Transitioning into UI/UX

Naiomi

New Member
Hi all!

Literally just signed up to this site today haha, so far browsing the forums has been great and so I figured I might as well post my own question..!

Not sure if this is the right place for it -- but basically, I'm a recent graphic design graduate who has started looking for jobs and I've heard that having some UI/UX skills (to put into your folio) can really help chances of employment, so I've been watching some videos online etc. From what I understand, put in its most simplest terms, it's basically the design of interfaces like apps, websites etc.

This UI/UX world is really new to me, so I'd love to hear your advice and tips in terms of transitioning into it. What programs do you use? What helped you improve in it? What's a day in a UI designers life like? Do you do a lot of research on the UX side, or is that the sort of thing that some people on the team do and others don't?

You don't have to answer ALL of those questions, but anything you can pitch in even on the subject generally would be great and I'd love to hear your opinions!
 
Welcome to GDF Naiomi.

Can't really help you out on the UI/UX front but I'm sure that there are members on here that are more knowledgable than I.
 
UI/UX is less about design but more about understanding people and how they interact with devices and products.

For example, you would research the material a pen was made from, tactility, diameter, weight , colour and so on. It's a huge field and along with accessibility can account for a good percentage of a research budget.

Here's an example of a UX technique: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-101/
 
UI/UX is less about design but more about understanding people and how they interact with devices and products.

For example, you would research the material a pen was made from, tactility, diameter, weight , colour and so on. It's a huge field and along with accessibility can account for a good percentage of a research budget.

Here's an example of a UX technique: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-101/

Oh wow, thank you for that reply.

So I guess in that case I'd probably be more interested in the UI side of it (designing the interface based on the research) - but does this work in a small studio setting or is it more the sort of thing a huge company would employ you for? And is it possible to just be hired for the UI bit? or are you expected to always do both? (I don't really have a research/science-ey background that goes beyond "design thinking")
 
UI is just as complicated. The Neilson resport on journey mapping applies equally to UI. Do some reading on eye tracking and click trails and the dozens of other elements used in UI research.

Consider also what you want to learn UI for? Do you want a full time job or do you plan to work as a freelancer?
 
UI is just as complicated. The Neilson resport on journey mapping applies equally to UI. Do some reading on eye tracking and click trails and the dozens of other elements used in UI research.

Consider also what you want to learn UI for? Do you want a full time job or do you plan to work as a freelancer?

Right... But are you always researching UI as a UI designer? I mean there seems to be a lot of research out there already. What if you're interested in actually designing it? Is that something different?

Also I'm not really sure exactly what I'd want to do with it, I feel like it might be easier to answer once I've actually experienced it hah. But I'm leaning more toward doing it as part of a full-time job, I guess like a digital designer that includes UI? Is that possible to do as part of a studio?
 
But are you always researching UI as a UI designer?
Yes.

Use the research, apply it to test sites and measure performance. Make small changes and test again. Rinse and repeat.

For example: Suppose the client likes a particular shade of blue. It looks great on the 26 screen in natural light. Now see how it works on a older phone with a screen protector in bright sunlight.

Or look at the menu order. Use click tests to see how each link performs. Now run the same test on a phone and see if the menu is still as effective.

Or look at the position, location and size of the CTA button. How are you going to make it work on a phone when the visitor is scrolling?

Or investigate image resolutions and see how you can keep high quality with low image sizes to ensure fast pages loads. See if lazy loading improves UX.

Everything you do is part of UI/UX.
 
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