Embark on a rewarding and innovative career in UI design without spending years in training. Learn about the fundamental skills, typical work responsibilities, and steps to become a proficient UI designer in just three months.

Key Insights

  • UI designers design user interfaces for digital applications, with responsibilities including developing style guides, designing screen layouts, creating animations, building wireframes and prototypes, and ensuring layout responsiveness across various screen sizes.
  • It is possible to acquire the essential skills to become a UI designer in three months through comprehensive bootcamp courses, which are open to beginners and offer full-time or part-time learning schedules.
  • Most UI designers hold bachelor's degrees in either graphic design or computer science, but a formal degree is not required for a career in this field. Work experience and a polished portfolio of work are often valued more than formal education.
  • To become a successful UI designer, it's important to surround yourself with UI design ideas and trends, attend relevant courses, build a solid portfolio, network with industry professionals, find a mentor, and continually update your skills and knowledge.
  • It may be necessary to gain real-world work experience in related fields such as visual design, graphic design, or web development before transitioning to a UI design role. This experience can be gained by volunteering, freelancing, or taking on internships.
  • Noble Desktop offers several UI design classes and certificate programs designed to prepare students for a career in UI design, with courses covering essential design principles and popular industry tools like Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator.

UI design can be a fulfilling and stable career for the creatively inclined and those interested in emerging technology. One misconception many aspiring UI Designers have is that it takes years to learn UI design skills. However, it's possible to start gaining experience and building your portfolio in just a few months. This article will cover the fundamentals of starting a new career in UI design, including the steps you should take to succeed.

What is a UI Designer?

A UI Designer designs user interfaces, usually for digital applications such as the web, mobile, or video games. They build visual and interactive elements such as buttons, menus, and widgets. They also develop prototypes and refine their designs based on information gained from user research. Primary job duties of UI Designers include:

UI Designers craft designs for various industries, such as financial and banking, healthcare apps, retail apps, education, automotive, and gaming. A UI Designer’s primary goal is to design applications so that users intuitively understand how to use them and perform the actions or find the information they need without learning how to use the application first. UI Designers play a significant role in influencing how we use digital technology in our daily lives. 

Read more about what a UI Designer does.

Can You Really Become a UI Designer in Three Months?

The short answer is: yes. You can acquire the fundamental skills to become a UI Designer in just three months. This is achieved through bootcamp courses in UI design that feature comprehensive learning designed to jumpstart a new career. These courses are open to pure beginners and offer to learn at full-time schedules for three months or part-time for six months. Students learn essential industry concepts, tools, and software. Many even provide job assistance services such as portfolio workshops, one-on-one mentorship, or job search assistance. 

While it’s true you can learn essential UI design skills quickly, you’ll notice that most bootcamp courses do not have a job placement guarantee. This is because you will be an entry-level UI Designer after completing your training. Bootcamp courses can provide you with the fundamentals, but you will still need to work to refine those skills and locate job opportunities. Once you land an entry-level job, expect to learn something new nearly every day. UI design is a field that constantly evolves to keep up with technology, and even experienced UI Designers are expected to refine their craft and learn new tools for a lifetime.

Since UI design is a field that values proven skills and experience over education, any job seeker must possess a professional, polished portfolio of their work to communicate their value to employers and stand out among the competition. Many aspiring UI Designers fresh out of bootcamps take on volunteer work, internships, or freelancing for a time to build up relevant work experience. Some even take positions in related fields, such as web and graphic design, before transitioning to UI design. 

Do I Need a Degree to Become a UI Designer?

Around 71% of UI Designers hold bachelor’s degrees in either graphic design or computer science. However, obtaining a degree to become a UI Designer is not required. Since UI design is an interdisciplinary field, no single degree will cover everything a UI Designer needs to know. Graphic design won’t teach technical skills, and computer science won’t teach design. Because of this, work experience is valued more in the field than in formal education.

Even if you choose to pursue a degree, you’ll likely still have skill gaps to fill. The best way to fast-track a career in UI design is to attend a UI design course that comprehensively covers all the skills you need to learn. In addition to graphic design and computer science principles, you’ll also learn to use the most popular industry tools. 

Should you choose not to pursue a degree or a formal UI design training course, you can locate free resources to learn UI design independently. You’ll need to develop personal projects and build a portfolio of your work. Then you can seek an entry-level or a related job position to get your foot in the door. Deciding to train on your own will be a more difficult path than choosing either form of education.

Read more about if you need a degree to become a UI Designer.

Steps to Become a UI Designer in Three Months

There are several steps to becoming a UI Designer in just three months. Though the steps listed below are straightforward, everyone’s path to breaking into UI design is slightly different. You might not complete every one of these steps, and you might even do some of them out of order. You should review the steps provided and create a plan for the path you wish to take to UI design. And don’t be dismayed if that path changes.

Step #1: Surround Yourself With UI Design

A good place to start learning UI design is to set out to absorb as much information as you can. You can begin by reading UI design blogs, following industry trends, joining UI design forums and communities, and experimenting with UI design tools. Set a goal to do something UI-related every day. This can be as simple as reading a blog article. Surrounding yourself with UI design ideas and trends will give you the headstart you need to develop skills and networks, as well as locate further resources for learning UI design.

Step #2 Attend a Bootcamp Course

Bootcamp courses in UI design teach the fundamentals of visual and interaction design along with popular industry tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and Figma. These concepts and tools are essential for jumpstarting a new UI design career. Many even offer portfolio workshops, one-on-one mentorship, or job search assistance. Bootcamps are open to pure beginners. Training usually lasts three months on a full-time learning schedule or six months on a part-time program. Many courses offer financing options or payment plans. 

Step #3 Build Your Portfolio

You’ll need a portfolio to showcase your skills to employers. You can start your portfolio with the projects you completed in class, but you’ll still need to complete your portfolio with additional projects. Several online websites offer UI design prompts, case studies, and fake client requests to jumpstart your projects. 

Remember that a portfolio showcases more than just finished designs. You should document the need your project was designed to fulfill and show each step of your creative and technical process. Be sure to go into detail about the methods and tools used.

Next Steps

Now that you have the essential tools and skills to become a UI Designer, it’s time to land your first job in UI design. The following are necessary steps to growing your new career.

Step #4 Network

Networking can make a huge difference in finding a job in UI design. They can also be excellent resources for getting feedback on your portfolio or resume, advice on which skills you need to improve, and locating additional training resources. Use websites like LinkedIn or Twitter to find and connect with industry professionals, including designers, entrepreneurs, and recruiters. You can also build connections in online forums and communities. You might also find UI events or meet-ups in your local area. 

Step #5 Find a Mentor

A mentor is someone with years of industry experience in UI design and who can guide you on your path to becoming a UI Designer. They can provide insights into the industry and offer individual feedback on your skills. The instructor of your UI design bootcamp commonly serves as a mentor during your time with them. They may even agree to mentor you after the course if you foster a relationship. Otherwise, your network is the best resource for finding a mentor.

If you struggle to find a personal mentor, you can find a UI Designer whose work you admire and who shares their advice and expertise online through blogs, video tutorials, and social networks. Study what they have to teach, learn the paths they took to UI design, and dig into their favorite learning resources. 

Step #6 Gain Experience

It may be necessary to gain real-world work experience before landing an entry-level job in UI design. Look for volunteer opportunities in UI design or website development (which shares similarities with UI design). Your network might even have some work opportunities for you. Freelancing for a time is also a viable option.

If your UI design job search isn’t working out, you may need to take a position in an adjacent field, such as visual design, graphic design, interaction design, or web development. However you are able to gain experience, you can later transition to a role more suited to your desires.

Step #7 Continue to Grow

UI Designers never stop learning. Technology is constantly changing, and industry trends follow along with it. Any successful UI Designer has to stay on top of these emerging ideas. Even when you find a job in UI design, don’t assume you’re done. Go back to steps #1 and #6. Continue to immerse yourself in UI design and keep up with your network of professionals. Stay in contact with your mentor or find a new one with new insights to pass on. Attend conferences and events and strive to learn new skills.

Learn the Skills to Become a UI Designer at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers several UI design classes for those seeking professional instruction in pursuing a career as a UI Designer. Classes are small and feature expert instructors and free retake options. Courses can be attended in person in NYC or online from anywhere. 

The UI Design Certificate is designed to prepare students to launch a career in UI design. You’ll learn essential design principles as well as how to use the most popular UI design tools: Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Throughout the course, you’ll complete a number of hands-on projects and build a portfolio to showcase your skills to potential employers.

Should you be interested in UX design as well as UI design (the two fields commonly overlap), you can pursue the UX & UI Design Certificate. You’ll learn the design principles and industry tools of both UX & UI design, build a professional portfolio, and receive one-on-one job preparation assistance. 

Bootcamps are also available where you can learn the ins and outs of the most popular UI design tools, including Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator. These courses are open to pure beginners and are designed to guide you to mastery of the program. 

If you’re not ready to jump into a full UI design course, you can explore Noble Desktop’s learning hubs. These hubs are designed to inform you about a topic and offer learning resources, including free tutorials and self-guided education. UI design learn hubs include: