How Do You Know a UX Designer is Actually Good: 10 Key Qualities

Project tasks are constantly changing and becoming more complex. To do their job well, designers get up to speed and learn new things. What was new six months ago is now becoming a requirement that is enshrined in a single skill set system. But what should be this set of skills and what to focus on when hiring a specialist. Read on to find out.

UX/UI usability

The ability to design a user-friendly and understandable interface, without forgetting that convenience comes first. The designer should be able to create an interface, not in a form of a picture, but keeping the whole user journey in mind. The result should be responsive and interactive.

Product approach

It’s all about a job to be done and analytical thinking. A good designer understands who the target users of a product are and why they use it. Knows what constraints he has to work with and what exactly should not be done. Characters, scripts, CJM.

A good UX designer can use analytics to generate hypotheses that will raise specific metrics. A specialist is able to test hypotheses qualitatively and/or quantitatively. By studying user personas and feedback, designers can understand what they like and what they lack, what their needs are. A professional understands where the user and the product intersect. By anticipating the user's desires, a designer creates a product that solves the problems of the audience.

Visual Communications

Ability to form and use visual communications and guidelines. Designers should be able to do a serial design with the ability to roll out an identity to different communication channels. Also, they need the skill of templating, because doing 100 resizes by hand is a generally bad idea. Here also comes the ability to think of a story and know how to tell it. A basic understanding of animation and 3D modeling won’t do any harm as well.

Don't forget about another crucial skill in this group - thinking in terms of context, because all channels are different, and it is important not to make re-sizes at once, but to ask a question - where and under what conditions will the audience meet this communication?

Briefing

It is important to be able to brief the customer, getting from him a specific task to be solved, rather than a set of first-level thoughts on how he would solve the problem. Designers should be able to look beyond the "make a layout" task to the very core, look for the unspoken need, think about the pains of the business. It is also important to record KPIs, which will then be analyzed if the task is done or not.

Communication

Communication skills include the ability to present yourself and your ideas, the so-called skill of shuttle diplomacy, which is incredibly important when working in large corporations. And also the ability to persuade, not in ‘my way or no way’ manner, but delicately, with empathy, getting into the skin of the customer and talking to him in his language.

Designers often talk to customers in professional terms and are perplexed or even irritated by requests to speak in a simple language. That’s a huge red line.

Self-management

This skill has become especially important since the introduction of remote working. You can no longer supervise the designer every hour, energize, help and guide every minute. Self-sufficiency, the ability to plan your time, your efficiency, comes first. There is no time for those, who need to be taught everything, it's time for independent professionals.

This is also where mindfulness comes in. A term that has become so popular that it seems indecent to say it. It is awareness of one's own condition that will help you to avoid burnout, respect your own boundaries, and maintain balance.

Teamwork

Most designers now work from home in a cozy chair, but don't forget that you're working in a team. And that means delegating, even if it seems easier to do it yourself than to remotely delegate the task. In moments of failure, do not have a "who is to blame" showdown but first decide how to fix it, and then how to prevent it. Calm confidence and adherence to agreements are important. 8. Responsibility
This group of skills is quite extensive. It includes:

sign up for deadlines - meet them, time is more important than perfection, better on-time once than twice right;

Responsibility is a feeling of belonging to the company when you consider yourself part of the business. It allows to see the bigger picture, think about savings and make more correct decisions, taking into account more inputs than from the position of a salaried employee.

Self-development

Perhaps the most popular soft skill for all professions in times of life-long learning. There are 2 key aspects here.

The first one is curiosity, which allows you to keep abreast of the current information field, follow trends, new tools, ask a lot of questions and expand your horizons.

The second is flexibility and openness to change. The year 2021 has shown that it makes no sense to cling to the usual mechanisms of work, and everything that can change will change. And the more flexible and open minds we have, the easier it will be for us.

Sincerity

And the key skill is sincerity and honesty. Being able to say when you don't understand something, doubt that you can handle it, or observe incorrect actions is invaluable these days because everyone is used to playing the roles of cool and indifferent.

There is no such thing as a perfect employee. Everyone is particularly great at something and lags behind in something else. The designer's job is to make the product work and look great, metrics are met, and users are happy. And to do this, he creates cool user-friendly interfaces, works on aesthetics, and adds high-quality animation. Nevertheless, finding such a specialist can be quite a challenge, but in this case, you can always turn to a UNITEDCODE delivery company.

UNITEDCODE has a unique delivery service in which we not only select you a specialist but also take care of all questions regarding their competence. We carefully check all the hard and soft skills, as well as paying special attention to the suitability of the person to the project. If you need a skilled UX designer, just fill out the form below. Our experts will contact you to answer any questions you may have. Don’t hesitate as we work with a limited number of clients simultaneously.