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What Skills Should a UX Designer Have?

4:53 with Anwar Montasir

So what skills do industry employers expect from a UX designer? The answer to this question tends to evolve over time, and partly depends on the type of role you’re preparing for. But there are a handful of skills that most UX professionals are capable of. Let’s take a look.

Vocabulary

  • User Research: The process of understanding user behaviors, needs, and attitudes using different observation and feedback collection methods.

  • Information Architecture: The practice of organizing and labeling content so users can make sense of it

  • Interaction Design: A discipline that focuses on the way users interact with a product

  • Sketches: The process of working out ideas using pencil or pen and paper

  • Wireframes: The skeletal framework of a webpage, focused on navigation, page structure, labeling of content

  • Mockups: A high-resolution representation of a webpage that includes decisions about design elements like color, typography, and photography

  • Prototypes: A usable, interactive version of a web design that can be tested on users before the design gets coded

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    So what skills do industry employers expect from a UX designer? 0:00
    The answer to this question tends to evolve over time and 0:05
    partly depends on the type of role you're preparing for. But there 0:09
    are a handful of skills that most UX professionals are capable of. 0:13
    Let's take a look. We've mentioned already 0:18
    that empathy, or your ability to see a problem from another 0:20
    person's perspective, is a critical quality for any UX designer to have. 0:24
    However, empathy alone doesn't lead to great products. 0:31
    It's critical that UX designers actually talk to users, to ask 0:35
    them about their goals, to learn more about their frustrations, 0:39
    and to observe them attempting to solve challenges. 0:43
    The process of gathering firsthand information about users is called 0:47
    user research. 0:51
    UX designers also practice information architecture, 0:54
    which refers to the practice of organizing and labeling content 0:58
    so users can make sense of it. For example, I've 1:02
    clicked on the doors and windows category at Home Depot. 1:06
    And as you can see, there is a lot of content to organize here. 1:10
    How did Home Depot decide that Exterior Doors, Interior Doors, and 1:16
    Garage Doors should be the main categories of doors? 1:21
    Are these nine choices in the sidebar the most logical 1:25
    subcategories for exterior doors? 1:30
    Is the label Commercial Doors clear and obvious enough that 1:34
    Home Depot users will understand what this link contains? 1:37
    These are the kinds of questions information architects face. 1:42
    You're probably also noticing the large number of ways to get 1:49
    around Home Depot's website. 1:53
    Interaction designers focus on the way users interact with a product. 1:56
    Each of the navigation system seen here, whether the search bar, 2:02
    the All Departments dropdown menu, or the breadcrumb links indicating 2:07
    how deep the user has traveled within the doors and windows section of the site, 2:13
    is based on a popular design pattern found in numerous places on the web 2:19
    and is designed to hopefully make the process of finding a product and 2:24
    making a purchase as smooth and satisfying as possible. 2:30
    Designing effective website and app layouts requires a lot of preparation. 2:36
    UX designers do a lot of sketching, some quick and rough, 2:41
    some more refined, to show to clients and teammates. 2:45
    Using digital software like Figma, Adobe XD, or Sketch, 2:50
    designers turn those sketches first into black and white wireframes, 2:54
    which indicate basic page structure and labeling, followed by mockups, 2:59
    which include decisions about color, typography and photography. 3:04
    Designers can communicate with other team members using this software to 3:11
    create collaborative designs and can turn wireframes and 3:16
    mock ups into clickable prototypes that allow you to test design solutions 3:20
    on users before they're handed off to the development team to be coded. 3:25
    That's just a brief overview of some of the skills common to UX designers. 3:32
    It's worth noting that not all UX professionals do all these things. 3:38
    Some might specialize in just one of these tasks while others 3:43
    are generalists who take on numerous roles. 3:47
    But all of these skills are taught as part of the UX curriculum at Treehouse. 3:50
    One important question you might still have is, do UX designers code? 3:56
    Some do. And knowing at least some coding basics is helpful when 4:01
    communicating with the development team. 4:05
    And, in fact, some of our UX students are developers looking to broaden 4:08
    their skills and better communicate with users. 4:13
    But learning code isn't necessary to succeed as a UX designer and 4:17
    you won't be required to code to complete Treehouse's UX curriculum. 4:21
    Some of the skills I covered in this video require a bit of training to 4:28
    get started, whether operating design software like Adobe XD or 4:32
    learning how to conduct a usability test. 4:37
    But one of my favorite skills to practice is sketching and 4:41
    all you'll need to get started is a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil. 4:44
    We'll try out a sketching assignment in our next video. 4:49

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