So you wanna be a JEDI ?
Oh and by Jedi I mean a kick ass interaction Designer
This is a continuation of the previous article that I wrote “The Art of UI Design”.
As you fall deeper into the rabbit whole you realize that there's more to it than learning just a bunch of tools and a flare for design. The artistic side needs to collaborate with the technical witty side. You need to asses whatever you are designing from the perspective of its users. Define who they are, what they need and how they think. When you can do these accurately and safely your on the beginning of the road to making something good.
Background Reading
Here is a list of books that is a good read for those of you who want to make a name for yourself, make sure you read them and know them by heart inside out and of course not to forget to implement them
- The Design of everyday things by Don Norman
- Sketching User Experiences by Bil Buxton
- Rocket Surgery made Easy by Steve Krug
Online Courses
There are two design courses that are my favorite in the realm of interaction design and user interface design. Completing them will give you incredible insight on the subject. Good news you don’t need money or a degree to make it out there. Your most important and only weapon of choice is a good Portfolio.
- Human Computer Interaction
- 7 Courses on Interaction Design
- Hack Design
- Learning to code Html & CSS
- Tuts Plus
HCI course will get you started on understanding how to create a prototype, researching on user needs, need finding research, understanding user experience and the principles of user experience. The second will go to in detail into user interface designing and is a pretty length and in depth course. It covers everything and anything that comes in the field of electric design as well has a few interesting documentaries, this is a must do for anyone remotely serious about user interface designing. Complete both, start in any order and it will give you great insight and start implementing.
Beside doing some ground work every project that you do will give you insane amount of insight to each market that you are designing for. Be sure to research in detail who you are dealing with, with their interest and goals are and who will be the users of the site or application your developing because that should be the real purpose and center of your focus.
Tuts plus also provide some great material and courses on how to design and get around you way with Photoshop make sure this is also on your daily register.
As part of the becoming an interaction designer it is also very important to be familiar with HTML and CSS when designing interfaces. Shay Howes’s page on learning Html & CSS is a great start on learning how to code, other options include codecademy and team treehouse.
Tools of the Trade
Its also important for a designer to be equipped with all the right tools and it isn’t necessary to reinvent the wheel each time. So its a good idea to have prefabricated design assets ready. They will help you working faster efficiently and also help break monotonous design patterns.
Creative Market is a great site to buy some great quality assets which will come in handy in the long run.
http://ui8.net/ is another platform with some really great UI kits.
Design Blog and freebie sites Scouring through these kind of websites will give some good inspiration on whats new and current. You might even run into some interesting design assets from time to time.
Inspiration
Use websites like Behance, Dribble to look for exploration to see how other people have approached a problem in a certain manner. Be inspired and also think out of the box. Its always good to think about how other people have developed or approached a project in a certain way. By studying why they have approached this design.
Other web design inspirations with finished design inspirations also give you a great idea of what works and is appreciated by the community. Visit these sites to be inspired and motivated Awwwards, Web Design Served, FWA
Repositories
Be aware of new repositories of information with awesome collection of resources, they come with abounded information and keep you updated.
Here are a few that I keep handy
Being great at your work requires a lot of practice and experience in different projects. Every projects serves as a new piece of the puzzle that brings you better insight.
Good Luck!
