UI Designer

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What Is a UI Designer? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.

UI designers help create the visual elements of a digital product or interface, specifically ensuring that its layout meets the needs of target users. Here’s what to know about a UI designer’s needed skills, salary and how to become one.

 

What Is a UI Designer?

UI designers create the visuals and interactive pieces for digital products, applying UI design principles to ensure products are accessible and have a logical flow of information. UI designers work on websites, mobile apps and more.

 

What Do UI Designers Do?

UI designers are tasked with creating everything that makes up the digital user interface of a website or app and contribute to seamless interactions between customers and technology.

UI Designer Responsibilities

  • Oversee user interface design and layout of digital products.
  • Ensure designs are responsive to different formats.
  • Create and maintain a visual style guide. 
  • Design buttons, icons, sliders and scrollbars.
  • Establish typography. 
  • Create animations. 
  • Collaborate with product managers and UX designers to create storyboards and sitemaps.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities of UI Designers

  • Maintain digital interfaces across all formats.
  • Work with UX researchers to create design plans. 
  • Prototype and test new design features.

UI Designers Within a Company

UI designers typically work within the product or design department and often collaborate with product managers to develop timelines and plan projects. UI designers work especially close with UX designers and UX researchers to bring the findings of researchers to life and ensure UX insights are put into the design of a product.

Importance of UI Designers 

UI designers ensure that a company or organization’s digital assets are accessible, easy to navigate and enjoyable to interact with. This role is crucial to designing and maintaining accessible and responsive website features, typography, animations and buttons.

A step-by-step guide to becoming a UI designer. | Video: Rachel How

 

What Skills Are Needed to Be a UI Designer?

Qualifications to Be a UI Designer

  • Strong understanding of UI design principles. 
  • Ability to multitask and work under deadlines. 
  • Ability to communicate design ideas to leadership and stakeholders. 
  • Solid understanding of prototyping and wireframes.

UI Designer Prerequisites

  • UI design roles typically require a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, art, web design or a related field. 
  • Strong portfolio of previous UI design experience and projects.

UI Designer Hard Skills

  • Graphic design. 
  • Animation skills. 
  • Photo and video editing skills. 
  • Coding. 
  • Color theory. 
  • Typography.

UI Designer Soft Skills

  • Communication skills. 
  • Collaboration and teamwork skills. 
  • Empathy. 
  • Problem solving skills.

Tools and Programs UI Designers Use

  • Photoshop 
  • InDesign
  • Adobe XD
  • Figma
  • Marvel
  • Framer 
  • MockFlow
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How to Become a UI Designer

UI Designer Education and Experience

Similar to many UX and UI roles, UI designers come from a variety of backgrounds and don’t require one specific degree to get started in the field. Many UI designers have educational backgrounds in graphic design and web design but can also have degrees in the humanities as well. UI designers should have a solid understanding of UI design principles and be able to present a portfolio of their past UI design work.

UI Designer Certificates and Courses

UI Designer Career Path

UI designers often begin their careers as design interns and can work in many different industries. Before becoming a UI designer some of the common titles a person may hold include graphic designer and web designer. UI designers can easily move into a more senior design role or roles such as UX designer and project manager.

 

UI Designer Salary and Job Outlook

UI designers have become increasingly more popular as people rely on digital products for everyday interactions. With approximately 1.9 billion websites on the internet, UI designers are bound to be in demand in order to maintain the visuals of these sites — not to mention the nearly 200 billion mobile app downloads expected by 2025.  

The full compensation package for a UI designer depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average UI designer salary.

Courses

Expand Your UI Designer Career Opportunities

Become a top performer in your workplace by learning UX and design skills through Udemy’s online courses.

Flatiron School

Join the community of Flatiron School Product Design students who have gained hands-on UX / UI design experience using modern tools like Figma and Webflow. You’ll graduate with a professional portfolio,…

Flatiron School

Join the community of Flatiron School Product Design students who have gained hands-on UX / UI design experience using modern tools like Figma and Webflow. You’ll graduate with a professional portfolio,…

Udemy

This course uses Sketch 5 (version 51.2), course version 2018.1 - released August 23rd 2018, and featuring the latest features of Sketch 3 such as Libraries & Prototyping.

Udemy

Do you want to become a UI/UX designer but you don't know where to start? This course will allow you to develop your user interface design skills and you can add UI designer to your CV and start getting clients for your skills.

Certifications

UI Designer Certifications + Programs

Take major strides along your career path by earning online UX and design certifications with Udacity.

General Assembly’s Visual Design course helps you explore the art and science of visual communication and the process of creating beautiful digital products. Create a production- ready composition for a responsive webpage, conveying your vision through typography, layout, and color. You’ll learn to give and receive design critique and implement feedback to improve your designs.

