If you are going to be a UIUX designer, you need to learn UI UX design, but the question is, which one should I learn UI or UX first? It’s a challenging question! This is kind of a chicken-or-the-egg situation. From a design thinking perspective in graphic design, some believe that UX is more important than UI. It is not always true. This is how to learn UI/UX design.
UX and UI design have a lot in common. Even though UX and UI have many differences, most designers agree that UX is the priority in project design. Learning UX or UI design in the same order would make sense.
your choice depends on providing UI UX design services that you do. Moreover, you might have experience in UX. Building on your previous experience in UX is a smart move. If you are a visual designer, UI design may be the right choice. It can be challenging to choose. Read this article and find the answer to your questions, such as how to learn UI UX design, whether I should learn UI or UX first, and how long it takes to learn UI UX design.
Should I learn UI or UX first?
The quick answer to the question Should I learn UI or UX first is: you should study UX first and UI second. Here’s why. UX is more important than UI when it comes to designing. It is very logical to learn UX first and UI second. A basic understanding of UX can help you design a UI that better suits the user’s needs and wants. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your interfaces are. It won’t be a good UI design if they don’t solve a problem for a user or business.
UX is the first course you take. You will learn how to create a customer journey through user research, creative workshops, and concept validation. After that, it’s easy to make the UI design.
What is UX/UI design?
Let’s start with the basics: What do UX and UI mean? These people are talking about two professions that, despite being around for decades and theoretically for centuries, are now defined by the tech industry as UX and UI design.
UX design is “user experience design,” while UI represents “user interface design.” Both are essential to the product and must be used together. However, their professional relationships are not mutual. They refer to completely different aspects of product development and design. Let’s define each term individually before we discuss the differences between UX & UI.
What is User Experience (UX) design?
User experience design refers to a human-first approach to designing products. Don Norman, a cognitive scientist who co-founded the Nielsen Norman Group Design Consultancy, is credited for coining the term “user experiences” in the late 1990s. Here is how he describes it. “User experience” refers to all aspects of an end user’s interaction and interactions with the company, its products, and its services.
Here’s a quick overview of UX design.
- The process of improving and developing the user experience between a user’s company and all its facets is called User Experience Design.
- Although user experience design can be considered a non-digital practice (cognitive science), it is used and defined primarily by digital industries.
- UX design does not focus on visuals. It focuses more on the overall experience.
What is the user interface (UI) design?
Although it is a more established field, the question of “What is user interface design?” can be difficult to answer due to its wide variety of misinterpretations.
User experience is a collection of tasks that optimize a product for efficient and enjoyable use. However, user interface design complements it; it is a product’s appearance, presentation, and interactivity.
However, the various industries that employ UI designers can confuse it with UX. In fact, different job postings will often refer to the same profession as totally different things.
Job descriptions and job advertisements for user interface designers will show you a lot of interpretations of this profession. Sometimes they extend to branding design and even frontend design.
You will find User Interface Design descriptions in “expert” definitions that are almost identical to User Experience Design.
What’s the difference between UX and UI design?
UX (User Experience) design is focused on creating a positive experience for the user. It’s about understanding user behavior and preferences and ensuring that their interactions with your product or service are easy, efficient, and enjoyable. This includes researching users’ needs, testing designs, improving usability, and validating solutions.
UI (User Interface) design concerns how a product looks and feels; it’s the visual representation of the product/service. UI designers create responsive interfaces, icons, buttons, graphics, layouts, and fonts – all the visual elements that make up an interface. UI design aims to create a visually appealing and intuitive experience for users.
UX design is about creating a positive user experience, and UI design is about creating an aesthetically pleasing interface. Though they are often used in tandem, there are key differences between the two fields. Knowing which one to focus on depends on the kind of product or service you’re developing. By understanding both UXUI design, you can create products that provide users with a great experience and look beautiful and easy to use.
How to learn UI UX design?
Here comes the question of how to learn UI UX design, but before everything, you must be aware of what you should learn before learning UI UX design. Here we go to introduce you to what you need to learn before learning UI UX design.
Take a Course
A UI/UX course like Springboard, which offers aspiring designers many advantages, is the first step to learning UI and UX design. You will receive a structured course curriculum to help you develop essential skills and concepts. You can accelerate your learning curve through mentorship and constructive feedback. Moreover, many courses offer internships and industry connections, which can improve your career prospects and ensure a solid foundation in UI/UX Design.
There are a wealth of online resources available for learning UI UX design. If you need to be professional, check them; they will help you. We prepared a list of a few good starting points to learn Ui/UX design, including:
- The UX Beginner’s Guide: This guide covers the basics of UX design and is a great resource for those just getting started.
- The Interaction Design Foundation: The IDF offers a variety of courses and resources on all things UX, from beginner to advanced.
- Smashing Magazine: Smashing Magazine is a popular design blog covering various topics, including UI/UX design. They have a section devoted specifically to UX articles.
- Treehouse: Treehouse offers an online course on UI/UX basics that covers everything from user research to visual design.
Develop Your Foundational Skills
UI/UX courses can help you develop the skills to land a job. Bootcamp students are taught to use tools like Sketch and Figma. Students are paired up with a mentor who guides them through all phases of the curriculum.
