What Skills Should a UX Designer Have?

So what skills do industry employers expect from a UX designer? 0:00 The answer to this question tends to evolve over time and 0:05 partly depends on the type of role you're preparing for. But there 0:09 are a handful of skills that most UX professionals are capable of. 0:13 Let's take a look. We've mentioned already 0:18 that empathy, or your ability to see a problem from another 0:20 person's perspective, is a critical quality for any UX designer to have. 0:24 However, empathy alone doesn't lead to great products. 0:31 It's critical that UX designers actually talk to users, to ask 0:35 them about their goals, to learn more about their frustrations, 0:39 and to observe them attempting to solve challenges. 0:43 The process of gathering firsthand information about users is called 0:47 user research. 0:51 UX designers also practice information architecture, 0:54 which refers to the practice of organizing and labeling content 0:58 so users can make sense of it. For example, I've 1:02 clicked on the doors and windows category at Home Depot. 1:06 And as you can see, there is a lot of content to organize here. 1:10 How did Home Depot decide that Exterior Doors, Interior Doors, and 1:16 Garage Doors should be the main categories of doors? 1:21 Are these nine choices in the sidebar the most logical 1:25 subcategories for exterior doors? 1:30 Is the label Commercial Doors clear and obvious enough that 1:34 Home Depot users will understand what this link contains? 1:37 These are the kinds of questions information architects face. 1:42 You're probably also noticing the large number of ways to get 1:49 around Home Depot's website. 1:53 Interaction designers focus on the way users interact with a product. 1:56 Each of the navigation system seen here, whether the search bar, 2:02 the All Departments dropdown menu, or the breadcrumb links indicating 2:07 how deep the user has traveled within the doors and windows section of the site, 2:13 is based on a popular design pattern found in numerous places on the web 2:19 and is designed to hopefully make the process of finding a product and 2:24 making a purchase as smooth and satisfying as possible. 2:30 Designing effective website and app layouts requires a lot of preparation. 2:36 UX designers do a lot of sketching, some quick and rough, 2:41 some more refined, to show to clients and teammates. 2:45 Using digital software like Figma, Adobe XD, or Sketch, 2:50 designers turn those sketches first into black and white wireframes, 2:54 which indicate basic page structure and labeling, followed by mockups, 2:59 which include decisions about color, typography and photography. 3:04 Designers can communicate with other team members using this software to 3:11 create collaborative designs and can turn wireframes and 3:16 mock ups into clickable prototypes that allow you to test design solutions 3:20 on users before they're handed off to the development team to be coded. 3:25 That's just a brief overview of some of the skills common to UX designers. 3:32 It's worth noting that not all UX professionals do all these things. 3:38 Some might specialize in just one of these tasks while others 3:43 are generalists who take on numerous roles. 3:47 But all of these skills are taught as part of the UX curriculum at Treehouse. 3:50 One important question you might still have is, do UX designers code? 3:56 Some do. And knowing at least some coding basics is helpful when 4:01 communicating with the development team. 4:05 And, in fact, some of our UX students are developers looking to broaden 4:08 their skills and better communicate with users. 4:13 But learning code isn't necessary to succeed as a UX designer and 4:17 you won't be required to code to complete Treehouse's UX curriculum. 4:21 Some of the skills I covered in this video require a bit of training to 4:28 get started, whether operating design software like Adobe XD or 4:32 learning how to conduct a usability test. 4:37 But one of my favorite skills to practice is sketching and 4:41 all you'll need to get started is a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil. 4:44 We'll try out a sketching assignment in our next video. 4:49

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