UX design is concerned with the user experience—in other words, making digital products easier and more enjoyable for people to use. UX design concepts are applied to websites, applications, or software to create a seamless experience that operates as intended. This not only enhances productivity but also helps the company meet its goals while giving the consumer what they want. All in all, it’s about creating products that make the user’s life easier. From ecommerce platforms and fitness trackers to banking applications and video games, UX design is a huge part of what makes a product enjoyable.
While UX design is a huge field today, it is still considered a relatively young field. It began in the 1900s with companies considering how the user would experience their products. In addition, UX design concepts were involved in the design of machinery and tools. Today, UX design is everywhere but is especially prevalent with online shopping platforms, applications, websites, and digital banking tools. It’s become a far more digitized field than perhaps anyone ever considered, but it’s growing and evolving year after year.
What Can You Do with UX Design Training?
UX design is needed across virtually all industries, whether you’re interested in tech companies or working with healthcare professionals. Any company that utilizes a website or application needs UX Designers. If a company has any online presence at all, it’ll be useful to have someone thinking behind the scenes to ensure a pleasant user experience.
Moreover, UX design can be applied to all kinds of projects. Whether you’re designing an ecommerce platform or optimizing a learning platform, you are working towards providing an enjoyable experience to the consumer. This means you’ll likely participate in the entire process, from conducting research and testing to wireframing and prototyping. But you’ll get the chance to work on a wide range of products, making the job more exciting.
Even if you don’t want to use UX design for a professional reason, you could learn to benefit your everyday life. For example, if you have a personal project such as a blog or a website, you could then take your UX design skills to make it more functional and easy to use. Furthermore, you could turn a hobby into a side hustle by developing a website or application where you can provide updates and sell your goods or services.
What Will I Learn in a UX Design Class?
In any UX design class, you will likely learn everything from research methods and information architecture to prototyping and usability testing. However, the course material largely depends on the level of depth the course goes into. Read ahead if you are curious about some of the most commonly taught skills in any UX design class.
User Research
At the heart of UX design is understanding how the user interacts with it. You’ll learn how to gather user feedback through different research methods such as surveys, interviews, and observation sessions. It’s all about making sure the design solves the problems for those who want to use it.
Wireframing and Prototyping
Before you finish the product, you’ll need to get a plan in place for the design and features. That’s where wireframing occurs—it’s a rough sketch of what your finished product will look like. Then, once this step is completed and approved, you’ll move on to prototyping, which entails making a more realistic, interactive version of the product. Both of these are necessary to help you ensure your idea is solid before committing.
Information Architecture
A lot of UX design comes down to organization. This concept, otherwise known as information architecture, is about making sure the content is organized in a way that makes sense. If your website or application is easy to navigate, users are more likely to continue using it. If it’s confusing or difficult to use, the chances of the user returning are slim to none.
Usability Testing
Once you’ve got your design figured out, it’s time to ensure it works for the everyday person. Usability testing involves putting your design in front of actual users to see how they interact with it. You’ll watch for any issues, and once the product is good to go, it’ll be ready to go out to the consumer.
Visual Design Principles
Even though UX design is more about function than looks, the visuals still matter. In class, you'll likely start with essential design principles such as contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. This makes your design clean and organized, which ultimately makes it easy to use. Good visual design will lead to a better, more enjoyable experience.
How Hard is It to Learn UX Design?
Learning UX design is a challenge, but it’s doable with the right mindset and training method. It’s one of those skills that you’ll pick up with ease once you practice. If you have prior experience, the skill is even easier. However, even if you have zero knowledge of UX design, you may find it’s easier to pick up on these skills than you had anticipated. It all depends! However, if you are starting fresh and start to feel overwhelmed, don’t worry—it just takes time and practice. With the help of a professional training center and an expert instructor, you’ll feel well-prepared to take on the UX design field.
What Are the Most Challenging Parts of Learning UX Design?
The challenging parts of UX design typically depend on the person, but a few areas tend to confuse learners more than others. One of the trickiest parts is figuring out how to balance user needs with business goals. Otherwise, some people claim user research is difficult, particularly if you are not incredibly comfortable with gaining insights from collected data. Furthermore, all the difficult aspects can be mitigated with practice and patience, so do not worry so much about the challenging parts. This is especially true if you choose a hands-on, instructor-led training method.
How Long Does It Take to Learn UX Design?
It’ll take some time to learn UX design, whether you want to become a professional or just gain foundational skills. For most who want to get the basics, you’ll likely spend a few weeks to a few months, depending on how much material you want to cover. However, if you want to become a professional, you will need to save several months to a year before you get the hang of the material. However, it’s arguable that you may have to continue your learning journey forever as UX design is always evolving.
Should I Learn UX Design in Person or Online?