If you learn UI design, as a UI designer, you must understand how users interact with digital interfaces. To create intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces, you should study interaction design principles. To effectively communicate design ideas, familiarize yourself with information architecture, wireframing, and prototyping.
Understanding the needs and preferences of the target audience is a key part of learning UI design. You can use user interviews, usability tests, and surveys to gather information to help you make design decisions. User research allows you to create interfaces tailored to users’ expectations and goals.
Develop Soft Skills
UI designers must work effectively with teams, including UX designers, developers, and project managers. You need strong interpersonal and communication skills to communicate your design ideas and work within a group effectively. Develop skills like problem-solving and time management.
Learn UX design tools
You will rely heavily upon tools as a UX designer. So start by learning the basics. While the toolset of a designer will differ, you’ll still need the following tools:
- User Research: Surveying and polling tools like SurveyMonkey, Typeform, and user-research platforms
- Wireframing: Sketch. Balsamiq. Wireframe. Cc. Figma and many others. Our free wireframing tool guide is available.
- Prototyping tools: Sketch, InVision, and Sketch.
These are just some examples. You’ll also use project management tools and a communication platform, but these are specifically designed for the design process.
Experience the Real World
In the process of learn UI and UX design, in the eyes of prospective employers, practical experience is significant. You’ll have to show your technical abilities by bringing your designs to life through real projects. Collect these projects in a Portfolio you can present to hiring managers. Redesign your favorite websites to improve usability, consistency, and user control. You can get an internship or offer your design services to friends, families, and local businesses for free.
Learn what UI/UX designers do in reality
Once you have a basic understanding of the industry, you can dig deeper into specifics. The next question is: What does a UI/UX designer do?
You’ll discover that UX design revolves around solving problems through your research. UX designers use a process to find creative and innovative solutions to design problems. It’s called design thinking.
The first step is to determine the problem that you will be solving. This is where you will focus on creating empathy for the target user, conducting surveys, and creating problem statements.
After identifying the problem, you will move to the concept phase. This is where creativity begins –drawing ideas on paper and turning them into wireframes.
After many user tests, your final design will be ready for development. Once you have finalized your wireframe and are ready, a UI designer will transform it into a high-fidelity wireframe for the development team.
Be inspired by the top designers
You can learn key UX design principles, methods, and techniques. But, it’s not enough to study them. Also, you can develop your “designer eye” by looking at portfolios on sites such as bestfolios.com and Adobe Blog. You’ll be able to think like a UXer and develop your ideas about good and bad design. You will need inspiration throughout your UX career, not just when you start.
How to learn UI design?
Follow these steps to learn UI design with coherent planning:
- Learn the fundamentals. Start by understanding basic UI design principles such as layout, color palettes, typography, and visual hierarchy. Be familiar with the design concepts and terminology.
- Analyze existing designs. Study well-designed mobile apps, websites, and other digital user interfaces to learn how elements are arranged. Attention to detail is key. Pay attention to spacing, alignment, and color use.
- Learn UI design through popular software like Adobe XD Sketch or Figma. These tools let you build prototypes and mockups of your designs.
- Wireframing is a huge help in your learning process. Create wireframes – basic sketches that show the layout of your interface without visual styling. This will help you focus on your design’s structure and functionality before adding visual elements.
- Develop your visual abilities: Experimenting with color palettes and typography can help create visually appealing designs. Learn about the psychology of colors and how different hues can evoke emotions.
- Keep up with trends by following blogs, websites, and social media accounts that discuss UI design trends.
- Ask for feedback. Share your design with others to get constructive criticism. Join online forums or communities to get feedback from designers with experience who can help improve your design skills.
- Iterate and learn continuously: UI design has an ever-changing field. Therefore, staying up to date with the latest trends and learning new techniques is essential.
- It takes practice and time to learn UI design. Be patient and continue experimenting and refining your designs to become a skilled UI designer.
How long does it take to learn UI UX design?
Answering this question is difficult because it depends on factors like prior experience and knowledge, how much time you are willing to dedicate to learning, and your natural aptitude for design. Obviously, any experience in designing will push you to higher levels. If you have no prior experience in design, it will take longer to learn UI/UX design than if you have some experience.
But there is a need to worry about it. I’ve seen many people who had many experiences in design, but it still takes a long time for them or the opposite site.
Another important point, whether you have experience or not, is that you should work on it, research it, or do anything else you can do about it. If you can only dedicate a few hours a week to learning, reaching proficiency will take longer than committing more time.
Conclusion
Recently learning UI UX design has become a trend among designers. There is a lot of overlap between UI and UX. Even though UX and UI have differences, most designers agree that UX is always placed before UI in the design process. It would make sense to learn to be a UI designer or UX designer in the same order. Mostly the answer to the question of how to learn UI UX design is learning UI UX design depends on many factors that you are now aware of. Also, as you see, how long does it take to learn ui ux design has the same answer as How to learn UI/UX design.
FAQ
Which is easier, UI or UX?
The design element of UI Design is more accessible for some people to grasp than the research and psychological aspects of UX design. The key components in learning UI design are understanding the visual design rules and the software tools you can use to create these designs.
Which should I choose, UI, UX, or both?
UX will become increasingly important as you progress as a developer. Both UI and UX play a part in providing users with an enjoyable experience; designers can use UX/UI to craft websites and products with visual appeal while being user-friendly by prioritizing these two factors.
