9 answers
Younes
Student
Lille, Hauts-de-France, France
1
Question
Asked
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How to be come a UI/UX designer coming an engineering background ?
I'm a computer science engineering student .who is turning to UI/UX design as self-thought . #design #graphic-design #engineering #computer
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9 answers
Kiah Guilford
UX Designer
14
Answers
Washington, Washington
Updated
Kiah’s Answer
Boujour Younes,
UX design is a field where people start with many different backgrounds. Starting with an engineering background can be very beneficial, because you understand the different components of a system.
The most important thing to know in UX design is how your user will think and act. This means you have to be the bridge between the engineering side (what is possible) and the human side (what is desired). There are many differences between engineering and UX. UX design doesn't really have a series of repeatable steps or a language to learn; instead each new problem will require different thinking to solve. Sometimes the problem is fixing a communication process between people, sometimes it's developing software to meet a need.
There are many ways to learn UX design on your own, and one of the best ways is to read case studies to see what other designers do and how they talk about their work. Read through design systems to learn what kinds of things that designers think about, and see how you like different design systems, think about how you would solve those problems. Learn about best practices and all the kinds of challenges designers are faced with (Neilson Norman Group has excellent articles and videos).
If you decide you want to get a UX job, you will need to start to put together a portfolio. Some people put together a portfolio in a boot camp (I did General Assembly), some volunteer to help local businesses, some make up projects with hypothetical work. It's better to have real examples where your work has real impact, but the most important thing your portfolio should do is explain how you think and how you solve problems; always explain "why" you think something. Be careful of all of the websites that just make beautiful looking designs that could not function in the real world, or look nice but do not solve real problems or meet users' needs. This is where your background comes in handy; you might have a better sense of what is feasible to develop.
I think having an engineering background (especially if you have front end development skills) and developing your UX expertise will make you a strong candidate for many jobs.
Remember, UX designers generally love people (since humans are at the center of what we do), so try to find some in your local community who you can talk to and ask questions.
Bonne chance, Kiah
Sign up for Jan Haaland's Case Study Club email newsletter (https://casestudy.club)
Explore different design systems (Material Design, Shopify, Mailchimp, Apple, Microsoft, etc.)
Read Neilson Norman Group articles (https://www.nngroup.com/)
Create a portfolio that showcases how you solve problems: explain how you think
UX design is a field where people start with many different backgrounds. Starting with an engineering background can be very beneficial, because you understand the different components of a system.
The most important thing to know in UX design is how your user will think and act. This means you have to be the bridge between the engineering side (what is possible) and the human side (what is desired). There are many differences between engineering and UX. UX design doesn't really have a series of repeatable steps or a language to learn; instead each new problem will require different thinking to solve. Sometimes the problem is fixing a communication process between people, sometimes it's developing software to meet a need.
There are many ways to learn UX design on your own, and one of the best ways is to read case studies to see what other designers do and how they talk about their work. Read through design systems to learn what kinds of things that designers think about, and see how you like different design systems, think about how you would solve those problems. Learn about best practices and all the kinds of challenges designers are faced with (Neilson Norman Group has excellent articles and videos).
If you decide you want to get a UX job, you will need to start to put together a portfolio. Some people put together a portfolio in a boot camp (I did General Assembly), some volunteer to help local businesses, some make up projects with hypothetical work. It's better to have real examples where your work has real impact, but the most important thing your portfolio should do is explain how you think and how you solve problems; always explain "why" you think something. Be careful of all of the websites that just make beautiful looking designs that could not function in the real world, or look nice but do not solve real problems or meet users' needs. This is where your background comes in handy; you might have a better sense of what is feasible to develop.
I think having an engineering background (especially if you have front end development skills) and developing your UX expertise will make you a strong candidate for many jobs.
Remember, UX designers generally love people (since humans are at the center of what we do), so try to find some in your local community who you can talk to and ask questions.
Bonne chance, Kiah
Kiah recommends the following next steps:
Charles Palanzo
Digital Architect
7
Answers
Franklin Lakes, New Jersey
Updated
Charles’s Answer
I would suggest you focus on Human-Machine-Interface design - understand how humans prefer to interact with UX/UI - don't focus on making pretty or cool interfaces. They are worthless if the underlying functionality doesn't make sense.
Read a classic "About Face, The Essentials of Human Interface Design" Alan Cooper
Charles recommends the following next steps:
Srinivas Dabbeeru
Network Consulting Engineer
6
Answers
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Updated
Srinivas’s Answer
Irrespective of your background, it is always suggested to get some certifications in Design if you are thinking about being a UX/UI Designer. You can do courses in any of the following avenues (not exhaustive, something, my friends in UX/UI field suggested):
https://www.nngroup.com/ux-certification/
https://www.interaction-design.org/courses
https://www.ideou.com
If you find the courses to be expensive in the above options, you can try taking a course on Skill Share
https://www.skillshare.com/
Once, you do the basic courses on UI/UX design and Design thinking, you can apply for internships for getting a real world experience and you will be in a good position to find some jobs and excel in the UI/UX Design career path
https://www.nngroup.com/ux-certification/
https://www.interaction-design.org/courses
https://www.ideou.com
If you find the courses to be expensive in the above options, you can try taking a course on Skill Share
https://www.skillshare.com/
Once, you do the basic courses on UI/UX design and Design thinking, you can apply for internships for getting a real world experience and you will be in a good position to find some jobs and excel in the UI/UX Design career path
Sabuj Pattanayek
software engineer
4
Answers
Milpitas, California
Updated
Sabuj’s Answer
UI/UX design involves thinking about the user and their workflow and then coming up with the best approach to making your tool intuitive and easy to use. I suggest looking into these books: https://www.mockplus.com/blog/post/ux-design-books and then practice, practice, practice! Start your own project and apply principals of clean user centered design.
