What Graphic Designers are Missing When They Don’t Learn UX & UI

by Nitin Kumar Digital Marketing Company

Navigating through some of the biggest challenges that Graphic Designers face, such as piecing together uniquely original ideas, managing inefficient workflows, and giving direction to your visual branding project, can become considerably more informed when you also learn the principles of UX Design. While there are some similarities in the way the two professionals work, the latter is hyper-focussed on results and data.

As a graphic designer, you are trained to be creative. You experiment with shapes and colors, types, fonts, light, and dark. However, graphic design is still not the same as UI design. This article discusses the reasons why graphic designers ought to learn UX as well as UI design and what they’re missing out on if they don’t.

Putting Purpose in Your Creative Engine

While graphic design is visual art, User Interface design is visual science. You may have a knack for putting creative elements together to come up with an attractive logo or background. But UI design principles tell you how to put this creativity in perspective. Because UI design relies on user research and human cognitive biases, UI can inform your design on how to put individual elements together to help a user successfully complete an interaction.

The goal of businesses is not to create great art but to help users perform the task they came to your app or webpage for, in the most efficient and familiar manner possible. If all they want to do is fill out a form for travelling to a holiday destination, putting in an intricate background will only serve to distract them. You’d be much better off displaying real live photographs from actual destinations and some of the most impressive sights tourists can experience in that location.

Giving Your Customers the Desired Digital Environment

Continuing with the travel portal example, your customers are dying to get a glimpse of what’s in store for them when they arrive at their holiday destination. You can pep them up and carry forward the suspense till after they’ve come to the comparison stage of the buyer decision process (where the buyer is ready to compare between packages, prices, and, services).

By choosing the right kind of colors, fonts, and, imagery, you can prep your user for what’s ahead as well as make it visually and contextually appealing for him/her to go through your interface. This ends up delighting your customer and making him/her want to come back to you as a repeat customer.

“Of course, if earning business profit is not your goal, as, for example, in the case of a smartwatch that monitors heart rates and prepares reports and alerts, being able to view the most relevant information at a glance is key to making the difference between life and death. In the latter case, white space and clear type will make the user’s task immensely easier”, says Harsha Kakkeri, Founder and CEO of Designboat UI/UX School, one of the most popular and industry-recognized UX Design training courses in the country.

Other important reasons to learn UX and UI design if you’re a graphic designer include:

• Learning to balance aesthetics with functionality in design

• Equipping yourself with full-stack design skills rather than limiting yourself to one discipline

• Stepping up your career

Have a question? Request a callback from an expert UX&UI training specialist.