How to Become a UX Designer: Must Have UX Design Skills

User experience (UX) design is the process used by design teams to create products that offer an intuitive, efficient, and relevant experience to users. The main goal of UX design is to improve usability, accessibility, and user satisfaction. To achieve this, it's necessary to understand users' needs and expectations in order to create solutions that effectively solve their problems. A UX designer does exactly this! If you want to learn how to become a UX designer, then our blog is just for you.

What is a User Experience (UX) Designer?

A UX designer is responsible for creating a positive and satisfying user experience when interacting with a business's products and services. They focus on understanding users' needs and expectations and creating solutions that are easy to use and visually appealing because a positive user experience contributes to customer loyalty, improves brand perception, and increases user satisfaction.

Technical Skills Needed for UX Design

A UX designer requires a combination of technical, research, communication, and problem-solving skills to succeed, which in turn enables them to understand users, design intuitive experiences, and collaborate effectively with teams. Listed below are the must-have technical skills to become a UX designer:

1. Proficiency with Design Tools

Learn to work with design tools and software such as Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, InVision, Balsamiq, and Canva. Learning those tools will help you create wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes in order to visualize ideas before actually building the product.

2. Wireframing and Prototyping

Wireframing means creating the rough layout of a web page or application, much like a blueprint.

Tools: Figma, Moqups, Balsamiq, UXPin, Justinmind, etc.

Prototyping means creating an early model of a product that shows how users will interact with the design.

Tools: Miro, Figma, UXPin, Vectr

3. User Research

It is important that UX designers learn how to research user needs through interviews, surveys, and observations; they need to understand user behaviour in order to design better experiences.

Skills include: creating personas, user journeys, and usability testing.

4. Information Architecture (IA)

Information Architecture is essentially the organisation of content to enable users to find what they need. It is about creating a sitemap, navigation menu, and content structures that further enhance the usability and functionality of the system.

5. Interaction Design (IxD)

Interaction design is all about how users will interact with the website interface, including buttons, menus, and animations. A good designer makes each click and movement natural and intuitive.

6. Visual Design Fundamentals

Knowing the basics of visual design will help in understanding the principles of UX design, which also include colour theory, typography, spacing, and layout for clean and visually appealing designs.

Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Figma.

7. Responsive Design

A good UX designer must know how to design for all types of screen sizes, ranging from mobile devices and tablets to desktops. Responsive design involves testing designs on multiple screen types using tools like Figma and Adobe XD.

8. Basic Front-End Knowledge

Knowing a little HTML, CSS, and JavaScript helps in better communication with developers. You don't have to code fully, but knowing the basics makes design more practical.

9. Usability testing

Usability Testing means assessing how real users interact with your design. This methodology identifies what works and what doesn't before the product hits the market.

10. Version Control and Collaboration Tools

Learn to work with version control platforms like Git, Abstract, Sketch Cloud, Plant, or Zeplin. This would help you handle design updates, feedback, and collaboration with others more seamlessly.

Soft Skills

Although the most important elements that make a good UX designer are indeed the technical skills, it is of great importance that you also work on some of the soft or business skills.

• Empathy: Understand what users feel and need.
• Creativity: Devise novel solutions to design challenges.
• Communication: Explain your design ideas clearly to others.
• Problem-solving: Practical solutions for users' challenges.

How to Become a UX Designer

The path to becoming a UX Designer involves different stages that a learner must go through and learn in the most practical way:

Education & Training

Though there is no specific eligibility criterion to become a UX designer, we still recommend pursuing a relevant degree. Here are some of the most useful ones:

• Acquire a higher education in related university degree programs, such as Bachelor of Design, Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) or Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Visual Communication.
• You can also take UX design courses or participate in specialised UX/UI boot camps. 
• Many professionals invest in a Master's degree program in UX/UI design, as it provides comprehensive training with both theoretical and practical exposure. 

Depending upon your existing skills and career goals, you can opt for the most suitable course or training program.

Build a Portfolio

The best calling card for any UX designer is a strong portfolio. Add real-world projects, case studies, and prototypes that showcase your skills and creative thought process. A well-crafted portfolio will not just highlight your technical abilities, but will also showcase your enthusiasm to solve user-centric problems and create a business impact. Remember to continually update and improve your portfolio as you progress.

Practical Experience

Practice will help you sharpen your existing skills in a practical way. Participation in hackathons and team projects can enhance your real-life problem solving skills and make you more equipped to work under pressure and learn from colleagues. All these experiences will enrich your profile and make you job-ready.

Networking in the Design Community

Attending events, conferences, or connecting via social networking sites like LinkedIn will enhance your professional network and keep you abreast of current trends within the profession. By being in touch with other professionals, you get to receive advice, learn about less visible job opportunities-many vacancies are filled by referrals-and even find a mentor.

Keep Yourself Updated

Digital design is a dynamic domain, and to compete, it becomes necessary to keep oneself updated with the latest trends, tools, and methodologies. Accomplish more through the study of readings, attending webinars, and following industry leaders; innovate and adjust your offering to fit the changing market demands.

Specialize in UX Design

Consider taking up a beginner-level specialised UX course and then move on to pursuing the advanced-level courses to access high-level job opportunities. Go for courses that will help you specialise in areas such as UX research, VR/AR design, interaction design, or information architecture. Also, look out for programs offering career support, such as resume and portfolio reviews, mock interviews, and job search strategies.

UX Designer Salaries

According to AmbitionBox, the average salary of a UX designer with 5 years of experience is INR 12 LPA.

Also explore the UX designer salaries in different Indian cities.

Conclusion

Considering that the UX design market is new and requires skilled professionals who can help in creating products that promote increased purchase intent and customer loyalty, it can be a good idea to start a career as a UX designer.