How to Build a Career in UI/UX Designing?
Have you noticed scrolling through a website or app and it feels interesting to use? Maybe the designs stood out too much, or you loved using the website or app. The people who make this experience worth it work in UI UX designer jobs.
Sounds new? Let’s know more.
A UI designer is simply someone who designs the catchy, bold or simple layouts of a website or an app based on the requirements. They design how a website will look to a user.
UX designers, on the other hand, design what the experience of a user on any website will be. Is it fast/slow? How are elements interconnected? To put it simply, they make the designs of an UI designer functional.
Does the idea of such designs excite you? Then read further to find the right design career path for yourself.
Are UI/UX designer jobs right for me?
Before choosing user experience jobs for your career, you should know if it is good for you. Now, UI UX designer jobs are in good demand and will remain in demand. And with added experience, you do earn well. But this isn’t all that matters. Answer yes or no to these questions:
- Does being surrounded by stunning visuals excite you?
- Or do you like researching and solving a problem?
- Like the aspect of your brain solving a customer issue?
Even if you love doing these, are you ready to give multiple hours to perfecting a single design? Most people think they just have to do pretty designs. But what they forget is that pretty is subjective.
UI/UX jobs are a good fit for people who can be creative with limitations or solve problems with limitations. Because real-world designing will involve those heavily. So, before you choose a design career path, ask if you like challenges to your creativity. And if you still think it will be the right fit, here’s the career path to becoming a UI/UX designer.
What is the best UI/UX design Career Path?
Once you have decided to finally pursue a career in UI/UX design, these are a few steps you need to take to become successful:
1. Learn the Foundational Skills.
Now, for any career path, learning and mastering the foundational skills are a must. So, learning Design Fundamentals, Design Thinking, Layouts, Research Methods, Design Tools, etc., will help you learn the basic skills needed. Once you’ve learnt them, you need to put them to practise by building projects of your own. Give yourself a problem statement and try working on it. Do this till you are confident with the basic skills.
2. Choose Your Job Role.
Once you are done with foundational skills, you will have to choose a career path or a specific role from UI UX designer jobs. Some careers include User Experience Designer, User Interface Designer, Product Designer, UX Researcher, etc. Choose what role you would be more interested in working. This is the job role you will have to gain more skills on further and will define your career path.
3. Master Role-Specific Skills.
Once you have decided on a job role, you need to master the specific and advanced skills of this role. Let’s say you choose to pursue a career in UX design. Now, you will have to learn more in depth like user flow, Experience Mapping, etc. And then you will have to practise these skills as well to gain more experience.
4. Build a Portfolio.
Building a strong portfolio is the most important task of all. Without any prior experience, your self-built projects count as your experience. You will have to create some creative designs or solve some real-world problems users face using your projects. Once you have around 3 to 4 good such projects, you can compile them as your portfolio. This portfolio will play around 60% weightage in getting you hired, so it has to be really good or stand out.
This is a simple UI/UX designing career path to get UI UX designer jobs. But apart from all the technical skills, there are a few more things you should be good at. Keep up with the trends as they change very quickly. A lot of design elements become outdated with time. You should also be able to take feedback since these jobs require high client input. Designs are very subjective, so you should have an empathetic outlook to understand requirements better.
Do User Experience Jobs Pay You Well?
Yes, User experience jobs pay well in fact, better than most entry-level tech jobs. Depending on your skills, you can earn up to ₹5,00,000 to ₹8,00,000 per annum as a fresher in the designing career. As you gain experience, this pay can go up to ₹18,00,000 or more in big MNCs or top-tier corporations.
Conclusion
UI UX designer jobs are still in demand, and their demand keeps rising. The idea of designing elements that will be seen or used by hundreds and thousands of people does excite a lot. Building a career in user experience jobs is much easier, as you can tell from this career path. Follow it and go get your dream UI UX job.