Is UI Design Right For Me?

UI design isn’t for everyone. While a creative career, it’s best for professionals who also possess a healthy interest in technology. UI Designers commonly work in teams and need good communication skills. They should also enjoy problem-solving and learning new skills.

What is a UI Designer?

A UI Designer designs user interfaces, usually for digital applications such as the web, mobile, or video games. They build visual and interactive elements such as buttons, menus, and widgets. They also develop prototypes and refine their designs based on information gained from user research. Primary job duties of UI Designers include:

• Developing and enforcing a style guide that establishes a consistent visual “look” across the application.
• Designing each screen and individual elements within that the user can interact with.
• Making decisions about layout and visual elements that drive an intuitive user experience.
• Creating animations.
• Building wireframes and prototypes.
• Ensuring layout responsiveness across various screen sizes.

UI Designers craft designs for various industries, such as financial and banking, healthcare apps, retail apps, education, automotive, and gaming. A UI Designer’s primary goal is to design applications so that users intuitively understand how to use them and perform the actions or find the information they need without learning how to use the application first. UI Designers play a significant role in influencing how we use digital technology in our daily lives. 

Read more about what a UI Designer does. 

Why Become a UI Designer?

UI design is a field that offers various growth opportunities and competitive salaries. UI designers can work in a wide range of industries, such as healthcare, education, and finance, among many others. It also possesses options for working remotely, abroad, or even freelance or consulting. Many large cities in the US (such as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco) possess exciting UI design communities, events, and work opportunities.

UI design is an ideal career choice for creative individuals who also hold a passion for technology. While any design field is primarily creative, UI design sits on the cutting edge of technology. UI Designers must be interested in continuously learning throughout their careers and evolving their skills. UI design is an exciting career where you learn and work on new things daily.

UI design can also be a very fulfilling career. UI Designers gain a sense of accomplishment through problem-solving and knowing their efforts improve the lives of end users. UI Designers play an important role in maintaining technical usability and ensuring interfaces are accessible to individuals who might otherwise struggle. UI Designers also play a large role in the success of company products and can take pride in customer satisfaction from their efforts. 

Finally, UI design is a career that can lead to several different specializations and cater to individuals whose interests change as they grow within their careers. Technically inclined individuals might choose to expand their software engineering or programming skills. Others might focus on designing specific applications, such as mobile, web, or video games. Others desire to dive deeper into user research and combine their UI knowledge with UX design. 

UI design is a truly diverse and exciting career with various individual and career growth opportunities. Read more about whether UI Designer is a good career.

You’re Creative

UI design involves many creative aspects, such as creating images and manipulating photos. UI Designers also make decisions on and craft color schemes, typography, and user layouts. UI Designers need to enjoy or at least be interested in design concepts. Creativity is also a design process. UI Designers must be prepared and eager to generate ideas, collaborate with team members, and come up with solutions to problems.

You’re Interested in Technology

UI design is a career that evolves with technology. While you don’t need to be a computer programmer or software engineer to be a UI Designer, you should be excited about working with emerging trends and devices. New technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence are all exciting technological advancements that a UI Designer may become involved with. As emerging technologies enter the public and business markets, UI Designers must create compelling user interfaces.

You Enjoy Solving Problems

Problem-solving is the heart of UI design. Every situation or product you design will start with a user-specific problem. Such as, how does a busy parent order groceries from their phone? The job of a UI Designer is to build the design that becomes the solution. Even then, there are additional layers of problem-solving. How do you work within the given time and budget constraints? How do you fulfill specific business objectives? How do you make your design user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing? Once you answer these questions, user testing and feedback will likely require these questions to be revisited and iterated. A UI Designer shouldn’t be frustrated by this process and will ideally be excited at the prospect of making a product the best it can be.

You’re a Stickler for Detail

UI design is all about the little details. What colors are aesthetically pleasing and fit within company branding? What font, capitalization, spacing, and size are best for user readability? A UI Designer must consider every tiny detail, both aesthetically and functionally. These numerous details concern design aspects such as text, graphical elements, space, layout, color, time, and user behavior. A good UI Designer will have an eye for detail and strive for perfection.

You’re a Team Player

UI Designers work within a team. Thus, good communication is a key skill. UI Designers should enjoy collaborating with others or at least know how to navigate team dynamics. UI Designers should expect to communicate with stakeholders, seek feedback on their designs, handle constructive criticism, participate in user research, and work with developers. Collaboration is so vital that it’s not uncommon for UI Designers to grow in their careers and become team leads or Project Managers. 

