How to Become a Self-Taught UI/UX Designer without Investments

UX/UI designers experience growth in demand, thereby swelling the ranks of top skills to learn this year. Many business owners are ready to extend their design teams by more than 20%. The average number of available “UI developer for hire” vacancies worldwide reaches 25,000 jobs. Only LinkedIn displays nearly 2,500 offers for UX/UI designers. Hence, no wonder that many people sought to carry out this occupation.

Who Are UI/UX designers?

UX/UI designers are responsible for a digital and physical product’s maximal adaptation to their users’ needs. They focus on the target audience’s pains, requirements, and wishes, relying on various researches and people’s behavior on the site/app. In addition, UX/UI designers consider that entire staff to provide a perfect user experience, including the product’s presentation and its aesthetics.

What Should UX/UI Designers Be Able to Do?

Those interested in UX/UI design should think about critical skills that they would have to get:

• Conduct in-depth researches to understand the user’s behavior, needs, and objective on the site. Besides, it’s crucial to get the idea of how they interact with a product.
• “Draw” representative personas to work out all the possible scenarios of how the audience interacts with the app.
• Arrange content in most attractively and logically to trigger conversions.
• Choose a highly efficient color palette, fonts, buttons, and other visual elements.
• Prototype and Create templates and wireframes to test the app’s efficiency.
• Test products on actual users.

If you have those skills, you’ll be able to provide any app with high conversions, boosting awareness and sales. However, it’s simply impossible to make practical improvements without concentrating on user needs.  If you want to learn about UX/UI design and apply for a job in the future, you can register for UI/UX design courses.
Besides, focus on the latest design technologies, the ability to toggle between tasks and collaborate with other teams surely wouldn’t come amiss.

How to Master the Profession of a UX/UI designer?

Fortunately, there is no need for a formal degree to start your UX/UI design career. However, those who want to take precautions and have enough funds can get official training. Those choosing the path of a self-taught UX/UI design should consider the following steps crucial to start self-education:

• Learn about the basics of UX/UI design by reading correspondent blogs and watching tutorials. Such YouTube channels as Jesse Showalter, Chunbuns, or Flux are really helpful.
• Try to get the idea of recognizing top-notch designs and develop your personal design thinking. The latter means you should predict how a particular target audience would behave on the site. Empathy must generate a decision that, in its turn, makes the idea of a prototype appear.
• Choose an appropriate software (Figma, Adobe XD, or Sketch) to use relevant tools.
• Bear in mind ready-to-use design components to get started quickly.
• Make other sites’ redesign to test your skills and check the ideas.
• Consider other professionals’ experience.
• Always ask for feedback to make conclusions and improvements. For this purpose, please don’t be shy to post your mockups online, showing them to the public.
• Start creating a portfolio with real projects, followed by compelling stories about them.

Feeling that you’re completely back on your feet, bring your portfolio fully into play to find a job. Of course, only entry-level vacancies will be available at first. However, bright prospects are waiting for those developing their soft UX/UI design skills, meaning communication with other team members, the ability to justify your solutions and prove their relevance.

People are different, and each “rookie” selects his/her path towards success. For example, some people need psychological training while others lack only digital skills. In any case, one can master a job of a UX/UI designer if he/she works hard, deepens knowledge, and constantly increase practical skills.