I’ve been designing for 12 years — here’s what I wished someone had told me about learning UX design when I was first starting out. I strongly believe that you don’t need an expensive course or a degree for this.

Here’s a no-BS guide with 8 tactical steps to become a UX designer:

1. Learn technique by copying
   - Download Figma
   - Screenshot your favorite web/mobile app
   - Recreate 1–2 screens in Figma
   - Use Figma’s help center & Discord if stuck
   - Design 50 screens this way.
   
   In my first few years as a designer, I ended up doing 75 projects. You'll stumble but will build stronger technical abilities than most university grads.
2. Mock projects
   - Generate a prompt at sharpen.design
   - Give yourself 3-7 days to attempt it
   - Google each stage of the design process; spend 1 day applying each stage (eg: research, ideation, prototyping, etc)
   - Document everything & present in a Notion doc
   - Get critiqued on it at the end of the week (see Step 3 below)
   - Complete 10 mock projects
   
   This is an upgrade from the first step, you will now start applying the technical skills you formed above.
3. Weekly design critiques
   - Go to ADPList website (100% free; I’m not paid to recommend it)
   - Schedule calls with 'entry-level' designers (2-3 yrs of exp)
   - Ask for a design critique on 1 project every week
   - In the call, share your challenges
   - Repeat *every* week
   
   You can't design in a void, you need real-world feedback and this is how you get it.
4. Actively train your design eye
   - Every day, pick a design category (eg: logo design)
   - Browse 10–15 designs in this category (on Behance, Dribbble, 99Designs)
   - Spend 1min on each piece and put it into 'good' or 'bad' design category + note why
   
   This will help you start developing an intuition for what good & bad design means.
5. Passive design inspiration
   - Increase the surface area to get design inspiration
   - Replace your Chrome new tab with Panda plugin
   - Sign up for curated design newsletters (eg: uxdesignweekly.com)
   - Pay attention to design choices around you (eg: in a grocery store)
   
   This will help you get design inspiration which you will in turn apply to weekly projects.
6. Watch YouTube videos (30 mins/day)
   Find good design content on YouTube. Search:
   - Recorded talks from old conferences (eg: youtube.com/c/WeAreDesignX)
   - Mock design interviews (eg: youtube.com/watch?v=E8HJLU)
   - Design vlogs or critiques
   
   Immerse yourself in all things design.
7. Real-world projects
   Once you've done 10–20 mock projects and gotten critiques on it, it's time to apply your learnings:
   - Email local NGOs to volunteer free design help (website upgrade, logo, etc)
   - Check 99Designs, Upwork, etc for small projects
   - Participate in hackathons
   - Do this for experience & learning, not money
8. Find community online
   - Join Slack communities (designerslack.community)
   - Attend free design events online
   - Find good designers on Twitter and ask them questions, etc
   
   The goal is to meet like-minded people at a similar stage, and to learn + grow with others.

That’s it. If you follow this process rigorously for at least 3 months, you will sky-rocket in your ability to think, design, and iterate on your craft. I’ve also written some other guides & answers that you might find valuable:

• How to Get Work as a Freelance Designer to understand monetizing your design skills
• Time required to become a designer to understand effort & commitment required
• Finding your first job as a UX designer to get into the industry

Hope this helps! :)

If UI design is more the main focus, then that company/person/place does not focus on, or understand, UX.

UX Design/Research is not dead. It’s been around for decades, if not centuries (think: scientific process). I am also not sure where the assumption that “UI design is the main focus” came from.

A lot of companies just don’t understand how UX works and assume it’s all about visual design. My philosophy is that any product design done without research is just a pretty art project. And a pretty art project ends up being an ugly product if it’s not solving any real user problems.

Yes, it’s possible to become a UX researcher without prior experience in UX design. While UX design focuses on creating user-friendly interfaces, UX research emphasizes understanding user behaviors, needs, and pain points to inform design decisions. A strong analytical mindset, curiosity about human behavior, and proficiency in research methodologies are key. Here's how to approach this transition effectively:

1. Understand the Role of UX Research

• Research what UX researchers do daily, including methods like usability testing, interviews, surveys, and data analysis.
• Familiarize yourself with UX research tools (e.g., Dovetail, Optimal Workshop) and methodologies (qualitative and quantitative research).

2. Leverage Transferable Skills

• Highlight any research, data analysis, or problem-solving experience from other fields.
• Skills like conducting interviews, analyzing trends, or presenting findings are valuable and easily transferable.

3. Educate Yourself

• Courses: Enroll in UX research or human-centered design courses on platforms like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, or Google UX Design Certificate.
• Books: Read key texts like Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug, Observing the User Experience by Goodman et al., or The User Experience Team of One by Leah Buley.
• Podcasts & Blogs: Stay updated with industry insights and trends.

4. Build Practical Experience

• Personal Projects: Conduct usability testing on websites or apps, analyze the results, and present your findings in a portfolio.
• Volunteer: Offer to do UX research for startups, nonprofits, or friends to gain hands-on experience.
• Case Studies: Create detailed case studies showcasing your research process, insights, and impact.

5. Network and Seek Mentorship

• Attend UX meetups, webinars, and conferences to connect with professionals in the field.
• Join UX communities on platforms like LinkedIn, Slack, or Reddit to learn and share knowledge.
• Reach out to experienced UX researchers for advice or informational interviews.

6. Apply for Entry-Level or Intern Roles

• Target positions like Research Assistant, Junior UX Researcher, or Research Analyst.
• Tailor your resume to showcase research-related skills and a strong understanding of UX principles.

7. Learn Adjacent Skills

• Basic knowledge of UX/UI design tools like Figma or Adobe XD can help you collaborate effectively with designers.
• Familiarity with analytics tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar is a plus.

By focusing on building skills and gaining hands-on experience, you can transition into UX research successfully, even without a background in UX design.

No, that’s like saying research and development is dead because some companies focus more on visual presentation.

What is true is that many stakeholders, and even designers, mistake visual design and aesthetics for both UX and UI design — people often judge quality by “look and feel”. That’s an eternal problem that has nothing to do with “nowadays”.

Both the UX and UI labels have been abused so badly nobody can agree what they even mean anymore. That’s a problem with the labels and the people who abuse them, not with the design fields themselves.

As a user-experience, UX, designer, you should be working to shape the overall experience customers and users have with a product or service, including both objectively measurable usability and functionality as well as emotional and subjective responses to usefulness and satisfaction. That means you’re working with the product requirements, the interaction design, the organization (architecture) of information, the visual presentation, and the verbal communication — copy. You can call it something else if you prefer, but holistic design thinking is not going to “die” because it makes for better products and services.

And UI, by the way, is not graphic design or look and feel. User-interface design is usability and function followed by visual presentation and aesthetics if there is a visual presentation to the interface — not all user interfaces are visual; an IVR, for instance, is a UI that’s entirely auditory. There’s also physical, or industrial, design to UI where the product has a physical dimension, like the controls you use to operate your car or the physical buttons on your smartphone. Don’t mistake UI for fonts and colors.

In many, many cases, usability, overall design thinking, human-centered design, user-centered design, whatever we label it, takes a back seat to “I just want it to look good and I’ll know it when I see it”. That’s not UI design, it’s just bad design.

On the other hand, there are many, many companies and product teams that put a great deal of thought and effort into good design, some of which label the efforts UX and UI design and some of which label it something else. The labels don’t matter so much. The effort, competence, and skill sets do.

I’ll give you an example from everyday life. Think about a house.

UX design deals with the position of the rooms, the windows, the doors, the stairway to the second floor, etc.

A bad UX designer would place the door to the kitchen and the door to the bathroom too close to each other so that you wouldn’t be able to open both at the same time.

