I get asked all the time how I became a ux designer with a btech degree let me tell you not just btech I also have an mtech degree two degrees in engineering but not a single one in design well it is what it is why is it so shocking ux design is largely based on skills and experience it doesn't matter whether you have a degree or not I learned it all by practicing consistently working on Mock and real world design projects building a strong portfolio and so on and so forth in this video I'm going to share with you a 3-month road map to help you get started in this field and also some amazing AI tools and figma plugins to help you get a head start so make sure you watch this till the end but first let us talk about why ux design let me give you a selfish reason first the average salary for a beginner ux designer in India is approximately 10 lakh Rupees per year a not so selfish reason would be it's a noble profession sure not as Noble as a doctor and medical practitioner but it can still potentially change the lives of people people because the products that you design solves real world problems that people face you're hungry you can order food you want to travel you can book your flights train and cab feeling lonely you can find a friend or a partner want to watch a movie buy your tickets online so not only is this a high paying but the need for ux designers in the market is only predicted to increase the number of ux has increased from 1,000 to 1 million between 1980s and 2017 with further growth to 1 to 100 million ux professionals by 2050 and with AI the job of a ux designer is not going to vanish but AI can help make it easier enabling them to focus on the tougher and the more important aspects the core of being a ux designer is making the right decisions as you should be aware that every decision you make will affect the usability of your design as a ux designer you need to have that Clarity in your mind around which are essential things and what will merely complicate the user Journey it's easy for us to say we care most about our users providing clear paths emphasize important actions reduce cognitive loads and build trust and credibility these are some of the bullet points that you need to check while making design decisions these core skills and a well-rounded road map are more than enough to help you become a ux designer without any degree and that's where I come in so without any further delay let's get started with it well before we even get started with the first month I need you all to form a habit a very important habit whenever you see anything around you anything be it a water bottle bag pen mug chair anything and everything around make sure you have a habit to ask yourself critical questions about it for example if you take a chair ask yourself why is the shape like this what value is it adding why is this thing protruding why is the recline angle like this what is making it comfortable good-looking sturdy or fragile or uncomfortable or ugly how can it be made better what changes should be done when you start doing this in the first few times it will feel odd as if why am I asking trivial questions to my own self am I a Psycho but very soon you will see it becoming a natural habit today when I look at anything be it a physical object or a digital app or a website I immediately have few opinions and thoughts popping in my head which tells me the things that are good things that are not so good and things that are terrible that needs urgent attention you should also be able to tune your mind to the extent that these things come naturally to you no you won't need years and years of experience to reach there it can be done pretty fast you just need to build that habit all right let's move to month one you have to dedicate your first month into learning the fundamentals of UI and ux let me quickly tell you the difference between these two UI is user interface that is anything a user will interact with in case of a coffee mug the handle is one of the interfaces in the digital world UI refers to the screens buttons toggles icons and other visual elements that you usually interact with when you're using a website or an app whereas ux is a broader term it refers to the entire experience you have with a product which includes what problem it is solving is it easy to use is it delightful to use is it confusing how is it to interact with and how does the overall design make you feel for example in the flight booking world you may have the best designed easy to use and beautiful app but while booking your flight if the payment fails your money gets deducted but the flight isn't booked and you do not know what to do about it it is still a bad experience well yes payment failure is a technical issue but it still leads to bad user experience another one let's take the example of Amazon all the elements that make this design complete are collectively known as the user interface and the feeling that Amazon gives you while you're shopping with the app for example how easy is it to find the products that you need how seamless is their checkout process how responsive the app is and so on is what makes the user experience there is yet one more term that is often talked about with UI and ux that is product design well it's actually just a different name but product design focuses on designing the overall product itself whatever it takes it might need some UI some ux some business marketing analytics in short your end goal is to design a successful product whatever you may need to do in the process I've covered in detail about these terminologies in my previous video make sure you check it out from the link in the description after you're over with the fundamentals the next step is to learn the principles and the laws of UI and ux this will determine how your design should look and feel to the customers read about visual hierarchy consistency contast F proximity accessibility for a better understanding you can even check out my Instagram where I've already covered all the principles with real life examples laws of.com is a dedicated website where you'll find all the laws related to ux and how to use them in your design I've also made a separate video on 12 uiux laws that you can check out if you want to learn from me if this isn't enough you can check out ux hints.com and run your designs through their cheat sheet from design process typography user Behavior user testing it will give you a good understanding on everything that is responsible to make your user interface or user experience Stand Out The Links of all these things that I have said would be in the description other than that there are many other design books which you can read the Design of Everyday Things by da Norman is a great book on design thinking it's always the first and the last recommendation of design books in my list beside this you can read hooked by near it is a book that talks about how to build habit performing products why some products capture widespread attention and others flop but everyone reads books and laws and blogs and articles where is the fun in that well here is a great list of games that will teach you every important skill a good designer needs number one method. AC it has different games around color spacing and letters the bezier game helps you master the pen tool and understand how bezier curve works the color game helps you learn about different components of color current type helps you practice spacing and with shape type you can learn how to style your letters it's centered that this game tests whether you have got the iPhone design or not answer a yes if you think the dot is aligned to the center of the shape and a no if otherwise but this game is the real test it's called UI here you have to tell which design principle is incorrectly applied in the given UI design it's the best game to learn about ux principles practically and now that you're clear with your Basics you need to start learning to use the tools and actually get into the process of Designing figma is the best software for designers which helps you create share and test designs for websites apps and other digital products that's it look no further now don't comment and ask can I use this tool or that sure you can but folks this is 2024 and there is no tool right now which is better than figma for digital interface design let me repeat right now in 2024 there is no tool which is better than figma for digital interface design so don't waste your time finding the right tool figma it is figma also has a great community of designers from where you can find a number of resources to use in your design and become a pro designer in no time of course I will not tell you to make a big design project in your initial stage but at least start by replicating simple design from behance and dribble for example it can be a simple resume design Instagram story template presentation anything and just by replicating and making something for your own these original versions will serve you as the guide in your designs for example you can change the color text or maybe remove something that you don't feel is relevant or is filling up the space for no reason and this will in turn help you get familiar with the interface tool and other figma fundamentals if you want to learn about this in-depth that I have made a separate tutorial where I cover everything you need to learn about figma in under 11 minutes make sure to check that out from my link in my description moving to the most important and The crucial month in your ux design Journey month two by the end of this month you will have enough to present your designs to different companies and startups yes you got me right this is the month that requires the most hard work and a lot of patience you can divide this month into three parts of 10 days each start by replicating more complicated designs such as mobile apps websites and user flows you can check out mobin and refero these are the two best platforms for web design and app in inspiration they have a wide collection of web screens and IOS app screens that you can start replicating to make your designs as you replicate the designs think about the questions that make that design useful or a better experience for the users ask yourself why are the designed the way they are and why couldn't it be different because when you do that your answers will mostly line with the ux laws you learned earlier this will help you learn them even practically don't just replicate them make your own mock projects too it can be as simple as making variations of your existing replicas suppose you made a replica of the Spotify apps main page and you tweaked a few things in the existing elements and then you replicated its now playing page and you edited out a few elements that's it this can be added in your mock project but make sure that whatever changes you make they make sense and you have a reason why you have made those changes that way otherwise it doesn't add any value so make sure you know what you're doing and do not do something just because someone has asked you to do it or you have seen other people doing it you can have different or a variet your mock projects in your portfolio for example you can design landing pages of a website mobile app homepage e-commerce website product page Etc the goal is to work on enough practice projects at the beginning to ultimately get better in designing in general now for the next 10 days you have to work on redesigns and personal projects work on app redesigns and website redesigns government apps are much recommended for this because they have a questionable user experience so if you can iterate and come up with easier and better designs it will be a great addition to your portfolio I myself have worked on two app redesigns on this channel one for the digi yatra app and the other one was the redesign of Amazon's product page the links to both would be in the description redesigns are important remember I had asked you to make a habit to observe and critique everything around you this is where you get to apply them if you have indeed build your habit when you look at any existing design you will instantly know what is good what is bad and what needs to be fixed and so on they not only help you hone your design skills but also if done correctly you can actually pitch the newer and better designs to the creat of the particular app or website and use this as a chance to get your first job opportunity while building redesigns focus on building personal projects too you can go to sharpen do design to get mock design briefs for building your design projects you can even switch categories between branding marketing and product ux and you have to devote the last 10 days to making case studies a ux case study is a detailed account or a story of how a designed project was done it describes the complete process that a designer took to solve a particular problem the design solution and the decisions behind it growth. design contains 50 plus case studies from the top companies in this world these case studies are unlike any other case study you have seen on the internet they're crafted in a very unique and interactive way to help viewers understand the problem the design process and the Solutions in the best possible way it even has a psychology section which helps you understand the ux laws through practical and real life examples you can also check this case study on beans for better ideas on my medium account I to had posted some detailed breakdowns on the projects that I kept working on the first one you should check out is how I designed the listing for a brand new food app yes that was for the swiggy daily app that I had designed almost 5 years back also check out how I became an illustrator by discovering a new dimension now this one isn't a uxk study but it'll give you an idea about how to narrate a story a seemingly simple thing when narrated in the right way can still form a good case study so check that out for storytelling inspiration crafting a clear concise proper case study can serve as a bonus to your design portfolio start by posting all your work on different platforms like LinkedIn dribble behance medium update all your social media profiles this will help build proof of work and a social presence and help you get genuine constructive feedback which you can use to improve the existing case studies and if you're curious about my design Journey make sure you check out this video you'll be sure to leave with a lot of shocks and surprises and that's where the second month ends month three is all about preparing yourself for that job with applying for job roles and being open to work comes with yet another important skill that a lot of people people forget about yes I'm talking about communication if you're not able to communicate your ideas effectively with people you will struggle finding a job everywhere the way you can build a skill is by connecting with as many people as you can both online and offline with a strong online presence you can attract different clients and brands that might want to work with you another way is to approach them via cold email here's a three-step process to apply for a job through cold email number one make a list of companies organization that are related to your Niche or the companies you want to work work with number two draft a well structured cold email which you will send to them make sure to include your portfolio Link in that you can watch my video on how to draft a cold email asking for a job with chat GPT through the link in my description don't just draft one email reframe it and maybe in a different style or tone for each company that you're shortlisted in the first step also work on making custom case studies for these companies if you can it can be as simple as reframing some of your existing case studies to match with the job description or requirements once you get to your first company or client to work with keep adding more projects to your portfolio and keep it updated for future job Holdings once you gain experience from your first role you can transition to better roles as well and now the most amazing part of this video as I had discussed earlier let's first talk about the best figma plugins that I often used in this routine wireframe designer as the name suggests it helps you create wireframes from Simple Text prompts iconify has all the popular icon Source static and animated icon sets and even Emojis all in one place magician is an AI based copy image and icon generator responsify quickly test your design across different screen sizes to ensure adaptiveness and scalability Rina UI has more than 500 plus pre-built UI design components with type scales you can generate a simple modular scale for different font sizes to be used in your designs sorter helps you sort all your layers in order with just one click and here are the top five AI tools you must use number one gma. apppp it is an AI writing assistant for all your design needs from great presentations to case studies proposals portfolios and a lot more number two two font Joy it helps you choose the best font combinations number three ux pilot it's a full AI ux assistant you can generate wireframes user flows flowcharts do user research and a lot more with this AI tool number four chroma it's the fastest way to discover search and save color combinations and pallets number five Adobe Firefly you can create realistic images and transform your photos into creative visuals in just one click and that's a wrap a 3month road map to become a ux designer without a degree now in all of these I might have skipped one small thing but of course it is not specific to design so I expect you to know it already whenever you build anything beat your portfolio or your resume make sure you get it reviewed by as many people as you can you can reach out to other designers over LinkedIn and Twitter and request them to review your case study and give their feedback get similar feedback from multiple people 3 4 5 six and then collate all the feedback and see the pattern in all of their feedbacks and use that information to rework on your case study to make them better now the reason why I didn't put a part of any of those 3 month because it's one of the most basic things that human beings should do whenever you work on something get it reviewed do not only believe on the output that you have made get help from people and if you want to learn how to make your first 50,000 as a UI ux designer check out this video over here and if you want to master using figma in 2024 then check out this video thanks for watching it till the end see you in the next one this is sapta signing off