Getting started with something new can be a bit overwhelming especially if it's User Interface or User Experience Design also known as UI/UX. Sometimes we don't have enough information, we don't have the right people to put us through. When I first started UI/UX design, I didn't have any of those. Well, there are really excellent resources to learn UI/UX on the internet. But the question is where exactly do I get started? If you've pondered those questions before, this article is for you. Here are my five tips on what every newbie UI/UX designer should know.
Make Research
Do a deep dive into UI and UX design. Wow?? What does this even mean? deep diving into UI/UX? [ Well this is why I wrote this article.] Deep diving into UI/UX simply means doing your research on UI/UX and finding out what it means. UI and UX design is a very big industry and day in and day out, the need to make the experience of the user better is endless. So, that's where deep-diving comes in. When I first started UI and UX design, I didn't even know what UX stood for. I just assumed UI/UX was you know only about design [Probably thought the UX part was fancy] I knew nothing about user needs or anything of that sort. I didn't even know that the UX had a separate and different meaning from the UI. So deep diving is very important.
Find your Focus
Focus on either UI/UX First or master one. If you are more interested in the design aspect and care about the visual representation or visual appeal of a product or service, start with UI. However, If you are more of a problem solver and care about a person's needs and how he/she reacts to a product or service, UX is likely your best choice. So it's important to know what you want to focus on more and master it. As a newbie in UI/UX Design as much as possible avoid learning both at the same. Take one step at a time i.e learn one first and go into the other when you are done.
Gain Mastery
Find a good UI/UX course and finish it. Believe me when I say this design school or even boot camps might be expensive, but still enrolling in one would be a good idea. However, if you don't really have the needed cash to pay for those, then find an excellent free UI/UX course and start learning. There are some really great websites that offer in-depth and great content on UI/UX. Websites like Coursera, Udacity, Udemy, Career-foundry, and so many others. These sites offer some free and paid courses on UI/UX Design. Endeavor to finish the course and this is very important don't go halfway through the course and say you are ready to start UI/UX Design [ I've been there and trust me it is not a very good idea]. You can also join a UI/UX Study group.
Learn Patience
Be patient in learning and avoid crash courses. Learning as we know requires both time and patience. The excitement of learning something new is always great, but please don't expect to start UI/ UX in a month and expect to be designing sites like Spotify or websites like YouTube, it doesn't work that way. You will eventually, but you first have to be patient while learning. As much as I love crash courses, avoid them as a newbie UI/UX Designer. If you're going to learn something new you must be willing to put in the effort and time in order to achieve the best. Some of you might be like "I'm a fast learner and I've done a lot of crash courses before or I've done design graphics before". I just want to make this clear that UI/UX design and graphic design are not the same things. User experience and user interface design are centered on one thing "THE USER". So if you are a graphic designer who wants to go into UI/UX design it's important you know this.
Make Noise
Show off your work and get feedback. When I first started UI design, I didn't know that this was important. How can people know what you do unless you show it off or how can you get better if you don't get feedback on your work? And the way to do this is to join a hackathon or an internship or even offer to do a free design for people you know who need it. You can also join UI/UX communities in your area or online. You can even get your close friends to critique your work or find online design communities to help you out. Communities like Twitter have design critics. You can also reach out to people in various communities on social media that you think can be helpful.
And please, don't fall victim to design influencers online. They just want to prey on your knowledge and make you feel as if you are not good enough. They are newbies like you. So take your time, and learn. Peace ✌🏽