10 Must-Have UI Designer Skills

Walt Disney is the best animator in the universe. He once said that dreams came true only if we dared to pursue them. Nearly 50,000 people enter the animation industry every year. Do you wish to enter this field too? Do you possess the necessary UI designer skills? Read on to learn more about a UI designer’s important skills.

10 Must-Have UI Designer Skills in Animation

UI UX skills in animation help you get to grips with the upcoming developments in cyberspace. It could be creativity, typography, or coding. We have gathered 10 must-have UI UX designer skills for you here.

1. Creativity, design, imagination, and analytics

The creativity of UI designers begins with essential elements – enticing visuals, responsive interface, remarkable textures, bright color gradients, and readable font styles. Your awareness of these elements and how well you incorporate them into your UI/UX designs are vital. It’s normal to lack creativity as a beginner, so you can only develop it through practical experience.

2. Communication skill

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Artists must know how to express themselves. It could be through drawing, painting, writing, sketching, scribbling, or creating motion graphics. You should communicate well with clients, team members, and stakeholders. Expressing your ideas will get you more work and a stronghold on your current project.

Additionally, developing communication skills helps support negotiation and evaluation techniques for contract projects with clients and to give feedback on design quality and usability.

3. Buckets of patience and attention to detailing

Patience is key to surviving disappointments and sitting through trial and error. Attention to detail is crucial when you plan, integrate, and update your UI design. Your ability to understand and improve small but crucial details is vital to ensuring the overall quality of your design. This skill demonstrates your ability to assess and utilize important information to make project-related decisions.

4. Drawing, sketching, coloring, and painting skills

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Traditional art skills can facilitate you to process your design better. It will deliver your message in the best way possible to the viewer’s eyes. Sketches can bolster you to think faster, come up with newer ideas, and keep the child in you alive and happy.

5. Ability to meet deadlines, work as a team member

As a UI designer, it’s common to work with multiple designers, often as part of a design and web development team. This means that teamwork skills are crucial for the project to be successful. Teamwork and collaboration skills are important to create and improve outcomes supporting user needs and business goals.

6. Knowledge of the industry, technical skills

Your technical skills in the platforms and software for UI design are vital to creating and integrating UI strategies into applications and websites. Evaluating and improving your design’s technical aspects also depends more on your aptitude in this skill set. When you develop your technical skills, you also give the basis to support the learning of newer programs for other projects.

7. Ability to plan ahead of time

Effective planning is vital when you initiate and outline new projects. Creating outlines, developing strategies, evaluating specifications, incorporating feedback, and designing with your heart – are the hallmarks of a magnificent planner or an excellent UI UX designer.

Your planning skills also show your ability to set goals and create action plans to reach essential objectives.

8. The components of UI and UX

A UI UX designer must first understand the components of UX design skills. It involves – interaction design, wireframe and prototypes, information architecture, user research, and testing. After that, the components of UI design skills – visual design, layout, graphic design, typography, and colors, are important.

9. Mastering the art of visual communication

A UI UX designer must have proficiency in the following concepts:

• Color
• Typography
• Icons
• Images
• Design theory
• Layout

10. Industry knowledge

Web development fields such as UX and UI design tend to change often with all the constant innovations and advancements. New methods, trends, and tools are always upgrading, so it’s critical that you’re aware of them by building your industry knowledge.

How to Improve Your Skills as a UI Designer?

1. Dedicate time and understand the language and principles of UI

The design world works like any other field. It has its principles, methodologies, and ways of working. Have the best control over balance, alignment, proximity, repetition, and contrast. It is one of the UI UX skills you must have.

2. Learn the various animation tools

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UI designer skills are incomplete without mastering the various animation tools in cyberspace. Some of them include:

• Cartoon Animator 4
• 3ds Max
• Procreate
• Vcasmo
• After Effects
• Autodesk Maya
• OpenToonz
• Moho
• Dragonframe
• Adobe Animate
• Visme
• Blender
• Stop Motion Studio

3. Scoop through design paths

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In the design industry, subtypes like graphic design, product design, UX designer, animation designer, and more exist. Make sure you choose the one where your best interests lie. If you’re sure which one you want, opt for the desired design path. Once you have found it, develop your UI designer skills.

4. Create your portfolio

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Once you are inept with the animation tools, you can now create your portfolio. This portfolio will come in handy when you need to show your clients your artwork. Showcase your best creation since your portfolio is going to bring you clients. Make your portfolios in Behance, Dribble, DeviantArt, ArtStation, Portfolio, Coroflot, Portfoliobox, Fabrik, Carbonmade, Cargo, etc.

5. Search for a mentor

Search for someone who will motivate you, correct your mistakes, guide you through the line of work, share experiences with you, give you new work, appoint you as their assistant, and keep a note of your progress.

6. Attend workshops

You can continue polishing your UI design skills by attending workshops, seminars, and events. These workshops are great as you get to practice new techniques and learn new methods and approaches to improve your designs. These workshops are also great for networking with other designers.

How to Highlight Your UI Design Skills

You can use the following tips when you want to include your UI design skills in your CV, cover letter, and in an interview.

On your CV

When creating your CV, try to match it to the job you’re applying for as much as possible. Highlight all the skills that you feel that they match the job requirement. Additionally, you can create a separate section in your CV to highlight your UI design skills like tools, methods, and software that you’re proficient in. If you have a portfolio online, ensure you link it to your CV.

In your cover letter

Describe your skills and previous work experience in the first paragraph of your cover letter. The second paragraph should show how your skills can benefit the company. Write your cover letter in a way that makes you look like the perfect candidate.

During the interview

In an interview, demonstrate your skills. You can also discuss how you apply the artistic elements of UI design like textures, patterns, graphics, and typography.

With behavioral and situational questions, you can try highlighting your soft skills that support the role you’re applying for. In addition, use your previous job experiences of using your UI design skills to meet your organizational goals.

Conclusion

Design making, coloring, and typography alone are not enough. You also need to possess other area-specific UX designer skills like psychology, information architecture, research, engineering, marketing, and soft skills like empathy, communication, collaboration, and curiosity.

Now, you can begin your journey in this field with the knowledge and understanding of what UI designer skills should include.

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