A good UX designer would place the windows at the appropriate side of the house so it gets enough natural lighting.

UI design is what makes the house look pretty. It involves choosing the appropriate wall colours, the shape, colour and size of the furniture and every additional accessory that makes you enjoy living in the house.

A bad UI designer would paint the living room walls black and will place a wooden floor in the kitchen and tiles in the bedroom.

Wouldn’t want to live in that house.

I mainly depends on what you want to do with the degree. If your intent is to work at a high-tech company or startup, then I would suggest that the United States is the best candidate based on a number of factors.

First Factor - Where do you want to end up/work? This is the most important thing with respect to UX. Unlike an MFA or a degree in a artistic field - a multidisciplinary field like UX requires problems to solve, its collaborative by nature, which means there's no good reason to get the degree in the first place if you don't intend to use it. So think hard about why you want the degree and what you want to do with it before you worry about where to do it.

Fortunately, a good program gives you lots of options. You can...

1) Work at a digital product company. The top digital product companies are all either headquartered in the US (Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Netflix, etc) or have major design centers here (Samsung, Sony, Nintendo, HTC, etc.) If you want to do UX at one of these companies, the best opportunities are going to be with the product teams in close proximity to the home offices.

2) If you want to work at a consultancy, some of the most famous are based here (IDEO, Smart, etc.) and the very large management consulting companies interested in UX are too (Accenture/Fjord, IBM, ect). Europe has some great consultancies too, and they have an interesting service design approach that is gaining popularity in the US as well, but they're much smaller compared to opportunities in the US.

3) If you want to work at an Agency, then your options are a little more global to start with. There are lots of great Agencies all over the world or have offices there. You'll get lots of time working in design, but its not necessarily UX or human centered design. Many clients are unwilling to pay for the research necessary to make that claim.

Sponsorship/Recruiting
Its much easier to get sponsored to work in the US if you graduate with a Masters degree (or higher) from a US institution. Even if you graduate from a world-class design school elsewhere, many companies won't hire you, or can't hire you because we have a limited number of H1B work visas, and there has to be a proven shortage of candidates with your experience and qualifications to make the case for the visa. A new grad is less likely to make that cut. On the other hand, most students at programs at Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Michigan, SVA, NYU etc have one or more offers when they graduate.

Opportunity, Internships, mentorship

You'll have way more opportunity and access to many of the best student opportunities coming from a US institution. Summer graduate internships at Microsoft, Apple, Ideo, Amazon, etc usually end up in an offer for full time employment. Most of those students come from US schools because its a headache to get visas arranged, and travel is expensive. Unless you're extraordinarily exceptional, its less likely.

That isn't to say there aren't amazing design programs around the world, you should just think beyond the few years you're in school.

Generally the attitude in the industry is that all a degree proves is that you're bright, can learn, and have some talent. Most designers are pretty worthless right out of school (no offense, it takes a few years to learn how to be a real designer). You have raw talent, and basic skills, but they have to be honed - that takes time and opportunity, and the best opportunities are in the United States. There isn't a close second place.

there isn't a single "best" country for a UX design career, as the ideal location can vary based on individual preferences, opportunities, and circumstances. Several countries have thriving UX design industries and offer excellent career prospects for professionals in this field. Some of these countries include:

1. United States: The US has a robust tech industry and is home to many leading tech companies that heavily invest in UX design. Cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and New York are particularly known for their tech and design scenes.
2. United Kingdom: London is a major hub for design and technology, offering numerous job opportunities for UX designers.
3. Canada: Cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal have emerging tech sectors and a growing demand for UX designers.
4. Germany: Berlin, in particular, has a vibrant startup culture and a strong design community, making it an attractive destination for UX professionals.
5. Australia: Sydney and Melbourne have active design scenes, and there is a demand for UX designers in various industries.
6. Sweden: Known for its design-focused culture, cities like Stockholm have a thriving UX design community.
7. Netherlands: Amsterdam and other Dutch cities offer a good mix of tech companies and design agencies that hire UX designers.

