For every Junior Designer
Hello👋, I decided to put together a plethora of resources that have helped me in my Product Design journey. Hope you find it helpful. Let’s get started!
What is UI/UX
User interface (UI) design according to Emil Lampretch, is a purely digital practice. It considers all the visual, interactive elements of a product interface – including buttons, icons, spacing, typography, color schemes, and responsive design. On the other hand, User experience (UX) design is the process of developing and improving the quality of interaction between a user and all facets of a company.
To simplify,
A UI designer seeks to put out a visually appealing product; to make you open a screen and say ‘mad oo’ while a UX designer is concerned about how you feel using the product. For instance, the feeling you get from clicking a button multiple times and it doesn’t bring the desired result can be termed bad UX.
There are many roles within UI/UX, we have:
- UX Consultant
- UX Designers
- UX Researcher
- UX Analyst
- UX Strategist
- UI Designer
- Information Architect
- Interaction Designer
- Visual Designer and so on
Tools and Resources
There are quite a number of tools you can use to get started in UI/UX. However, you do not need to master them all. The required tool will be listed in the job description. There are:
- Figma – Free with additional paid plans
- Adobe XD – Free with additional paid plans
- Sketch- Paid
- Invision- Free
- Framer- Free
- Proto.io- $24 a month
Courses
These platforms provide courses that will introduce you to design process and supply all the information required as well as a certificate of completion which you can attach to your portfolio
- Udemy – Paid
- Interaction Design Foundation – Paid
- Future Learn – Free
- Coursera – Paid
Reading List
- Don’t Make Me Think Revisited: A common sense approach to web usability – Steve Krug
- Ux design 2020: the ultimate beginner’s guide to user experience. -By Theo Farrington
- Ux for beginners: A crash course in 100 short lessons -By Joel Marsh
- User friendly How the hidden rules of design are changing the way we live, work and play-By Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant
- Refactoring UI- By Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger
- Ux design 2020: the ultimate beginner’s guide to user experience. -By Theo Farrington
- The design of everyday things — Donald A. Norman
- The Non-Designer’s Design Book — By Robin Williams
- The Elements of User Experience — By Jesse James Garrett
- A Project Guide to UX Design: For user experience designers in the field or in the making (2nd Edition) — By Russ Unger & Carolyn Chandler
Medium Articles
Because I’m a huge follower and fan of medium’s content for UI/UX, here are some great reads on design thinking, color, information architecture, etc
A guide to information architecture
Enhance your UI with these typography tips
Typography can break or make your design..
A letter to a struggling UI/UX designer
6 Visual fundamentals that UX Designers should consider
YouTube Channels
Here are some channels that are the best when it comes to delivering rock-solid information on UI, UX, Freelancing, design process and selected tools
- Flux – Ran Segall, a designer, shares his journey, struggles and lessons he learned as he builds his career as a designer and a business owner.
- Design Code. Design reviews and techniques.
- Design Course – Tutorials, experiments, crash courses and design review
- Design Pilot – Design Process, tutorials, tips and resources.
Ux Websites and Blogs
Smashing Magazine– A comprehensive website provides high-quality articles with the UX employee on Design, Coding, Mobile, and WordPress,etc.
UX Booth – A professional UX website. The difference between it and Smashing Magazine is that UXbooth focuses more on the aspect of user experience design.
Invision Blog – It’s a blog with very simple and clean interface, no more distraction from advertisements or others. Articles are all surrounding the topics of design tools, UI/UX design, web design, and mobile app design. A good design topic resource to follow.
Toptal Designers Blog – A hub for in-depth design tutorials and coverage of new design trends, created by professional freelance designers in the Toptal network.
Design Modo – All-in-one solution to create website and newsletter design to impress and engage your customers.
The UX Collective – The UX Collective is an independent design publication built to elevate unheard design voices all over the world. Curated stories on user experience, visual and product
Design Shack – Design Shack is a daily source of helpful resources, articles, inspiration, tips, and tutorials for the design community.
Creative Bloq – Daily inspiration for creative people. Fresh thinking, expert tips and tutorials to supercharge your creative muscles.
Now let’s gettinnnn
Fonts
Font Squirrel – Free, hand-picked, high-quality, commercial-use fonts
Google Fonts – Google Fonts makes product and web pages run faster by safely caching fonts without compromising users’ privacy or security.
Dafont – Free fonts to download.
Typewolf – Typewolf the absolute best resource available for everything related to typography on the web.
Identify Font – Identify a font by answering questions about key features
WhatTheFont – Seen a font in use and want to know what it is
Icons
The Noun Project – Over a million curated icons, created by a global community.
Flat Icon – The largest database of free icons available in PNG, SVG, EPS, PSD and BASE 64 formats.
Icons8– Free Icons by First-Class Designers.
Inspiration
Muzli – The best design inspiration expertly curated for you.
UI Parade – UI Inspirations.
UI Patterns – User Interface Design patterns are recurring solutions that solve common design problems.
Stock Photos
Pexels – Best free stock photos in one place.
Pixabay – Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos.
StockSnap – Hundreds of high-resolution images added weekly.
Unsplash – Beautiful, free photos. Gifted by the world’s most generous community of photographers.
Vectors and Graphics
Free Vector – A world of free vector art at your fingertips!
Vecteezy – Discover & download free vector Art!
Freepik– A world of free vector art at your fingertips!
Colors
Graphic Style Manual for Understanding How Color Affects Design – Color is an integral part of any design solution. Design Elements, Color Fundamentals is an essential resource for designers who want to create a memorable design and successfully communicate with their audience.
Coolors – Generate or browse beautiful color combinations for your designs.
Illustrations
Undrawkit.
Mock-ups
Wireframing
Podcasts
Design matters Podcast by Debbie Millman
Additional resources
Daily UI — A 100 day of practicing UI that will help you to boost your UI skills
Whimsical — Whimsical is a unified suite of collaboration tools. Great for product specs, wikis, brainstorming, ideation, user flows, architecture diagrams and more.
I hope you found this list helpful! Don’t forget to follow me here on Medium for more design-related content
🙋🏾♀️Reach out to me on Twitter or LinkedIn to say hello or get me a Tesla.
