Want to dig deeper into the cognitive processes that underlie human-computer interaction and play jack-of-all-trades? Well, the time is right for you to land into a career in UX Design or User Experience Design. This article will help you understand all the important aspects and elements of User Experience Design, and why you should consider this newly emerging and exciting field as a career path. So, what are you waiting for? Sit back and read along!
Design is everything
You must have heard UX designers say ‘I am a User Experience Designer; I design apps/ websites…’ But UX Design is not just limited to a simple device, a website, or an app; it is much more than that. It is everything.
Look around and see everything we use in our day to day life; the chair we sit on, the coffee mug we use to drink coffee in, the smartphone we use, and so on; everything has been created and designed to ease human efforts.
But not every chair we sit on is comfortable and not every mobile app is easy to use & navigate. So is this User Experience Design then? Well, a yes and a no! Let’s find what UX Design meaning is all about in detail.
Topics covered
What is UX Design?
UX Design is the process of designing products, processes, services, events, and environments with a primary focus on user experience. The design of a product or service is created to provide meaningful and relatable experience to the users. It involves the entire process of putting together the end product or service which includes branding, usability, design, and function.
In simpler terms, anything which makes the user experience smooth and easy is UX Design.
The end goal of UX Design is to make the entire experience of the users natural and instinctive. The design process is not driven by a single design discipline, instead, it encompasses a cross-discipline view that considers layered perspectives of the brand/ business/ product or services starting from integrating the product till its final development.
Are the terms -UI UX design- similar?
User Interface/ User Experience- UI/UX design are terms that are used interchangeably but they do not mean the same things.
The major difference between UI and UX design is that while the UI or User Interface Design is all about the look and feel of the website/ app or any product; the User Experience Design focuses on the overall experience of the user when they use the product.
Now that we have answered what is UX Design, let’s move on to understanding some of the significant elements of User Experience Design.
Important Elements of UX Design
User Research: A great User Experience begins and ends with the user. In-depth research about the user’s preferences, needs, mindset, is vital in understanding user behavior.
Visual Design: An appealing and attractive user design plays a significant role in shaping the entire user experience. Proper line spacing, layouts, images, videos, and other visuals matter a lot in the User Experience Design process.
Information Architecture: Information architecture is organizing and structuring the information for easy access and usability of the users. A well-structured information system helps the user in locating information.
Interaction Design: Interaction between the users and the products in terms of the design, look and feel of the product is the core objective of interaction design. Its main goal is to make things simple and comprehensible to the users.
Usability: It enables users to attain their objective ease and satisfaction. A well-designed platform ensures that the users find it easy to look for what they want.
Accessibility: Accessibility in terms of User Exoerience Design also means the overall understanding of the entire design and structure of the product.
UI UX Design: Some facts
Good User Experience & Bad User Experience
- In an ideal world, a user lands on a shopping website, navigates to the products he/ she is looking for, adds to the cart, makes the payment, and gets the product delivered in a hassle-free manner. This is what is called a good user experience.
- On the other hand, a user lands on a website that takes a lot of time in loading finds it difficult to locate the products he is looking for, is unable to place an order, and finally exits the page without purchasing anything. This is an example of a bad user experience.
Design and User Experience are interdependent
- A good or bad user experience completely relies on the design. And this is usually the responsibility a UX Designer holds. UX Designers take into account every bit of detail and element of User Experience to make the experience of the users as easy and smooth as possible.
Product design must be user friendly
- Whether it is a digital product like an application or a website, or a physical product like a smartphone, the UX designer’s job is to make sure the user finds the product easy to use.
- The UX designers focus on market research, product development, design and strategy to build exceptional user experiences. They help in connecting the end product with the customer to achieve business goals.
Now that you are familiar with the terms like good and bad user experience, UI UX design, and what is UX design, let’s take a look at what exactly a UX designer does?
What does a UX designer do?
User Experience Design is user-centered. Meaning, the job of a UX Designer is to design user-friendly products. They are usually involved in user research, creating personas, designing wireframes& flow charts, and interactive prototypes as well as testing the final product designs.
Although the job of a UX Designer may sometimes differ depending on the need and demand of the organization, typically a User Experience designer focuses on the user-centered approach in designing the entire product.
After understanding UX Design meaning in detail, it is now time to understand what exactly a user experience designer does:
- Research: A UX Designer conducts user research to understand user behavior and user needs. This is the first step towards creating a user-friendly User Experience Design phasing out the scope of the project. This step also allows the team to understand why and how of designing a product.
- Studies and creates user-centric hypothesis: After conducting research on the user intent and needs, the designer then creates user personas. User personas are hypothetical situations created to understand customer needs and preferences.
- Designs wireframes: Designers create user flows and wireframes to chart out the entire path a user takes while using a product. Wireframes are an important step in the User Experience Design as it provides a two-dimensional overview of the product before the actual user uses it.
- Building information structure: They work out the most well-structured information layout keeping in mind the ease of accessibility and usability of the users. A great information structure enables the user to navigate from one page to another in a smooth transition.
- Creating prototypes: Testing and creating prototypes is one of the many important tasks before the launch of the final product. A prototype is a model or testing version part of the product which is developed to test the final designs for bugs and other technical issues.
- Coordinating with UI designers: As the visual design is one of the most significant elements of the entire User Experience design, the designers usually coordinate with visual designers or UI designers to integrate the product with the ultimate end goal.
Top 5 Skills to Become a UX Designer
As we discussed what is UX design in detail in the above article, let’s understand what are the skills required to become a User Experience designer:
- User Research ability: Research ability is one of the most in-demand skills for User Experience designers. A User Experience designer focuses on the user-centered approach in designing the products which require exceptional research skills in understanding the user behavior and user needs.
- Collaboration skills: User Experience design encompasses collaboration with the entire team involved in product development; from the business stakeholders to the design team, a designer must interact with other team members in achieving the objectives of the product.
- Visual communication: The job of a User Experience designer requires impeccable visualization skills as all the designs are graphic in nature. A clear understanding of visual communication is a basic requirement to become a good User Experience designer.
- Communication skills: To manage all the aspects of written and oral communication while collaborating with other team members, designers should have strong communication skills.
- Wireframing and Prototyping: This one skill is an additional yet most important skill you can learn or develop, as wireframing and creating prototypes of products is vital to the entire User Experience design process. These skills help designers in communicating the ideas more effectively. From hand-drawn sketches and three-dimensional product models, UX designer jobs require a great deal of knowledge about wireframing and prototyping.
How to become a UX Designer?
- To become a User Experience designer in India, you must have a Bachelor’s degree in Design with a core/ minor subject in UI UX Design. You can also go for a UX/ UI Design course at Bachelor’s and Master’s level. (If you have doubts about which subject to choose in graduation, you can try career counselling after 11th-12th here!)
- At Undergraduate level you can go for UI UX courses such as B.Des. in User Experience Design/ Communication Design/ UI Design and Development/ Interaction Design/ Visual Communication/ UI and Graphics Design or similar courses.
- At Postgraduate level you can go for M.Des. in User Experience Design/ Interaction Design, UI UX Design/ or similar courses.
- Apart from degree programs, you can also pursue diploma courses in UI/ UX design. Some popular diploma courses in UI/ UX are Diploma in Web UI design, Certificate in UX/ UI Design, Post Graduate Diploma in User Experience Design and Development, etc.
- If you are a school student and want to start early in a Design career, think about learning design thinking skills from design experts and gain relevant skills! Learn from top industry experts and start your Design Thinking course offered by iDX education.
Top 12 Design Colleges in India
Many design colleges mentioned below offer UI UX courses at the undergraduate/ postgraduate level or offer a UI UX course as a minor/ major subject in Bachelor’s in Design or Masters in Design. Students can go for a B.Des. and pick a major in UX Design or pursue a course specialization in User Interface or User Experience Design or similar courses at the Master’s level.
Take a look at some of the Top Design Colleges in India:
- IDC School of Design, IIT Mumbai
- Department of Design, IIT Guwahati
- National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmadabad, Gandhinagar, Bengaluru, Kurukshetra, Vijayawada, Jorhat
- Shrishti School of Art and Design, Bangalore
- UID, Karnavati University
- Chitkara School of Art & Design, Chitkara University
- Symbiosis Institute of Design
- MIT Institute of Design Pune
- Apeejay Institute of Design
- Sushant School of Design, Ansal University
- UPES School of Design, Dehradun
- Asian Institute of Design, Bengaluru
List of Top UX Design Courses
UI UX courses are also offered online by various eLearning portals. We have discussed some of the most preferred UI UX online courses below:
- User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide
- UX Designer from Scratch
- User Experience Research and Design
- Information Visualization
- Introduction to User Experience Design
- Design Thinking: The Beginner’s Guide
- Psychology for Digital Behaviour Change
- User Experience Design Course
- Interaction Design Specialisation
- Product Design (UI/UX)
- UX Research & Strategy
- Foundations of UX: Prototyping
- Foundations of UX: Information Architecture
- Foundations of UX: Logic and Content
- Foundations of UX: Making the Case for Usability Testing
- User Experience Design Tools: Axure
- User Interface Analysis
- Diploma in UI/UX Design
- Intro to the Design of Everyday Things
- Problem-Solving with Design Thinking
List of Topics Covered in UI UX Course
| About UX |
| What is User Interaction |
| What is Mental Model |
| What is Cognitive Model |
| User Experience (UX) Design and its use? |
| Elements of UX Design |
| Elements used in User Experience Design. |
| What is Persona in User Experience Design |
| User Experience Design Process |
| Defining the User Experience Design Process and its Methodology. |
| What is User Research in User Experience Design? |
| What are the User Needs and Goals |
| What are the Tools and Method used for Research |
| How to deliver a research and it phases |
| Visual Design Principles |
| Information Design and Data Visualization |
| Interaction Design |
| Wire framing & Storyboarding |
| Elements and Widgets |
| Screen Design and Layouts |
| User Experience Design Improvement & Delivery Process |
| Understanding the Usability Test findings |
| Applying the Usability Test feedback in |
| How to communicate with implementation team |
| UX Deliverables and its process |
Top 5 User Experience Design Learning Platforms
To ease your search for the best online learning platforms for UX Design courses, we have done the hard work for you! Check out the top online learning platforms for UI UX courses:
- Interaction Design Foundation offers specialist design courses in User Experience Design. The interaction design foundation offers 31 beginners to advanced courses in User Experience and design thinking. Courses range from becoming a UX Designer from Scratch, Information Visualization, to Design Thinking: The Beginner’s Guide, and many more.
- Coursera offers a variety of UX/UI design courses. You will find courses such as UI/ UX specialization, Visual Elements of User Interface Design, UX/UI Design Fundamentals, and many more from the world’s most renowned universities and companies.
- Udemy offers design courses at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels for students and working professionals. You may find courses such as User Experience Design Essentials – Adobe XD UI UX Design, UX Research & Strategy, Design Principles, and so on.
- Springboard offers courses like User Experience Design Bootcamp- Learn User Experience Design with Expert Mentors, Introduction to Design, UX/ UI Design Career, UX Career Track, etc.
- SkillShare offers UX/ UI Design online classes to beginners as well as working professionals. Courses range from User Experience Design Essentials – Adobe XD UI UX Design, Learn Adobe Xd Web design: Design professional websites from scratch – UI UX Design, and so on.
Take help from career experts and find your true calling!
Top 20 UX designer Jobs
The UX designer jobs are very much in demand with most of the business operations switching to digital platforms for user interaction and communication. UX Designers may find job opportunities in a variety of industries such as Advertisement, Media, Information Technology, Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Education, and Hospitality so on.
UX designer jobs may vary, some of the most common job profiles are:
- User Researcher
- UX Research Analyst
- Design Manager
- UX Designer
- UI Developer
- UI Designer
- Information Architecture (IA)
- Interaction Designer (IAX)
- Product Designer
- UX Tester
- Interaction Designer
- Visual Designer
- Usability Analyst
- Web Designer
- UI UX Game Designer
- Automotive UX Designer
- Chat UI Designer
- Voice UI Designer
- Wireframe Expert
- UI UX Expert Designer/ Researcher at various senior executive roles
UX designer Salary
As per the data collected by Glassdoor, the UX designer salary at an average range from
Rs. 3, 20,000 to 16, 55, 000 per annum. As an entry-level UX Designer, you would earn a starting salary of around Rs.35, 000 to Rs.40, 000 per month.
In conclusion
By now you must have a pretty fair idea of what UX Design is and how you can pursue a career in this creative field. If you still have doubts or want to go for an expert’s opinion about the industry trends, then set up a meeting with a career counsellor and get all your doubts cleared about a career in design or any other career field!
Some other interesting blogs you may like to read:
- What is Freelancing and How to Become a Freelancer? Top 5 Hacks
- 11 Reasons Why Liberal Arts Education is Worth it!
- A Comprehensive Guide on Online Courses, Top 10 Free Online Courses, MOOCs, and much more
- A Complete Guide on How to Choose a Career
- Career in Product Designing
- Art and Design Careers
- Design Thinking Process
- Design Thinking Skills
- Front End Developer Courses
- Career in Fashion Design
Shruti Verma has an experience of around 2+ years in research and analysis of careers, jobs, and industries. She has a knowledge of diverse fields spanning from career counselling, management consulting, engineering, and technology to science, finance, and humanities.
Hi Shruti,
I really enjoy reading your blogs. They are very informative, covering almost everything that one needs to know to start the journey. They are not only very helpful in career counselling but also a very interesting read.
Thank you
Thank you, Reena! Glad to know this helped. Gives immense satisfaction reading such reviews.
Thanks for the great information! I would not have gotten this by myself!
Nice information, you write very nice articles,