How to Improve Your Visual Design Skills

Deliberately practice vs mindless repetition

When talking to designers who are either transitioning into UX/Product design or trying to move up into a more senior design role, one of the questions I often get is how to get better at visual design skills. This is a big topic to unpack and there are many approaches. In this article, I like to call out a few focus areas for people who are looking to level up your visual design skills.

What visual design skill(s) are we referring to?

When people refer to visual design (at least in my conversations), the context is generally around designing the look and feel of the user interface. I think the term visual design encompasses various disciplines such as typography, color theory, layout, etc… While it would be interesting to get into each of these disciplines, I am only going to focus on the principles that help to achieve balance, contrast, and hierarchy in this article because I think a more deliberate practice around these areas will yield a significant improvement especially when you just started out as a designer.

How do people work on their visual design skill?

Many people got inspired by the idea of doing Daily UI challenge as a way to improve their visual skills. Some people read books, blogs, and then practice what they learned in their day to day works or side projects. I think practice is an…