Category: Design

LinkedIn has listed UX design as one of the key skills to learn in 2020. And in Google Trends, over the past 5 years, interest in the query “UX design” in Europe, the USA, Canada, and Australia has doubled and continues to grow. In this article, we will provide you with step-by-step instructions for becoming a UX designer.

What is UX design?

Before we dive into the principles of UX design, let’s first understand the meaning of the term. UX has already become one of the buzzwords in the corporate world. There are many definitions of UX design, but they all reflect only a few aspects of the discipline.

User Experience (User Experience) is a collection of sensations from user interaction with the interface of a system, product, or service. User experience is how a user perceives an interface, product, or service and responds to it. Both at the moment before use and during work with it.

Peter Morville, the author of Total Visibility and Information Architecture, outlines 7 principles of good ux design:

1. Useful.
2. Suitable for use.
3. Detectable.
4. Credible.
5. Desired.
6. Available.
7. Valuable.

With the relevant experience and education, a UX designer may well develop into a specialist responsible for the publication, engaged in editorial activities, or specialize in the field of layout, or design. He can do web design or the same editorial activities. At the same time, the path of managerial development related to development as a leader may be open to the specialist.

The Right Way for Becoming a UX Designer

There is no generally accepted definition of what UX design is, and a direct translation from English User experience – “user experience”, you see, is abstract enough to understand. But in simple terms, the user experience is the sensations and emotions that a person experiences when interacting with something. From a simple push of the button to turn on an electric kettle to a complex launch of a nuclear reactor, requiring preliminary preparation.

Basic knowledge of graphics, basics of composition, color science, typography, art history, etc. is necessary for successful mastering of the profession of a UX designer. In addition to general art education, the designer, depending on the field of activity, it is necessary to obtain special knowledge of the technology of production of certain products, as well as to master specialized computer programs.

What is UI design and what is its purpose? If UX is about functionality, then UI is about the art of the visual component, attention to form, color, space in detail, and adherence to style. UX and UI complement each other but serve different purposes. Imagine if UX and UI designers are building a house. Then the first one cares how to place the walls and the second one – in what color to paint them. Although UX and UI perform different tasks, it often happens that one designer calls himself UX / UI. Why is that? UX is trendy, which is why some UI specialists add a UX prefix to themselves, increasing their value in the market.

This article will advise you to open your own online store. This will allow you to make the most of your skills and use online resources. Remember that competition in this area is tough. Many people are defeated because they did not succeed, but there are people who not only earn graphic design and web design while working on the Internet but also make a decent living from it.

How to Study for the Profession of Freelance Graphic Designer

There are several options for self-study for freelance graphic design: online courses – you can take several at once at any convenient time and anywhere, many of them are free. The disadvantage is the lack of feedback, and the risk of quitting an online course, especially a free one, is higher compared to an offline lesson for which you have already paid. Nevertheless, courses are not a panacea. Learning only in a listener format is not suitable for everyone, so you can learn with the help of books, articles, attending thematic meetings and lectures.

The upside of this self-study is that you write the program yourself based on which area of design is more interesting. But you should be careful, as you can miss topics that are not interesting to you, but important for future work. To solve this problem, look for a mentor for yourself online or if among your fellow designers who, if necessary, will help you adjust the training program.

In fact, this profession will never cease to be in demand, because:

• the more different companies appear; the more work designers have;
• every firm needs identification. Now there are no companies that would exist without business cards, logos, advertising;
• quite often companies are engaged in rebranding, updating all their visual content. Accordingly, all this is the work of designers.

If we talk about simpler things, the designers also develop postcards, souvenirs, illustrate books. We will also not forget about how 3D printing and its scope are currently developing. And the work of a graphic designer in this field is in demand.

How to Make Money Being a Freelance Graphic Designer?

Creativity and innovation are interconnected, and in this creative world, there are crazy ideas and new innovative ideas that keep the ball in motion. From novice designers to experienced people, everyone has a chance to show their talents and earn. To know how to make money online with graphic design and make a living, you need to understand how it works.

It is important to remember that there is state-of-the-art competition in the design of the interactive and offline industries, but the demand for great designers is also high. Graphic design has huge online access. You can design everything from t-shirts, mugs, hats, pants, websites, blogs, flash presentations, templates, logos, business cards, icons, calendars, the list of which is endless, as well as opportunities.

For information on how to make money online through graphic design surfing through various websites that offer such online services. Start by including websites that offer graphic sales. Here you can download your graphic samples. These sites allow you to sell graphic illustrations and vector files. You can choose your own tasks. Think of joining these sites only as a preliminary step, because they may not bring you a very good return, but it is certainly a good platform for presenting your work and people so that they can recognize you.

In a broad sense, a designer is a specialist engaged in artistic and technical activities. A graphic designer is a specialist who performs computer typesetting of advertising and publishing materials. Narrow specializations of a modern graphic designer are possible: web designer, designer of advertising products, illustrator, etc.

Working Conditions of a Graphic Designer

A graphic designer is a promising area of activity of the department for training artists-designers in the field of printing, visual design, advertising, web design, multimedia products, etc. In the process of learning, students learn a number of specialized disciplines that provide skills in the field of visual communication. In addition, this specialization involves the training of specialists in the development of corporate identity, trademarks, packaging design, advertising, and social posters. The acquired knowledge can be applied in advertising agencies, editorial offices of magazines and newspapers, in printing firms.

The designer with graphic design software can work both independently and in a team, which may consist of several specialists. Most often, representatives of this profession work indoors. These can be offices of companies and organizations or even home conditions. The work is mostly sitting, using a computer. This is usually a quiet and peaceful activity, with little to do with business trips, travel, or meetings with customers.

The designer is rarely independent in his work. On the one hand, he can make his own decisions within the framework of the tasks. On the other hand, it is often limited by the requirements of the modelers, and the wishes of management to the end result of the work and the customer. The work of a designer can be piecework and remote, carried out in a “freelance” mode.

Why Should You Become a Graphic Designer?

This profession will never really stop being in demand because the more different companies appear, the more work there is for designers. After all, every firm needs identification. Now there are no companies that would exist without business cards, logos, advertising. Also, quite often companies are engaged in rebranding, updating all their visual content. Accordingly, all this is the work of designers.

If we talk about simpler things, the designers also develop postcards, souvenirs, and illustrated books. We will also not forget about how 3D printing and its scope are currently developing. And the work of a designer in this field is in demand. As for graphic design software, it seems that soon each of us will have our own site. And all this is also the work of designers.

Graphic design, although a creative niche, has basic concepts that must be mastered before downloading programs and buying expensive tablets. Your further work will be based on these concepts. This is a kind of rope on which you will put your creative beads. What is this concept?

1. Composition.
2. Colorists.
3. The difference between a raster and a vector.
4. Printing house and its components.
5. Anchor objects.
6. Form.
7. Textures.
8. Light, shadow, perspective.

The profession of graphic designer belongs to the class of “heuristic (creative)” because it is associated with creative activity, control, and planning, management of other people, design, and engineering. It requires high erudition, originality of thinking, desire for development, and constant learning