5 Sep 2022
We must take a step back and examine the recent history of UI & UX design in order to investigate the future. Websites are a fantastic illustration of how we may track the growth of design.
They had straightforward HTML web pages with the content in the center and the navigation on the left or at the top and yes, that cool Marquee which was liked by all. After that, Flash showed up and broke every rule, which was occasionally advantageous but certainly more frequently detrimental. Since everyone was a designer or developer, they frequently enjoyed complete creative freedom and received no criticism at all. These websites were frequently useless due to being excessively flashy, sluggish, or both. Till that time, the users were frequently overlooked, and we did not give performance much care. When smartphones initially became popular, we had to consider speed as well as how to make websites acceptable on a tiny screen because they couldn’t be identical to those on a desktop. Modern technology allows us to test performance in milliseconds, focus on every aspect of usability, and consider nearly everyone’s opinions.
In simple terms, user experience refers to how a person feels when interacting with a system. UX is basically the objective to offer the user a good experience when engaging with the product. Alternatively, it may be said that UX design is the process of developing things that are easy to use and pleasurable to engage with.
Therefore, going by the past, the majority of our advancements are centered on creating novel ways to consume media, changing the content, and considering factors that are crucial for us to create the ideal UI & UX design. From a mobile device to a smartphone to a tablet to a wristwatch… AR, VR. Designing for computers, smartphones, tablets, and even smartwatches is now secure. We know what questions to ask, how to make it attractive, and how to build a positive user experience into the narrative. There are several excellent examples, excellent publications, best practices, and free libraries with built-in design frameworks.
Strong UX is now a need for competitive businesses, making it highly sought-after expertise in Europe, the US, and Australia. UX specialists are in high demand, and there are currently numerous open roles as a result.
According to a 2019 Invision survey, 70% of managers grew their design teams, which are anticipated to grow at a pace of 21% annually. According to the same poll, 34% of product designers had weekly contact from recruiters, compared to 81% who received monthly contact.
However, there are other professions that come under the UX/UI umbrella in addition to design. We’ll examine the jobs in detail and speculate on what they could involve in the foreseeable future:
This position will remain in general. With additional content-generating tools at their disposal, designers will have more time for technical duties. Nevertheless, user-centered UX UI designers will need to deal with a lot more data, examine all facets of their product performance, and assess business objectives and outcomes.
UX researchers examine customer behavior to draw intelligent conclusions, much like data scientists. To transform these learning outcomes into solutions that can be applied immediately and are user-focused while still resonating with their audience, they collaborate with designers, developers, and product managers. Tools for data analysis will undoubtedly reduce the amount of time spent working, but human experience and analytical abilities will always be valued.
A more technical description of a UX Designer is represented by this word, which is relatively new. In order to achieve user-centered design, a UX Engineer concentrates on a design system’s technical components. They ensure consumers can engage with a product, and they utilize their understanding of how people behave and interact with certain design components to influence the product’s usability.
The microcopy that users need to read in order to use applications, websites, and other digital goods is planned and written by a UX writer.
A product designer could gather feedback from stakeholders, work as a conduit between designers, engineers, and researchers, and help create mock-ups using wireframes and prototypes. They might also come up with creative solutions to current problems.
You will design interactive digital goods and services in this position. Although there is some overlap with UX design, this role is particularly focused on enhancing the user-product interaction experience. It’s a crucial field since these designers will show us how to interact with Virtual Reality as it gets more widespread.
A VUI designer thinks about the user’s interface with a voice application in the same way that a UX designer concentrates on making a seamless connection, say, between the user and their smartphone. The user’s smartphone’s smart assistant or a voice-activated speaker installed in the living room may be used for this engagement.
These designers deliberately alter consumer behavior in order to improve user retention, educate consumers, or establish new habits. In the future, this position will be responsible for developing and promoting an ethics code as well as working to promote ethical behavior.
The demand for high-caliber UX work is still very much there despite technological advancements. While it might appear that the industry is dwindling, UX is only keeping up with the trends. In the years to come, “UX” as we currently understand it will likely seem quite different.
In conclusion, user experience (UX) is a discipline that seeks to prioritize the needs of users and provide a human factor to our interactions and experiences. It’s a specialized future for user experience. It will be more crucial than ever for designers to specialize in a particular field or subject as the knowledge and abilities of UX designers at all levels rise.
Numerous open UX job advertisements already take this into account. Companies are increasingly requesting UI/UI professionals who can work in both areas, interaction designers, UX researchers, content and product designers, and even voice-guided UI specialists. With a well-established foundation in UX, being an expert is quite simple to transition from being a generalist. The moment is now to widen your knowledge and broaden your skill set. Thinking ahead and preparing yourself for your future in UX may be done by picking up some coding skills, brushing up on design strategy and team leadership, or learning more about analytics. The finest UX boot camps provide specialty courses to assist you to advance in this field, which is great news for aspiring UX designers. There is still a need for UX and will remain in the future too. Simply defined, the nature and texture of the job change and grow to fit consumers’ requirements when new technology enters the market, just like pretty much every tech industry does.
There has honestly never been a better moment to seek a career in this rapidly changing business. While changing jobs might be intimidating, the UX industry values both transferable and specialized abilities, and we can assist you with the rest.
Even as the world becomes more and more digital, the market will always want humans to humanize it, which is why user-focused occupations are unquestionably here to stay.
Author: Akash Upadhyay
5 Sep 2022
