Simonas Maciulis

Core skills for UX and Product designers 🖖

UX is not about making things look nice in Figma.

UX is a broad and adapting discipline. It requires a wide range of skills, knowledge, and years of practice to succeed.

To help designers get clarity about design skills, I defined core competence areas and found additional resources to read.

Competence areas:

→ Design Strategy
→ User Research
→ Interaction Design
→ User Interface Design
→ UX Leadership
→ Business Acumen
→ Product Management
→ Data Analytics
→ Content Strategy
→ Technical Literacy
→ Soft Skills

Skill matrixes and growth resources:

1. Product designer job levels at Intercom
https://lnkd.in/dSPg_6NH

2. Product design level Rubric
https://lnkd.in/dTbujxAM

3. How to Become a Senior Designer by Aaron James
https://lnkd.in/dESfvhSE

3. Growth framework for teams
https://lnkd.in/drfmVDqT

4. Career levels at Figma
https://lnkd.in/deqk3hiA

5. 18 skill matrix by Daniel Birch UX Strategist
https://lnkd.in/dDMBrb3D

6. Skill mapping: Digital Template Rachel Krause
https://lnkd.in/dyb8v5Ev

More resources:
UX Design Roadmap - reading list for beginners
https://lnkd.in/d5Yetgis

If you find this post helpful, share it with your Designer colleagues.

#uxdesign #ux #productdesign

Critical skills for UX & Product designers.

The year is 2022. There are people in tech that still think UX design is a discipline that solely relies on art or UI skills. I hear the same trend during mentoring sessions with aspiring designers.

A lack of awareness about discipline is present. Is it surprising? No.

Product design is a broad and evolving discipline, that requires a wide range of skills and knowledge to excel. Hard to keep track of it or figure it out at the noble beginning.

To bring more clarity, to anyone interested - my take on 12 key competence areas.

Competence / Skill:

1. User-centered design
→ Process & methodology
→ User advocacy
→ Problem focus

2. Analysis
→ Competitive research
→ Analysis of data and statistical literacy
→ UX metrics

3. User research
→ Methodology 
→ Usability testing
→ Synthesis

4. Product thinking
→ Domain and business knowledge
→ Business Advocacy
→ Requirements definition
→ Ideation

5. Information architecture
Structuring and categorizing information, defining hierarchy, and navigation.

6. Interaction design
→ Interface structure & layout
→ Workflows
→ UX patterns
→ Accessibility
→ Prototyping & Wireframes
→ HTML & CSS

7. User interface design
→ Core (typography, color theory, layout, gestalt principles, grid, hierarchy, animation)
→ Iconography and illustration
→ Design systems & define specs

8. Content strategy UX writing

9. Usability knowledge and UX Auditing

10. UX Leadership
→ Mentoring & Feedback
→ UX vision and strategy
→ Process optimization
→ Advocating UX
→ Hiring

11. Project Management
→ Planning
→ Meeting deadlines
→ Time and task management, both personal and project

12. Communication & collaboration
→ Design decision presentations
→ Negotiating & persuasion
→ Giving and receiving feedback
→ Building relationships

Hope this list helps to communicate product design discipline better.

If you find anything that is missing or does not belong, DM me with your ideas, happy to discuss!

#ux #uxwriting #uxdesign #productdesign #userinterface