Many employers are looking to hire UX designers, and with so many people upskilling as well as reskilling, there is no shortage of UX designers for employers to choose from. In this article, we’ll be covering 5 tech skills that will set UX designers apart from the rest!

1. Soft skills

Employers aren’t just looking for tech skills. Having to collaborate with colleagues (from the same department as well as other departments), stakeholders, and clients means that interpersonal skills like communication, empathy, and patience are indispensable.

Beyond this, a unique UX designer will be able to think critically. Being able to always gather information and apply it in a way that’s not only helpful, but relevant is very valuable to an employer.

2. UX research

The road to successful UX design is paved with research. The research process can be anything from computer science to positive psychology to colour theory. UX research involves both user research and user testing and uses user personas and gathered data to inform decisions on design. Once a UX designer has come up with a design, testing it out with app prototyping can confirm assumptions that a UX designer has made and catch mistakes before things go wrong!

3. UX design and writing

The heart of UX design is visual communication. UX design skills range from making elements look like they can be clicked on to deciding how much white space to include in a page, to even choosing which areas need text and which don’t. The UX shouldn’t just look good, it should make sense to users and be on-brand as well.

Additionally, while coding is important, so are the words that users read in apps! Users should be able to understand what is happening as they navigate apps and never feel more confused after reading a body of text than before. A large part of UX writing has to do with understanding the target users’ mental machinations so that the right words can be used for them.

4. Keeping the user in mind

Following the above point, the whole purpose of UX design is to engage the user meaningfully. Understanding what users will want, what their problems are, and their general thought processes when using the app will go a long way in UX design. This understanding means that a great UX designer can design for users’ needs and feelings, which ends up in a great user experience.

5. Learning continuously

Tech skills are ever evolving, and a great UX designer has to keep on top of things by upskilling, reskilling, and always learning. A great way to do this is by taking UX courses, design courses, and tech courses! Here at Knoma, we offer hundreds of tech and design courses because we know how important learning, reskilling, and upskilling tech skills is in the modern world. Knoma is for people seeking to upskill themselves in short, technical courses. We provide our users will the ability to source tech courses and to spread the cost of these courses without incurring any interest or fees. We are all about supporting people on their lifelong learning journeys – so get started or continue on yours with us today!