User Experience (UX) design is a fast-paced, rewarding and well paid career that offers good job prospects, plenty of opportunities for further development and the chance to work on amazing projects. But what skills do you need to be a UX designer?
UX design is a multi-disciplined role that is suitable for a wide range of people, from experienced designers to administrators and managers. Almost anyone can learn UX design, you don’t necessarily need to be creative to be successful in this career.
The ability to communicate clearly, organise groups efficiently and present results effectively are far more important. That being said, there are some fundamental skills that all UX designers need to master to create effective user experiences.
So, in this article, we are going to explore the skills you need to kickstart your UX design career.
What skills do you need to be a UX designer?
Research skills
Good user experiences are developed through extensive user research. So, if you want to be taken seriously as a UX designer, you need to brush up on your research skills. This is a broad subject and some UX designers specialise in this area alone.
But every UX designer needs to understand the basics of how to research users. Techniques include developing user personas, customer surveys, web analytics, eye-tracking software and more.
Wireframing & Prototyping
Wireframing and prototyping are an important part of the UX design process, so any budding UX designer needs to have a thorough understanding of the various wireframing and prototyping tools available.
Popular wireframing UX design tools include Figma and Sketch. These cover wireframing and basic prototyping. For projects that require more sophisticated prototypes, InVision Studio and Webflow can be used.
User interface (UI) design
User Interface (UI) design is an integral part of User Experience design. So much so that some companies don’t differentiate between the two disciplines. But any good UX designer needs to understand the difference between UX and Ui design.
Broadly speaking, user interface design focuses on the visual design of the page. Most people come to UI design from a graphic design background because their skills are directly transferable, but all UX designers need to understand the basic concepts.
For more information about the difference between usability and user experience, check out our recent blog post.
Project management
A typical user experience project involves several diverse groups of people, including the client, UI designers, copywriters, developers and researchers, each of which brings a different set of skills to the table.
A good UX designer needs the ability to lead and coordinate these individuals so that the project remains on schedule and doesn’t deviate from the goal of developing an excellent user experience.
Communication skills
The role of a UX designer is at the heart of the user experience project. They are responsible for surveying users, reporting prototype feedback to UI designers and copywriters, and presenting mockups to the client.
This means UX designers need to develop excellent communication skills. Effective communication can be learned with practice, so if you struggle in this area, try focusing on improving your verbal and non-verbal communication.
Copywriting
Any good UX designer knows the value of great copy. Words can make the difference between a user clicking buy now or moving on. Copywriting is a skill unto itself, but you need to familiarise yourself with what good copy looks like.
Copy is something most designers fall on, preferring to focus on making things look beautiful instead. So it falls to the UX designer to make sure the words match the visuals.
Information architecture
The role of the information architect has largely been displaced by UX/UI design, but that doesn’t mean the disciplines of information architecture are no longer relevant. Quite the opposite in fact.
Information architecture forms the bedrock that any successful UX/UI design is built on. The more UX designers can determine how content is organized, the better the final result will be. Surveys, card sorting and analytics are useful tools here.
Learn the skills you need to get your first job as a UX designer
So, now we have answered the question, ‘what skills do you need to be a UX designer?’, how many of them do you have? With such a broad skill set, the chances are you are missing some important knowledge.
That’s why we have developed our UX Pathfinder design course to provide you with the skills you need to land your first job as a UX designer. The course is very hands-on and covers everything you need to get started, including project management, wireframing, design principles, prototyping and more.
Our Pathfinder course is also one of the few UX design courses that include the chance to learn UX design working on real design projects. This gives you the chance to hone your UX skills and show off the results to prospective employers.
And when you have completed the course, our Design Launch course is designed to help you land your first job in the industry. We’ll show you how to develop your resume and LinkedIn profile, how to handle interview questions and how to position yourself as an expert.
