How to Become a UI Designer in 2023

The global pandemic has changed how we communicate, collaborate, and socialize; creating new opportunities in the UX/UI (user experience/user interface) field. The resulting explosion of digital tools and services is transforming the ways we can buy our groceries, play games with friends, and even attend exercise classes. As a result, user interface (UI) designers are in high demand, since they make engaging and easy-to-use websites, apps, and software. They develop intuitive visual styles that encourage users to interact with products, while minimizing user learning curves and increasing user adoption.

Are you curious about a career in UI? Read on to learn more about UI design, the skills you’ll need to succeed, and how to stand out in the UI job market.

UI design plays a significant role in interacting with and utilizing digital tools — but what is UI design? It is the practice of understanding how a user engages with an app or website, and continuously improving that journey. UI design includes the use of such elements as language, typography, imagery, color, and icons (in alignment with brand style guides) to both engage users and provide a seamless user interface experience.

Building a successful career as a UI designer involves combining hard skills such as user research, design tools usage, and interaction design principles, with soft skills like empathy, creativity, and active listening.

In addition to hard and soft skills, many candidates make a point of highlighting diversity and life experience in order to stand out in the job market. Each individual brings a different perspective that helps make user interfaces accessible to audiences of all demographics, including those who may be neurodiverse or visually impaired. The bottom line is that diversity is critical for successful UI teams.

UI designers work to infuse digital interactions with human connections by understanding how and why a user takes a particular action and how to optimize it for them. Whether you’re looking to begin a new UI career, or transition into UI design, knowing the right steps to take on your career journey is important.

Here are four things you need to do to become a UI designer:

1. Develop Your UI Skills

New technology, digital tools, and consumer trends contribute to the continuous evolution of the UI design field. However, one constant is the need for the fundamental skills that every UI designer must possess before launching their first project. For example, in addition to basic coding skills in HTML (HyperText Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and JavaScript, UI designers must understand visual prototyping and wireframing using tools such as Adobe XD, Figma, and InVision — just to name a few. UI designers must also be skilled in UI grids and composition, colory theory, typography, iconography, and accessible design best practices.

Boot camps offer prospective UI designers an immersive, real-world experience that teaches the in-demand hard and soft skills needed in the UI workforce. UI boot camps also reinforce learned skills through team projects that populate learners’ professional portfolios in preparation for their upcoming job search. For example, Columbia Engineering UX/UI Boot Camp focuses on a holistic design curriculum of hard and soft skills, with user empathy being an overarching theme for the course.

2. Understand UI Design Software

While UX/UI designers’ tools are constantly changing, there are still some foundational UI design tools that designers need to create different types of user interfaces:

3. Create Your UI Designer Resume

As you emerge from your boot camp, you will have a few UI design examples to include in your portfolio. Because the UI design field is so dynamic, there are few formal degrees that recruiters can use to consistently evaluate candidates.

An up-to-date portfolio is critical to show hiring managers the depth and breadth of your design skills. While it may be thin at the beginning of your career, there are ways to expand your portfolio:

Today, many designers build websites and microsites to host their portfolios online. Making your portfolio easily accessible to recruiters and hiring managers allows you to upload high-quality images and videos without fearing an email bounce-back or rejection due to large file sizes.

Online portfolios also enable you to change and modify your portfolio dynamically, so prospective employers can constantly see your most up-to-date work and designs. There are a wide range of tools and platforms available to host your online portfolio including Squarespace, Wix, Adobe, and Crevado.

Once you’ve built a portfolio brimming with fresh designs and concepts, you’re ready to start applying for jobs in your new field.

4. Apply for UI Designer Jobs

User interface designer jobs are in high demand due to a shift from “just window dressing” to playing a critical role in the user experience process. Recruiters hiring UI designers often look for coding or UI boot camp attendance, and UI job descriptions may occasionally call for candidates with boot camp experience. Since UI design boot camps are short, immersive, and continually update their curricula to reflect employer needs, recruiters hold boot camp learners in high regard. In fact, in a recent study, 72 percent of hiring managers and recruiters surveyed think boot camp learners are “just as prepared and more likely to be high performers” than those with comparable computer science degrees.

While boot camps offer learners a chance to tackle real-world problems that UI designers face, they can also introduce learners to recruiters within the industry. For instance, Columbia Engineering UX/UI Boot Camp offers learners the opportunity to work with a dedicated Career Services team to help prepare them for their job search, like surfacing open roles, arranging interviews, running practice interviews, and preparing learners to meet with potential employers.

According to Burning Glass Technologies, a typical UI designer salary starts at around $65,000, with a median U.S. wage of $78,928. UI designers, whether in freelance or staff positions, are critical in optimizing the user experience when accessing digital tools. Further, according to Burning Glass, this field is projected to experience 8 percent growth (annually) over the next decade, giving confidence that the skills and experience you develop today will aid in the development of a prosperous career for years to come.

Are you ready to jump into the exciting, dynamic world of UI design? There are numerous options for learning the craft — with UX/UI boot camps offering rapid, immersive exposure to modern UI design theory, methods, and tools. Armed with your in-demand skills and professional portfolio, you’ll be ready to begin your UI design career with confidence.