Sharing Employee Stories: What makes a good UX/UI designer?

The ultimate guide to get into digital product design

Cloud Interactive
4 min readDec 14, 2020

At Cloud Interactive, our designers design more than products. They also help design our company’s culture by inspiring and educating colleagues and clients on the importance of design and great user experiences. In this article, Kay Wang, Senior UX/UI Designer at Cloud Interactive, shares her tactics for fostering design deep within our company’s culture, keeping people excited, and contributing to our clients’ business growth.

Kay is the Senior UX/UI designer at Cloud Interactive with over 8 years of design industry experience.

How a graphic designer becomes a successful UX/UI designer

“I moved from graphic design to UX/UI design because I’m excited about the possibilities of where tech can take us and what we may be able to create in the near future,” Kay says. Early in her career, she spent five years honing her graphic design chops. “I received an opportunity to build a website for my first company, which is when I discovered my passion for UX/UI design.”

UX/UI designers bridge the gap between how things look and how they function. They’re at the forefront of creating fantastic new digital products and experiences — a challenge Kay found fascinating. “As time progressed, I was drawn to the idea of proving the success of a design based on user research and insights,” she says.

While the graphic design process ends once a product is launched, UX/UI design strongly focuses on sustainability. “UX/UI design should be continually tested and adjusted based on user feedback. I love how sustainable it is!” says Kay. In her current role as a UX/UI designer, Kay’s graphic design DNA helps her create aesthetic experiences that improve products and facilitate effective communication with stakeholders.

Key differences between UX and UI design

UX focuses on the ease of use or experience of a product, while UI focuses on the looks. “UX designers are the architects designing the structure and the flow of the product,” Kay explains.

A UX designer conducts user research — bringing together aspects of psychology, business, market research, design, and technology — and presents design solutions to clients. UX designers are charged with being the user’s voice and advocating for their needs while at the same time balancing those needs with business goals.

“On the other hand, UI designers play the interior designer role, defining the looks, the aesthetics of the product,” Kay continues. After the UX designers create solid structures, the UI designers’ responsibility is to bring the product’s personality to life.

UI design focuses on the user’s visual experience. The core task is to create the layout for each page or screen of the product while using design elements (like typography and color) and functional considerations to guide the user. “A good UI designer should put him or herself in the user’s shoes,” Kay says. UI design should communicate the user experience created by the UX designers in an aesthetically pleasing way.

Between UX and UI, their work overlaps at some stages of the cycle.

Work as a team and grow as a team

Team building is key at Cloud Interactive. While each member of the design team might be working on a different project, team building activities bring the team together by encouraging collaboration and discussion. “We believe that design should be for people, not for designers,” Kay says. “It’s important to share our designs with team members and focus the discussion around problems and possible solutions to meet the user’s needs.”

During weekly team-building activities, team members share candid insights, experiences, project concerns, personal thoughts, industry trends, and lessons learned. “There are many variants of the Design Thinking process in use today, and teamwork can inspire fresh ideas and develop new solutions to problems,” Kay says. These team-building activities also help create a cohesive culture that drives innovation and productivity. “As a team, we hope all members enjoy an atmosphere where we can challenge one another and create something greater together.”

Mentorship is another way Cloud Interactive helps individuals to grow within the company. Having worked at Cloud Interactive for three years, Kay appreciates the internal mentorship program’s tangible value. “With a growing team, this mentorship process builds up the skill levels of junior teammates and helps reduce frustrations when first joining a new project,” she says.

The power of communication in design

For our company, effective communication is as critical to a designer’s success as design-related skills. Excellent digital design is something that can’t be achieved on one’s own. To build anything, designers need to work closely with any combination of front-end developers, back-end developers, product managers, project managers, quality assurance, business stakeholders, and so forth. “Frequent check-ins prevent miscommunication between teams and project roles,” Kay says. At Cloud Interactive, we make sure designers and developers collaborate closely to create a high-quality product seamlessly.

Effective communication skills help designers succeed with transnational client projects. “Good communication helps us use time efficiently and set clear priorities when cooperating with our global clients,” says Kay. She has been working on a smartwatch UX/UI design project for a global tech company, cooperating with their teams across three different time zones — Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the U.S. Despite the difficulties of working across multiple time zones, she has experienced unprecedented success due to her outstanding communication skills.

Our talented UX/UI designers allow us to provide friendly, intuitive user experiences that help our client’s businesses grow. Cloud Interactive’s unique combination of design, development, and data science teams empower us to develop high-impact software that puts the user’s needs front and center.

About Cloud Interactive

Cloud Interactive is an AI, Software Engineering, and Design consulting company founded in 2010.

Follow Cloud Interactive

Website: https://www.cloud-interactive.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CloudInteractiveInc/
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloudinteractiveinc/

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Cloud Interactive

A design-centric software development and managed services company, founded in 2010.