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UX designer improving visual design skills.

4 years ago from , UX Designer

Those of you that didn't have strong visual design skills, what have you done to get better?

I have a background in design, but my skills have atrophied a bit. Plus, I'd really like to get better at UI design and design systems. I'm starting to explore building up my portfolio in visual design and I'd love to know what has worked in the community. I do have some professional development time at my current job that I may use, if I can find the right structure. I have some ideas, but I want to maximize my efforts.

5 comments

  • Alex HoffmanAlex Hoffman, 4 years ago

    Freelance project or personal project. I suppose those daily UI challenges might help, but typically they're just haphazard copy-cat crap

    1 point
    • Ben Grace, 4 years ago

      Thanks Alex. That's where my research is leading me also. I've always said there is no substitute for real world experience. Time to follow my own advice I suppose.

      I'm also looking for good examples of best practices and tips from others learned over time so I can work smarter. learnui.design has been a good source for me. I've been reading about the HSB color space in Erik's email (blog author) and I learned a lot.

      Specifically, I'm looking for good resources in mobile app design. File setup, style guides (do they differ a lot from web for instance?). Best way to design for multiple device sizes, resolutions, etc. Not to mentions, designing for iOS and Android. If you have any links or tips, send em my way.

      0 points
      • Radley MarxRadley Marx, 4 years ago

        Some standard resources:

        https://material.io/design/

        https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/overview/themes/

        There's also Sketch libraries for each platform you can play around with. It's helpful to start with those libraries to become familiar with the built-in core components on each platform.

        1 point
      • Jimmy Koli, 4 years ago

        Learning design by Copying someones design is a good idea to sharpen your design skills. But it also helps of you try to understand whats the design all about. For example, if you view a website daily and try to understand whats the website about, whats the concept behind the design if any. It will help you hone your skills. The other stuff you are talking about like best way to design for multiple device sizes, resolutions, etc are all easy to understand and will not take much off your time. Even if you look at some open source files you will understand the basics.

        1 point
    • Radley MarxRadley Marx, 4 years ago

      Copy-catting ain't bad initially. Part of design is knowing the number values for common text sizes, layouts, and rounded corners. Do a few copy-cat layouts and you'll start recognizing common patterns... and exceptions.

      1 point