Hear me, young Padawan. Or, let's talk about UI/UX

A fact: right now, UI/UX design is one of the trendiest and best-paid professions in the IT sector. Many people look for a well-paid job in this field without the underlying experience they need, just a good portfolio. That's why it's often hard to tell whether a candidate is an expert or simply someone with pretty pictures.

In this article I want to cover the following topics:

• What role the designer plays in the production process
• UI and UX: fundamental differences
• Why you shouldn't overuse design concepts to give your portfolio visibility
• What kind of projects are worth a beginner designer's time and effort
• What qualities are most useful for a beginner interface designer to develop

A designer is, first and foremost, an engineer

It's important to understand that design is, above all, an engineering profession. Think, for example, of car design. Before drawing a car, the designer does deep research: the future owner's income, the environment the car will be used in, the particularities of the regions where it will be sold, and so on. It's a design process that starts with research, not with a blank canvas. Besides researching, a car designer also has to understand aerodynamics, the physics of the vehicle, and the overall design of its internal components — in short, the technical side.

In other fields that require design, including IT, a similar process takes place. Domain research is the foundation of any project: the designer has to study the product's audience, analytics data, the scope of application, and so on. Only once the research is done can prototyping and drawing begin. The designer must also understand, at least, the basic working principles of the software side (their design has to fit well with the main components).

UI/UX designer: responsibilities and scope

Most job postings use the combined title UI/UX, but not everyone starting out understands the basic difference between the two concepts.

UX (user experience): deals with business logic, user stories, and prototypes of the future product. The result of the UX phase is a simple, clear interface that covers the user's most important needs.

UI (user interface): the visual components of a product. UI begins once the prototyping phase is approved. It consists of finding the product's visual style and drawing all the pages following the defined guidelines.

These two terms cover the full work cycle of product design, from research and prototype creation to the final drawing of every page in the project. Mastering both skill sets carries great professional value. A UI/UX designer is an engineer with a developed aesthetic sense. Companies usually look for profiles that meet these requirements, since that way they don't need to hire two people. I'm also convinced that UI without UX barely makes sense. A pretty picture doesn't solve problems of comfort and simplicity.

Let's sum up this section. A UI/UX designer's responsibilities are:

• Researching the product's domain
• Working with analytics data (Google Analytics)
• Writing user stories, and developing and testing product prototypes (UX)
• Drawing mockups according to the defined guidelines (UI)
• Creating design guidelines for the project's future maintenance

Don't overuse the concepts

If you follow web design trends on portals like Dribbble and Behance, you've surely seen how many people offer their personal take on major websites and media products. On one hand, it's a useful exercise to rethink big websites that often don't change their look for years. On the other, it demands a lot of time and effort from the designer.

I'm skeptical of this kind of work for the following reasons:

• Lack of analytics. As I said before, design is the union of domain research and the website's current analytics. Designers who propose a new take on YouTube or any other major website don't have that information. So the usefulness of that work is practically nil. You have to understand that a website not only has to look good, but also has to fulfill its main functions (attracting users, generating revenue, etc.). Design concepts generally don't take these goals into account.

• Lack of testing. Big websites with audiences of millions of people never launch a product without testing it first with a sample of users. Improvements and adjustments usually follow those tests. Only after several iterations is the new design rolled out to the general public.

• Breaking brand guidelines. I've noticed that beginner designers tend to show their personal take on a product by changing practically everything, to the point of making it unrecognizable at first glance. In those concepts, brand identity gets lost. In my opinion, it's the biggest mistake a designer can make. We're used to Skype being blue, YouTube red, and Spotify green. In fact, every brand has a recognizable color and style that carry over from one version to the next. Changing them, even in a concept, is absurd and shortsighted.

• Hard to maintain. Often, when creating a concept, the designer only thinks about the pretty picture and loses sight of factors as important as accessibility and the product's future maintenance. For example, in a media outlet it's important for editors to be able to publish articles quickly once all the material is ready. Concepts tend to overlook these nuances.

I think designers who spend time and effort creating this kind of concept usually do it for the exposure the work generates. A new concept for a major website easily gets visibility and attracts plenty of likes and followers. But from a practical standpoint, it's useless. And in this kind of work, the essence of the UI/UX design profession gets diluted: instead of reasoned decisions, there are only pretty pictures.

I don't mean that all concepts and redesigns are useless, or even bad. On the contrary: work in which the designer explains their point of view based on research can work well. It's not based on analytics, but there's logical reasoning behind it. In my opinion, that's the right approach, because the author is mimicking the design process of a real product (analysis, prototype, drawing). But in most of this kind of work, I only see pictures with no reasoning behind them, and I'm skeptical of that kind of designer.

Where to invest your time if you're starting out in UI/UX

The barrier to entry into UI/UX design is fairly low, but in my opinion it's very hard to find a true expert. The sheer amount of information available lets many people draw concepts easily, share their work, and even land their first commissions. But under those conditions, the designer grows as a professional very slowly. It's important to understand the basic principles of building a product from scratch. That's why I'd advise beginners to take advantage of any opportunity to work on real projects, even if they don't carry big, well-known names. For example, you could intern at a large studio. As a rule, those companies have plenty of tasks that are perfect for someone starting out. What matters is building experience across the full product creation cycle.

What skills a UI/UX designer should develop

In my opinion, early in their career it's very useful for a designer to develop these skills:

• Logic. Try to build logical chains to explain your point of view and how you make decisions. Logic matters in everything, even in everyday life.
• Variety of solutions. Always propose several solutions for the task you're given. It's very useful to look at the problem from different angles.
• Analysis. Learn to analyze not just numbers, but also broader information about the product and its domain. Widen the scope of the task you're given.
• A sense of style. You don't need to be an artist or draw well to do good web design work. A sense of style develops over time; the main thing for now is to look for and analyze quality work from other designers. Prioritize projects that already exist, not concepts.

If you spend your time drawing concepts, at best you'll develop a sense of style. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of UI/UX design.

Conclusion

I think it's very important for beginner UI/UX designers to learn to make good use of their time and to favor working on real projects. Only that hands-on experience will give you the chance to become a true professional in the field. Give each phase of product creation the attention it deserves, not just the pretty picture, and you'll gain not only public recognition, but also the expert eye you can offer a renowned company.