In this article, you will mainly learn what UX design is and how to become a UX designer in Canada. Let’s begin with a question you might have experienced before!

Have you ever visited a website and ended up closing the browser right away because you couldn’t stand how messy it was? Or sometimes you are browsing a website that is so easy to navigate and has everything you need, and you wonder why it is so different?

Well, the answer to that is better user experience design.

As users, we don’t focus on what is happening behind the website. But if you consider user experience as a career, understanding the foundations and importance of user experience is the first thing you need to learn.

User experience is an experience that fulfills the user’s needs. It aims to provide positive experiences that keep users loyal to the product or brand. Additionally, a meaningful user experience allows you to define customer journeys on your product that are most conducive to business success.

What is UX Design?

UX (also known as UXD, UED, or XD) stands for User Experience Design or Experience Design. It is the experience a user gains when interacting with a specific product.

The UX design process involves many aspects of work and disciplines, and there is no official definition of UX design. But the most well-known description came from the pioneers in the UX practice, Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen, who stated:

“UX encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”

A well-thought-out UX design facilitates a simple, quick, and less time-consuming solution for users.

It is the responsibility of UX designers to make sure that the product interface is easy to understand and runs smoothly.

How to Become a Senior UX designer?

According to Indeed, UX Designers in Canada earn $110,299 annually. However, UX designers’ salaries can differ based on location, company, and experience. Many people switch their careers to UX design after gaining experience in other fields. For example, professionals in psychology, computer science, marketing, or customer service can transition to UX design.

Whether you are new to the field or have some work experience, you can start your career as a UX designer by following these steps:

Take education in UX design
Familiarize yourself with UX design tools
Build your UX design portfolio
Practice and improve your UX design skills
Work your way up to Senior UX Designer

Step 1: Take education in UX Design

The most effective way to start a career in UX is by taking structured UX courses and working on practical projects. Cornerstone College now offers a UX/UI Co-op diploma program that focuses on both theory and practical skills. Students can choose between two study durations: 12 months or 24

UI/UX Design 6-month

UI/UX Designer 12-month

Our courses are custom-created by our Head of the Tech Program, Tech Program Coordinator, and Instructors, who have years of experience in the field. Some of the topics offered in this program include the foundations of UI/UX, design evaluation, product design life cycle, responsive and adaptive design, and analytics.

With us, students will learn about customer-centric design and how to design and evaluate a product from usability and usefulness perspectives.

Step 2: Familiarize Yourself with Industry Tools

There are several tools that UX designers widely use to design and create prototypes and wireframes in the UX design field. If you have no prior experience using design tools, you might want to gain a basic understanding of how these tools work.

Designing Tools: Sketch, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator

Sketch

it offers exclusively on macOS. It’s a vector-based design app primarily used for UI and UX design for websites and mobile applications. Because of its simplicity, the tool is excellent for beginners as well.

Adobe Illustrator

This is a vector graphics and design tool that is easy to use and popular among graphic designers. It is excellent for early-stage to professional UX designers as it has all the functions UX designers need for UX design.

Adobe Photoshop

The tool is one of the most-used tools and is a well-known image manipulation tool among graphic designers and in the photography industry. It provides a wide range of functions for both beginners and advanced users.

Prototyping: InVision, Proto.io and Adobe XD

inVision

This tool is a prototyping tool used by big companies like Spotify, Amazon, HBO, and Netflix for their UX/UI design mockups, interactions, and prototypes. The tool is suitable for large companies as it is cloud-based, allowing people to work across teams and devices.

Proto.io

It is an application prototype creator tool with drag-and-drop functions available on web browsers. Designers can use this application to create mockup interactions.

Adobe XD

This tool is a vector-based design tool widely used to create prototypes, wireframes, mockups, and full designs. It is considered a comprehensive design program as UX/UI designers can create interfaces, prototypes, animations, and interactions for different platforms such as websites, smartphones, and tablets.

Wireframing: UXPin and Balsamiq

UXPin

It is a web-based wireframing, design, and prototyping tool used for creating applications and web interfaces. Big companies like HBO, PayPal, Microsoft, and Netflix rely on UXPin, making proficiency in the tool a valuable asset. It’s easy to learn, making it an excellent starting point for beginners.

Balsamiq

It focuses on quick, iterative, low-fidelity designs that prioritize overall structure and content without getting bogged down in small details. The application’s simplified feature set makes it incredibly easy to learn, emphasizing the rapid creation of wireframes with efficiency.

Free UX design tool Figma, GIMP and Origami Studio

Figma

This tool is a free, online web-based application for design and wireframing. This makes it an excellent option for beginning designers, as learning how to use Figma can help you land a job in the future.

GIMP

This tool is a free and open-source graphic design program used for image manipulation, editing, drawing, and illustration. It’s an excellent alternative to Photoshop and serves as an open-source project. While GIMP may not offer the same extensive feature set as Photoshop, it provides a viable option for starting your journey as a UX designer without a significant investment.

Origami Studio

This tool is a free prototyping tool developed for internal use at Facebook. This makes it an excellent option for those interested in learning more about UX/UI design without having to make a significant financial investment.

