If you ask yourself the question of how to become a better UI designer, you're already a step ahead of your competitors. Constant learning is a way to succeed in this repeatedly changing world of trends. To make sure, that the wireframe of the prototype is working well and achieving the goals of the design, it's vital to keep challenging your designer practices.
To ensure your designs are up-to-date and the whole work is sufficient, here is our short guide on the things to look out for to become a better UI designer.
Improve the Knowledge of the UI Basics
Knowing the basics of UI is essential for improving your performance. For instance, you can't create a proper App with color & fonts imbalance, and so on. Take a look at the list of UI designer basics to know:
- Follow the principle of visual hierarchy
- Observe negative (white) spaces
- Make sure that colour & contrast are actually useful for the users
- Alignment principle
- Typography (this one is very custom)
- Scale and composition principles.
When you feel the lack of knowledge in some of the above-mentioned basic UI principles, take a look at our Design Glossary, Interviews or Q&A. There you will find everything you need as a designer.
Practice More
The next move you can make towards being a better UI designer is to spend more time on practice. It's shouldn't be necessarily very sophisticated projects, start practicing extra hours for a month and you'll soon notice the first improvements.
The point is that your muscle memory is improving day by day, so over time, you'll easier handle the tasks you spent a lot of time on. Here are some tools to practice more with:
- InVision for prototyping
- Sketch or Figma for making wireframes
- FlowMapp for making userflows
Create Your Project
Following on from the previous message, for practicing more and becoming a better designer, create your project. Yes, keep in mind that you need to make something user friendly, that will actually work for business purposes.
Ask your siblings or parents, maybe, they already have a business and need a web page or an app, you could help them with creating a prototype or interface. Don't be shy to ask to don't be afraid to make mistakes: these are the ones that definitely make us a better professional!
Get Criticized
Creating a project on your own is essential for becoming a pro. Show your colleagues the interfaces or prototypes you are working on, ask them for their advice, and maybe for some critics. Adequate critics improve a project a lot, and you, as a learning student (professional) can gain something interesting and new. Maybe, change the angle on your pet project.
Get a Portfolio
If you still don't have a portfolio, you should create one. We've already written on how to create a good designer portfolio, you can read it here. Anyways, a portfolio will allow you to estimate whole your skills and achievements, let you take a fresh look at your works.
Also, it helps to understand what kind of projects you need to add to your portfolio, so you might become a better UI designer.
Be Active on Social Media
Looking and looking more at the works of the other UI designers is very useful for your development. The more you look, the more you memorize, copy, and after creating your thing. It's also a native, simple way to get feedback on your works there! Don't be shy to post your works on Instagram, Dribble, Behance on the platforms for the designers, it's important to share and gain new contacts, as well as perspectives.
Make Notes
Don't forget to make notes and create bookmarks while working or watching someone's work. It's a handy way to make your design better! Google Chrome bookmarks are very comfortable, while notes are something which you wrote yourself. Get back to them when it's necessary, here are some Extensions with bookmarks for your work:
Watch Tutorials
Have a free weekend? Watch a tutorial on improving your UI design. If you want more detailed information, lectures, or even exams, take a look at our list of the best UX/UI online courses. Of course, YouTube tutorials are the most simple and affordable way for developing skills.
Best YouTube Tutorials on UI Design
Do A/B Testing
The last but not the least point in a way of becoming a better UI designer is split testing. Also known as A/B testing. It's the process of comparing (testing) your two or more designs with one variable.
This will help you understand the user's behavior and get insights on the conversions of the pages.
Keep In Mind
As a UI designer, you have to keep in mind the vital role of constant learning, reading, and surfing the net. Here are the blogs to read:
- UX Collective
- UX Pub
- And, of course, the FlowMapp blog
Also, practicing designers advise you to stop surfing the net in search of cat memes and start getting more serious about Dribbble & Behance.
Remember, whether these pieces of advice are going to be useful for you now or not, you need to memorize, practice, and draw conclusions out of your work.
