UI Design is a concept that - like UX Design - has been taking off quite a lot in the last few years, and its popularity continues to grow. Numerous courses, postgraduate studies or webinars tempt with the vision of being able to rebrand and make money in a completely different industry. But what is UI Design really?
UI Design - what is it?
Let's start with an acronym - UI Design stands for User Interface Design. It is not just about digital interfaces (although these days such designers are the most sought-after), but also about all kinds of knobs in consumer electronics/appliances or cars and their dashboards.
UI Design is a design discipline that has to consider the visual value of a solution from the perspective of the target user on the one hand, and take care of its functionality on the other. Thus, UI Design is a somewhat smaller part of the broader issue of UX (User Experience) Design.
What is UI design all about?
UI design aims to create an interface that is visually appealing to the target user, while at the same time being comfortable, if not intuitive, to use. Throughout the design process, various questions are asked and numerous, often very absurd, scenarios are considered.
UI design is, on the one hand, the right choice of colours in the interface, typography or buttons and all the work on the visual layer. On the other hand, it is all about creating something that is intuitive for the target user and enables them to use every button on the application screen without any problems ("If I click A, it becomes B", etc.).
Thus, in addition to graphic skills, the UI Designer must have a basic knowledge of the psychology of users and be able to consider their potential behaviour and likely scenarios for their actions on the site. 
Basic principles of UI Design
Central to the entire UI design process are a few principles that allow you to ultimately create an interface that users will enjoy using.
- The first principle of UI Design is to combine functionality with aesthetic qualities. In this case, "less is better" is a good rule of thumb - the user must not be overwhelmed by information, must "feel" the interface and be able to find their way around it. And this brings us to point two, which is.
- Intuitiveness. The target user should understand in a fraction of a second what effect his action will have. And, importantly, he or she needs to understand this without reading several pages of technical help or application documentation.
- Consistency is another of the principles that should characterise a good interface. The user must not have a sense of chaos, so, for example, the typography or graphic elements on each screen of the application should be the same.
It is worth realising that UI Design is not a new design discipline. Its principles, among others, were defined by Ben Shneiderman, an American computer scientist and author of numerous books including 'Designing the User Interface'. According to him, UI design should be guided by eight principles. Amongst these, Shneiderman mentions maintaining consistency throughout the design, being able to reverse engineer an action or offer feedback. 
What does a UI Designer need to be able to do?
For fairly obvious reasons, a UI designer needs to be able to use graphic design programs - his or her job is to develop, test and check the solutions proposed by the UX Designer. Thus, the basic skill required for such a position is the knowledge and ability to use Adobe packages (Photoshop, Illustrator) or the Figma tool.
Of course, simply being able to use the various functionalities of graphic design software is not enough. The final design has to be aesthetically pleasing, so the person using UI design in their work should have the right aesthetic 'sense'.
It is also clear that the designer needs to understand how the interface he is designing and its various components work. He or she should consider all possible scenarios - aided by knowledge of the user and psychological mechanisms - that could lead to different variations.
These are, of course, part of the hard competences that a UI Designer must possess. However, soft competences are no less important. Like any designer, he or she must be able to 'defend' and argue the sense of the designed interface.
He or she should therefore be characterised by interpersonal skills that will make the final design meet the principles of the UI and, at the same time, meet the client's expectations. The ability to 'get along' is also important because of working at the interface between different teams or people, if we are talking about a company.
Is UI design a job for everyone? Certainly not. People who do not have a well-developed aesthetic sense or are not very creative are unlikely to find themselves in this position. To become a UI designer, you have to find the right balance between functionality and the aesthetic value of the interface.
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