I’m a Senior Art Director with a ton of design experience looking to make a move into UI Design. What are your best tips for switching design fields? Favorite resources for learning UI programs like Figma? I’m well versed in Illustrator and Photoshop already and have done very basic UI design like landing pages and email layouts. Anyone else make this transition? Is it worth it?

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Have you ever designed a UI design system or updated a component based on new product / feature requirements?

I ask this because you need to realize that the software is only 5% of what you’ll need to know.

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It’s not meant to be rude.

It’s a reality of your expertise and what employers are looking for in a UI designer. You have close to zero experience in it.

Just like I wouldn’t tell one of the UI designers I work with that they could walk into an ad agency with their portfolio and experience and land an art director job.

If you’re serious you need to take some classes in UI design, join some UI designers online groups and completely throw out your old portfolio and start from scratch. It will most likely take you 6 months minimum to redo your portfolio to the point you could get UI interviews.

I hope you get there. Good luck.

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It's incredible hard to make a transition right now with AI everywhere.

If you want to, don't transition into a UI design. Go toward product design and learn product strategy, understanding markets, metrics, KPIs, and roadmap. If you REALLY want to do UI, you need to become an expert in design systems. Take a closer look to see if you really like that role. It's very detail-oriented and required technical knowledge including coding to edge out, yet I think AI will be taking over design system tasks soon too.

For most companies, front-end developer, product owner, product designer are turning into one person. Many front-end developers are transitioning from software engineering into product engineering now, upscaling themselves with business acumen. Only in a very large design team, we will see specialists, like "UX," "UI," "User Researcher."

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I would recommend taking some courses in basics of UX or Human Factors, and in UX/HF research. Throw in introductory cognitive psychology if you're enjoying the others. It sounds like you'll pick up on executing design in a snap, but you'd benefit from learning the underpinnings of why we make designs the way we do, and how we learn what we need to learn each time (research).
Accredited university programs are always best if possible (not knocking other programs out there, just saying it's the least risk). Many have certificate programs as well. BUT there's a lot of good free or low-cost options elsewhere online too, it will just take you more time and effort to build your learning path.
IMO core skills to be a good UXer are systematic thinking; empathy; genuine interest in how other people interact with the world. If you'd enjoy using those traits on the job, then go for it! Good luck!

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