How to be an excellent UI designer!

The internet bubble has caused many designers to leave this field. However, the recent recovery of the Internet has brought new practitioners. In order to promote the accumulation of knowledge in the industry, interaction designers set up a new group: Interaction Design Association (Reimann as the first chairman). In addition, following the "traditional" services such as software and Internet, interaction design has also begun to enter some new fields, including mobile phones, medical equipment, finance, entertainment and retail services. Traditional fields are also changing: the Internet has become a platform for application software design, and even those softwares that do not need programming and run online are increasingly becoming a mixture of "online work" and "offline work". Even the operating system is gradually getting rid of the shackles of desktop metaphors built 25 years ago. Everything seems so natural, just like looking for something-to make interaction designers an ideal career today. The days of interaction designers depend on time and project. The daily work of interaction designers includes: customer interviews, field research, brainstorming, writing documents, prototyping and product testing. The specific work depends on the progress of the project. Every day will be different except the days when you are immersed in writing documents (such as framing). Yes, there are many EEMP's: writing emails, receiving emails, holding meetings and presenting. But there were also some exciting moments. Interaction designers are hired to deal with ideas-to make abstract ideas come true. Few jobs can be so wonderful. You can brainstorm, imagine something unprecedented and build it. It can also shape behavior and make the world more interesting and beautiful. You will use colored pencils to describe your ideas on the whiteboard and use "sticky notes" to help people solve problems. If you are good enough, you will have the opportunity to cooperate with companies with advanced technology and great influence to make the world different for you. To realize the above dream, you must have three conditions: temperament, training and experience. Temperament Lehman's exposition of temperament value is still accurate. Compassion for users and the ability to learn new things are two indispensable qualities of any designer. It is also the necessary cornerstone of this profession. This doesn't mean that you need to be a "sociable person" (of course it's better this way). But it does mean that you should be interested in human beings, including their behaviors and limitations. You should at least pay attention to people and social environment in theory. An excellent interaction designer needs to learn to put himself in the user's shoes, instead of imagining himself as a user or treating the user as a person similar to himself. You may be very different. In MBTI (Myers-Briggs Personality Scale), it is also very important to have an "intuitive" personality ("N"). It is very important for designers to think by leaps and bounds intuitively. Because you can't always see the overall situation of the problem, contact every user and clearly understand the project. You have to guess and assume-and then you need intuition. Training If you think your temperament is suitable for this kind of work, you need to learn some basic knowledge in the next step. Choose good introductory books, such as AboutFace2.0, DesigningInterfaces, UniversalPrinciplesofDesign. You also need to know your working medium, such as Internet, mobile communication and software system. You don't have to be a programmer, but you need to know the technical feasibility of each medium. Industrial design guidelines and good communication skills are also helpful. Whether at work, through informal meetings, conferences or online communication (such as email discussion by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)), it is also beneficial to meet with experienced designers (many of the issues I mentioned here have been discussed there). Those handy knowledge, ideas and methods are all part of design culture. Talk less and listen attentively. One way of fast training is to study at school (although the process is compact and the tuition is high). I will first promote three schools: Carnegie Mellon University, the School of Design of Illinois State University and the Fart Design School of Royal College. Unfortunately, all the above schools offer postgraduate courses. I don't know what undergraduate interaction design major is. But I believe it will appear in the next few years. How to prepare for the university stage without interactive design? My suggestions are as follows: enter a good design school to study industrial design or media design (you can learn useful skills), or pay attention to any field other than design. Humanities, anthropology, literature, psychology, sociology, drama, politics and cultural studies-all help you become a richer designer. Experience training and knowledge reserve are far from enough. Even as the author of interaction design books, I still think that books can only provide you with professional background, and only design itself can make you grow into an interaction designer. Where does the design experience come from? There are two main methods: a good school can expose you to practical topics (about business, technology and user restrictions); You can also provide professional design for free or design for others (the latter must be used with caution). E-mail discussion, local groups and talent market are the first choice to start looking for a job. Most jobs are found through oral recommendation, so contact with other designers is also helpful. Self-presentation Although companies like Cooper and Google will require you to complete a series of tests during the job search, all companies require a portfolio. To be precise, you should prepare two kinds of works: one is online and the other is written. An online portfolio should provide a summary of the work, which can include some sample files. The written portfolio (brought during the interview) is a more profound presentation of the work, so that you can discuss the project problems and the solution process. Don't just introduce the results, the working process is also very important. What if there is no job? Look for it. The world is full of problems to be solved. Design a solution.