Step 3: Build Your Design Portfolio

Knowing how to build a portfolio is essential for standing out as a UX designer. If you’re new to the field, you might wonder where to start. As a student or someone without experience in UX design, it can be challenging to create a compelling profile. However, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Unlike most short UX/UI design courses, Cornerstone students have the opportunity to build substantial portfolios with practical projects during their academic period. Additionally, the co-op period provides students with valuable experience and networking opportunities to further strengthen their portfolios.

Step 4: Practice and Improve Your UX Design Skills

Practice is key to success in this industry. One of the best ways to start is by working as a junior UX designer.

Junior UX designers typically work with a team and assist with less complex tasks such as conducting user research, organizing and analyzing research findings, participating in design processes, and assisting with usability testing.

Step 5: Work Your Way Up to Senior UX Designer

A higher position comes with greater responsibilities. According to Indeed, becoming a senior UX designer typically requires a minimum of five years of experience and proficiency in both technical and soft skills.

As you progress in your career, it’s important to continue learning new skills and taking on new challenges. Freelance platforms offer opportunities to work on different projects, allowing you to expand your portfolio and eventually secure better job opportunities.

What Do UX Designers Do?

UX designers are responsible for designing the experience users have when interacting with a product. The UX design process involves several key aspects, including user research, persona development, information architecture, wireframing, prototyping, high-fidelity design, and user testing.

1. User Research

User research is a crucial skill for every UX designer. Most job openings in UX design require proficiency in this area, as it is fundamental to understanding users, their problems, and their needs. User research primarily focuses on behaviors, motivations, and desires, aiming to gather insights and feedback to identify opportunities and solutions. Standard methods for data collection include surveys, user interviews, and focus groups.

2. Persona Development

Persona development is based on patterns and common characteristics identified in user research. Each persona provides UX designers with a clearer understanding of their potential users, including demographics, motivations, needs, values, and potential responses.

3. Information Architecture

Information Architecture involves organizing consistent information to help users navigate products or services. Clear and easy-to-understand language facilitates user navigation without confusion.

4. Wireframing

Wireframing is the initial step in building the final product. UX designers create sketches of the product’s screens or stages to establish the layout and structure. Wireframes may include the first look of UI design elements, which evolve as the design process progresses.

5. Prototyping and High-Fidelity Design

After establishing wireframes, UX designers create prototypes and high-fidelity designs that closely resemble the final product in terms of appearance, functionality, and capabilities.

6. User Testing

User testing is a common method for evaluating design performance. Users interact with prototypes, providing feedback that UX designers analyze to refine the design.

What Skills Do UX Designers Need?

UX designers require a combination of technical and soft skills. While some skills may already be familiar to you, others may require additional education, particularly in UX/UI design.

Research and Strategy
Wireframing and Prototyping
Understanding of Web and Mobile Platforms
Project Management and Collaboration
Empathy
Communication

So what are technical and soft skills for UX designers? – Let’s have a look.

Research and Strategy

To understand users’ needs and interactions with the product, UX designers must grasp research methods and strategies. A solid understanding of conducting research, planning data collection methods, and interpreting and analyzing findings lays the foundation for a well-executed UX design.

Wireframing and Prototyping

Prototypes serve as communication tools, conveying aspects of the final design’s user-facing elements. This technique helps organize the UX design process and facilitates smooth project management with the team.

To communicate UX designs effectively, designers need to use creative tools to create prototypes and wireframes. Proficiency in innovative tools like Sketch, InVision, Figma, Adobe XD, and Adobe Illustrator is expected from UX designers.

Understanding of Web and Mobile Platforms

Users engage more with mobile phones than with computers nowadays. However, UX designers should still consider how their designs will appear and function on desktop or laptop screens.

UX designers should understand how to create responsive designs that perform well across various computer and mobile phone screens. Familiarity with in-demand web development skills can make a difference in the UX design industry.

Project Management & Collaboration

To transition from the design process to the development stage, UX designers need solid project management skills to lead, coordinate, and deliver projects on time.

On a daily basis, UX designers collaborate with different teams. Strong collaboration skills, along with the ability to listen and convey clear messages, are essential for successful teamwork.

Empathy

Empathy involves understanding how users think and feel. Lack of empathy can lead to assumptions that users will approach the product in the same way developers do, resulting in low-quality UX design.

Communication

UX designers interact with various individuals throughout their workday. Strong communication skills enable UX designers to convey the right message to the right people at the right time.

Steps to Launch Your UX Design Career

Now, as we near the end of this article, let’s summarize the steps you can take to kickstart your career as a UX designer.

First, consider enrolling in the UX Design Co-op Diploma Program to gain hands-on experience. This program will provide you with a solid foundation in UX/UI principles, earn you software certificates, and most importantly, offer the opportunity to work with companies in Vancouver.

Second, gain as much experience as possible. Practice is key, whether through school projects or freelance work. You can start by sketching by hand and gradually transition to using free apps or website tools to become familiar with UX components.

Third, continue to expand your skill set. Technology trends evolve rapidly in the digital world, so staying up-to-date is crucial for UX designers. Consider taking online classes and learning new tools to enhance your skills and stay competitive in the field.

Lastly, if you’re unsure whether UX/UI design is the right fit for you, don’t hesitate to reach out to our student advisor. They can provide guidance on career changes and help you determine if UX is suitable for your interests and goals.

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