Welcome to the third career roadmap in our series. Today we look at the role of a UX designer and drill into what a UX designer actually does, the experience you will need to begin a career in UX design and how best to succeed with Colossus Associates as your recruitment partner.
As 80% of consumers are willing to pay extra for a better UX, you can really cash in, on your creative flair and understanding of what makes people tick by creating a memorable user experience.
UX is not new, it has been around since the early nineties. Yet, the name still confuses people on what it actually is.
So, to put it simply, as a UX designer, you’re there to make products and technology usable, enjoyable, and accessible for users.
As a UX designer, it is your job primarily to advocate for the end user or customer, whether you’re designing a brand-new product, coming up with a new feature, or making changes to an existing product or service—the UX designer must consider what’s best for the user and the overall user experience.
Whether you hold the specific technical skills, UX design is all about empathy and communication.
How can this relate to you?
Well, if you have a background as a waitress/bartender, you would have developed your communication and empathy skills in that specific job.
If you have a background in any kinds of teaching, service, support, sales, graphic design, hospitality or even marketing, you would also have developed your communication and empathy skills. These skills would be also useful as it is important to be able to communicate with your users and understand their needs from your software/design.
Despite transferrable skills and core competencies, there are lots of technical skills required to really stand out to your employer.
The main technical skills needed consist of:
UX designers should have the ability to gather qualitative and quantitative data about users through research and analysis. You should know how to select participants for a focus group and record results from a relatively unstructured discussion or write sufficiently open-ended survey questions that do not lead the user to answer in one way or another.
Effective UX writing is concise, useful, and reflects the brand’s values and tone.
Visual Design in UX is so much more than just how it looks and feels. For example, think about when you use an online takeaway app, the standard UI elements such as the hamburger menu need to have icon that immediately connect with the user and translate meaning at a glance.
UI/UX designers do not need to be coding experts, but they should have basic HTML and CSS skills and be capable of making minor website changes. As your experience grows, so will your knowledge of coding and the many ways in which you can utilise design software to assist your work.
Even when the product/feature publishes, it is your job to listen to the feedback from users and be able to fix any issues that may crop up.
There are plenty of free online courses as well as books and, many podcasts which can be found online or on multiple platforms, blogs which can be found online.
With a team with over 35+ years of experience matching candidates with the best roles in UK technology, we know exactly how to match up your skillset with the ideal opportunities for you, linking you with employers who can develop your skills and maximise your goals.
We have helped over 1,500 technology specialists to find roles across the UK and built client relationships lasting over 20 years with multiple placements, scaling up UK tech teams.
Whether you are looking to begin your UX Designer career or take it to the next level, we have the jobs and career support you need. We also recruit across the technology sector for a wide range of roles such as Frontend with React, Backend superstars in C#, Java, PHP, Full-Stack maestro’s, or Cloud Architect
We encourage you to speak to the team as they can offer you impartial career advice, calling on years of technology recruitment experience.
One small conversation could open up a world of new possibilities.
For more information go to our website and meet the team or look through our job board and apply for any number of exciting new opportunities out there. You can also follow us on social media using the links below and never miss an update.
