skills that i've outlined in step three communication presentation and storytelling skills are super important as a product designer because it will get you really really far before each interview keep practicing at home again and again until it becomes natural to you get your points right remember what you want to say after each interview my personal hack is basically to ask for honest feedback and basically ask them how you can do better next time many of you have asked me like how long does it take to become a uix designer or a product designer after i quit my job it took me three months to get a job in other words i learned ui ux intensely for 90 days day and night typically it takes six months to a year to transition into a new career like uiux design so i recommend you to give yourself a reasonable timeline to learn to equip these skills properly and allocate time to also apply the things that you've learned knowledge without action is useless for example you can allocate time every day to learn something about ui ux design following my roadmap try to execute the things that you've learned at least once a week because that way you are gonna balance learning and executing you might also ask like how do you improve your design skills there's no shortcut to this keep practicing a lot and a lot and getting feedback from senior designers peers by letting people create your work and to learn from people's thought process another way is to pick a ui to copy like instagram or youtube just replicate the ui on figma one by one and just try to replicate everything that they have on the screen and try to think through the process like you know why is this button this way and why is the icon placed there try to make sense of what the design thought process has been putting into these products and i hope that you will learn a thing or two from there so here are my other videos that could help you get started in uiux design i have explained the ux design process in 11 minutes i've also shared how you can craft your case study eight ways to start ui ux design for free so if you find these videos helpful to you feel free to subscribe i also make content on basically anything that i've learned in my process i really thank you for watching my videos and i'll see you in the next video bye

Channel: Rachel How

Views: 784,946

Keywords: how to become ui ux designer, rachel how, ui design, ui designer, ui ux, ui ux course, ui ux design, ui ux design course, ui ux design tutorial, ui ux designer, ui/ux design, ui/ux design beginners tutorial, ux, ux design, ux design course, ux design tutorial for beginners, ux designer, ux designer career, ux designer day in the life, ux ui, ux ui design, ux ui design for beginners

Id: HmKwiEmJIdM

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 11 2022