Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Nathan Allsopp

5 Reasons why every budding UI designer should complete the Daily UI Challenge

How dedicated are you really to become a UI designer?

As a product manager, I spent a lot of time working with designers and UX specialists. The fascination of working beside designers and looking into their world is what led me to decide to pursue a career as a freelance UI/UX designer.

However, the reality is that saying “abra kadabra!” and magically changing careers is difficult. One of my key learning exercises that helped me grow as a designer was undertaking the Daily UI Challenge. The challenge involves designing an interface each day for 100 days based off a provided brief.

I’m sure immediately you’re thinking — 100 days? Is this guy serious?! I don’t have time for that. But after using almost every moment of my spare time for 100 days to design, here’s why I think you should complete the challenge too.

1 — You will learn whether you really enjoy designing interfaces or not.

As each day rolls by, your perseverance is tested. I didn’t appreciate just how much effort 100 designs encompasses. It is a serious amount of research, thinking, doing and changing. Even the “smaller” days require a lot. By the end of 100 days, you will be in a better spot to say whether you love or hate designing interfaces.

2 — You will face many design situations you might find really difficult and otherwise shy away from.

On numerous days I read the brief and thought — huh? Being strong in only a few areas of design makes your life difficult when larger projects come your way. Having a daily brief provided to you means you cover unfamiliar situations. You don’t have to have the prettiest or most creatively unique design, but really think about and research the brief. What makes a great landing page? Or on-boarding experience? Pagination? You get the picture. Although I started some days scratching my head, by the end of them I had learnt something new.

3 — Your portfolio will thank you for it

I ended up with cool shots to add to my portfolio, but I also ended up having a few people approach me for work. Whether you have a full portfolio or not, you will create many great works over 100 days that can greatly benefit you. Use these as part of your portfolio, and really show others how you arrived at your final design. Considerations for things such as UX, usability, colour palettes, contrast, device type are great ways to flex your “design brain”. You might just end up with people reaching out to you for work.

4 — You will learn how to use design tools you may not be familiar with.

Over the course of 100 days, I used Figma, Experience Design, Framer.js, Origami Studio, Principle, Illustrator, Photoshop while mainly using Sketch. Some of these I was familiar with already, others I was not, but I made a point of mixing it up to see how other programs feel and perform. While some designs didn’t end up pixel perfect as a result, it is a great way to expand your skills in a profession with ever-changing tools.

5 — You’ll mingle with other great designers and find communities to become part of

The beauty of the challenge is that there is always many others completing the challenge at the same time. If you are stuck, want to show off your work, get feedback, see what others created or so on, you can quickly find work on the #dailyui tag. Also, you will “e-meet” many other designers along the way who are happy to give you feedback or help (including me!). Don’t be afraid to engage with other people’s work. You can get as much or as little as you like in terms of social engagement out of the challenge.

P.S — If you enjoyed this read, please tap the clap! ❤

P.P.S — For those completing the challenge, come and check out my Twitter for my Daily UI works here.

This article originally appeared on my portfolio here — http://nmadesign.com/whydailyui

5 Reasons why every budding UI designer should complete the Daily UI Challenge was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

5 Reasons why every budding UI designer should complete the Daily UI Challenge

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