Looking for a UI designer?

For the sake of interest, I looked at the vacancy review on the topic "UI design".

I compared our requests for Hunthim, Habré, hh and other resources and the same on LinkedIn (mainly Indians dominate in this area). The verdict: “them” - everything is in order with understanding (well, or almost in order), but we absolutely do not know what the UI design is.

Let's ponder ...
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Some still write a fashionable combination of UI / UX design .

The whole point is that UX design cannot be. UX - user experience - this is generally quite a lengthy thing, it is the sensations that arise in a person with direct interaction with objects of the surrounding world. In the end, UI-design, usability, and even programming, and SEO, and marketing features, and just emotional and psychological aspects are included there.

As for the UI design, it seems to be clear from the decoding of the UI: “user interface”. But under the user interface that just does not represent. Some believe that this is the design of sites, others are sure that sites are no interfaces, but we are talking about desktop applications. Someone believes that the essence is not just in applications in general, but about the design of custom interfaces for, say, audio plug-ins. Someone is surely sure that UI-design can exist only for iPhones and Android. Well, and so on. So what is this beast?

In general, the user interface (UI) is all that allows an ordinary user to control a certain device or system. Mouse, keyboard, TV remote, iPhone screen or car steering wheel - all these are user interfaces, UI. And on the screens we see the GUI - graphic user inteface. But since it became fashionable to use a combination of UI / UX, in recent years G was thrown out completely, and the combination of GUI somehow became forgotten. Meanwhile, designers of graphic user interfaces are a separate category of professionals, which are not so many in our country, as it turned out. Well, that is, designers are a dime a dozen, web designers are graphic designers, but there are few interface designers. Although, of course, everyone who painted the site or a couple of dozen sites, a priori considers himself a UI-designer.

But the interface designer is not at all a simple lad who famously implements Photoshop.
Such a site can be developed, a backend configuration system, a multimedia environment for a TV set or a game console, a touchscreen shell for an automatic machine for accepting payments, a computer game, what is happening on a computer or tablet screen, and even correctly positioning buttons on the elevator call panel or on the blood pressure monitor. This is a universal inventor, something akin to an architect who can build a wooden hut, a giant hyper-mall, and an “unknown architect's house” in his country house. And any such creation will, if not cause admiration, then at least be very convenient to penetrate and use.

So our employers do not see such a specialist. And they see either a stupid technique-graphics, which should simply draw the buttons and match the colors, fonts and gradients to the already existing mocaps. Either a programmer or coder who has already finished mocap will cut into segments and add HTML + CSS to it. So here.

With full responsibility, I declare that the UI designer is not obliged to do anything of the kind. Moreover, a good designer under the authority can (or even must!) Have such techniques and layout designers. He himself - the system architect, the creator of the interface. Architect. Its task is to find those minimal and most convenient and understandable for an ordinary user ways of interaction with technological ideas that will make the whole interaction process invisible, devoid of annoying moments, and somewhere even comfortable and enjoyable. Well, how can you not remember about Apple-style?

Roughly speaking, you just need to think up how many and what buttons you need to put on the TV remote, so that a respectable family man on the couch can easily find a football channel on his TV, then easily switch to cartoons for children and just as quickly find the weather forecast for his wife, and not cursed whenever the multi-button remote does not allow to do it all in one or two light presses.

A good UI designer can, of course, draw a beautiful button, and somewhere to delve into the nuances of the layout, and generally: to understand the intricacies of owning photoshop and illustrator is an extremely useful skill, but his immediate task is to be a sculptor, cut off the unnecessary and introduce meaningful. At the stage of the formation of an idea, and not at the stage of its final drawing or programming.

Being so mistaken in the choice of the UI-designer, modern customers themselves are trying to play the role of interface architect, throwing mockups in Balsamiq or Axure, not fully understanding the nuances of this design. Then, under the call of “UI / UX designer”, they find a trite photo photographer who meticulously and extremely accurately reproduces everything previously invented, at the same time copying all the mistakes and shortcomings of the original mocaps. As a result, such customers often receive inoperative and often uncomfortable controls for something.

Because at the very beginning the task of finding the designer himself was incorrectly set. UI designer. Interface Designer.

Why all this? I just want employers to learn to understand and understand their needs. After all, when looking for an accountant, they do not mean the cashier or secretary. These are different professions, at least somewhere in something close.

As a result, simple advice to employers: do not look simply for the drawers' buttons, the template builders on Balsamiq, the web designers or the CSS style experts.

Well, the same applies to the designers themselves. If you sketched a couple dozen sites, you are not a UI designer yet. And all the more so not “UI / UX-designer”, for such a “profession” is akin to a “psychoproctologist” or “a transcendental taxidermist prestigeur with transgender ersatz-deviations of post-humanistic neo-dullism”. To be proud to call yourself an “interface designer”, you need to try to get deeper in these same interfets, understand and forgive and realize the whole of this incredibly interesting and very huge Universe.

Look for the right designers.
Look for architects, engineers, creators. Professionals.