When it comes to deciding one’s career path, a plethora of options has opened up for youngsters today. Gone are the days when engineering, medicine, banking, or IT were the only branches one could lean on to. However, there is still an apparent lack of awareness about various other opportunities one can make use of. Among these diverse streams is what one calls user experience (UX). User Experience Design is the practice of ensuring that user needs are met before, during, and after the development of a particular product or service. It’s about making the usability of digital products easier for consumers to access. However, there is still a lot of ignorance around what these terms actually mean.
UX is a multi-faceted field in which there are different genres of dealing with various innovative technologies. UX is a part of all digital products we use in everyday life.
• The games that we play are designed by UXers.
• The mobile applications we use have been developed by UI developers and designed by UX designers.
• The software programs that we use in our day to day life have been developed by UX professionals as well.
This world of interface design – a mix of art and tech – is certainly an interesting and exciting prospect, especially with accelerating advancements in technology. It is due to a lack of exposure that the term UX remains unused,unnoticed, and unspoken of. In many companies, instead of UX/UI Designers, terms such as Graphic Designers, Developers, Visual Developers, DTP Operator, Application Developers, and Website Designers are used. The industry is growing in recognition, with increasing numbers of social events and seminars to promote and expand the UX community.
A career in UX/UI
There are various branches in the tree of UX/UI making it a versatile, interesting, and creative field. The various career options are as follows:
Required skills
In order to embark on a UX career path, one must possess the following skills:
A degree in UX
Though a UX degree is not deemed mandatory, one will always benefit from formal university education. Having said that, there aren’t many universities that solely focus on UX, but it is possible to enter the field via obtaining a degree in graphic design, human-computer interaction, UI design, visual design, interaction design, or psychology. On the other hand, there are several certified online courses that offer detailed and comprehensive programmes on UX.
The Future
We are experiencing the Fourth Industrial Revolution and UX Design has a key role in it.
In the future, UX Design will become a strong and well-established practice influencing different aspects of our lives. We are already seeing a specialization in the UX role, by focusing on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Voice User Interface. This specialization will be more defined in the future where UX Design will touch different industries and business areas. In fact, the term “User Experience” is too vague to reflect the relevance of the practice. User-centric design techniques have evolved not only because of growth in the e-commerce sector but also because of the rise in availability of electronic devices to the common people. The economy now is focused on the service industry, where customer experience is central.
It is imperative that those on the verge of deciding a career path consider UX/UI as a prospect after reading this article, because it is not just a design approach – rather it is a communication process which will reap huge benefits both for professionals and users in the long run. The digital realm has transcended business ideology from customer service to ‘customer experience’, offering engagement through customization and personalization. Let’s tap into this immense opportunity by applying our creativity where the demand is sky high.