When you talk of the Tech space, Design is a skill and process to reckon with. Though design is not the solution itself, I don’t think there is a tech solution that is void of any design skill or process in any form.
Currently, most AI tools contribute to making designing easy. And while it is good to know that the Tech Industry consists of many skill categories, design takes the critical parts.
Let's explore the design skills in Tech.
The Tech world is a connection of evolving skills, solutions, and applications. Tech skills have contributed to the smooth running of other practices and opened doors of possibility across professions and engagements.
Recently, I came across an article on important skills for Information Technology (IT) Jobs and it explained some parts of tech skills. But it is good to know that you can delve into one aspect of Tech skills; that is why I am writing this article. So, this article is a launch into the world of design skills.
Design Skills in A Go
A very intriguing skill in the tech space is the one that has evolved due to consistent efforts to enhance user experiences and interfaces of service, feel, delivery and satisfaction—offline or online
Let’s take this a step further. Do you remember the first design you ever saw? Whether it was a flier, website, IV, e-commerce page, etc., when you compare them to current designs, you will realise they are not the same.
There are various aspects of Tech where design skills are needed. Also, it is good to know that what Tech does is make a solution or experience easier to engage with.
Most times, to have this, you have to design a product or outsource it to a product designer, design a website or page where your product will be showcased, interacted with, and accessed through the internet, develop software (applications), design digital fliers, create digital content, or have some superb art experience with Motion Graphics.
Some Major Design Skills in The Tech Space
Below is the list of major Design Skills in the Tech industry. These design skills feature in the creation of solutions for different professional applications.
Web Design
Web Design: Having a good website for your business or any other purpose does not happen only by knowing what to write, the colours and the pictures to use. There are design principles that a web designer employs to create a good web interface.
Web design entails developing a web interface (a single web page or a group of web pages) and every skill required to make a good web page experience when engaged. Simply, Web design is the planning and creation of websites. And the design of a website involves good navigation, font, colour, clean pictures, SEO, fasting loading time, page responsiveness, etc.
Graphics Design
Graphics Design: The skill of Graphics Design includes two basic things: graphics and Design. There are many ways to define it.
The simplest definition I use to communicate the basic understanding of graphic design is - the representation of ideas and messages with Colors, Forms, Lines, Shapes, Sizes, Space (white space), and Texture. This might sound basic, but it plants an imaginative seed in the mind.
I have another definition. It’s still simpler but with some unique thoughts. With this definition, you will have a base of what graphic design is when we look deeper into it in the next post. Design American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) defines graphic design as “the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content.”
UI/UX Design
UI/UX: UI/UX is a short form for User Interface & User Experience. These two words - Interface and Experience do not apply to Tech solutions alone but to design as a whole.
Although UI/UX is a segment in Web Development, its components are well-understood as a stand-alone course or skill. There is something always striking in the definitions of UI/UX. It is the different experiences one can enjoy while browsing a website or a mobile app and how well one can navigate through it. The arrangement of information in designs is also a key in UI/UX.
Additionally, UI/UX is not only for designing web pages and apps. According to Don Norman, a cognitive scientist and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group Design Consultancy, UX is the process that “encompasses all aspects of the end-user interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”
This means UI/UX is involved in the designing of platforms or events where a customer or prospect interacts with a specific brand, either in its product packaging, design, logo, etc. and other touch points. There is much to UI/UX. You will get to learn more in the coming posts.
Motion Graphics
Motion Graphics: Motion simply means movement. So, if you make Graphics with motion effects, it means a graphic design that is not static. In simple terms, this is the sum of Motion Graphics. Motions Graphics is a major skill in video production, especially for animating characters. Motion Graphics has taken video production to another level.
Simply put, motion graphics is animation with text as a major component. Essentially, it’s animated graphic design.
Software Development
Software Development: Everything that runs a computer, smartphone or gadget is software development. So, when you think of Software or Apps, you think of Software Development.
Software Development is the process involved in planning, designing and building software used for different purposes. The Tech world is so massive that there is one software that serves one purpose - either for small or large-scale purposes
I would like to refer to a basic definition by a Career Guide website, Indeed.com. It defines Software development as “the process programmers use to build computer programs.”
One of the tools that Software Developers use is coding. Just call it “scripting with codes”. With scripting or coding, one can write or design any software with a definite purpose in mind. You know the code to use and how to encode.
Let’s wrap it up here till the next post comes up. We just scratched the surface of Design skills in the Tech Space. As I mentioned above, the Tech space is expanding and these design skills are being updated to create sophisticated solutions. So, there is more talk about Design Skills. Save this article on your tab as I bring another side of Design Skills in the next article.
Summary
Let’s wrap it up here till the next post comes up. We just scratched the surface of Design skills in the Tech Space. As I mentioned above, the Tech space is expanding and these design skills are being updated to create sophisticated solutions. So, there is more talk about Design Skills. Save this article on your tab as I bring another side of Design Skills in the next article.
Also, you don’t need to learn all these skills at once. Just take one at a time. Fingers crossed till we hook up again on this page.
If you have any questions about this article, kindly ask in the comment box below.
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