If you are considering changing careers, UX Designer could be a good career path for you. UX or user experience designfocuses on what users need, what they value, and what their abilities and limitations are. If you enjoy working with people and thinking about how they solve problems, UX design is worth looking at.
UX design stands at the intersection between the experiences of users and the desires of businesses. UX is made up of many interconnected disciplines like psychology, visual design, programming, interactive design, and accessibility and accommodation. Above all, UX Designers need to empathize with users and be able to put themselves in the users’ place.
What Is UX Design?
UX design is one of those things that is easier to recognize in its negative state than in the positive. You’ve probably experienced things that were frustrating to use, from websites and apps that didn’t work the way you thought they should, to appliances that were hard to figure out, or even doors that looked like you should pull when you needed to push. These are all examples of poor UX design.
UX designers do a variety of tasks depending upon the situation. UX designers need to find out what users what, then create a design that meets the needs of the users and the business or client the designer is working for. Designers create personas of users and mockups of products or websites. They analyze data they have collected, and they also give presentations and workshops to other members of the design team and to clients. Finally, designers test the product or website to see if it works the way it was expected to, and the process begins again. Designers are always looking to create the best user experience possible. If working to understand users and their needs appeals to you, UX Designer could be a good career path for you.
The UX Design Process
The UX design process is based on the questions why, how, and what. The process starts with research to discover why the user experience is what it is. The goal of this phase is to understand what the user wants from the experience. The designer conducts surveys and interviews to discover the motivation and goals of users.
The definition phase involves using the data collected along with analytics to create a detailed description of the user experience. This phase involves creating user personas, flowcharts, and mapping to uncover patterns and trends.
Once the patterns emerge, design enters the third phase in which team members generate ideas about how to solve problems and improve the experience. A rough sketch of the product is developed, and from that come wireframes and prototypes.
The next phase is testing the product or website to see the user experience is what was expected. Depending upon the test results, there may be a redesign phase to improve the experience further.
Qualities of UX Designers
Some qualities that successful UX designers exhibit are empathy, curiosity, humility, attention to detail, meticulousness, organization, attentiveness, and the ability to communicate well. UX designers need to imagine themselves in the users’ position so they can determine the best solutions for the particular problem. If this describes you, you might make a good UX Designer.
As a UX designer, you need to love solving problems and puzzles, and be fascinated by people and why they do what they do. You need to be good at collaborating with others and working as a team to figure things out. You need to conduct research, analyze the data, and write reports as well as present your findings at workshops and meetings. You also need to be able to create wireframes and prototypes of websites and products.
What Apps and Tools Do UX Designers Use?
Another aspect of the job of a UX Designer is working with technology. If you enjoy learning to use new digital tools, UX design is perfect for you. These tools allow you to design mobile apps and websites often without having to do any coding. Some of the most common are listed below.
Adobe XD
Adobe XD is a design tool based on vector graphics that allows you to create digital designs for everything from mobile apps to websites. XD is part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud and works well with other CC apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Animate. There are many repeating features that make your workflow move faster, and XD also includes collaboration features that make it easy to share and test prototypes. You can run XD on both macOS and Windows.
Sketch
Sketch is a Mac application that doesn’t work on Windows. You can use vector editing tools or design at the pixel level. It allows you to scale to any size of screen and speed up your workflow with mathematical shortcuts. As with XD, there are repeatable components and you can organize your design so everything is easy to find. Sketch recently added real-time collaboration, so now it is easier for a team to work together, and you can also create libraries of the elements the team is using. There are also many plugins available to customize your workspace.
InVision
InVision works to support the design process from brainstorming and collaborating with Freehand, prototyping with Cloud, or designing with Studio. You can create design libraries for the team. InVision works on the web, android phones, and iPhones.
Figma
Figma is another design application. It includes FigJam which provides an online whiteboard for collaboration to let your design team plan, define, and workshop together. You can use the pen tool for vector graphics or plugins like an instant arc design. Auto Layout moves and stretches items automatically, and Figma makes the work move along efficiently. Figma runs on a browser so it will work with macOS, Windows, or Linux systems.
Career Paths for UX Designers
As a UX Designer, there are several career paths available to you, depending upon your personal interests. New UX Designers start out as Junior Designers and after a few years, you can work up to a Senior or Lead position or even UX Design Manager. You could decide to specialize in some aspect of UX design like research or writing.
UX Management
Managers not only oversee projects but they work with people. The focus of UX management is to be sure that the right personnel are assigned to the right tasks. If your favorite part of UX design is teamwork and collaboration, this might be a good fit for you. Managers need to have good listening and communication skills. In addition to manager, possible job titles at this level are Creative Director, UX Director, and Chief Experience Officer. According to glassdoor.com, the average UX manager salary is $148,000.
UX Senior and Lead
If the hands-on UX/UI work is what appeals to you, pursuing a senior or lead position should be your next move. Senior designers have more responsibility for the developing design and need to be able to supervise junior designers, but they work more on the product than directing personnel. Job titles at this level are often Senior UX Designer, Lead UX Designer, or Principal UX Designer with an average salary of $140,000 a year. Senior UI Designers make an average of $124,000 annually.
UX Design Specialist
As you work as a UX/UI Designer, you may find that there are some aspects of the design process that appeal to you more than others. You might like conducting interviews or working on the text on the website or app. Perhaps as you have worked on website design, you’ve become interested in the engineering process.
Researcher
UX Researchers conduct different types of tests to find out about users’ attitudes and behaviors toward the website or app under development. They conduct quantitative and qualitative research to test the product and then report on their findings. UX researchers conduct interviews, run surveys, and perform usability studies of various types. Then they analyze the data and report their findings to the design team. Glassdoor.com reports the average annual salary for UX Researchers at $92,000.
Writer
UX Writers focus on creating and shaping the user experience through text and language. UX writing leads users smoothly through the product, and like other aspects of user-centered design, UX writing should not stand out; it should be intuitive. If the user has to stop and think about directions or descriptions, that interrupts the flow of the experience. UX writers create the text that is displayed on apps and websites, including instructions, buttons, labels, help messages, and warnings.UX writing is purpose-driven. It is entirely devoted to getting the user from point A to point B smoothly and effortlessly. The average yearly salary for a UX Writer is $108,000.
Where to Learn UX Design
If you would like to learn more about UX design in order to switch to a new career, one of the best ways to do that is to sign up for classes. You can choose classes that meet in-person or online to learn design software and other applications. Some people prefer to attend brick-and-mortar sessions when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends.
The best way to prepare for a career shift to a field like UX design is to enroll in a bootcamp or certificate program. These are intensive training courses that run from a few weeks to a few months and another plus of training is that you will leave class with a professional-quality portfolio that you can show to prospective employers.
Conclusion
It’s easy to learn UX design and start a new career. Check out Noble Desktop’s UX design classes. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online UX design courses and attend from anywhere. Use Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me to find other UX design bootcamps in your area.