Essential skills required to become a ui/ux designer (Part -2)

In the previous part we saw about the essential hard skills that takes to become a successful ui/ux designer. In this part we are going to see about the essenstial soft skills that are necessary to have a great ui/ux design career. 

Creative skills

1. Solution oriented thinking - When a company posts a job requirement telling that they are looking for a ui/ux designer they do not mean that they need an employee who knows Figma, Adobe xd, Sketch, Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop, all they want is a problem solver. When a client approaches you with a project basically he/she is coming to you asking for a solution to a problem like increase their sales by redesigning their existing website, streamline a process by transforming it to digital format, manage a task that has several steps to improve effeciency or track a team or multiple teams for performance enhancement. So, as a ui/ux designer you are supposed to closely go through the problem they came up with and look in for multiple solutions to choose the best possible solution to it. This ability to give multiple solutions befor deciding the best possible solution is what called as solution oriented thinking.
   
   Let me state an example here. A salon owner comes to a website development company telling that they are not getting as much online booking as they used to get a few months ago. Now the ui/ux designer will perform a heuristic evaluation of the website and submits a ux audit report which tells that the booking form is in the contact page which is the last link in the navigation bar. What is the solution to this? The ui/ux designer suggests the salon owner to move that booking form from the contact page to the banner or header of the home page like airbnb website so anybody who visits the website will first interact with the booking form and will not waste time searching for the booking form and get lost into other pages in the process. This suggestion that the ui/ux designer came up with is the solution that from your employer to your clients and till the end user are expecting.

2. Narrative Design - I am not sure how many of you are watching WWE but i am sure lot of you will be aware of what WWE is. It is a multi-billionare professional wrestling company. How did WWE become a global phenomenon of professional wrestling from a small wrestling promotion conducting wrestling shows in carnivals, underground parking lots and high school grounds with a less than hundred people crowd to conducting premium live events all over the world in some of the largest stadiums with more than a lakh of people singing theme songs of WWE superstars. It happened because it was just not two huge meaty men grappling and throwing each other all around the ring, these professional wrestlers were telling us a story from the time they came out of the curtain till they went back in. They had characters, gimmicks, promos and kayfabe which they carried and acted accordingly which told us some intriguing stories which really engaged us as we were able to connect with.

This is the same thing we are also supposed to do when we design an app or website. Our designs should have a story through which the users can navigate and live through. For example if we are designing a website for a cold storage company we should not just start right away with the services that we provide and the pricing table followed by a booking form and contacts details. Instead we should start do this

• What is cold storage - establishing the place, period and the environment of where the story is happening.

• Who they are - introducing the protagonist and the characteristicks of the protagonist of the story.

• Problems in cold storage - Introducng the antagonist or the opposing force or challenges people facing.

• What they provide in cold storage - how the protagonist is going to tackle the obstacle or stop the antagonist.

• Uniqueness of their service - making the audience feel the protagonist is one among them and empathizes them.

• Certifications and permissions - backing the legitamacy of the protagonist.

• Testimonials - proof that the protagonist has tackled the antagonist or solved the problem.

• Awards and Accolades - appreciating the efforts and sacrifices of the protagonist making him a hero and a bankable star.

• Call To Action - option to meet the hero or star.

• Footer - End credits and post credit scene.

This is how we are supposed to tell a story through a website which the audience will be able to connect with. This was an example we have explained here with an one page website, if it is going to be a multi-page website then other pages and content in those pages can be used to tell a more intriguing story with supporting characters, establishing other conflicts, character arc, evolution of the story over a period and bringing the story to a high-point where the audience are in seat edge before moving to the ultimate scene where the solution is provided. This brings in lot of audience to the website converting them into potential customers.

3. Experimentation - As a ui/ux designer we should not be giving the same solution to all the customers coming with the same or similar problems and we should not fear to try out new things. If we don't take the risk of experimentation then we will not evolve into a better designer and we will not have anything to contribute to the industry. Not taking the risk of trying new things outside the box might look like a sofe zone but this will make you stale at some point. If you are not going to try to experiment then when you get a problem outside your comfort zone then you will strain a lot because you have not trained to do it. We might try and fail not once but many times, but all these failures will give you lots of knowledge and will pay off at some point which might even become the most important turning point in your career and to the company or client you are working for.

Soft skills

1. Interpretation skills - As a ui/ux designer when you go through an user persona you must be able to connect the points between a personality and the vague goals and frustrations that personality has cited and must be able create a clear picture of the problem he/she is reporting. Not only in terms of understanding an user persona, ui/ux designers must also be able to understand the responses of user testing and must be able to make changes in the userflow accordingly.

2. Communication skills - Like every other IT or IT related job communication skill is a must. This communication skill does not mean you should have a great vocabulary with fancy corporate jagron words, but your words must be able to deliver your thought process and why you have chosen a particular color, font, layout and how it will be percieved by the end users to your clients and to your managers. Sometimes clients come up with wierd requirements like they need an whole apple inside a bottle but you should not make the bottle big, nor cut the apple into pieces as well crush it into a juice. Under those circumstances you need to deliver the message that it is not possible or need to convince them that its not a good idea to do so without hurting their ego. This is what i mentioned as communication skills.

3. Presentation skills - Your job just not stops with designing and giving the assets and prototype to your clients, there is another important thing that you have to do. That is presenting your designs in a compelling way such that the client understands the solution that you have provided. You presentation skills are not required only after completing the design but starts right away once you come up with the site map or userflow. You would have known a famous quote by Thanos in Avengers: Endgame movie where he tells "you can't live with your own failures and where does it bring you, back to me". Similarly when you dont present your designs properly then the client will ask for many iterations even if you tell why those iterations won't work and finally when the client realizes that all the changes that they has asked for has failed they will ask for the first design that was presented to them. So in order to avoid all of this waste of time, effort and money it is better that we present it in a proper way such that the client approves it. Realizing this only Adobe has even got the version history feature in their tools so that the designers call pull an older version whenever they want. Most importantly your presentation skills is not required only after completing the design. It is better that you learn to present your works to the client right from the userflow or sitemap and the wireframes also.

4. Documentation skills - This is a skill that you will be forced to develop once you get into corporates. From documenting your daily progress in a project or multiple projects to documenting the changes the clients have asked for or approvals the client has given are very important so that the client does not confronts you that he/she has not asked for such a change or they have not given approval for your designs. Most importantly document requests made by your managers as well development team which saves you a lot of rework. 

So, the above said soft skills, creative skills coupled with the software skills and technical skills mentioned in the previous part you can become a successful ui/ux designer with a long standing smooth career.