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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.
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
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 Design Bootcamps and Courses to Know
- UI Design Program
- UX/UI Design Specialization
- UX/UI Design Bootcamp
- Springboard UX/UI Design Career Track
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.
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UI Designer Certifications + Programs
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