Creating attractive, usable, and efficient User Interface (UI) systems takes time, not to mention the numerous design revisions you encounter along the way. It can be pretty exciting at first, but once you become a fully-fledged UI/XD designer, the pressure for continual improvement can be very frustrating.
To ensure that you’re delivering the best possible results for the end-user, it is imperative that you keep challenging your habitual and formulaic practices. So, how do you go about it? How can you improve your game as a UI designer?
In this post, we’ll look at ten simple ways you can step up your game as a UI designer.
1. Familiarize yourself with UI Design Patterns
UI design patterns are general solutions to common problems in UI design. UI designers apply them in various cases, but each pattern is adapted to a specific context of use. For example, you can use Breadcrumbs to help users ‘retrace their steps’ when navigating a big website.
2. Copy Top Designers
Copying another designer’s work is not advisable. It’s primarily frowned upon. However, think about it, replication is basically reverse engineering. When you attempt to recreate a more experienced UI designer’s work, it challenges you to try different work approaches.
3. Train your Eye
Looking at various design inspirations from other designers will motivate you to diversify your design practices. You can start by visiting sites like Behance, Pinterest, and dribbble. From there, you can begin following the designers that intrigue you.
Get to know how they make their designs unique and instantly recognizable. You will learn how to recognize even the most intricate design decisions and incorporate them into your strategy in time.
4. Share your Work and ask for Feedback.
The thought of sharing an unfinished design is enough to bring an intense bout of anxiety for many UI designers. Design perfectionism can affect you so much that your designs might never see the light of day.
To overcome the trappings of perfectionism, try sharing your designs and asking for honest feedback.
Sharing your designs will allow you to get a fresh perspective of your project so you can illiterate and improve it.
5. Start Networking
If you are a freelance UI designer, you should try attending local networking events regularly. These events can be transformative to your career. You will get to discuss solutions to common issues with other designers, exchange tips on becoming a better designer and expand your support network.
6. Make up your Projects.
If you are in the early stages of your career, you might find yourself with a lot of free time since you don’t have many clients. You should utilize the free time to create your projects without any guide or style to adhere to. This way, nothing is holding back your creativity.
Making up your own projects will enable you to refine your design skills and diversify your portfolio.
7. Find a Mentor
A mentor can be any senior UI designer with years of experience in the industry. A mentor can guide, support, and encourage you to reach your fullest potential as a designer.
A mentor can also give you great advice on how to improve your craft since they’ve been where you are. You can find a mentor in a networking event or through social media platforms.
8. Read and do your Research Daily.
If you want to perfect your UI design skills, you need to master concepts like color theory, grid theory, layout and alignment, typography, and human-computer interaction. People interact differently with virtual products, so your job is to know their preferences and create a place that they’ll feel comfortable.
To create the perfect design, you will need to understand how they behave in different circumstances and what they want in a particular product.
9. Take an Online Course.
An online course is a great place to learn new things. Also, having someone take you step by step through complex operations will make the learning process much more comfortable. Many websites offer online classes, but most of them are paid lessons.
If you want a free course, you can go to Adobe XD. It has very well illustrated videos that will teach you how to create artboards, add interactivity, import images and text, and much more. You will also get access to numerous customized free UI kits to aid you in your XD projects.
10. Prune your Vocabulary
Most UX designers don’t use technical terms when talking about projects. While this might be fine within the UX team, it can prove disadvantageous when trying to win over a client. Using technical terms demonstrates your expertise and knowledgeability in the subject matter, making you more attractive to a potential client.
Conclusion
When it comes to UI design, you can always get better regardless of your level of experience. Using these tips will set you on a course for success by improving your UI/UI design skills and performance.
You might also want to check out our collection of blogs and news sites for web designers available for inspirations.