You Enjoy Helping Others

UI Designers play a significant role in influencing how users interact with technology in their daily lives. UI Designers work to make that interaction as simple and pleasing as possible. They are also responsible for implementing accessibility options and opening up technology to demographics of people who might otherwise struggle. UI design can be a highly fulfilling career in terms of customer service. 

Having a natural gift for empathy is key to being a successful UI Designer. Designers need to step inside the user’s shoes and understand their goals and behavior. This is especially important in creating user personas for initial design work, conducting user research, and using user feedback in design iterations.

You Like Variety & Learning New Things

Work for a UI Designer changes daily depending on the development stage of the project they are working on. Some steps require building wireframes, while others will involve prototypes. On any given day, a UI Designer will attend meetings, build interfaces (at whatever stage), present their designs, receive feedback, iterate, write copy, and work on other projects. They’ll rarely perform the same tasks in a single day and are responsible for wearing many hats as part of their job responsibilities. This allows UI Designers to develop various skills and regularly learn new things. This can be an exciting field with the opportunity to branch out into various specializations and industries.

You Want a Decent Salary & Job Security

UI Design salaries grow with experience, and professionals who possess polished portfolios that showcase proven skills have an edge in salary negotiations. UI Designers earn a salary from $55,000 to $135,000, which sits at or considerably above the median yearly wages earned in the US. This salary is sustainable in most major cities, which commonly serve as technology hubs and excellent UI design job opportunities. 

UI design is a crucial field that shapes the way we, as human beings, interact with technology. As technology grows and advances, UI design will do so with it. Thus, UI Designers see high job security as their positions are essential in our digitally dependent world. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects a 3% year-on-year job growth through 2028 for UI/UX designers. 

Do I Need a Degree to Become a UI Designer?

Around 71% of UI Designers hold bachelor’s degrees in either graphic design or computer science. However, obtaining a degree to become a UI Designer is not required. Since UI design is an interdisciplinary field, no single degree will cover everything a UI Designer needs to know. Graphic design won’t teach technical skills, and computer science won’t teach design. Because of this, work experience is valued more in the field than in formal education.

Even if you choose to pursue a degree, you’ll likely still have skill gaps to fill. The best way to fast-track a career in UI design is to attend a UI design course that comprehensively covers all the skills you need to learn. In addition to graphic design and computer science principles, you’ll also learn to use the most popular industry tools. 

Should you choose not to pursue a degree or a formal UI design training course, you can locate free resources to learn UI design independently. You’ll need to develop personal projects and build a portfolio of your work. Then you can seek an entry-level or a related job position to get your foot in the door. Deciding to train on your own will be a more difficult path than choosing either form of education.

Read more about if you need a degree to become a UI Designer.

Learn the Skills to Become a UI Designer at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers several UI design classes for those seeking professional instruction in pursuing a career as a UI Designer. Classes are small and feature expert instructors and free retake options. Courses can be attended in person in NYC or online from anywhere. 

The UI Design Certificate is designed to prepare students to launch a career in UI design. You’ll learn essential design principles as well as how to use the most popular UI design tools: Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Throughout the course, you’ll complete a number of hands-on projects and build a portfolio to showcase your skills to potential employers.

Should you be interested in UX design as well as UI design (the two fields commonly overlap), you can pursue the UX & UI Design Certificate. You’ll learn the design principles and industry tools of both UX & UI design, build a professional portfolio, and receive one-on-one job preparation assistance. 

Bootcamps are also available where you can learn the ins and outs of the most popular UI design tools, including Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator. These courses are open to pure beginners and are designed to guide you to mastery of the program. 

If you’re not ready to jump into a full UI design course, you can explore Noble Desktop’s learning hubs. These hubs are designed to inform you about a topic and offer learning resources, including free tutorials and self-guided education. UI design learn hubs include:

• Learn UI Design
• Learn Visual Design
• Learn Adobe XD
• Learn Figma
• Learn Sketch

Key Takeaways

• UI design is a great career for creative individuals and technology lovers.
• UI Designers commonly work on a team and need to be team players for good communication skills.
• UI Designers also need empathy, attention to detail, and problem-solving skills. 
• UI Designers wear many hats and see a varied workday.
• UI design provides ample opportunity to learn new skills and branch out into other specializations or industries. 
• UI design is a field with good salaries and high job security.
• You do not need a college degree to become a UI Designer.
• You can receive comprehensive training to become a UI Designer through an in-person or live online course with Noble Desktop.