UISDC Talk: Exclusive self-learning guide for top international designers!
In the information age, I think knowledge is the easiest thing that could be got through hard work. We hope that this issue of UISDC Talk can give a little push to those who want to learn by themselves. I once wanted to get some shortcut to learning and share. When I received the content from these six designers, I found that self-motivation is the most important, hope you also don’t just plan, take action immediately!
In the 5th issue of the UISDC Talk, our topic is — Do you have any good self-learning methods to share based on your personal growth？
Mike
Dribbble：https://dribbble.com/creativemints
Sure, one of the most effective methods of self-development in my opinion is constantly working on your own projects. If you like a particular style or direction, move beyond Pinterest compilations or Behance cases, use your imagination and go ahead! Try, make mistakes, experiment, but create something yourself, let it pass through you. There is a chance you’ll come up with something completely new and original, something no one has ever done before! This means a ton for personal growth!
And of course, share it and do it quickly! The more people out there who see and like your work the higher chances you’ll find “your” clients and requests for your personal style, which will give your growth an even bigger boost!
Minh Pham-FΛNTΛSY
Dribbble：https://dribbble.com/Fantasy
I’ve never read a single book in my life. I tried but didn’t feel like it. I’m more fascinated by visual and motion things like films, animated movies, videos… I learn things by seeing and trying to replicate it. Don’t get me wrong, everyone has different ways to access knowledge. You just need to find what works for you.
My suggestion for folks who are learning design (visual / UI / Interaction) is to start with copying other people’s works. The learning progress could be divided in 4 phases:
- Phase 1: You can go to Dribbble, Behance or even Google, find whatever that inspires you then try to replicate it. By doing that, you’ll develop a “library”of designs in your brain. The more you do this, the richer your library would be. You’ll get your brain trained as well as your eyes
- Phase 2: still doing copy works but try to find an area of the original design that you can improve (even for 5% better). This helps you plant a very first seed to grow your design thinking.
- Phase 3: with the library and design thinking you’ve built up, you can start to explore new styles, original ideas and create your own things.
- Phase 4: now you can create pretty things with your own style, it’s time to focus on solving design problems, try to design as it is for users / target audience, not for your own interest. The end goal is to be able to bring the balance between aesthetic and usability to your design.
- Phase N: well, there’s no limit.. you can be as awesome as you want to be as long as you keep practicing.
Whatever phase of learning you’re in, the most important thing is FEEDBACK. Design should be judged by its’ target audience, not you, and feedback is what you’ll have to deal with for the rest of your career. So you should always get your designs out there and see how people react to it. Not everyone’s feedback is on point so you need to find the most common one and iterate from it. That’s also why I love working in Fantasy. There are a lot of talented people who give me valuable feedback and it’s a huge privilege to learn from them.
Gleb Kuznetsov✈
Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/glebich
Self-learning means staying with trial and error.
Being in competition with yourself to constantly learn from what you do, ask questions like “how could this be even better,” and then work to improve your next version — always improving not just your execution but the level of your taste.
Ramotion
Instagram: http://instagram.com/ramotion
Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/Ramotion
Behance: http://behance.net/ramotion
As a designer, you need to continue developing your skills and never stop learning.
The process and the reflection after each finished project are the critical aspects of self-learning. Another important point is that you have to try new things, new software, new tools that come out. We are digital designers, and we live in a very fast-changing environment, so we have to adapt pretty fast.
Zajno Crew
Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/zajno
web： https://zajno.com，https://grid.zajno.com
Medium: https://medium.com/zajnocrew
It’s true that in today’s world it’s absolutely impossible to succeed without being able to constantly change, adapt and learn. The ability to learn is more valuable than the knowledge itself.
The main and probably most difficult thing here is self-discipline. As soon as you’ve decided to learn a skill, don’t waste a second, don’t wait for a more convenient time or opportunity to start — do it right away, while you’re still strongly motivated and decisive.
Start with creating an appropriate environment for your learning. Find space and make space:
- Find some physical area where you’re gonna practice your new skill and get all the tools you’re gonna need (they must be cheap and easy to get for the beginning). Make it a zone you feel comfortable in, a place where you want to spend time experimenting and having fun.
- Make space for learning in your tight time schedule: find and book time for it. Be serious about it, don’t “sell” this time to “more important things”. Remember, for you this venture should be low stakes, but high priority.
If you managed to do the two things mentioned above (especially the second one), you’re already on a path to success. The following steps are comparatively easy:
- Find a source or a person you’re gonna learn from. If you’re blessed with a knowledgeable friend or mentor at close hand — then great, start here. If not, don’t fear, these days online tutorials are as good a teacher as any.
- Start practicing what you’ve just learnt, hone your skill, receive feedback from social media and online forums, learn more, practice more.
- Set deadlines and learning goals, structure your programme, add milestones. Make discipline your religion. Don’t forget that such things as time management apps have already been invented, let technologies help you.
Finally, here’s the most important thing: you should genuinely believe that you are actually going to do it, and become good at it. This is not your dream anymore — this is your plan. In fact, almost any skill can be mastered within two years of intense learning and practice. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll get there.
Yi-Hsuan Li
Behance: www.behance.net/yihsuanli
To take the identity of the designer as a long career, continuous learning is a basic skill. The continuous advancement of The Times makes the development of design very fast. Many technologies that were difficult in the past can now be assisted by tools. It is not hard to imagine that the technology or major that we find difficult now may become the capability that we can easily get in the future. Therefore, as a designer, if I just stay where I am and do not continue to learn because of my past achievements, I worry that in the very near future, I may be replaced by the designers of the next generation soon. The following are a few self-learning principles that I continue to follow to keep myself learning and improving.
Principle 1 — try to understand technology and ideas from other design areas and incorporate them into your original expertise
I think our generation of designers can no longer just understand a set of tools or just one field, and designers who can think across fields often get better treatment. Therefore, I would like to try my best to learn knowledge of other design fields, such as interface design concepts, product design tools, motion design tools, etc. My way of learning is to force myself to use unfamiliar tool to complete a work, or take a project in this field, and then work hard. In addition, I think we don’t need to practice very well in other design fields, as long as we can understand the general functions and basic concepts, and have ways to communicate with professional designers in this field, after all, time is limited, it is not possible to learn all the skills easily,once you know the basics, you can find someone more professional to work with.Because you know the field, it will be easier to communicate.
Rule 2 — talk to friends in other fields and share your experience
Chatting with friends in other fields is also one of my self-study habits. We will share the overview or skills of this field with each other. For example, I will ask them about the production process of a certain motion graphic film that I like very much. I will try to operate it by myself after chatting with them, and I will consult them immediately if I have any questions. Although the resulting work will not be as delicate as the original, at least I have gained a little understanding of the field because of my motivation to try.
Rule 3 — always spend at least 30 minutes a day browsing Behance or Pinterest for design trends and new ideas
I think the help of browsing through good works every day is to “train my aesthetic sense” and “design responsiveness”. Since I have read enough works, I can naturally start to classify the advantages and disadvantages of my works, and understand the details of a good work and how to present my collection of works. In addition, these skimmed works will leave traces in my mind, so that I can propose ideas more quickly when taking various design projects.
I would like to thank the 6 wonderful designers for their sharing. Each question is a topic of concern for designers. See you next time.
