How to become a UX designer in 1 Year
UX is a skilled and multi-disciplined section. It’s worth spending some time to know what it is and the variety of roles. You will find that you gravitate towards an area that compliments your current skill or maybe an area that you find interesting. This is like Science + Art
1. Great UX traits.
- Passion for how things work.
- Empathy for user’s frustrations.
- Curiosity to keep learning.
- Micro and macro thinking look at the detail and the bigger picture.
- Great communication to present and sell your designs to stakeholders.
- Flexibility/adaptability tech projects are constantly growing.
- Being humble UX is a team effort.
2. Find a mentor.
Mentorships are a great way to bring your learning and help guide you on the right path. Mentors can make a wealth of knowledge and advise on tools and processes.
3. UX design activities.
Information architecture: Analyzing fundamental tasks and defining user flow respectively.
Interaction design: Optimizing the interaction between humans and product interfaces.
Visual design: Building an effective visual hierarchy for the user interface.
Usability: Analyzing how people use your product.
Content strategy: Aligning content with overall product plan.
4. UX methodologies.
Learn how to know your target audience and conduct user research with the best methods including:
- Define the target audience.
- User research.
- Card sorting.
- Heuristic evaluation.
- Focus groups.
- Usability test.
- Concept testing.
- Guerilla testing.
- A/B testing.
- Ethnographic research.
- Eye movement.
- SWOT Analysis.
5. UX process.
The best method of continuous improvement to evolve your product based on user feedback. It’s essential to learn about the process as this is fundamental to product design and any organization will have their variation of the UX process.
Key features:
6. Portfolio project.
- Think of a project. This could be something that already exists and you’d like to improve:
- Research the product and company.
- Define UX Strategy: This will help you to plan.
- Practice the UX skills you’ve learned.
- Document everything for your portfolio.
- With a project or two under your belt, aim to get some professional experience, even if you do it for free.
7. UX tools.
A significant amount of your time will be spent prototyping from lo-fi sketches to hi-fi pixel perfect UI, so mastering the tools is essential.
Free tools:
Paid tools:
8. Online resources.
There are so many amazing online resources for UX. Depending on how you like to learn, you may prefer video or audio or even written material. Whichever you choose, be consistent. Devote time each day to learning.
Below are some online resources.
Top UX YouTube Channels
Top UX Blogs
9. UX books.
Here are some of the top books that help you learn about UX.
There’s never been a better time to learn about UX.