Whether you choose to learn from an in-person or online course, you’ll want to consider your options based on your location, schedule, needs, and goals. For instance, in-person classes are great for those who prefer immersive training methods. In this face-to-face style course, you’ll have direct interaction with the instructor and your peers, which can be incredibly helpful for feedback and support. If you don’t mind a rigid schedule and have adequate transportation, an in-person class may be the best option for you.
On the other hand, some folks need added flexibility but still want to receive a proper education. You can learn from home while engaging with the instructor so your hands-on projects will still feel interactive despite the virtual setting. In addition, you’ll be able to ask the instructor for assistance with troubleshooting. While your internet connection must be strong, and a quiet place to learn is recommended, the choice of where you want to learn in a live online course is totally up to you.
Asynchronous classes are also an option, but they are far less effective for beginners and those who want to make UX design a career. These are self-paced courses, meaning there is no instructor or interaction, and you will have to teach yourself the material. This means you can learn at a pace that suits your needs, but you will also have to figure out the answers to all your questions. This lack of interaction may not bother the existing professional who uses asynchronous classes as a way to brush up on the material; however, the beginner wouldn’t benefit as much from the hands-off nature of an asynchronous course.
Can I Learn UX Design Free Online?
If you want to learn more about UX design, consider exploring credible free resources online. For instance, training centers such as Noble Desktop have blogs and video resources to help you learn more about a field or job position. For example, the Free Seminar page gives introductory instruction in various fields, like UX design. Moreover, the Noble Desktop YouTube channel has playlists with videos on various tools, platforms, and subjects. While this is a great way to get started and learn the basics, it won’t provide an interactive, hands-on education like a training program would. If you want to become a professional, you’ll want to consider a bootcamp or certificate program to gain career-developing skills.
What Should I Learn Alongside UX Design?
To become a well-rounded UX Designer, it’s helpful to learn a few complementary skills. For example, UX design students often learn user interface (UI) design as well. This field focuses more on the visual side of a project. While UX design is about making the page make sense for the user, UI design focuses on keeping the user engaged and pleased with the aesthetics.
You may also want to study data analytics, which can help you understand your user’s behavior and response to your products without having to second-guess. This can be immeasurably helpful while implementing design changes and decisions. Plus, you could brush up on your project management skills such as timing, budgeting, and staying organized. You’ll likely juggle multiple tasks at once, so keeping up with the changes and requirements, and project management can be helpful.
Industries That Use UX Design
UX design is everywhere, no matter what industry. It’s not just about tech, although that’s one of the most common industries for UX Designers to find work. In addition, you can explore UX design in industries like retail, healthcare, tourism, and hospitality. If you’ve considered working as a UX design professional in any of these major Portland industries, read below to learn more and see where you may flourish.
Technology
Surprisingly enough, Portland’s tech scene is booming in particular thanks to the Clean Tech sector, where companies focus their efforts on renewable energy solutions, water conservation technology, or recycling efforts. The city places heavy emphasis on sustainability and, as such, there are many tools and platforms utilized to make it happen. In Portland, tech companies often use UX design principles to create user-friendly platforms and applications that make complex data more accessible and worthwhile.
UX design is often used in Clean Tech companies to build tools that help monitor their energy consumption. In addition, it’s possible to use your skills to track environmental data. A good UX design in this space can be the difference between functionality and inefficiency. So it’s all about ensuring the best user experience.
Retail
Due to the strong presence of tourists, the beneficial location along the coast, and the increased population of outdoor enthusiasts, the retail industry in Portland is considerably strong. Large brands like Columbia Sportswear or Nike call the city home and all require UX design experts to ensure their websites and applications are easy to navigate.
In retail, UX design is about making the online shopping experience as enjoyable as possible. This can mean creating easy-to-understand applications where the consumer can easily scroll through filtered search results, choose an item that meets their needs, and have a smooth checkout process. UX design may also help with personalized recommendations for consumers, especially with the help of usability testing.
Healthcare
Several innovative healthcare providers and startups call the Portland area home. For instance, the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) Hospital is the top-rated hospital in Portland but is also nationally ranked in five separate specialties. From booking doctor’s appointments online to using telehealth services, Portland has a strong healthcare system that relies on UX design to make the patient experience even less stressful.
In addition, UX Designers in the healthcare industry typically concern themselves with the overall user experience, including everything from patient portals to telemedicine applications. Regardless of whether your team needs to schedule appointments and maintain payroll or if you are a medical professional submitting patient treatment recommendations, having a well-organized and effective application or website makes all the difference.
Tourism and Hospitality
Every year, millions of domestic and international visitors flock to Portland for its beautiful outdoor scenery, delicious and unique food and bar scene, and eclectic art districts. Portland thrives on ensuring a smooth visitor experience, including everything related to the travel experience such as booking a hotel, reserving a table at a restaurant, keeping updated with airline changes, and scheduling services with a travel agency.
For example, UX design professionals can work in tourism and hospitality companies by designing the specific software that makes booking a hotel room easy. Or, it could include scheduling tours and finding things to do in the city. Regardless, the goal is to make everything easy, from the moment the consumer chooses a flight into Portland to the moment they find themselves leaving town.
UX Design Job Titles and Salaries
After completing proper UX design training, you could explore numerous career paths. Many offer adequate salaries for the Portland area and allow for a comfortable work-life balance. Read ahead to see which of these positions entices you the most.
UX Designer
After training, you could become a UX Designer. This role is entrenched in all aspects of user-centric design, including research, testing, wireframing, and prototyping. They ensure that the products they design are easy to use and enjoyable. Indeed shares that UX Designers in Portland earn close to $93,000 on average; however, a senior-level UX Designer could earn closer to $115,000.
Product Designer
You could also give product design a try. A Product Designer considers every aspect of a product—from the UX and UI side to more. They will ensure every stage of the development process goes smoothly and the finalized product looks good and functions as intended. According to Glassdoor, a Product Designer in Portland could earn anywhere from $74,000 to $116,000. The average is closer to $93,000.
UX Researcher
If you have a knack for research, consider becoming a UX Researcher. In this position, you would gather insights through various methods like surveys and interviews. Then, you’d gain insights from your findings and learn how to improve the product to better suit the user’s needs. A UX Researcher in Portland could earn close to $100,000, according to data from Indeed, but there is room for advancement in this position as well.
UI Designer
While a UX professional focuses on the product’s usability, a UI Designer emphasizes the importance of visual design. They will combine design principles with marketing acumen to help create a product that reflects well on the brand and is as aesthetically pleasing as it is functional. Glassdoor shares that a Portland-based UI Designer earns around $96,000 each year, but a more realistic salary range is anywhere between $72,000 and $128,000.
UX Design Classes Near Me
If you want a well-rounded education in UX and UI design concepts, consider the UX and UI Design Certificate from Noble Desktop. Here, you’ll study how to design websites and applications and practice through hands-on projects and activities. The instructor will support you throughout the entire process, from data analytics to prototype development. Real-world case studies allow you to absorb the material quickly and easily—not to mention, you’ll have the skills to apply your skills immediately when you return to the workplace. This program also provides you with a more well-developed portfolio, personalized job search support, and a certificate of completion.
If you want to focus your efforts on one particular skill such as Figma, Noble Desktop has you covered. The Figma Bootcamp covers this industry-standard prototyping tool including all the features to help you design an interface, create animations, and build prototypes for mobile or desktop platforms. Through hands-on projects, you’ll practice perfecting Figma and get the most out of the software. By the end, you’ll feel equipped with the skills to create various projects on Figma and ready to take your skills from the classroom to the workplace.
For those who just want an introduction, the UX Design Foundations course is beginner-friendly and lays a solid foundation that can be built upon, should you choose to go beyond the basics and turn UX design into a career. This course teaches students more about user research and consumer experience so you’ll learn how to gain insights from your findings and report on them appropriately. While this class gives you a first glimpse into the iterative design process, it does so in a hands-on, interactive, and effective way for learning retention.
The UX/UI Bootcamp from the University of Oregon Bootcamps is a 24-week-long in Eugene that offers in-depth instruction in information architecture, persona creation, and using different tools to create prototypes and wireframes such as Adobe XD and InVision. Furthermore, you’ll learn to use JavaScript and Bootstrap for web prototyping. Graduates will have access to career coaching and planning services.
The Tech Academy, located on 4th Ave in Portland, offers a full-time UI/UX Designer Bootcamp where you’ll learn coding languages such as JavaScript, Python, HTML, and CSS for UI and UX-related design projects. In addition, you’ll study applications like Photoshop and learn wireframing and prototyping techniques. This full-time bootcamp spans 15 weeks and gives you full access to the corresponding learning program.
Also located in Portland is Ledet Training. Their Adobe XD 101 course gets students familiar with Adobe XD, one of the most widely-used prototyping platforms available. Students will spend two days practicing layers, grids, repeated symbols, and other visual designs. Furthermore, students will learn to set up different projects in the application before adding text, imagery, graphics, and other visual elements.
UX Design Corporate Training
Corporate training like that found at Noble Desktop is one of the most effective ways to help your employees learn UX design. These sessions are flexible, so whether your group prefers live online methods or in-person lessons, you can find something to suit everyone’s needs. Furthermore, the instructors have ample experience and can assist with any particular topic, whether it’s wireframing and prototyping or user research and usability testing. Needless to say, the ability to personalize lessons makes this type of corporate training stand out among the rest.
If you want even more added flexibility, your organization can purchase bulk vouchers for regularly scheduled UX design classes. This allows employees to learn outside of work when it best suits them such as in the evenings or on weekends. If you want to explore your options for pricing, scheduling, and training, contact Noble Desktop at corporate@nobledesktop.com today for more information.