what is a mobile ux/ui designer

What Is UX Design?

What Is UX Design?

UX design is concerned with the interaction of real users with everyday products and services such as websites, mobile apps, and coffee machines.

This very diverse discipline combines aspects of business, psychology, market research, and design with technology. We've created a guide to help you explore these areas more deeply.

Researchers coined the term "user experience" to encompass the many factors that affect how a customer feels when interacting with a particular product.

Our article about UX design will take you through the history of UX. This UX guide is a great resource for those who want to explore UX design in depth. Since its inception, UX design has been synonymous with success.

Only products and services that provide a seamless user experience will be successful on the market.

UX Design In Action

We know mobile UX designers are essential; we've got a working definition, but how does UX look in practice?

Here's An Example: Imagine that you are shopping online for a pair of shoes. The "shoes" category has over 300 pairs of shoes.

You realize that there is no way to filter results. This means you must scroll through hundreds of shoes you don't want before finding the right pair.

You add the items to your shopping basket. As a first-time customer, you need to create an account before you can make your purchase.

It's no problem until you realize that at least 10 fields must be completed! You decide to look elsewhere because buying shoes from this website is a hassle.

A bad user experience is not limited to websites. It can be any product or service that you interact with. Does it make things easy for you? Is it easy to use? Is it logical? All of these are indicators of a positive or negative user experience.

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What Is The Role Of A UX Designer?

What Is The Role Of A UX Designer?

UX designers' role is to make technology, products, and services usable, enjoyable, and accessible for people. UX designers are often part of a larger product team.

They bridge the gap between users, developers, and business stakeholders.

The UX designer should always consider the user's experience and what is best for them. Suppose you hire mobile UX designer.

In that case, they should be involved in developing your product and researching your business goals to represent them in the layout.

Your Job As A UX Designer Is To Advocate For The Customer Or End-User.

You are responsible for ensuring that the product meets the needs and requirements of the company. Does it match the vision of the CEO? Does it increase revenue or help retain customers? What kind of projects are you likely to be working on? What is your position within the company?

How Does A UX Designer Spend Their Day?

A UX designer's typical day will include designing software, mobile apps, and websites. They may also design for voice-activated devices, AR and VR! Some UX designers focus more on the service experience than the tangible product, such as designing an overall experience when using public transportation or staying at a hotel.

It is important to know that designers are typically not responsible for the visual design of a product. They focus more on the user's journey and how the product is designed to support it.

The size of the team, the type of project, and the priorities will all vary from one company to another.

The tasks you perform daily will vary depending on the role you play and the company that employs you. UX includes research, testing, business analysis, project management, and psychological principles.

It also involves more hands-on tasks like wireframing, prototyping, and other design tasks. We'll look more closely at the UX process in the next section and examine some of the main tasks a UX Designer will perform.

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What Are The Tasks Of A UX Designer?

What Are The Tasks Of A UX Designer?

You will go through the UX design steps to ensure all products are designed keeping the user in mind. What tasks will you be performing daily? Let's look at it in more detail.

  • Researching users
  • Creating user personas
  • Information architecture: determining the information architecture
  • Create user flows and wireframes
  • Prototyping & user testing

Researching users

The magic (research) occurs in the UX design's initial stages. UX designers are usually given a project brief by the client or manager, asking them to conduct some research.

For example, let's take the fictional fast food chain "Foodies." Imagine Foodies approaching you to design an app. The UX designer should combine desk research with field research to gain a complete picture of the audience they are designing for.

This could include reviewing the website's current offerings, interviewing users to identify pain points and opportunities, and conducting competitor research.

The UX designer can use these tasks to identify the minimum viable product's key features or the first version you will release.

They can also start to create some initial personas. Foodies' core features could include a menu, online bookings, and a local branch locator. The user research phase is when you define the project's scope.

You identify who you are designing for and the users' goals and challenges concerning your product.

Creating user personas

UX designers may create personas based on user research. You will now dig deeper into the tasks that each persona would like to accomplish and why.

Personas play a key role in the process. A typical Foodies persona is a 20-something with a lot of energy who enjoys eating artisanal salads during her lunch break.

A typical task for Samantha's persona could be:

The mobile app allows her to order the Moroccan Lamb Salad in advance, saving her time between meetings. Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) is another popular approach that can be used as an alternative or in addition to user personas.

Determining The Information Architecture

You'll then start to think about what kind of content is needed and how that will be organized across your website or app.

Information architecture is the process of determining the best layout and organization for the content. A good information architecture ensures that users can easily find the information they seek and navigate intuitively from one page to another without much thought.

Create user flows and wireframes

UX designers map the user journey using tools like wireframes and user flows. Basic flowcharts called user flows show a customer's entire path to use a product.

This includes the initial interaction and the final interaction. This introductory guide on user flows will teach you more.

Wireframes are a two-dimensional representation of a screen or page. Wireframing is covered in greater detail in a previous article.

If you want to start immediately, we have compiled a list of the best free wireframing software.

Prototyping & user testing

After the UX designer has mapped out the product layout, he will create prototypes and conduct user testing. A prototype is a simplified version of your final product.

It's a simulation that allows you to test your design before it develops. The simplest paper prototypes and more complex interactive prototypes are available that closely mimic the final products.

Test your prototypes with real users to identify any design flaws.

This will help you make the final product better. It may take several rounds of testing before the final design is perfect.

When you are sure that the design meets the users' needs, it is time to start the development process. UX designers attend sprint meetings as well to ensure that there are no feature creeps. (This happens a lot in my experience!) It's also important to help make small changes to the design when needed.

Visual Design

Notice that none of these tasks is concerned with the visual design. Some UX designers specialize in visual design, which usually falls under the user interface (UI design) category.

A UI designer will be responsible for the final images, color schemes, and icons. You can read our guide to help you understand the differences between UX design and UI.

The final point is that the work of a UX designer is seldom finished once a product is launched. There will be small tweaks, new releases, and feedback to collect.

UX design is highly iterative. A career in UX involves as much collaboration and coordination as it does design.

Also Read: Android Apps Every UX Designer Should Use

What Are The Skills Required By A UX Designer?

What Are The Skills Required By A UX Designer?

UX designers must have many skills to handle such diverse tasks. UX designers need various skills, including technical and design abilities like wireframing, prototypes and interpreting data and feedback.

Soft skills such as adaptability, communication, and empathy are essential. Problem-solving, teamwork, and problem-solving are also important soft skills.

You must be able to work with others, from clients to stakeholders, developers to fellow designers. In the UX industry, business knowledge is also important.

When designing solutions, it's crucial to consider the company's goals and the audience's needs. Remember that to become a full-stack designer, you must train in other areas, such as web development and UX writing.

This is particularly true if you are a UX Designer in a start-up.

UX Designer Job Market and Salary

UX Designer Job Market and Salary

We've all heard that happy users make for a good business. UX designers have become more important than ever. As the tech industry continues evolving, the demand for UX design has increased dramatically.

It is particularly true for UX Designers who are at the forefront of their field and participate in the trends which keep UX Design relevant and essential.

The average annual salary of UX designers, as aggregated by Glassdoor and Indeed, is also increasing:

  • Intern UX Design: 60,864 dollars
  • Junior User Experience Designer: $103,334
  • UX designer: $106,896
  • Senior User Experience Designer: $139.001
  • Senior User Experience Design Manager: $159 856

The outlook for a UX career is very good. It is a highly competitive market. We recommend cultivating a relationship with a UX design coach and creating a portfolio of UX designs to help you stand out.

You may be even more confused if you search "UI designer" on Google.

UI and UX tend to be grouped, making it hard to distinguish between them. While the two fields are closely related, it is important to note that User Interface Design has its own distinct field.

There is some overlap, but UI design has its tasks and requires a different set of skills.

UI Design In A Nutshell

UI Design In A Nutshell

What Is UI Design?

User Interface Design is an important subset of UX. Both share the same goal - to provide a positive user experience - but UI Design is a separate part of the journey.

UX is the overall experience of interacting with a product. UI is simply what you do to interact with it. Since we have already extensively discussed the differences between UX and UI design, we will focus solely on the UI.

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UI Design: The Visual Aspect

UI Design: The Visual Aspect

UI design focuses primarily on the visual experience of the user. It is how a user interacts, whether with an app or website.

It all comes down to how a user gets from A-B using different visual touchpoints. Imagine swiping or tapping on a button. A UI designer's job is to design the screens a user will use and create the visual elements and their interactive properties to facilitate this movement.

Human Aspect Of UI Design

Human Aspect Of UI Design

Look At It Like This: The user doesn't have to think much about a good interface. Think about your favorite app.

It's simple and easy to use. You didn't have to spend hours figuring out how to use it when you first downloaded it. It was obvious. This is where the UI designer comes in.

They consider the user's mind and the way it works. The user is guided by things such as patterns, color, and spacing.

The keyword is "intuitive." The UI designer is creative and anticipates what the user expects at each stage. The UI designer uses this empathy to create visual and interactive elements that feel natural to users.

Imagine you are using an app to find a new apartment. You click on a listing to see the gallery. The caption 1/5 appears on your screen.

A full-size picture takes over the entire screen. You swipe your finger through the gallery because there are still more images. You didn't need any instructions--you just knew.

The UI designer is responsible for this. The UI designer considers the end user's expectations and designs the app's interface accordingly.

What Are The Skills Required By A UI Designer?

What Are The Skills Required By A UI Designer?

It's more complex than you think to be a UI designer. A UI designer must have a sharp eye for details, but as we've already discussed, UI design is much more than sitting in front of a computer screen.

Expert mobile UX designers with strong, soft skills are more effective in a group setting. They are just as important as having mastered the technical tools and techniques. Take a look at the soft and hard skills that every UI designer must possess:

Soft Skills:

  • Communication in UI design is essential.

