With a background for someone who is a graphic designer, changing to UI/UX Designer is not as easy as it seems. But Learning something new, and understanding what is the backbone or core of this kind of field not made me back down from the challenge. In this article I wrote somewhat I learn to be in the first step to becoming UI/UX designer
First Journey: Understanding what is UI/UX
As we all know that becoming a UI/UX Designer requires an easy journey to get started, but it takes a lot of time to understand everything in the world of UI/UX. Therefore, in this article, I want to try to explain what steps a person who wants to become a UI/UX designer will go through.
Fundamental, Fundamental, Fundamental.
UI/UX Designer acts as a bridge between technology and design. Therefore, we have to know that to become a UI/UX designer you must understand some fundamentals.
The first fundamentals are:
1. Design Theory
Understanding design theory is the first fundamental that people who want to become a UI/UX designer. The fundamentals that must be understood are color, writing, and shape. Although we already have a sense of these three things, understanding them further will help you in the world of UI/UX.
2. Design Psychology
Being a UI/UX Designer will certainly force us to design something based on other people’s wishes. Understanding Design Psychology will simplify the design process to be carried out. An example of Design Psychology is understanding human behavior, human digital behavior, and economic behavior.
Understanding Design Psychology is a major fundamental that must be understood by someone who wants to be a UI/UX Designer. But you don’t have to force yourself too much. Getting to know Design Psychology on a deeper level will be continued later when you want to level up in the world of UI/UX designers.
For a surface-level regarding Design Psychology, you just need to read about
- Law Of UX: rules that will help you understand Design Psychology.
- Human Decision-making: Understanding the user’s needs regarding how he or she chooses something that will help you in making or assigning an element to the design you make.
Product Design
After knowing the fundamental theory of design, it’s time for us to know how we apply this fundamental theory to the product we want to make.
Understanding the fundamentals of how a product is formed will help you solve a problem. Therefore, we will try to focus on how to solve problems with design methods. Examples:
1. Design Sprint
Is a very unique brainstorming method. Design Sprint is a method of finding the answer to a problem quickly. Usually only takes less than five days.
The main points of the Design Sprint are
- Understand: Understanding the problem to find a solution
- Idea: Coming up with several solutions to answer the problem
- Decide: Choosing from a wide variety of solutions to answer the problem
- Prototype: implementation of the solution to the problem
- Test: Finding out whether the solution is correct or not.
2. Design Thinking
It is a process in which the users understand and provide solutions to what the user wants
The point of design thinking is
- Emphasize: Creating an innovation based on the needs of our users
- Define: Prioritizing the needs of various users’ needs
- Ideate: Providing solutions that will answer the needs of the user
- Prototype: implementation of the solutions to the problem
- Test: Finding out whether the solution is correct or not
After understanding the fundamentals theoretically and how to make a digital product. I move to start understanding the core of the product, which is User Experience.
Learn to understand User Experience.
As quoted by designer hire, User experience is the experience of a user when using a product, which can be depending on the function or comfort in using the product, or the logic that is conveyed by the product. It is of course not bound that the product has to be digital. Broadly speaking, the user experience or UX can cover objects that humans use in everyday life. But because now we are discussing User Experience in Digital Products, we must know the difference between the two in principle.
The basic principles of user experience
When we become UX Designers we know that our job is far from the word design. For that, we must understand the principles to make an experience. The question that is very easy to understand is how a user will feel when using the products we present? Is it easy, convenient, or can be made sense by the user? In principle, it can be divided as follows.
Understand
The UX Designer’s task is of course to answer a problem. How to get users to answer the problems they face. This of course discusses the Scope of the problem that the UX designer wants to solve. Therefore, we must understand the problems that occur in such a way and answer them with reasons to as why these problems can occur.
Maintain
A UX Designer must make it easy to answer a problem. It must be remembered that we are trying to provide new solutions to answering problems. Make sure the process carried out by a user does not make it difficult for the user. For that, we have to keep users from confusion in using the products we have.
Create
Creating a process that is easy to understand is a basic principle that anyone who wants to become a UX Designer should keep in mind. The thing to remember is that we have to make the process of solving the problem easy to learn, use, discover and adapt. Then, we will streamline the process of answering the problem and not confuse users with what steps they are processing.
Savvy
by understanding that the products we make are not for us, but for many people which have the same problem answering problem. Don’t ever think that everyone answers the problem the same way you do. This happens because of differences in genetics, religion, and social circle.
Comprehend
Understanding how people look and feel will help you find out what they need to solve the problem. Try to understand this by asking your users. Ask as much as possible until we understand the problem we want to work on. When we begin to understand what they are going to do and why they are doing it, of course, it will help us to make better steps to answer this problem.
The basic principle of digital products
After we understand the basic principles of a product, it’s time for us to conclude what a good product looks like. Therefore, we are aware that at least a product or a method must have four things
Utility
Point Scope at JJ Garrett explains that in making a product, the creation of a product is of course to provide a solution to the problem that occurs. Because the product/design that we are working on must answer this. For example, the Grab ride / Gojek project is a product to help users who do not have private vehicles travel from point A to point B.
Usability
The second thing we have to ask when we want to make a digital product is the convenience of using the product. Will it be convenient for a user to use the product without difficulty in operating the services we offer?
Desirability
Furthermore, the basic principle of a product is whether our product is desirable to the user or not. A product must provide an experience in solving problems without making the user nervous or having difficulty doing it.
Aspirational
The last thing in the basic principle of a digital product is how to give feedback from users when using the products we offer. Do they feel convenient, comfortable, and logical when operating the products we offer?
User Interface
After understanding what is User experience the next journey is understanding what is UI Designer. My first thought it was more like layouting an interactive poster, but in the end, it was more than that.
When we talk about the UI Designer, we will always have to follow some set of rules by the operating system we are using. Especially if we design an application for which Google or Apple have their own rule for it.
In addition, like at the beginning of our discussion regarding the roadmap to becoming UI/UX, we also discussed fundamental theory. Design psychology is used by UX Designers, so Design theory is a fundamental thing that must be possessed by people who want to become UI designers.
Skills for the UI Designer
Wireframing
A UI Designer must understand design theory. One of the Design theories is Layouting which is often used in the early stages of making a product. Wireframing is also the basic structure of the designs we work on. Either it is in the form of Lo-fi, or Hi-fi. We discussed lo-fi and hi-fi wireframing previously.
Also Read Wireframing Tools you can use
Many things can be used to do wireframing, either digitally or manually, which needs to be reminded that when working on wireframing there is a concept from the design we are working on. Some of the tools that can be used can be seen in the article here.
Prototyping
Prototyping is an example that is almost similar to the state of the product that will be designed later. Its purpose is to present an overview of how a user will operate the product. Even though it is not in the form of an application that can be used, prototyping is very helpful in explaining the concept of the display that we have designed before.
In making a prototype, we will follow the user’s journey. Therefore, prototyping is the next stage after we make hi-fi wireframing. To do this job, there are many tools available on the internet, and some tools for wireframing have also provided additional features to be able to do prototyping.
Aesthetic Design
What is mandatory for a UI Designer is to be able to create beautiful designs. This is very obvious when we want to become UI Designers. If the UX Designer makes paths easier, then the UI Designer’s job is to make the paths beautiful. Some of the readings that can help in this regard are
- Design an application by referencing a similar application from Jakob
- How to design with aesthetic elements for user needs
- Put the design elements on the artboard that we have from Fitts
UI or UX
This is my journey to become UI/UX Designer. It a not as easy a step as I think. But in the end, understanding the core of Digital products made me shift from graphic designer to Digital Product Designer in Multi payment Company. My journey is still not ended yet because what I told you in this article is more likely the first step what you need to know about how to become UI/UX designer. the field is so spread and you need more knowledge or a mentor to help you be a great UI/UX designer.
