How To Learn UI Design

It can feel overwhelming to learn UI design at first, but breaking it into manageable steps makes the journey much easier. Whether you’re just starting or looking to refine your skills, this guide will walk you through five practical steps to help you master UI design and build confidence in your craft. Let’s get started!

A 3D illustration of glowing, faceted purple diamonds against a dark background. The diamonds are reflective and scattered, creating a sense of elegance and luxury.

Step 1: Start With Foundations

Your first step to learn UI design is to start with the foundations. Immerse yourself in the core principles of UI design. Learn about typography in UI design, color theory, grids and layouts, UI elements and components, and visual hierarchy.

A vertical list of UI design topics with accompanying icons: 'Typography,' 'Color theory,' 'Grids and layouts,' 'UI elements and components,' and 'Visual hierarchy,' displayed in a clean, modern style with rounded labels.

Core principles of UI design

Step 2: Dive Into Design Systems

The second step in your journey to learn UI design should be diving into design systems. Study comprehensive design systems to sharpen your understanding of interaction patterns and components.

Look through and study the Apple Human Interface Guidelines, Google Material Design, Atlassian Design System, and Shopify Polaris. Going through these design systems will sharpen your overall understanding.

Design systems to learn from

Step 3: Practice By Creating

Step three is picking a product you like every week and recreating one of its key flows. Analyzing everything as you create is an amazing way to learn UI design. Some of the products and apps that are good to recreate are:

App/product recommendations to practice from

Step 4: Refine And Experiment

Step four in your journey to learn UI design is to refine and experiment. Revisit your old designs and iterate. It’s important that you experiment with UI styles outside of your comfort zone. Some of the UI styles you can use for refining your old designs are minimalism, brutalism, or friendly and bubbly styles.

A vertical list of design styles with accompanying icons: 'Minimalist,' 'Strict,' 'Friendly and bubbly,' and 'Brutalist,' displayed in rounded labels with simple purple icons representing each style.

UI design styles

Step 5: Invest In Learning

Step five is investing. To learn UI design, you should invest in trusted sources and continuously learn from them. Doing so will boost your growth.

Are you a beginner looking to start your journey into UI design? Or perhaps you’ve been self-learning for a while but aren’t quite confident that you’ve grasped the basics? Enroll in UI Design Foundations and get the comprehensive understanding you need to soar as a UI designer!

If, on the other hand, you want to apply to higher-level design positions and enhance your portfolio, you should check out The Ultimate UI Design Mastery Bundle. It’s an all-in-one, practical, 5-star-rated learning solution and your chance to fully understand all you need to know about UI design.

For other valuable educational resources, explore our Learn section. Here, we offer heaps of courses, workbooks, and other resources that will help you improve your skills in UX/UI.
Happy designing! 🤗