Before talking about the learning process, let's briefly introduce what UI design is and its prospect. Because only after you understand the UI design will you know whether you are interested in it or not, and whether you are really willing to spend time and energy to learn it.
First, UI design
UI (user? Interface), Chinese name "user interface". Ps: (Baidu explained) UI refers to the overall design of human-computer interaction, operation logic and beautiful interface of software.
The wave of Internet has never stopped, whether before or after. You often see the combination of "internet plus". The popular explanation is that "internet plus" means "various traditional industries in internet plus". But this is not a simple combination of the two, but the use of information and communication technology and Internet platform to deeply integrate the Internet with traditional industries and create a new development ecology.
Among them, what is the close connection with UI?
To put traditional industries on the Internet, it is definitely necessary to display them with an interface, even if it is just a simple webpage. Every product under the Internet, whether PC or mobile, whether traditional or non-traditional, will eventually be presented with UI interface for users to use and view. This requires not only visual output, but also good interaction and user experience.
For example, we usually don't pay much attention to answering the phone.
When the screen of Apple's mobile phone is not locked, when the incoming call is displayed, the incoming call display is green on the right, and the on-hook display is red on the left. Under normal circumstances, the right hand holds the mobile phone and the thumb operates it. The green light is to answer the phone. This is our routine operation, which is used frequently, so it is close to the right thumb, and the hanging frequency is not high, so the left is far away. From the analysis of color experience, red also has a warning function.
However, if the red button and the green button switch positions, it will not affect the vision, but it is not a good experience, and there may be misoperation of hanging up the phone at any time.
UI is everywhere in our life, no matter how big or small it is, it exists in what you see and touch. Therefore, UI is not only an artist, but also a visual effect and user experience. Moreover, users are very picky, and the demand for vision and experience is constantly changing and improving. Therefore, this has also created a UI designer who can still get a well-paid Internet job without typing code.
Second, the UI design learning plan
Many small partners do not have strict study plans, which leads to the self-study cycle being dragged on by themselves for a long time. Therefore, in order to win the final victory, we must make a learning plan suitable for ourselves and complete the learning objectives in strict accordance with the learning plan. Then everyone's learning ability and skill mastery are different. Here is a zero-based all-weather weekly study plan. I hope you can tailor the UI design self-study plan according to your own situation, and refer to this plan.
The simpler the collocation of elements, the more you can examine the basic skills of a designer. Without excellent technology and solid basic skills, it is difficult to accurately convey the tonality and marketing selling points of products.
We all know the importance of creative thinking to designers, but we can't ignore the necessity of basic skills to designers. Only by persisting in constant weight-bearing training and solid artistic foundation can we easily master various styles in future commercial actual combat.
Week 1: Hand-painted
The focus of hand-drawing is mainly to cultivate students' body structure and the relationship between light and space, which is an enlightenment of aesthetic cultivation. At present, the most popular vector illustrations are closely related to hand drawing.
Week 2 and Week 3: Learn the basic software of PS and AI.
To learn software from scratch, you need to use actual cases to learn, which makes it easier to get started. Moreover, the learning of UI design is not only a simple learning software tool. Many people think that UI design only needs to know PS, AI, etc. In fact, it is more important to understand the meaning behind design through actual cases, that is, design thinking and creative understanding.
But just learning to think is not enough. It is necessary to strengthen the basic skills of design and master the software comprehensively.
Week 4 and Week 5: Plane Composition, Logo
Master the points, lines and surfaces in graphic design and extend them to logo design. Logo includes graphics on the one hand and fonts on the other, so it is very basic to understand the text structure. If you learn it well at this stage, the cost is unbelievable.
And in the study of logo brand, we should study the form, temperament, basic attributes, thinking mode and standard drawing of logo in depth. A simple figure has evolved into an ever-changing shape through morphological deformation. Are you afraid that you can't design so many different Logo?
For example, from the shape, a circle can become a solid circle, a hollow circle, a semicircle, an ellipse and a semicircle. Can it be associated with eggs, fried eggs, poached eggs, hats and water cups?
Week 6: Complete the design of brand logo and VI manual.
Image source: Students' works of Godfried Aduobe Institute of Design.
This week, the focus is on Party A's thinking design. Yes, that annoying father of Party A needs to learn to put himself in the other's shoes.
The whole learning content in the first stage is very basic, and the purpose is to cultivate design thinking. As the saying goes, you can't design a good product if you know what users think?
Week 7: Response Website, One Screen Website
The composition, color, font, function, buttons, design specifications and typesetting specifications of web page design are all described from cases.
Week 8: Background Data
In addition to the background design, more is the background data statistical processing, how to make it simple and clear.
Week 9: E-commerce Design
The homepage design of e-commerce platform, every month, major shopping platforms will have full-station activities with different themes, so in fact, the talent gap of e-commerce design is very large.
Week 10: Taobao platform details page, backstage
In this part, you can apply for Taobao shop and put your own products on the shelves. Any learning is not as fast as getting started directly. Practice and practice, and experience the specifications of major platforms personally, and you will understand it more clearly.
Week 1 1: C4D, Banna
Entering 3D training, enriching visual effects, improving employment competitiveness and knowing more skills are also the reasons why we should constantly learn and improve ourselves.
The second stage is more about web design training, focusing on mastering the interface design specifications and output specifications of enterprise stations, and being able to design pages according to the real needs of enterprises.
Week 12: user experience, competitive product analysis, prototype diagram
This week, I began to design the APP, analyze the competing products through data analysis, and draw the prototype of the APP with Axure.
Week 13: icon
Interesting icons are also an important part of a complete APP design.
Week 14: Interface and Capsule
Talk about pop-up pages and flashing pages through icon applications.
Week 15: Interface design
Continue to complete the APP and learn how to cut, name, label, package and hand over (whether the front-end brothers and sisters can play depends on this week's learning content)
Week 16: operation interface
The user's thinking training in marketing promotion can grasp the pain points of users and improve the overall operation interface to achieve the purpose of marketing promotion. This is generally through pop-up windows and splash screens that suddenly jump out, such as publicity pages, to increase visual appeal and promote users to click.
Week 17: interactive effect
Learning AE well will be very rewarding, because it can accurately convey your thoughts and show the expression effect you want. This is bound to become a popular trend of UI. If you don't want to be eliminated by the market, you must keep learning!
At this stage, you can try to design your own APP, you can choose your favorite theme, there is no limit, and you can become the content of the portfolio with zero-based career change.
Week 18: Front End
As we all know, it is the front end that works closely with UI designers. As a UI designer, only by knowing the front end can we cooperate better and improve work efficiency. We can learn HTML5, CSS3 and so on.
Although it is divided into weeks, the schedule is very full, so the learning process is suitable for most zero-based friends. If the content of each week is not solid, you can keep your feet properly, because everyone's learning ability is different and the degree of learning mastery is different. We must learn knowledge in a solid way and move forward step by step, in order to truly master the knowledge of UI design firmly.