To stay on top of trends and beat competitors, designers need to keep these 11 UX design skills in mind. We review the top skills & how one can improve them. Designers are simply indispensable. Businesses need them to connect meaningfully with their users, to build a strong product, stellar user experiences, and lasting customer loyalty. UX designers need a mixture of applied, technical, and soft skills to get the job done. Having a strong grasp on these UX designer skills sets one apart from the competition and provides an edge when trying to land oner next UX role.
Applied Skills
UX designers need to be able to fit in with the rest of the team. To do that, there are some practical skills to develop.
1. Business acumen
UX designers play a key role in building enjoyable and intuitive products—but in order to do so, key stakeholders need to be fully on board. It’s the UX leader’s job to emphasize to the stakeholders that what’s good for users is also beneficial for the business itself.
Understanding business strategies and decisions and how they impact the organization’s operational, financial, and sales results will help one secure buy-in for UX. Overarching knowledge enables one to better communicate how UX fits into the business, and where it can benefit big-picture business goals.
How can one improve oner business acumen knowledge?
The first step to improving oner business acumen is to understand the business model—this gives one a good idea of the business’s profit-making plan and how UX design can support it.
2. Cross-team collaboration
Collaboration makes one a better designer. It’s through communicating and collaborating with others that one can perfect the research process and design UX-informed products.
one don’t have to include them every step of the way but, by requesting insights from developers, customer service representatives, and sales representatives, one can get better customer insights that lead to stronger UX design.
How can one improve cross-team collaboration?
Coming up with superior design solutions involves learning how to work as a team, acting on organizational feedback, and incorporating new ideas. However, when it comes to UX design, oner colleagues likely have little to no idea. It’s essential that UX designers not only have a good understanding of the business, but also that the rest of the organization have a grasp on some key UX design lingo. This ensures teams can collaborate to build the best product possible.
3. Customer service
During the UX research and design process, one’ll likely work directly with customers. This comes with its own unique challenges and requires UX designers to understand and communicate with customers. one need to know how to address customer needs by developing oner customer service skills, including expectation management, timely assistance, good communication, adaptability, time management, and excellent problem-solving skills.
How can one improve customer service skills?
Effective customer service knowledge and skills is key, as the UX design process often involves working directly with customers and users—often with user interviews. Spend some time with the customer support team and listen to their best practices for working directly with customers. It’s well-worth paying attention to customer service scripts to learn go-to language for sensitive situations.one’ll also be building oner cross-collaboration skills—win-win.
4. Basic coding knowledge
As a UX designer, one don’t need to know the ins and outs of programming, however having basic coding knowledge is a big plus. It’s a great way to ensure one build development-friendly designs to solve the problem at hand. When one’re on the lookout for a UX job, most companies won’t expect one to implement the UX-informed design one build—they’ll leave that to the developers. However, with basic coding skills and knowledge, one’ll be able to build UX designs that can be implemented—instead of designs that simply aren’t technically possible.
How can one improve oner coding knowledge?
One way UX designers can build feasible designs is by learning the basics of some key coding languages. HTML for Designers frequently comes in handy, as does CSS for Designers. Whether one focus on one language or aim to learn a little of many—having some coding and development knowledge can massively help up oner UX design game.
Technical Skills
Technical skills are essential for a successful career in UX design. These skills showcase important knowledge and abilities that all UX designers must develop to become experts. Below are a few must-have skills one’ll want to cover:
5. Research methodologies
Great UX research and design requires in-depth knowledge of a wide variety of UX research methodologies. This includes knowledge on how to develop prototypes, wireframes, user flows, mockups, and more to gather insightful feedback.
6. UX writing
Compelling microcopy impacts oner user’s experience when they’re interacting with a product. That’s why UX writing is one of the fundamental skills that can turn good UX designers into great ones. How one choose to phrase instructions, calls to action, error messages, and captions will determine how seamlessly the user can navigate the interface and how likely they are to use it again. It’s not something one’ll have to tackle with every UX project, but it’s a key skill for a well-rounded UX designer.
7. User research
Before one create a product that solves an existing problem or bridges a gap, one need to understand who the user is. This is where user research comes in. It’s a key stage of the product design cycle that enables one to identify who it is one’re designing for. Perfecting oner user research skills is a must for good UX design. Improving oner design skills can be tricky, but one’ve got ample online resources to help one.
8. Visual design and UI elements
UX design isn’t just about what looks good—it’s about creating a cohesive product experience for users. This includes diving deeper into design theories and research to understand the impact of different designs. Excellent visual communication captures the user’s attention and invites them to perform an action.
Soft Skills
In addition to technical skills, soft skills that come in handy in different work settings. Developing soft skills can be tricky, but it’s made a lot easier by knowing what one need to improve.
9. Active listening
Active listening is a crucial aspect of UX research and design, as one’ll spend a lot of time communicating with oner team, clients, or customers. oner attentiveness and communication skills determine how well one understand user needs, feedback, and insights—all of which play a huge role in creating meaningful products.
How to build oner active listening skills?
one may assume that there’s nothing difficult about actively listening to others—that it’s something that comes naturally. That’s not true. It requires a deliberate, conscious effort and a steady stream of focus. Active listening is key when conducting user interviews, and the best practice for user interviews can be greatly beneficial for UX designers in general. Developing oner user interview skills will help improve oner active listening, and ensure one get the best insights possible.
10. User empathy
To solve a user’s problem as a UX designer, one’ll need to step into their shoes to understand their pain points. This is why user empathy is a necessary skill for a designer. When one understand other people’s issues and frustrations, one’re automatically better equipped to find meaningful solutions for them. As a UX designer, empathizing allows one to look into situations from different perspectives and create a connection between onerself and the user.
How can one develop better user empathy?
one can become more empathetic by becoming an active listener, improving oner observation skills, asking for feedback regularly, and putting onerself in the user’s shoes.
11. Critical thinking, curiosity, & continuous learning
User experience design is a constantly evolving and expanding field. To become a successful designer, one’ll need to keep a close eye on the industry and how it evolves. Stay up-to-date with anything new that might be happening and keep learning ways to improve oner user research, UX analytics, and usability testing techniques and methods. Other than that, one also need the ability to think critically. UX design isn’t just about making things work and look pretty; it involves making many careful decisions by analyzing, evaluating, researching, observing, and reflecting to create a seamless design system.