Getting into the UI/UX design world is more complicated now, than ever before. Market reminds a ball, that is going to blow out. And that’s why every new designer meets numerous barriers while getting a career of the dream. Every season new, strong and passionate designers are sending their CVs to the dream companies and competition on the market is becoming harder. That’s why courses, that were good a year ago now maybe just useless for you. So, we recommend to always keep looking for alternative ways to develop your skills. Even while beginning design courses you still can:

• consult with friends or someone you know from the familiar design studios;
• look for inspiration and develop your visual culture through Dribbble;
• attend online courses.

This is our list of advices we usually give to the junior designers on interviews and during the first months of studies in the studio:

Look for the good patterns

One of the biggest problems for junior UI/UX designers is a bad key pattern chosen for the design. Many people try copying existing solutions, but they also may either choose a bad reference or copy a good solution in a bad way.

That’s why we always recommend using Mobbin — all best mobile app patterns are collected on Mobbin. You may both look at the successful UI/UX solutions there and look for the good references as well.

Moreover, you should obligatory be looking after the startups launching on the market — sometimes they may present something really cool! Find a time and download the best-looking apps to test them out. Make screenshots and save them not to miss.

Grow your visual education and style

From the very beginning most junior designers like good-looking but we-don’t-know-how-working designs. Mostly, people start liking graphic posters, designs that have a look of pictures and almost don’t have navigation or textual content. Of course, people try copying it to make something similar. And this style is also cool, but the tweak is that such design is really hard to make. And to start making not just UI/UX, but art, you need to master the skill a lot.

The best way is to focus on effective UI/UX design, that is all about the function. Remember, that you’re working on the interface design, that will be used by people. And people need to understand how to use it. That’s the key thing. Grow your style, filter subscriptions and check attentively who are you following. Keep asking yourself a question: “how will it be working?”

Use tracker to start designing quicker and understand how much time you need

Even if you’re a good designer and can draw almost without fixes, speed is very important in the design. First of all, you need to work with the client according to the estimation. All clients want to know how much will your services cost in the end, that’s why you need to count the time required for the design of specific pages. But how will you know it?

Use tracker! Many people are quite a sceptic about trackers, but in fact, they are really helpful. First of all, you can find out how much time did you really work on specific blocks and pages. Coming from this point, you will be able to create an estimation for the client. Moreover, time tracker will give you a feeling of real work, as numerous companies use the time tracking system to charge clients. And many junior designers are afraid of trackers, as they make screenshots. You need to stop being afraid before coming to the office.

Learn to work with estimation

One thing is when you know how much time do you need for a certain page, but another thing is when you have to work according to the estimation, created by someone else. In most cases, the right for the mistake is completely not there and you need to think a lot before starting an actual design as well as you need to make decisions quickly.

Working with estimation is hard, as you’re limited in time. But at the same time, you have an exact plan on what will you be doing next and when is the delivery time coming. The best way to learn how to work with estimations for the beginner designer is to make estimations yourself and try to design according to them. When you’ll master this skill, try to make more strict estimations.

Make clickable prototypes

Many junior designers have big troubles with clickable prototypes. And this is a very important part as the most popular presentation format for the client is a prototype link. Making links is hard: you may consider not all flows, as well as you may simply forget about some buttons.

However, you need to learn and make clickable prototypes on every stage of work for the client. Try to look at the screens once they are created and keep a user flow in mind. It will allow you making a smooth and effective prototype.

Always keep your mockups clean

Many designers group and re-name frames (as well as layers) once the whole app is created. But usually, it is not a good idea. It may be okay for the landing page, but if we are talking about the complex applications, layers and frames always should be clean.

Name elements in the clear and right way, make styles and work according to them, always group elements and look after the order of the layers. Otherwise, you will have to waste several days to make things normal and clear once the app will be finished.

Try UX Research even if writing is not your hobby

You may be bad at writing. But if you want to be a UI/UX designer, you need to good at the analytical thinking. Research is not a poem it is a demonstration of how can you think and analyze users, market, competitors and invent new functions and products based on the gathered knowledge.

So, you need to start making analyses before proceeding to the work. It will both allow you studying more about the client’s business and become a professional in the clients niche at the same time. You need UX Research more than your client needs it in most cases. So, you need to use this opportunity.

Make fixes!

Good design is impossible without fixes. You always need to look for space for improvements. If you’re a junior UI/UX designer self-criticism is a good way to improve your skills. You know your design, so a good option is to ask others to use the interface and complete a core action.

You also need to be a perfectionist about spaces, pixels and typography. Design is a mix of many small things. So, being attentive to these small moments can save the overall impression from your mockup.

Being a junior designer seems hard. But in fact, this is a perfect period when you’re developing your own style, gather a references base and start being a part of the world yet unknown. So, enjoy and work hard to get to the new level!