UI/UX Designer Skills [entry-level, medium, senior]

To become a UI/UX designer, you need to master specific professional skills. They will form a basis for you to land a job and start off on this path. However, to become a great UX designer who can handle projects of different complexity levels, you should have something outstanding in your resume.

Of course, the more you learn, the more expertise you have. Yet, it’s specific skills that get you more interviews. Certain UX designer skills are more valued by employers than others. 

To find out what those skills are, master them, and craft a great UX designer skills resume, you should read this article.

How to Define UI/UX Designer Skills?

The development and advancement of UI/UX design have begun since the Internet became available to most people in the developed countries. The more companies were creating their websites, the tougher competition got. They needed to stand out in this new environment, and a great UX design was the main tool to achieve that.

Today, customers have become even more demanding. To proceed with the purchase, they need the UI/UX design of the website or app to be impeccable, intuitive, and handy.

This is the goal of every designer who specializes in creating an inviting interface for apps, web pages, and software. Thus, a few of the most needed UX skills are

• prototyping;
• wireframing;
• research;
• information architecture;
• visual communication;
• UX writing;
• collaboration;
• analysis.

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Must-Have Hard Skills for UX/UI Professionals

As one can easily notice, the above mentioned skills list the hard ones along with the soft ones. A UI/UX designer must have both to work effectively and be a great match for a team.

Hard skills are something that really makes a UI/UX designer a professional. These are the first skills to pay attention to when you craft your UX designer skills resume. They include but are not limited to

• prototyping;
• wireframing;
• UI Research;
• information architecture.

These skills, along with many others, make a UX designer capable of excelling customer expectations, providing user-friendly, convenient, and often intuitive prototypes. These designs must appeal to users for them to return and make use of the website/app/software again.

Soft Skills for UX Design Specialists

At the same time, no team works fine if its members are not equipped with soft skills. In the case of UX designers, these abilities should be diverse. First of all, those UX skills should include

• collaboration;
• analytical skills;
• communication;
• active listening;
• constructive criticism;
• empathy.

As a UX designer, you never act on your own. There is a team of developers who make your ideas work. Thus, most of those skills are needed to act as a team member and reach common objectives. Other soft skills are required to understand users and customers and turn their wishes and expectations into interesting design solutions.

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The Difference Between UI and UX

At this point, many people would ask the question of what the difference is between UX and UI then. UI, which stands for user interface, is a series of screens, visuals, and pages that help customers interact with the company, service, or product.

At the same time, UX (user experience) is the impression users have when they interact with the company’s products and services each step of the way. UX designer skills, hence, help adjust UI to understand and meet people’s behavioral patterns.

Quite often, specialists come with UX/UI skills, which makes them qualified to act as a UX/UI designer. However, sometimes these positions are split, and the company’s best practices suggest hiring two people instead of one. 

Here are a few UX/UI skills that designers should have, along with the best tools to automate the processes for them.

Wireframing and Prototyping

One of the top skills needed by a great UI designer is being able to create designs and prototypes of visuals, pages, and screens for future products and services. For that, they must be technically competent to bring those designs into life.

Such tools as Sketch or InVision help a lot if one needs to take into consideration company branding, typography, colors, and other style details.

UX Research

Being able to research is a must for a UX professional. It’s impossible to create a quality product or service if you know nothing about the audience who will use them.

To research and learn more about the users-to-be, you can utilize a wide variety of analytical tools, including interviews, surveys, observations, experiments, and so on. By studying their moods and thoughts, you’ll be able to create an unforgettable experience for them.

Visual Communication

Another great skill for a UI professional is the ability to communicate using visuals. In other words, they need to be able to create visual elements that speak to users like words and sounds. For example, an icon with a house usually means returning to the main page. Who taught that to us? User interface experts, of course.

Lots of tools help in doing it, including InDesign, Photoshop, and other software. 

UX Writing Skills

UX writing skills help designers craft a good experience for users of the website, app, or software. Icons, banners, images, and other stuff should help them navigate while communicating brand values and tone.

UX writing is all about creating the environment that works for a user to achieve their goals. A UX designer should work hard not to fail it and make this environment as convenient as possible. You need to help clients interact by not communicating directly.

Information Architecture

Information architecture is a skill common for UX and UI because this understanding is at the core of any content strategy and design. This ability helps them understand what’s the best way to structure, organize, and label the information. Also, this skill is needed if you are required to organize web pages or different aspects of a complex software product. 

How You Can Improve UX Skills

A good thing about all this is that you can actually learn UI design skills. It’s possible to advance from a beginner to a pro in quite a short time. However, it takes dedication and time to master those skills and build up expertise. Here are a few ways how you can do it.

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Online Degree Programs for Getting UX/UI Skills

You can learn the UX skills needed to start a professional career by attending a few online programs. However, these programs should be recognized in the field and well-known by your potential employers. Some of the best ones are listed below:

• Udemy;
• UX Design Institute;
• Pluralsight;
• LinkedIn Learning;
• Coursera;
• Interaction Design Foundation.

Pick any program that you find a great match for you and study hard. Recruiters can easily recognize whether you’ve mastered a certain skill set or not.

Check Well-Known UX Experts

Some UX experts are recognized bloggers who gladly share a few tips on the pages of their websites. This is a great chance to find out about the industry’s leaders and learn the latest news.

Here are a few bloggers you should pay your attention to:

• Nicholas Tehnue;
• Don Norman;
• Laura Klein;
• Scott Jenson;
• Irene Au;
• Steve Krug;
• Patrick Neeman;
• Olof Schybergson;
• Bill Buxton;
• Andy Budd;
• Denis Pakhaluik.

Network as Much as You Can

Networking helps you get to know people with whom you share something in common. Make your passion for UX/UI design a reason to reach out to more experts, attend more professional events, and actually learn more. Networking creates extra career resources for you and helps in the hiring process a lot.

UX Engineer in the Workplace

As a person with UX engineer skills, you have to be prepared that your workplace will require you to act fast, learn quickly, multitask, and communicate proactively. This job is not for those who stick to a routine. You must inquire about recent industry news, regularly upgrade your skills, and listen to people around you since they are a real source of inspiration.

How to Showcase Your Skills Best

The best way to showcase your UX designer skills is to demonstrate a few products or services you’ve designed. A hiring manager then will have a chance to test your abilities in practice.

Also, when invited to the interview, try to show your personality and demonstrate how talented you are in communication and listening.

Best UX Skills for Resume

The first thing recruiters see is your resume. It is a document that lists all your achievements and presents them for the hiring manager’s judgment. Yet, before it reaches them, it gets scanned by the ATS. It should list key skills as keywords to help you rank higher in the system. Thus, make sure to place relevant skills here and there on the resume to make your application stronger.

To craft a winning resume, make sure to list all the UI UX skills that make you a successful candidate. For example, split the section into two parts, listing “Key Skills,” such as prototyping and information architecture, and “Soft Skills,” like communication and research.

UX Skills to Mention During the Job Interview

A job interview for the position of a UI UX designer usually relies on your portfolio. Never forget to add a link for recruiters to check your accomplishments.

A successful job interview is a lot more than just a conversation with an employer. It’s also an instrument to scan your personality. Make sure they realize how communicative and team-oriented you are. It’s essential to show that you are a team member during the interview.

Moreover, make an impression that you are an analytical thinker and a problem-solver. Recruiters look for people to handle things at work rather than create new problems.

Sample UX Resume Skills Section

To explain how the skills section in your UI/UX designer resume should look like, we decided to bring a good example to light. Please check the sample and the explanation that follows.

UX Skills in a Resume Skills Section

RELEVANT SKILLS

As you can see in the sample above, the resume author lists UX and UI skills together with soft skills to highlight all the strengths at once. 

UX Skills in a Resume Work Experience Section

Your work experience section should be proof of the UX designer skills you list in your resume. Thus, you need to make it accomplishment-based while highlighting the key skills you used to achieve heights in your career.

For example,

• Created user-friendly interface for a web app helping people detect fake news using InVision; the app is still in use by over 1M people.

To Wrap It Up

Therefore, whether you want to learn a new profession or land a dream job, the top 15 UX designers skills you must highlight in your resume are the following:

• UX research;
• information architecture;
• wireframing;
• prototyping’
• visual communication;
• communication;
• collaboration;
• analysis;
• constructive criticism;
• multitasking;
• empathy;
• curiosity;
• active listening;
• quick learning;
• UX writing.

Check out more about resume examples over there!