    You must communicate the function of every element you design to developers when you give them your designs.

    Communication with clients and stakeholders is key to any UI designer's role.

    You often have to justify and explain your design decisions as thoroughly as possible.

  • From UX designers to web developers to stakeholders and clients--UI Designers work together at every level.

    It is important to work well as a team.

    This involves listening to each other and troubleshooting problems together.

    UI designers need to be able to take creative direction and give it.

    Teamwork is essential to achieving the goal.

  • Remember how we discussed the human element of UI design earlier? Empathy is required to put yourself in your users' shoes.

    It is important to keep accessibility and inclusivity in mind when creating an interface that will be enjoyed by all users.

    You won't succeed if you put aesthetics and creativity above usability.

Hard Skills:

  • Even for entry-level UI Design positions, employers expect candidates to have a basic understanding of prototyping and design tools, such as Adobe XD and Sketch.

    After you have mastered one tool, it is much easier to learn the other.

    Check out our list of 7 essential tools that every budding UI Designer should know.

  • UI designers must have a firm grasp of the theories, methods, and practices that form the foundation of UI design.

    Color theory, typography, and UI patterns are among the fundamentals.

    You can also learn about Gestalt Principles and other design principles.

What Can A UI Designer Expect?

What Can A UI Designer Expect?

It's up to the UI designer to make the UX designer's vision a reality. How do they achieve this? Your role will depend on whether you are in-house, freelance, or the type of project you work on.

Almost all UI designers can expect to see the following:

Collaboration

As we have already discussed, collaboration is crucial to UI design. You can expect to collaborate closely with the UX designer and client at the beginning of the design process.

UI is about people, so getting to know your brand and target audience is important. What are the goals of your user when they navigate through your interface? And what expectations do they have?

UX is often concerned with user research and personas, but the UI designer must take that information and run. You will likely be given a wireframe by the UX designer.

Final step: you will need to give your design to the developers. The success of any project depends on the ability to build rapport with different teams.

You Can Also Design Your Own

A role in UI requires you to be very hands-on in design. It includes creating screens, visual touchpoints, and the interactivity that goes with them.

UI designers must also ensure consistency. They create a visual language or style guide that can be used everywhere. What might a UI Designer expect to find on a to-do checklist? Let's get specific:

  • The layout of each screen the user will interact with, including what should be placed where.

    How much space between elements should there be? What visual patterns or hierarchies create an intuitive user experience for you?

  • Consider how your app will appear on different screen sizes.

    Think responsive design.

  • Designing UI components such as buttons and icons.
  • Create an awesome color palette to inject personality into your website or app.
  • Selecting the right fonts and typesetting.
  • Designing the interaction of each UI component: for example, what happens when the user clicks a button?
  • Create animations.
  • Create a style guide that will be used in all applications to ensure consistency and familiarity.

The design phase may include creating wireframes and mood boards and sketching different ideas of how the interface could look.

UI designers use Photoshop and Sketch.

Prototyping

Prototyping is a great way to test designs repeatedly as a UI Designer. You can use prototypes to show your designs in action.

This helps you identify any flaws or rough edges. Testing and prototyping are essential parts of the UI workflow. They allow you to make sure that your final product is perfect.

Three different types of prototypes exist:

  1. Low-Fidelity Wireframes: It consists of basic layouts, elements, and designs drawn on whiteboards or paper.

    The rough sketches of user flows can be a great way to communicate an idea quickly and with little cost or effort.

  2. Clickable Prototypes: It can be created once the user flows and layouts have been defined.

    Prototypes consist of static screens with a high to medium level of detail.

  3. High-Fidelity Prototypes: These are usually characterized by advanced interaction and transition and resemble the finished product.

    At this stage, any final tweaks are made before the designs are given to developers.

UI designers use a variety of tools to build their prototypes. InVision, for example, is great for creating basic interactions in lower-fidelity prototyping, while tools like Principle can be used to refine specific animations and transitions.

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Closing Words

Hopefully, this post has helped to reduce some of the long-standing UI/UX confusion. There's a lot more to UX and UI than what we've discussed today, so it's important to read up on each field in-depth to get a sense of what they include and a deeper knowledge of how they vary.

You will be required to wear many hats in UI design. UI designers must have a good eye for design but should also consider the psychological side.

You need to know how people think and interact to design user-friendly interfaces. Some companies hire best mobile UX designers after most of a project has been developed.

UX can be a rewarding, diverse, and fascinating career. You should now be able to describe what a UX Designer does to others.

Paul
Full Stack Developer

Paul is a highly skilled Full Stack Developer with a solid educational background that includes a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Software Engineering, as well as a decade of hands-on experience. Certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, and Agile Scrum Master bolster his knowledge. Paul's excellent contributions to the software development industry have garnered him a slew of prizes and accolades, cementing his status as a top-tier professional. Aside from coding, he finds relief in her interests, which include hiking through beautiful landscapes, finding creative outlets through painting, and giving back to the community by participating in local tech education programmer.