If you are working in the extremely fashionable profession of UI designer, then I think it is time for us to think about the next step and how to make it more brilliant? When the first iPhone came out in 2007, the demand for UI designers grew exponentially. At that time, every team in every company wanted a UI designer who could draw skeuomorphic icons. At that time, we were all talking about whose bookshelf was painted to look like the real thing.
Will learning UI design really have a bright future?
But times have changed, and today, the world we see is getting flatter and flatter, and everyone is talking about whose interface is simpler. What designers have to do is no longer pursue "just like the real thing", things have become very simple, they only need to learn to abide by some rules: Keepitsimplestupid, which is often called the KISS principle, strictly abide by the brand's design specifications, pay attention User experience (UX is also very popular recently)
Now you can get the incomparably fashionable title of UI designer and go to work in a big tech company in Silicon Valley, get promoted and get a raise and marry Bai Fumei. But these are still not enough! For UI designers, especially excellent UI designers, it is relatively easy to learn new skills. Just like people who have learned Java learn OC, the process is relatively easy. If you love UI so much and really have no interest in these new fields, then you still need to consider researching new and similar things.
1 User Experience Design
Regardless of whether everyone admits that there is a big overlap between UI designers and UX, in some companies the UI and UX are the same person and they do a really good job (I also fully agree that these are two completely different positions), so if You can do great things if you like. Every company hopes to have someone who can integrate truly good things into products and bring them to users. A good UX is really the most valuable asset in the design world.
2 Interaction Design
Interaction design is becoming more and more popular. In recent years, everyone has attached great importance to this field, and the results are also very good (my parents almost never play computers and claim to hate electronic products, but since they got iPads). We will need more interaction designers in the future because we have more and more devices and more and more screens of all sizes. Becoming an interaction designer will directly change the way people interact with devices. Opportunity.
3 software development
Needless to say, see the article ShouldDesignCode for details. What I want to say is that if you know how to code, then you are simply a fighter in the design world. Your idea is no longer necessarily a picture that YY can only see, you can actually make it and realize your idea by yourself. When the coders say that this is not possible or that it is not possible, you can roll up your sleeves and shout, "Let me code a section for you and see if it tastes good!!" I believe that every company is eager for such a talented person.
4 Illustrations
In the past few years, I have noticed that several major companies such as Mailchimp, Google and Facebook have put more and more energy into their illustrations. Good illustrations actually have a very good effect in brand promotion, and brand promotion has never been out of date.
53D Design
I have played Oculus Rift several times. This thing is really shocking in terms of senses. I was almost shocked to tears. In the next few years, we will usher in an era when visual and reality augmentation technology will become popular. Many companies naturally realized this earlier than us, and they urgently need talents to build such a virtual world. You are a UI designer and you can be considered an artist. You have good visual skills. If you switch to 3D, you will have the opportunity to experience the pleasure of building a world.
Perhaps achieving the above points is not as simple as I said. They are all areas with great connotations and cannot be explained in a few words. You don’t need to panic and learn everything, and you don’t have to focus on the messy things I said, but again, you need to make plans for the future of your title as UI designer. Time will not wait for anyone. of!
Why is it said that learning UI design well has a bright future? For us, even if there are new things and new problems, we feel that they have brought new opportunities and needs. However, these needs are different from what PM told you at work yesterday. Just the same, they are bigger, more serious and more challenging, and they require people who really do this at heart to solve them.
You may be one of the people who do this at heart.