When it comes to changing careers, most people portray it as a difficult aspect but in fact it is not as hard as it is made out to be. All you need to have is the right resources that will help you to make the change.

For the web designers, considering the current scenario now is the right time to change into UX design from web design. Why? This is because there is a monetary boost that you will get in making such a change. According to PayScale it is found that:

• In the US the web designers earn about $46,000 annually on an average and
• On the other hand the UX designers earn a significant $74,000 in a year.

Secondly, there are lots of job opportunities for UX designers that are on the making. According to the CNN reports it is revealed that a total of 3,426,000 jobs are expected to be created for the UX designers in the US alone within the next ten years.

Moreover, the UX Jobsare more meaningful because you will get to work on a project from the inside out. In addition to that, UX design has made a significant impact on businesses which is substantiated by the fact that the companies that are driven by UX design typically outperform the S&P index by 228%.

Therefore, if you find the right resources, it is the best time to make a change in your career from web design to UX design.

User Experience and UX design

You will need to know a brief introduction to start with in order to know what “User Experience” actually means. User experience or UX is simply the experience of a user derived from using that specific product. Simple, isn’t it? Well, it is not that simple.

UX design is actually an art of designing digital products so as to provide the maximum user experience as possible. However, the nature of UX design is as broad as its definition itself. In order to build the maximum UX, you will need to understand a lot of things such as:

• The user psychology
• Interaction design
• User research and several other disciplines.

Above all things you will need to know about the iterative problem solving process.

The components of UX design

If you consider broadly, user experience can be divided into three specific categories such as:

• The look
• The feel and
• The usability.

The look of the digital product involves using visuals. This creates a sense of accord with the values of the users. It also creates the desired credibility and trust amongst the users. It is in fact all about creating a digital product that looks nice and right as well.

The feel involves making the experience of using the product as pleasant as possible. It is all about making it the most enjoyable experience for the users. This is done by creating proper interactions between the product and the user. This helps in understanding the reactions they have while using and after using the product.

Lastly, usability reinforces the user experience. It is most obvious fact that if any product is not usable there is no way in which you can salvage it no matter what amount of good looks it has. It will only cause anger and frustration to the users. Ideally, you should make sure that the product is personalized as per the needs of the users and it delivers functionality in the most predictable way.

The common factor

You may think at this point that what is the common factor in web design and UX design if at all or what is the difference.

Web designer has many definitions but what the web designer does largely depends on the requirement of the project or the client.

• There may be a few web designers who simply create better visual designs and high fidelity interactive prototypes for the website of a specific client. In such situations, the coding process of the website is usually left for the front-end and back-end developers.
• However, there may be a very few web designers who do get involved in both web designing and front-end development of it.
• It is even seen that a few web designers even do user research regularly as well as testing as their part of job.

This is where the similarity lies. If you do research and testing while web designing, then you are the right candidate to make the switch from web designing to UX designing.

The similar aspects

There is no need to worry about the complexities of UX designing when you want to make the switch. Why? This is because there are a few jobs that a web designer may follow and found in UX design as well. These are:

• Problem solving: While web designers focus on solving problems for the clients, the UX designers focus on the problems of the users. The problem solving process however includes finding out the problem first and then design a suitable web solution for it. Then it is developed and tested before releasing it. In some cases the designers may also do some further testing of the website, collect feedback from users, and then reiterate on the design.
• Emotional design: While designing websites, the web designers usually use a specific typography, layout and color to shape up the emotions of the users. This creates a sense of credibility. Use of serif fonts, colorful imagery, playful typography are some elements involved in creating an emotional design. However, the UX designers are also concerned with this emotional aspect while designing but only on a larger scale and include psychology, content curing, motion design, and information architecture along with it.

Web designing is a multi-disciplinary job which requires knowledge of web design that includes typography, color theory and others and also skills in web development that includes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

UX design is also such a multi-disciplinary field but is more supercharged in the sense that it involves user research, psychology, and visual design.

A Useful Resource to Learn

WEB DESIGN

USER EXPERIENCE

Author Bio: Sujain Thomas, is a User Experience Designer(UX Designer) an SEO professional and content developer. She has helped a lot of companies get their websites off to a good start and blogs about good writing practices and services. She believes that technology can revolutionize how people learn, communicate and create and she is passionate about shaping products and services that help people focus on what they do best. To find more about author visit – https://uxhires.com/