However, the landscape may have changed and other countries may have also become prominent in the UX design industry. It's essential to conduct up-to-date research and consider factors such as job market conditions, work-life balance, cultural fit, language requirements, and immigration regulations when choosing a country for your UX design career. Networking, attending design conferences, and reaching out to professionals already working in your desired location can also provide valuable insights.

Thanks for the A2A!

There are some great answers already that I agree with (and have upvoted). To sum them up, I believe that going broad first will serve you best. It will prepare you to make the best specialization decision for you and your career, and likely do so at a time when you’re presented with a specific opportunity.

Which leads into the only thing I feel hasn’t been mentioned so far. Specialization automatically limits the amount of opportunities you might have. Going broad means that you can plug in pretty much anywhere, on anything, with anyone. That will likely lead to having more choice about what you care to work on.

Some final food for thought, depending on where you end up working you might not need to specialize. For example, if you work in a consultancy that delivers a broad range on things the people who stay the busiest are strong generalists.

UI/UX is a growing career field in Technology so it is only logical to search for jobs in countries that are rapidly developing their infrastructure, not to mention, one can freelance while being at home. If you are looking for a UI/UX career outside India, it depends on your work experience, skillset, lifestyle, and chances of growth.

Keeping these factors in mind, the best places would be in the Asian continent as more infrastructure development is required here as compared to Europe or America.

In Asia, the countries can be:

• Singapore
• Shanghai
• Hong Kong

Outside Asia, the choices are:

• Belgium
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom

I really depends on whether or not you're interested in freelancing/operating your own business, or working for a company. The digital medium of UI, and to some extent UX, means you can essentially work remotely from anywhere in the world. Try a few! Move around. Find a couple of countries that you've always wanted to visit and live/work in each for 3 months. It's a pretty liberating experience to be able to pack up and move your entire business by closing your laptop.

However, personality and lifestyles vary, and for some, the freelancing path can get lonely. Pick a country where you have some friends, or there are a nexus of people working in the UI/UX industry. Go where there are established or burgeoning tech/startup scenes. The internet is a great place to learn, but it's even better when paired up with real world interactions.

If your desire is to work for a particular company or industry, then that will probably be a determining factor in where you live. Some companies will hire remotely, but it's hard to replace the day-to-day interaction that comes from working with your peers on a product or service, and the efficiencies in communication gained from doing so. Search for companies that you like in places you want to visit/live. Apply. See what happens. There are companies all around the world and more everyday looking for talented UI/UX designers. Of course there are larger consolidations in certain locales like the US (San Francisco, New York, Boston, Los Angeles), UK (London), Germany (Berlin), China (Beijing, Shanghai), Canada (Toronto), India (Mumbai), France (Paris), etc., but keep in mind the more developed the tech ecosystem the more competitive the job market.

Do you have a spouse/partner/family? Where do they want to go? Do they have jobs/needs that are best served in particular countries? What about cost of living? Many of the more developed tech areas have very high costs of living, and starting out most of your income may go to rent. All these are things to consider, but in the end, go somewhere that excites you, that you've always wanted to see or live. The beauty of your career path is its flexibility, so take advantage of it!

Good luck with your search!

To find UX design or research opportunities while you're a student:

• 1. Look for internships.
• 2. Offer freelance services.
• 3. Seek projects within your university.
• 4. Join campus groups related to design or tech.
• 5. Attend networking events and workshops.
• 6. Work on personal design or research projects.
• 7. Showcase your work on platforms like Behance or Dribbble.
• 8. Volunteer for non-profits or community projects.
• 9. Seek mentorship from UX professionals.
• 10. Use LinkedIn to connect and learn.
• 11. Check job boards for part-time or intern roles.

Build skills and connections while studying to enhance your chances of success in the UX field.

Seattle and PNW are a big miss on your list, balancing cost of living, career opportunity (Microsoft, Amazon, Zilliow, Starbucks, Nordstom, REI, Costco, Expedia, Boeing are all based here and Google, Facebook, Twitter, Adobe, Lyft, and Uber are all opening major offices, along with a slew of startups).

I've lived and worked In The Bay Area and NYC, NYC can't hold a candle to Seattle in terms of UX product work, and you're unlikely to do more than just sustain a renter's lifestyle in the Bay.

Seattle has no state income taxes, better schools, a rich cultural offering and amazing outdoor life. The entire region is booming, and UX is core to most of the companies based here. Nowhere is recession-proof, but when the bubble pops (in tech and UX) Seattle will weather it better than SF or NYC.

1. Complete the Hack Design course.
Do not complete it just because you have to. Each chapter is a big repository of stuff to learn. Make sure that you give every lesson a good thought and progress.

2. As you are going through the above course, try your hand on building any product right from the start on the basis of what you learn from Hack Design. Its important to implement as you learn. Do not trust your memory.

3. Create your own design philosophy.
There are a tonne of practices in the UX field that are always interesting. Getting attracted to more than one of them is natural. But make sure that your philosophy intact. By philosophy, I mean a set of principles, rules or benchmarks that you impose on a situation/problem to get the best solution out of it.

4. Understand the technologies of the present
A UX Designer who just rants about "what" without looking into the "how" is not a good one. Keep yourself updated with the latest practices in the industry.

And last but so not the least, read the bible of UX A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

I think there are a lot of things to consider, not the least of which is career mobility.

There is always a price to pay with these kinds of choices, especially in a specialized field like UX design. In areas where your skills are rare, employers may be willing to pay more (perhaps), if they understand why your skills are important (many don't) and that there isn't a sufficient experienced, talent pool at hand. (that's a lot of ifs).

You should also prepare to be "stuck" in the one "good" job in the area that is a match for your skills, again supply and demand.

UX as a field is hot, but still highly localized. The field is also getting flooded with a lot of people from other fields and disciplines, or fresh from school, so the supply problem is less than it used to be. The EXPERIENCED supply problem is the challenge. You should also consider the kinds of things you want to work on. In NYC is mostly going to be Agency (which is struggling because the business model isn't friendly to things like iteration and user research), same goes for Chicago, and LA. Seattle and most of the west coast is going to be much more focused on product.

In terms of cities, I really like Seattle, which has a lower cost of living than the other hotbeds, interesting work, a diverse economy of stable corporations that value UX, and a healthy startup scene.

Its going to be more expensive than some options, but its a far more sustainable choice than SF, NYC, LA, Boston, etc. Denver, Portland Ore. and Austin TX may also be good options, but I have no direct experience with them.

There is some interesting stuff happening in Minneapolis, and even the (suburbs) of Detroit. Waterloo/Kirchner/Toronto Ontario have some stuff going on because of the University.

I'm not sure how old or experienced you are, but if you're young, and just getting started, I would encourage you to just suck it up and go live lean in the Bay Area, or another hot market for a few years. The experience and high-profile work, especially on product makes all the difference. Agency-based designers have a difficult time transitioning to product UX, and many of them don't meet our bar because the work in their portfolio doesn't have the technical or business challenges we face.

It gets harder to get opportunities to get that kind of work the older and more established you become in your career.

No, it’s fun and rewarding since you see the results of your work in action. It can also be incredibly meaningful such as when you design for an unprivileged group.

I had the opportunity to do that kind of design work when I was part of building a new website for a major pension fund (1 million customers). Their customers are primarily women in underpaid positions and roles that have traditionally not been given the prominence they deserve. Also, their customers are generally unaware of the importance of saving for your retirement. Many were facing a low pension after decades of hard work improving the lives of others.

Knowing that I, through interviews and prototyping, could help them make better choices and enjoy a higher quality of life as retirees, added a lot of meaning to the assignment.