 

What you'll accomplish

This is a beginner-friendly program with no prerequisites, although many students have used software such as Photoshop, Sketch, Figma, or Adobe XD* previously and may be familiar with basic design principles. Beginners will have access to optional tutorials to practice using software and boost their confidence ahead of class. Throughout this expert-designed program, you’ll:

  • Conduct research to inform content strategy and design decisions.
  • Create a digital design solution that balances client needs and user goals.
  • Design digital layouts with industry-standard tools such as Figma and Sketch.
  • Implement visual design best practices in composition, typography, imagery, and colors.
  • Communicate design decisions to stakeholders and collaborators.
  • Apply what you’ve learned to create a portfolio project: a production-ready mockup for a responsive webpage and a presentation deck to document your process.

 

Why General Assembly

Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time & part time courses. During the 2020 hiring shutdown, GA's students, instructors, and career coaches never lost focus, and the KPMG-validated numbers in their Outcomes report reflect it. *For students who graduated in 2020 — the peak of the pandemic — 74.4% of those who participated in GA's full-time Career Services program landed jobs within six months of graduation. General Assembly is proud of their grads + teams' relentless dedication and to see those numbers rising. Download the report here.

 

Your next step? Submit an application to talk to the General Assembly Admissions team


 

Note: reviews are referenced from Career Karma - https://careerkarma.com/schools/general-assembly

 

General Assembly

Learn the tools and techniques to design products that are equal parts useful, functional, and delightful. Focusing on both theoretical frameworks and practical applications, students in General Assembly’s User Experience Design course will develop a portfolio project of their choosing — receiving expert feedback along the way.

 

What you'll accomplish

This is a beginner-friendly program with no prerequisites, although many students are familiar with digital design concepts. Whether you’re new to the field or you’re looking to formalize your practice, our curriculum helps you gain fluency in end-to-end UX processes, tools and documentation and put them to work for you, your company, and your career. Throughout this expert-designed program, you’ll:

  • Discover how to identify, ideate, articulate, and develop design solutions for UX challenges.
  • Describe how UX designers work with product managers, developers, and visual designers.
  • Explore the current UX design landscape through relevant, real-world examples.
  • Develop and document personas, journey maps, user flows, and annotated wireframes.
  • Utilize industry-standard tools to propose and refine design decisions.
  • Apply what you’ve learned to create a portfolio project: a new or redesigned digital product experience.

 

Why General Assembly

Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time & part time courses. During the 2020 hiring shutdown, GA's students, instructors, and career coaches never lost focus, and the KPMG-validated numbers in their Outcomes report reflect it. *For students who graduated in 2020 — the peak of the pandemic — 74.4% of those who participated in GA's full-time Career Services program landed jobs within six months of graduation. General Assembly is proud of their grads + teams' relentless dedication and to see those numbers rising. Download the report here.

 

Your next step? Submit an application to talk to the General Assembly Admissions team


 

Note: reviews are referenced from Career Karma - https://careerkarma.com/schools/general-assembly

 

General Assembly

General Assembly’s User Experience Design Immersive is a transformative course designed for you to get the necessary skills for a UX Design role in three months. 

The User Experience Design bootcamp is led by instructors who are expert practitioners in their field, supported by career coaches that work with you since day one and enhanced by a career services team that is constantly in talks with employers about their UX Design hiring needs.

 

What you'll accomplish

As a graduate, you’ll have a portfolio of projects that show your creative and technical ability to launch the next generation of successful apps, websites and digital experiences. Throughout this program, you will:

  • Identify and implement the most effective methods of user research to gain a deeper understanding of what users want and need.

  • Use interaction and visual design techniques to craft a dynamic digital product that brings delight and function to users.

  • Conduct usability testing to make product experiences more accessible for diverse user populations and environments.

  • Learn best practices for working within a product team, employing product management techniques and evaluating technical constraints to better collaborate with developers.

  • Produce polished design documentation, including wireframes and prototypes, to articulate design decisions to clients and stakeholders.

  • Prepare for the world of work, compiling a professional-grade portfolio of solo, group, and client projects.

 

Prerequisites

This is a beginner-friendly program with no prerequisites, although many students are familiar with common tools for graphic and web designers and some may have had exposure to UX concepts in the past. The General Assembly curriculum helps you gain fluency in end-to-end UX processes, tools, and documentation and put them to work on the path to a new career as a User Experience Designer.

 

Why General Assembly

Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time & part time courses. During the 2020 hiring shutdown, GA's students, instructors, and career coaches never lost focus, and the KPMG-validated numbers in their Outcomes report reflect it. *For students who graduated in 2020 — the peak of the pandemic — 74.4% of those who participated in GA's full-time Career Services program landed jobs within six months of graduation.  General Assembly is proud of their grads + teams' relentless dedication and to see those numbers rising. Download the report here.

 

Your next step? Submit an application to talk to the General Assembly Admissions team


 

Note: reviews are referenced from Career Karma - https://careerkarma.com/schools/general-assembly

General Assembly
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