In recent years, UI design is definitely a rising star in the design industry, whether in PC client, mobile device apps or games developing rapidly than before. More and more young people choose the UI design as their future career, but they still very confused about this field. The following summarizes are the most frequently asked questions by them:

1. How is the future developing trend of UI design industry?

About this question, I asked a lot of people and different people have given different answers. Julie Zhou, design director of Facebook, mentioned “It’s an exciting time to be a designer in technology, we are in the middle of a sweeping sea change, and I can’t wait to see where things are 10 years from now. Looking ahead and taking some lessons from more established cousin fields like industrial design, graphic design, and fashion.” The UI design will be a very promising industry, therefore, need more talented designers.

2. Does the UI designer gain high salaries?

A UI designer’s salaries based on his/ her technical expertise level, the general UI designer, if they only know PS, AI and some basic image processing skills, of course, they don’t deserve very high salaries, and there has no future for them as well. But, as a good UI designer, you should know about color, style, layout, typography, font design, user psychology, communication science and you also have to master the prototype and programs diagram, interactive logic, design criterion, image processing as well as marketing strategy, and then you will be required to have the ability to completely control of the entire project. There is no doubt that a good UI designer’s salaries are much higher than the general UI designer.

3. What does the UI designer do?

Product frame design, product interaction design, UI interface design, export interface, product adjustment and improvement, of course, the meeting is an essential part of these process.

4. How many tools does Ui designer need to learn?

“Designers will be using a completely different tool set in 10 years; we will see a renaissance of applications that make the designing and building process more powerful and efficient.” For example: there are many graphics tools like: PS, AI, Sketch, and wireframe design tools like: Axure, Mockplus (my favorite one, Mockplus makes it faster and easier to complete a prototype, It’s enough for me to design wireframes and interactions) and so on. Just master one tool and study it well, that would be enough.

5. How to improve “my” design capabilities?

A good UI designer always keeps on learning, and only learning can master the market trends and information, making your design acceptable by the public. Studying more about the master’s works and browsing useful website forums, regardless you are a master or a newbie is constantly growing in the stage of imitation. The difference is the masters will add their own ideas when they imitate, and the newbies would be much less.

6. Should the UI designer need to know graphic design?

If you know, that would be helpful, but is not required. The difference between the UI design and graphic design is : UI design is about the interaction between human and machine, the logic of operation and the overall aesthetic design of interface. Graphic design is more about the artistic and professional, regard “visual” as a means of communication and expression. UI design is emphasis more on interactive design and it’s present in the pixel world, but the graphic design takes the printing as the medium, all the designs are shown in millimeters.

7. Should the UI designer need to know the code?

Not necessary. But a good UI designer need to know about the front- end development, he or she could use Web technology to achieve their own ideas, but not necessarily to contribute the code to achieve the final product.

8. Should the UI designer need to have art skills ?

It would be much helpful if you have art skills, but is not required too. What’s more important is that you should have an eye for beauty.

Life is a process of endless learning, the young people who are just entering the design industry need to keep on learning, and learn to be more observant. Design is a“visual” language, and “visual” is the most direct language, so what you have designed decide who you are and what words you are trying to convey to the users. What’s more, you must be a good communicator and therefore need strong listening and speaking skills. You must have good critical thinking and problem solving skills as well as the ability to make decisions. Because a UI designer is often a member of a team, you must be able to coordinate well with others. You can learn from their opinions, but what you have designed must have your own ideas.

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