Marc Andreesen famously said, “software is eating the world.” But it’s not the developers that steer that ship, it’s the designers. As UX designers, we’re in an unparalleled position to influence how IT is used, and in whose interest.

I actually never planned on getting into UI/UX design. I was the kind of kid who’d spend way too much time rearranging my bedroom or creating mock websites for fun, just to see how things could "flow better." Fast forward a few years, and I was working a job where I’d constantly find myself frustrated by clunky, confusing software.
One day, a colleague casually mentioned that the “user experience” of our software could be improved. That was my lightbulb moment. I went down the rabbit hole of what UI/UX actually meant, and I realized this was exactly the kind of creativity-meets-logic world I wanted to be part of.
From there, I jumped into some online courses to get the skills I needed. Here are the ones that truly helped me build a foundation:
Google UX Design Professional Certificate on Coursera- This is where I started. It’s super beginner-friendly, and Google gives you such practical projects that you feel like you're solving real design problems. Plus, you get to build a solid portfolio by the end.
Interaction Design Foundation (IDF)- If you’re willing to invest a bit, IDF’s courses go deeper into theory and practical application. They have a ton of topics, so you can pick and choose based on what you’re curious about, like user psychology or wireframing techniques.
Springboard’s UI/UX Design Career Track- This one is for those ready to take things up a notch and commit. It’s a bit pricier, but it comes with a mentor, and it’s designed to actually land you a job in the field. The accountability from having a mentor was a game-changer for me.
Udemy and Skillshare- These are great for quick dives into specific tools, like Figma or Adobe XD. There are some hidden gems on Udemy if you look for highly-rated, project-based courses.
If you’re looking to transition or just get a feel for UI/UX, any of these options are a great place to start. Just be ready to mess up a few designs, critique everything around you, and fall in love with crafting experiences that make people’s lives a bit easier!

Q: “Initial UX design is an incredibly in-demand profession, but what exactly is user experience (UX) design, and what can you expect to be doing as a UX designer?”

I am not a user experience (UX) designer, but I am a user interface (UI) researcher who sat next to the pioneering UX team in Intel Research in the late 90s.

The Intel UX team was put together by Carmen Egido at a time when actually thinking about users was not really done very much. At the time, Intel pursued two approaches to the user:

• Figuring out who users are and what they want. This was accomplished by hiring sociologists, psychologists, and anthropologists to study users. This became UX.
• Figuring out what advanced technologies could be applied to assisting users. This was accomplished by pushing the envelope of human-computer-interaction (HCI). This became UI.

The primary tool of UX became ethnography, the detailed study of a single culture. Before Intel’s pioneering work, users were always studied in as large a group as possible, so that any findings could be applied to a large enough population of customers that enough profit could be obtained. The idea of studying smaller groups was unheard of. The idea was that if you could really meet the needs of a group, that you would learn universals that might have wider applicability. Then you would repeat for other groups.

There might have been other corridors of inquiry, but the sociologists and psychologists of Dr. Egido’s group were channeled into ethnography, with varying success.

Dr. Egido’s ethnographers were serious PhD scientists in their fields and they were all very creative, so Intel learned a lot about specific users and users in general. But little came of it, and that’s where I came in.

Historically, social scientists at technical companies have been treated as tools for humanizing technology, meaning their work was directed by technologists, and that hasn’t changed, as far as I can tell. This has meant that social scientists often have had a chip on their shoulders and often had an inferiority complex that interfered with working with technologists, and that was clearly an issue at Intel Research.

Successfully researching groundbreaking user technologies requires both of the bullets listed above. In 2001, faced with cutbacks, Intel killed all UI research in an attempt to have enough resources to continue the UX team. The UX team survived the cutbacks and continued their ethnography, but the tangible results were minimal. One of the anthropologists went on to lead large development effort, but the effort wasn’t successful.

Inspired by Intel, many large companies supported UX research in the late 90s through the aughts. UX research became just ethnography, with fewer PhDs doing the work and the ethnographies covering relatively large user groups, so they were not nearly as targeted.

Somebody else will have to answer this question for the present. I suspect most UX work today involves generating and answering surveys of identified user groups, then proposing technical solutions to identified needs using well known technologies. This is important work, and requires very specific skills, but it’s far from what Dr. Egido envisioned.

Landing a UX/UI designer job with no experience and being from another country can be challenging, but it's boot camps not impossible. Here's why:

UX/UI design is open to career changers: The field values transferable skills like problem-solving, empathy, and communication. You can highlight these from your previous experience.

Remote work is possible: Many UX/UI designer roles can be done remotely, making location less of a barrier. Expand more Look for companies with remote positions advertised.

Build your portfolio: Focus on building a strong portfolio that showcases your design skills and understanding of UX/UI principles. You can work on personal projects or volunteer for non-profits to gain experience.

Be prepared to adapt: Understanding the local culture and design trends in the country you're targeting can be beneficial. Researching the market will help you tailor your portfolio and application accordingly.

Here are some additional tips:

Network online and offline: Connect with UX/UI professionals on platforms like LinkedIn. Attend online meetups or design conferences (virtually if needed).

Consider freelance work: Freelancing platforms can be a great way to gain experience and build your portfolio while you search for a full-time job.

Remember, it takes dedication and perseverance to break into any new field. By focusing on your transferable skills, building a strong portfolio, and being prepared to adapt, you can increase your chances of landing a UX/UI design job despite your lack of experience and international background.

Let’s start with the common element for these two: design. Among the multiple meaning of this word, one of the core and most popular sounds like “to decide upon the look and functioning of an object; to do or plan something with a specific purpose in mind”. Therefore, the difference is in the goal: UI design aims at creating effective and attractive user interface while UX design aims at providing positive user experience. Interaction with a product via user interface is a part of user experience, so we can state that UX design as a term and as a field of design is broader and includes UI design as its integral part.

Calendar App UI design

Working on the UX for a digital product such as a website or mobile app, UX designers have to concentrate on such aspects as:

— usability (the product is convenient, clear, logical and easy to use)
— utility (the product provides useful content and solves users’ problems)
— accessibility (the product is convenient for different categories of users)
— desirability (the product is attractive and problem-solving, it retains users and creates the positive experience which they are ready to repeat).

In our article The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Mobile Application we mentioned that, as in any creative process, making an interface out of the thin air is a sophisticated process which has its individual peculiarities and features in every particular case. Still, on the basis of Tubik Studio extensive experience, it is possible to define several typical creative stages for this process, such as the following:

• setting the task and initial scope of works
• user/market research
• UX wireframing
• prototyping
• UI design
• animation
• testing.

All of those stages have an impact on user experience people have interacting with a product, in particular:

• User research means getting deeper into details of core target audience to understand their preferences and psychological peculiarities, the influence of different factors like colors, stylistic decisions and logic of interaction on emotions and experience of the defined group, the sources of information and creative performance ways which could engage users and make them active.
• Market research means exploring the market segment, primarily in the perspective of creative solutions used by competitors. Visual design presumes creating original and recognizable style that will make the product stand out of the crowd and draw potential customer’s attention.
• UX wireframing is the process of creating general structure of the designed application or website. It’s usually accomplished via the set of schematic screens or pages of low or middle level of fidelity. The aim of this stage is setting clear and orderly structure of all the layout, transitions and interactions on the basis of user’s problems and pains which the product is going to solve. In the outcome, it creates the clear scheme whose complexity depends on the product functionality and reflects all the system of transitions and interactions as well as placement of all the elements of the interface based on their optimal use flow. In some cases, wireframing done in pencil sketching or rough drafts is enough, although preferably it is accomplished with the special tools and software optimizing design process and increasing performance.