Alyssa Boucher
University Relations Manager
7
Answers
Detroit, Michigan
Updated
Alyssa’s Answer
Most User Experience / Interface roles will require a portfolio upon application so similar to the answer above, start practicing and building out your portfolio. A huge aspect to UI/UX is going to be wireframing so the more you can learn about it, the better.
Richard Im
Solutions Architect
3
Answers
Ellicott City, Maryland
Updated
Richard’s Answer
Theres a bit of unlearning you will have to do, in my honest opinion, to think top down rather than bottom up. Its habitual to think about the engineering side of a button or swipe, or the action it will trigger etc.
Muhammed Musthaqeem
Technical Consulting Engineer
2
Answers
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Updated
Muhammed’s Answer
To break into the UI/UX field, you need to work on multiple Product designs. This can be attained with attending courses with mock practices in them.
Read Don Norman's "Design of Everyday Things" and if you find this interesting you could check out "Emotional Design" from the same Author
Check out Nielsen Normans website : https://www.nngroup.com/
Muhammed recommends the following next steps:
Jayaprakash Modagi
Network Engineer
3
Answers
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Updated
Jayaprakash’s Answer
First learn the basics of design and then venture further into UX design . Design is all about observations and noting how people behave . You need to be sensitive as well as receptive to things and environment around you.
You already have many tips given by the prior author and i will also suggest that you look at sites like coursera and udemy to upskill your self in these aspects i have mentioned .
Alternatively, you can attend bootcamp courses such as General Assesmbly (UXDI Full time)
You already have many tips given by the prior author and i will also suggest that you look at sites like coursera and udemy to upskill your self in these aspects i have mentioned .
Alternatively, you can attend bootcamp courses such as General Assesmbly (UXDI Full time)
Lucy Theurel
UI UX Designer
6
Answers
Greensboro, North Carolina
Updated
Lucy’s Answer
UX and UI are two different disciplines that work intertwined but have different methodologies.
UX is User Research to understand the user needs. This involves knowing different methods of interviewing people, documenting said interviews and then performing qualitative an quantitative conclusions over them. Some basic psychology is needed but not a lot. In this side I recommend reading a lot about the different studies that have been done about reading patterns, the gestalt approach of hierarchy of elements, how to design personas, how to conduct user interviews, how to assign metric values to different user feedback, how to choose between standard interview, to focus groups or Gessel chambers. How to conduct proper User test (which is not to be confuse with User research)
UI involves principles of graphic design: color balance, composition of elements, hierarchy of information, typography, brand consistency, brand identity and overall look and feel. In this regard I recommend books about graphic design fundamentals, books abut the basics of UI kits, web design best practices, books about the User Centered Approach and mostly about mobile design (which I personally believe it is crucial)
Full Stack Designers do UI/UX design as well as coding the frontend. In this regard you if you are a computer science engineer you are all set! you already know the basics of HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (and Jquery) , Bootstrap 4, perhaps some Angular. I would only recommend you dig deeper about interactive design and best practices of it.
Great Authors about UX: Don Norman "The Design of Everyday Things" - considered one of the founding fathers of UX ------- Jakob Nielsen "Designing Web Usability" --------- Steve Krug "Dont make me think"
Great Authors about UI: "Graphic Design Thinking" Ellen Lupton, Jennifer Cole Phillips ----- "Logo Design Love" David Airy --------- "Designing Interfaces" Jenifer Tidwell
UX is User Research to understand the user needs. This involves knowing different methods of interviewing people, documenting said interviews and then performing qualitative an quantitative conclusions over them. Some basic psychology is needed but not a lot. In this side I recommend reading a lot about the different studies that have been done about reading patterns, the gestalt approach of hierarchy of elements, how to design personas, how to conduct user interviews, how to assign metric values to different user feedback, how to choose between standard interview, to focus groups or Gessel chambers. How to conduct proper User test (which is not to be confuse with User research)
UI involves principles of graphic design: color balance, composition of elements, hierarchy of information, typography, brand consistency, brand identity and overall look and feel. In this regard I recommend books about graphic design fundamentals, books abut the basics of UI kits, web design best practices, books about the User Centered Approach and mostly about mobile design (which I personally believe it is crucial)
Full Stack Designers do UI/UX design as well as coding the frontend. In this regard you if you are a computer science engineer you are all set! you already know the basics of HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (and Jquery) , Bootstrap 4, perhaps some Angular. I would only recommend you dig deeper about interactive design and best practices of it.
Lucy recommends the following next steps: