How to Be a User Experience Designer?

‍User Experience Design is one of the most important sought-after roles. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for digital designers, which includes User Experience (UX) Designers, will grow at a 16% rate until 2032. On the other hand, Indeed listed UX as one of the 19 IT jobs in high demand in 2024. If you want to become a UX Designer and have no clue where to start, you have landed in the best place to understand how to be a UX Designer!

What Does a UX Designer Do?

A UX Designer works to provide relevant experiences for users and solve their needs and pain points through a product or service. Overall, UX Design handles every interaction a user has with a digital product, from branding to usability and functionality. Designers also consider how visual elements are arranged, the feedback the app gives users when they've completed a task successfully, and how easy it is for them to find what they need. As a UX Designer, you'd be in charge of thinking and answering questions like "Does the product solve a problem?" or "Does it make users feel pleased or frustrated?"

UX Designers in the Design Process

It's crucial to fully understand all the stages of the design process because that's exactly what you'd be working on as a UX Designer. Depending on your role, you may be more involved in one of them, if not all.

1. Empathize. UX Designers must understand users' needs, pain points, desires, and frustrations to design user-centric products that solve actual problems. Through User Research, UX Designers can gather relevant, quantitative, and qualitative data to gain a solid understanding of their assumptions.

2. Define. Once you've understood users through data and insights, you have to define the specific problem you want to solve with user-centered designs. As a UX Designer, your goal at this stage is to come up with a problem statement that has to be as specific as possible. Some people also refer to it as a Point Of View (POV) statement. 

This example should help you understand this better: "Elderly patients in New York need a simple and intuitive healthcare portal where they can schedule appointments. They should also be able to view their medical history and communicate with their doctors."

3. Ideate. In the ideation stage, you'll have to design possible design ideas that solve the problem you've just defined. It is important to keep an open mind and try to think outside of the box. Once you have a few good ideas, your job is to narrow down the list.  

4. Prototyping. You have your problem statement and a solution for it. Now, it's time to materialize with technical and practical skills. Prototyping can start with paper or digital User Workflow, leading to low-fidelity wireframes. These workflows represent how users move around when interacting with the product to complete a task, which is crucial to understanding if your product is intuitive and easy to use. Some of the best and most in-demand tools for prototyping in design jobs include Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch.

5. Testing. For Testing, you'll have to contact a group of real users and have them use your prototype to gather feedback. Here, you determine what problems they encounter, and the data you get will help you spot room for improvement in this iterative process. Your goal is to answer the following questions: Are we building the right solution? Is the product usable? Common methods for answering these questions involve card sorting, A/B testing, screen sharing, video recording, and usability testing. Regarding testing tools, you can use Maze, UserZoom, and Userlytics.

Why Are UX Designers Important?

UX Design has a strong and direct impact on a product's outcome, and it largely determines what users feel when they interact with a product. UX Designers help companies ensure they're investing their time and resources in building the right solution for the right people. Nearly 90% of users won't return to a site with a poor User Experience; imagine how not investing in UX can affect conversions! 

Experts even argue that the reason why industry leaders like Amazon, Apple, and Airbnb outperform their competitors is because of the seamless User Experience they provide. There's nothing like happy users to attract potential new customers, with studies showing that around 72% of users will share a positive experience with six or more people.

How To Become A UX Designer?

UX Design is an extremely collaborative field. I'm not just talking about design teams or the users you interview or have used your prototypes, but working closely with the Development team, Project Managers, Product Owners, and even stakeholders.

Regarding the educational requisites, many people may be wondering if you need specific qualifications or a formal degree to start your design career. There are over a hundred degrees related to UX Design. Some designer job listings may actually require a degree in a related field. While it is not mandatory, formal education in UX Design fields is very important and can help guarantee great quality. Hence, businesses should definitely consider qualifications when hiring an agency for projects that involve UX Design.

On top of formal education, there are plenty of online resources and platforms that you can use to build a strong foundation of the key principles of UX Design and related fields like Interaction Design, Visual Design, and Graphic Design. Many people consider design bootcamps or online courses because of the flexibility they offer in their learning environments. Some people have even become self-taught UX Designers by doing their research and mastering design skills, design principles, and tools on their own.  

Now, you must start your projects so you can build and showcase a strong portfolio. You can start by taking a look at how professional UX Designers who work in the companies you're targeting showcase their work. That should give you an idea of how you can present your work professionally. You can also contact them directly on platforms like LinkedIn or engage with them in communities so you can also get valuable industry connections.

Strong design portfolios include charts and analytics that demonstrate thorough User Research and validated POV statements. They describe the strategy, the contributions they made to the product, and the reasons why certain design decisions were made. It's also good practice to describe the challenges designers faced and the goals they achieved. Professional portfolios also specify the design tools used for each project. 

They also describe whether the work had a strong focus on a specific aspect of the design process, such as user testing. You can start your projects by searching for a product or an app you or people you know find frustrating to use. You can use the tools you've been learning to use to create a prototype.

Lastly, you should publish a portfolio on a wide range of platforms like Behance, Dribble, Adobe Portfolio, or website builders like Webflow. With a published portfolio, you can start networking and asking for feedback on how you can improve your work. After that, you'll be able to reach out to companies looking for a junior UX Designer. As with any other skill, you should never stop learning. Technologies and trends change all the time. UX Design is a field that requires you to be resourceful.

Conclusion

UX Design is an in-demand and rewarding profession, and everyone can start learning at their own pace using online resources. UX Designers have a crucial role in the Product Development process, and their job has a strong impact on the product's outcome, helping companies gain a competitive advantage.