Meet Stephen and find out about his life as a user experience (UX) designer at Shop Direct. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.
Stephen Gale - UX/UI designer
So a UX and UI designer stands for a user experience and user interface designer so we work out how our apps and websites should look and work for our customers.
A typical day for me will include things like sketching; we draw out what our websites and apps are going to look like as we start to evolve them, I’ll work with people like our research team who work with our customers directly to understand what they want from our apps and websites and I’ll work with our developers who are coding the designs to work with them on actually getting it built.
So if you go onto very.co.uk or you download the Very app, those screens are things that myself and my team will have designed, we’ve worked out how they should be laid out and how it should work when you press things like the buttons or you go through the products and those sort of things.
I didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I finished school. At uni, I went and did games design because I wanted to focus on something that I enjoyed. I took the games design skills and transferred that into a graphic design job, so I became a graphic designer, moved into web design and then really focused on the design side of things as opposed to the web development and became a UX/UI designer.
The advice I’d give to anyone looking to become a designer is just to practise. It’s really good to read the design theory and to look at what other designers are doing out there but it’s not really until you yourself are putting pen to paper or drawing on design tools on your laptop or whatever it might be, that’s when you really gain experience and you become a better designer.
I think a really important part of being a UX/UI designer is to have customer empathy and what that means is to understand what is our customers want from the app and website because I’m not the only one using it, it’s millions of other people and what is it that they want when they’re browsing with the app and website? What will make it easy for them?
When I've design something that not just looks good but works well, it’s just a great feeling that you’ve gone from the start of the process to the end and it’s all come together.
When I‘ve designed something that not just looks good, but works well… it's just a great feeling.
- Stephen and his colleagues work out how the screens on a company’s apps and websites should look, and how they should work once a customer presses buttons and goes through to different products
- A typical day for Stephen will include sketching and drawing out designs for the apps. He’ll work with the research team - who speak to customers directly to understand what they want - and he’ll work with the web developers to get the products built
- Stephen studied Games Design at university. He transferred into a graphic design job before moving into web design. He decided to focus on the design side of things - as opposed to web development – to become a user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) designer.
- Stephen’s top tip if you want to become a designer is to practise. He also says it’s important to have customer empathy. That means understanding what a customer wants from an app or website, and what will make it easy for them to use.
What to expect if you want to be a user experience (UX) designer
- User experience (UX) designer average salary: £25,000 to £50,000 per year
- User experience (UX) designer typical working hours: 37 to 39 hours per week
What qualifications do you need to be a user experience (UX) designer?
You could get into this role via a university course, a college course (such as an A-level in Computing, a Level 4 Diploma, or a T-level – England-only, which may lead onto more advanced qualifications or a higher apprenticeship, or help you get a trainee position), an apprenticeship, or applying directly if you have relevant experience. Check with your course provider which alternative qualifications they accept.
For careers advice in all parts of the UK visit: National Careers Service (England), nidirect (Northern Ireland), My World of Work (Scotland) and Careers Wales (Wales).
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