I’ve been reviewing portfolios for over two years every week, and many individuals seeking reviews are Graphic Designers or Marketers attempting to “migrate” to UX.
Are graphic designers and marketers really in different places?
From My perspective no, And I tell you why.
UX and graphic design common points:
1 – Brand Guidelines vs DSM
Graphic designers adhere to brand guidelines, while UI/UX designers rely on a design system. Instead of applying a 16cm logo to a material, you will be adding a 16px width to a button, for example, but in both cases, you have your source of truth.
2 – Wireframing / Sketches
If you’ve designed something before, you’ve created wireframes or even simple sketches. The only difference is that as a Graphic Designer, nobody cares about them; they’re only interested in the final result. However, in a UX case study, it is crucial, and other people (product managers and developers) might collaborate with you on that part.
3 – User Interface
If you are jumping into UI, your graphic design skills are extremely relevant. As a graphic designer, you’ve learned about typefaces, color schemes, proportions, alignment, positioning of elements, hierarchy, pagination, reading order, etc. Basically, you just need to apply it all. I’m sure as a graphic designer, you’ve created some website templates, so now it’s called UI.
What Marketing and UX research are sharing?
1 – Research
Marketers are used to conducting competitor analysis, personas, and defining target audiences. Now, instead of looking at pricing, costs, campaigns, etc., they are exploring competitors’ functionalities and creating personas focused on solving user problems, not just attracting more customers. These professionals have been researching personas, archetypes, and target audiences before the term “UX” was even invented.
2 – UX Writing
Marketing professionals are familiar with copywriting for campaigns, and this kind of writing should be user/customer-friendly. Otherwise, the campaign will be an enormous fiasco. This knowledge could be a game-changer in your UX design job hunt, as writing is crucial for a good user experience. It is just a matter of adapting your skills to the correct strategy and tone of voice.
3 – SEO
Even SEO nowadays has a connection with UX, as Google is not indexing websites with low accessibility. Marketers and graphic/web designers are much more engaged in this topic than a few years ago.
4 – Interviews
Marketing people are used to conducting customer surveys and interviews to gauge satisfaction with a product or service. UX professionals should talk to users daily and apply the correct strategy to achieve the expected results. Again, here you have almost the same work with a different approach. You just need to know how to ask the right questions to get the right answers.
In conclusion, to secure your UX role, you should study more and more about user experience. However, you already have remarkable skills that are useful in the user experience design world. Work on your weaknesses and enhance your strengths.
Look back at everything you have done and identify all common points between your “old” title and the desired UX job.
Roughly speaking, graphic designers must improve their research skills as their visual design abilities are great, and marketers should do the opposite. They need to delve into visuals, as the market increasingly demands UX/UI designers and not separate professionals.
So, because of the reasons listed here, I don’t consider experienced graphic designers or marketers migrating to UX; they are moving to a neighbouring area, not to an entirely different place.
After reading this article do you still consider yourself a JR UX designer?
Please, share with us your opinion in the comments.
Written by: Rafael de Rezende Basso
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