7 Tips Guaranteed to Improve your Visual Design skills in UI UX Design

Visual design is an integral part of UX design so entry-level designers must have good visual design knowledge.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the ability of candidates to deliver aesthetically pleasing visuals is an important skillset recruiters look out for amongst other things when screening UX portfolios. So if you are looking to get your first job as a UX designer you should exhibit sound visual design skills.

Here are some tips that you can leverage to create visually pleasing designs as a UX designer beginning in the field.

1. Become proficient in your design software: Begin by becoming proficient in the design software of choice. When I started out in UX design some of my designs were a visual nightmare because I didn’t know how to execute them using Figma and I’ll get frustrated. As I became familiar with Figma, I was able to learn the shortcuts and this helped me work faster and smarter. Getting familiar with your tool of choice will help you seamlessly translate your concepts into finished designs.
   

   • One of the best ways to learn about a tool is by exploring its official documentation. Figma for example has a huge repository (Figma Learn) of knowledge to help designers. They also have a Youtube channel that you can rely on for detailed guides and tutorials.

   • You can also join communities or forums specific to the design software you use. They often share tips, techniques, and resources. For example Figma has “Friends of Figma” in different locations around the world.

2. Train your visual eyes: Another way to improve in visual design is to train your eyes visually by studying and analyzing well-designed interfaces and websites. Here are a few ways to achieve this:

   • Observe websites or apps of companies that are known for their strong design culture e.g., Air bnb, Apple and Uber to get acquainted with good design. Examine how they use colors, typography, and layout to create effective designs. Take note of the design decisions and try to understand the reasoning behind them and find creative way to use them in your design.

   • Alternatively you can rely on platforms that curate screenshots from real life digital products and highlights exceptional design projects, like Mobbins and Awwwards, to draw inspiration rather than leaning heavily on Dribbble, Behance and Pinterest or similar platforms which often showcase design projects that are heavily skewed towards the designer’s UI skills and less on the functionality of the product. This is what has been called the dribbblization of design.

     Consistently practise: You’ve probably heard this before but that’s because it is true. Becoming better in visual design as an entry-level UX designer takes time and practice. In order to get better at visual design you need to constantly practice your visual design skills by working on personal design projects.

   • If you are just starting out and you feel that taking on a full project might be over reaching then you can start small with simple design exercises. You can also use websites like Daily UI and UI Design Daily that provide design prompts and challenges to practice your visual design skills on a regular basis.

   • You can also attempt to replicate existing interfaces (a website or an app of your choice).

   • For those who are more confident you can sign up for design challenges or Hackathons. This will expose you to different perspectives, gives you a project to practice and showcase your skills and an opportunity to work with other designers and cross functional teams. Try meetup.com, bumble professionals, slack etc to find design groups and other designers to partner with.
     

   • Lastly you could ask friends and family members who own small businesses to design a website/app or revamp an old one for a small fee or free. This is an invaluable opportunity because you are able to add this real world project to your portfolio.

3. Actively seek feedback from experienced designers: To level up your visual design skill it is important to embrace feedback as a valuable learning opportunity.

   • Actively seek feedback from experienced designers and iterate on your designs based on feedback and keep refining them. This iterative process will help you improve your visual design skills over time.

   • It is immensely helpful is to join a mentorship program or find a design mentor who can provide feedback and guidance on your work. Consider adplist.

5. Seek out design communities where you can practice visual critique by giving others feedback on their designs.

   • There are design communities and forums on platforms like Reddit, facebook, LinkedIn, discord and slack which offer spaces for designers to share their work and receive constructive feedback from other designers.

   • Tip: Knowing how to give constructive feedback is an invaluable skill you need throughout your design career. There are various ways to do it but the most important thing is to acknowledge the effort and positives and balance it with what can be done better when giving feedback. Have you heard this saying “it not about what was said but how it is said”. This goes to say that when giving feedback.

6. Understand the Principles of Design: Having an understanding the Principles of Design is the most important step to creating quality visual design work. Familiarize yourself with the elements of design such as form, shape, colour etc and then move on to the basic principles of design which will teach you about concepts like contrast, hierarchy, balance, and visual harmony. You can go even further to understand the Gestalt principles. All the resource needed for this can be found with a Google search; it’s as simple as typing the title of the topic in Google and you’ll find a lot of resources to choose from.

7. Take a UI-focused course: Shift Nudge by MDS is a course that I’ve heard good things about in relations to learning design principles and fundamentals but might be a bit pricey for the average Joe. A more affordable alternative is to take courses on platforms like Udemy, Coursera, and LinkedIn Learning.

Remember, becoming a better visual designer takes time and consistent effort. Don’t be too hard on yourself, keep practicing regularly and I bet you in no time you will enhance your visual design skills and become a more well-rounded UX designer.