Profession user interface designer

User interface designers are in charge of designing user interfaces for applications and systems. They perform layout, graphics and dialogues design activities as well as adaptation activities.

Would you like to know what kind of career and professions suit you best? Take our free Holland code career test and find out.

Personality Type

• Conventional / Investigative

Knowledge

• Human-computer interaction

  The study of the behaviour and interaction between digital devices and human beings.

• ICT accessibility standards

  The recommendations for making ICT content and applications more accessible to a wider range of people, mostly with disabilities, such as blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss and cognitive limitations. It includes standards such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

• Graphics editor software

  The field of graphical ICT tools which enable digital editing and composition of graphics, such as GIMP, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, to develop both 2D raster or 2D vector graphics.

• World Wide Web Consortium standards

  The standards, technical specifications and guidelines developed by the international organisation World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which allow the design and development of web applications.

• Application usability

  The process through which the learnability, efficiency, usefulness and ease of use of a software application can be defined and measured.

• Task algorithmisation

  The techniques to convert unstructured descriptions of a process into step-by-step sequence of actions of a finite number of steps.

• Web programming

  The programming paradigm that is based on combining markup (which adds context and structure to text) and other web programming code, such as AJAX, javascript and PHP, in order to carry out appropriate actions and visualise the content.

• Software interaction design

  The methodologies for designing interaction between users and a software product or service to satisfy the needs and preferences of most of the people who will interface with the product and to simplify the communication between product and user such as Goal-oriented design.

• Software UI design patterns

  The reusable solutions and formalised best practices to solve common user interface tasks in software development and design.

• ICT security legislation

  The set of legislative rules that safeguards information technology, ICT networks and computer systems and legal consequences which result from their misuse. Regulated measures include firewalls, intrusion detection, anti-virus software and encryption.

Skills

• Design graphics

  Apply a variety of visual techniques in order to design graphic material. Combine graphical elements to communicate concepts and ideas.

• Develop creative ideas

  Developing new artistic concepts and creative ideas.

• Assess users' interaction with ICT applications

  Evaluate how users interact with ICT applications in order to analyse their behaviour, draw conclusions (for instance about their motives, expectations and goals) and improve applications' functionalities.

• Manage online content

  Ensure the website content is up to date, organised, attractive and meets the target audience needs, the requirements of the company and international standards by checking the links, setting the publishing time framework and order.

• Translate requirement concepts into visual design

  Develop visual design from given specifications and requirements, based on the analysis of the scope and target audience. Create a visual representation of ideas such as logos, website graphics, digital games and layouts.

• Test system accessibility for users with special needs

  Examine whether software interface complies with standards and regulations so that the system can be used by people with special needs.

• Create website wireframe

  Develop an image or set of images that display the functional elements of a website or page, typically used for planning a website's functionality and structure.

• Design process

  Identify the workflow and resource requirements for a particular process, using a variety of tools such as process simulation software, flowcharting and scale models.

• Design user interface

  Create software or device components which enable interaction between humans and systems or machines, using appropriate techniques, languages and tools so as to streamline interaction while using the system or machine.

• Draw design sketches

  Create rough pictures to assist in creating and communicating design concepts.

• Utilise methodologies for user centered design

  Use design methodologies in which the needs, wishes and limitations of end users of a product, service or process are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.

• Interact with users to gather requirements

  Communicate with users to identify their requirements and collect them. Define all relevant user requirements and document them in an understandable and logical way for further analysis and specification.

• Build business relationships

  Establish a positive, long-term relationship between organisations and interested third parties such as suppliers, distributors, shareholders and other stakeholders in order to inform them of the organisation and its objectives.

• Use markup languages

  Utilise computer languages that are syntactically distinguishable from the text to add annotations to a document, specify layout and process types of documents such as HTML.

• Define technical requirements

  Specify technical properties of goods, materials, methods, processes, services, systems, software and functionalities by identifying and responding to the particular needs that are to be satisfied according to customer requirements.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB