Expanding your knowledge and skills as a UI/UX designer
A list of ideas and resources for becoming a better UI/UX designer.
Introduction
As UI/UX designers, we take on the responsibility of creating engaging and valuable experiences for people. In this constantly expanding competitive field, we all strive to become better and differentiate ourselves from other designers. This is how we bring more value to a project, and how we evolve, depending on the career path of our choice. So here are a few notes on ways of expanding your knowledge and skills as a UI/UX designer 👇
Gather inspiration everyday
There are numerous resources out there that aim to help people get inspired by other designs. Make it a habit to browse these websites daily, regardless of the kind of project you are working on. There are so many designs and patterns that keep evolving and changing fast, and it’s important for us to always keep up to date. Designing comes easier when you have constant inspiration in your mind, on a daily basis.
✨ Here are a few options:
Challenge yourself
When working as a designer, it’s sometimes easy to get stuck in a routine at work, and forget why we are doing this in the first place. I can say from experience that getting out of your comfort zone is one of the best things you can do if you want to evolve as a designer, and in general really. So try working on something new, try creating a component you haven’t before, try building a design system. Anything at all, but just try to do something different.
Here is a cool tool you can use if you are out of challenge ideas — Sharpen.Design.
Ask for feedback
I know, I know, it’s not always fun and games to get feedback on your designs. Especially on the ones you really love. Trust me, I know 🙈 However, this step is extremely important if you want to constantly improve yourself as a designer. So ask your colleagues at work for feedback on your projects. Ask your friends for feedback on your other designs. This will surely bring things you haven’t even thought of to light. Think of it as part of your Design Thinking process — this would be the usability testing part. Why do we usability test? What is the most important thing for the product to become better and better? Feedback!
Get familiar with design principles
I am not saying to comply to all design principles, but having an overview of the information that is out there will for sure help you in your development. Learn about the principles that can be applied to multiple projects and industries, as well as the principles that certain companies apply in their processes. And trust me, even if it seems like a specific principle would not apply to UI/UX Design, oftentimes some of them do.
✨ Here are a few links to check out:
Stay up to date with design trends
Not to jump on the trend and create websites that look like others, but to stay informed about how the field is evolving. Not all trends are going to be suitable for your projects, but you can break them into smaller parts and use the ones that you like and that would improve the user experience, to bring more value to your solutions.
Try out new tools
If you’re working as a full-time UI/UX designer for a company, chances are you might not be able to easily introduce new tools to the process. However, for your projects outside of work, try out new things! This will help you familiarise yourself with other softwares, and maybe even discover some that will make your work easier.
✨ Here are a few tools to try out:
- Whiteboarding/online collaboration tools: Miro, Mural, Milanote, FigJam
- Design and prototyping tools (besides Figma and Sketch): Penpot, Visily, Play
- Presentation tools: Pitch, Paste, Tome, Ludus
- Usability testing tools: Maze, Ballpark, Userberry, UXTweak
Final thoughts
As designers, we must build products that bring real value to users. To do so, we constantly read, learn, listen, and try out new things. Hopefully the ideas I put down in this article will help you in your development as much as they’ve helped me. At the core of it all is staying curious. Curious about new tools, new trends, new patterns. Curious about the human mind and it’s implications in design.
Save this for later! ✨