Here's the thing about becoming a designer: you have to develop your eye for it, and it does mean nit-picking at every pixel and picking just the right color that matches the brand, or else the cohesiveness of your product will break. Not only that, if you want to get into UX/UI design, you must put yourself in your users' shoes all the time.
Empathy is hard.
As for technical skills, I'd do the 100 Days of UI Challenge, as well as read up on typography and color theory/psychology. Look at Behance and Dribble for inspiration.
I recommend reaching out to Jared Spool (@jmspool), Jesse James Garett (@jjg) , and Catt Small (@cattsmall) for advice on UX, or just simply follow them on twitter.
As for tools, I use a combination of Illustrator, Sketch, and Framer.
Also, there are many design-related jobs: product design (mix of hard-skill UI design and UX research), UX researcher, UI designer, UX designer. Pick your poison. Although, be wary, the title "UX Designer" could mean anything from research to UI design.
Here's the thing about becoming a designer: you have to develop your eye for it, and it does mean nit-picking at every pixel and picking just the right color that matches the brand, or else the cohesiveness of your product will break. Not only that, if you want to get into UX/UI design, you must put yourself in your users' shoes all the time.
Empathy is hard.
As for technical skills, I'd do the 100 Days of UI Challenge, as well as read up on typography and color theory/psychology. Look at Behance and Dribble for inspiration.
I recommend reaching out to Jared Spool (@jmspool), Jesse James Garett (@jjg) , and Catt Small (@cattsmall) for advice on UX, or just simply follow them on twitter.
For books, I recommend reading Jesse James Garett's "Elements of User Experience", Kathy Sierra's "Badass: Making Users Awesome", and Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think".
As for tools, I use a combination of Illustrator, Sketch, and Framer.
Also, there are many design-related jobs: product design (mix of hard-skill UI design and UX research), UX researcher, UI designer, UX designer. Pick your poison. Although, be wary, the title "UX Designer" could mean anything from research to UI design.
Thanks for the mention @ben !
Leads to the same url as "Don't Make Me Think".
Regardless, thanks for sharing these books!