Example of UX wireframe for Health Care App.

• Prototyping is the stage when designers create the sample model of the product that gives the ability to test it and see if the solutions and decisions made about the product are efficient. Prototypes should not be seen as the analogue of the final product as they aren’t those. Their main aim is to enable a designer, a customer and a user to check the correctness and appropriateness of the design solutions.
• UI design is the stage of setting and polishing all the details of the interface. User Interface is actually a finalized interactive field in which the user interacts with the product. It includes all the tools of increasing usability and satisfying target users’ needs and wishes. All the features of visual perception as well sound and tactile feelings influencing the product use and interaction with is should be analyzed and optimized here to the purpose of the app or a website is designed. For example, such aspects as color palette, types and fonts, shapes and forms, illustration and animation and so on and so forth are able to affect the performance of the final product greatly in both positive and negative way.

Example of UI interactions for Health Care App.

In general terms, the UX research and wireframing stage is about how the website or application works while UI is how it looks. Both these stages include work on successful interactions, but UX deals more with logic, connections and user behavior while UI stage provides visual representation of all the concept. It means that ideally designer should first work on UX part with concentration on layout, making it more powerful, thought-out, clear and easy to use. Without this vital work you highly risk creating pure mess out of the user interface. After the UX part is tested by prototype, agreed upon and the concept of layout, transitions and features are accepted, the designer starts the UI design part. This is the time when a newborn heart and brain of your product is clothed with its skin and bones. Here the product gets its real color scheme, forms and features of the layout details, styles, animated elements and so on.

All the UI solutions directly influence the positive or negative user experience, so the processes of UX wireframing and UI design should mutually support each other and follow the same strategy otherwise the efficient solutions of one stage will not work on the other.

In other words, to see the difference between the positions in , we can apply the metaphor of an actual construction site:

• UX designers are architects who come up with the general concept, its structure and the flow of interactions as well as a variety of factors which influence positive or negative user experience (in case of real building it could include transportation, quality of air, availability of shops and entertaining points, educations and sport facilities, neighbors etc.).
• UI designers are architectural visualizers who find the best solutions for visual performance of the object corresponding to the style, the environment, user’s expectations and aesthetic needs based on the already agreed architecture, structure and core factors of interaction.
• Programmers are actual builders who create the final object in reality. As well as on the building site, they have various specializations: some are good in creating the foundation, others know how to realize visual features made by designers, and some of them work out effective interaction with this object in particular environments and for new requirements which can arise later.

Hopefully, the answer will be helpful. As usual, I am open for the discussion if needed.

Explore the world!

There are some amazing places to work out there, especially if you are freelancing or working remotely, which you can almost certainly do if you aim to.

Check out Nomad List — The Best Cities to Live and Work Remotely. They have some great filters like cost of living, internet speed, air quality, female safety, etc.

They list places like Prague, Bangkok, Taipei (I can vouch for that), many others in Asia and South America. Ultimately, it comes down to what you're looking for. Obviously there are a lot of good jobs in U.S. cities like New York, Austin, and San Fran, but the cost of living is expensive and you don't get the opportunity to enjoy the world's culture.

How would I know if UX is for you (or for anyone)?

I will observe that someone’s performance and passion; does s/he able to perform the UX activities satisfactorily? Or just barely?

If it’s User Research does s/he able to carry it out with joy? What findings does s/he able to uncover? What kind of insight s/he’s able to generate? If it’s Interaction Design work, will s/he be able to identify both major and minor use-cases? Corner and edge cases? Prioritize them and map out an intuitive user flow? And so on.

On the opposite end, despite someone has enough education background and years of experience in the role, training, and workshops, without his/her heart poured into the work, the outcome will taste bland; the interaction work is just okay, the UI is just compliant but no sparks, the research findings is just so-so, and so on.

As for yourself, I think if you’re being honest with yourself, you can feel the difference between doing something out of passion, or just for the sake of working.