“Design is everywhere. From the dress you’re wearing to the smartphone you’re holding, it’s design.” - Samadara Ginige, Designer and Developer
Does this quote from Samadara fascinate you? For me, it does; and has had a profound influence on the way I see the world.
A Little Background Story
Being a digital marketer for a while now, I have sometimes had to seek ways to make an 'offer' appealing enough for customers to buy. This involved constant research into other available competitors in the market - a process termed competitor analysis - and using words to play into the psychology and emotions of buyers to trigger them to take certain actions. I guess this was the first time I critically took a look at creating things for the customer. Now, this is not entirely UI/UX but it is related to it in some way.
In 2020, I got into a Digital Marketing role and discovered that I would need to know a little bit of design. I had to learn design and learn it fast. Prior to this role, I never fancied anything related to design because I felt it was only for creative people, of which I did not consider myself to be one.
I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to get a grasp of design. I started with reading a basic, fantastic and beginner-friendly book titled - The Non-Designer Guide to Design by Robin Williams. Then I further familiarized myself with Design Principles. I also started paying closer attention to designs, watching how other intermediate and advanced designers applied these principles in their designs. Most importantly, I started replicating designs off the internet. This helped me get into the designer's mind to feel and almost know what he was thinking as he made his design. Fortunately for me, I have friends who are professional graphic designers. I'd approach them and have them review my work. I'd take whatever feedback I received and make the necessary corrections, and then repeat the process, again.
It was during this role that I stumbled upon UI/UX. I was fascinated that in some way, I could tie some aspect of the UX part to what I was currently doing. By the way, if you are wondering what UI or UX means, UI simply means User Interface while UX means User Experience. Usually, they are combined with other words so that they make more sense. So you might hear words like UI Designer, UX specialist, UX researcher and the list goes on.
This article is more focused on what I have personally learned since starting out as a beginner in the UI/UX field. If you need more insight into what UI/UX is all about, this amazing guide from CareerFoundry does thorough justice to that.
So then, what have I learned these past few weeks?
Lesson 1: UI and UX are not the same thing
This is fairly obvious, one would suppose. However, for me, I had to learn the meaning of the two and how they differ but yet work hand-in-hand.
While UI is concerned with the aesthetics of the product, the UX on the other hand is concerned with how the customer feels when using the product.
Come to think of it, there is no use for a product which is aesthetically good but difficult, or worse still, impossible to use. This reminds me of an eCommerce website from which I tried to purchase a product. This happened long before I knew UI/UX was a thing. I remember being very frustrated in trying to use the website. Asides the fact that the website speed was really slow, navigating through the different categories was a pain. The categories were not useful in helping me navigate to what I wanted to purchase. I opted to use the search bar which was equally unfruitful. After trying for minutes, I reached my threshold, cursed the moment I visited the site and vowed never to return to that site. It was my first time trying out that site and was my last because I never did, again.
Summarily, I could say that my experience with that site and the company was terrible. Many people have similar experiences and that is what UI/UX is helping the world to solve. What fascinates me the most about UI/UX, in general, is that it puts the user at the centre of everything. This means, when we build, we build for the user.
Lesson 2: Principles Matter in Everything - In Design Too.
Remember I wrote that I thought creativity was all that was needed to be a great designer. It turns out I was wrong. Creativity matters, however, I found something that mattered more. Can you guess what it is? - It's Design Principles.
Just like with every field in life, there's always that knowledge that forms the foundation upon which other knowledge and experiences are built. In design, they are called Design Principles. They are the basic, must-know rules that guide the creation of good designs. For me as a beginner, they serve as a metric to vet my designs against. Some design principles are Alignment, Contrast, Proximity, Repetition, Balance, Emphasis... The list goes on.
Armed with these principles, I can immediately identify what made a design good or otherwise once I see the design. I still struggle with applying these principles in my designs, but knowing them has been very helpful.
Lesson 3: The 'Practice makes perfect' advice might not be a cliché after all.
What I have also noticed is that no matter how much theoretical knowledge of design that I acquire, they do not exactly prove useful until they are put into practice. Also practising has helped me to internalize some unsaid but important things about design - things that you can only learn by doing. This applies to any skill that is to be learnt in life but in UI/UX, it is inescapable.
So, that covers some of the things that I have learnt during these past few days to weeks. I will keep this updated from time to time as I learn and grow in my UI/UX career. If you care for any updates, do well to bookmark this page so that you can easily revisit it.
Thank you for reading! 😊