Beginner’s resources to get started with UI/UX Design

Looking into new career options is always daunting, whether you’re just finishing school and applying to college, looking to switch careers or even just looking for a side hustle in a different field. I was most definitely intimidated when I first started out — not only by the sheer amount of content but also about where to begin. I’m here to make that journey a little easier for you.

To start off, it’s important to know at least the basics of what a field is about, I’d recommend getting started with these resources —

1. What is UI design? What is UX design? UI vs UX: What’s the difference
2. What Does a UI/UX Designer Do?
3. What Is UX Design? — A Full Overview

Now that you have a basic understanding of the field, or at least know what UI/UX design is, let’s jump into the real stuff.

Photo by Windows on Unsplash

Doing a course in a particular field is personally my favourite way to get to know a field better. There’s a ton of information packed into sequential videos along with resources to practice and follow along. Here are some courses I’ve done, along with some that are highly recommended by professionals in the field —

1. User Experience Design Essentials — Adobe XD UI UX Design
2. Introduction to User Experience Principles and Processes
3. Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design

Courses give you a beginner’s glance into the tools used and the design systems used by various industry experts. This is ideally the perfect time to start doing projects of your own.

Most UI/UX designers prefer using these tools —

1. Adobe XD — free; link sharing and project collaborations are limited in the free version.
2. Figma (a personal favourite) — free; project collaborations are limited in the free version.
3. Sketch — paid, runs only on Mac.

I’d suggest picking one tool you like and sticking to that. Since all the above are pretty similar to each other, it’s easy to pick up a newer tool if you ever need to switch.

Once you have your tool, it’s time to start looking for prospective projects to try out. The more projects you try, the better your understanding of identifying problems and finding viable solutions will be. Here’s a couple of resources to start off —

1. 20 Project Ideas to Kickstart Your UX Career
2. Daily UI Challenge — a 100 day challenge to understand how to design various pages and components.
3. Case studies done by professionals and big companies.
4. Briefz spits out ideas for creative design projects.
5. A compilation of Design Challenges .

Once you have a couple of ideas in mind, its time to start working! You’ll find your life is MUCH easier with some of these resources.

Design Resources

Using pre-made icons, illustrations, photos and typography has always made the life of a UI/UX designer much easier. There’s options for both free and paid ones, of course. Ensure to credit the owner if you use free ones.

1. Unsplash — best collection of free photos for commercial use.
2. Freepik — free and paid vectors, stock photos and illustrations.
3. Flaticon — free and paid vectors, icons and stickers.
4. Blush — free and customizable illustrations.
5. unDraw — more illustrations.
6. Google Fonts — one stop for all the best fonts.
7. More visual resources to try — all in one place.

Keeping up with the trends

The design world is changing every day, every hour even. It’s important to keep track of not just the new trends, but also have an idea of why existing ones aren’t working. I personally enjoy reading about case studies, design processes and accessibility. Of course, there’s a wide range of media — blogs, podcasts, videos.

YouTube

1. chunbuns — super helpful videos if you’re moving into design from a different field.
2. AJ&Smart — they have a ton of videos for aspiring junior designers.
3. Saptarshi Prakash — started watching his videos when I learned that he too is an engineer turned designer. There’s everything ranging from tutorials to industry knowledge videos.
4. Manprit Kalsi — all about user experience.

Blogs

1. UX Daily — The World’s Largest Free Online Resource on UX Design.
2. Nielsen Norman — Articles by some of the world’s leading UX desigers.
3. UX Planet — has a wide variety of articles on everything UX.
4. Muzli — one stop for all design articles.

These are resources that have helped me so far in my journey as a designer. This list will of course grow over time as I explore different software, trends, books, and websites. Feel free to let me know about resources that I may have missed so I can include them in the list. Reach out to me on my LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram!