The digital world is built on interfaces for smartphones, tablets, laptops, SmartTVs, cars, and more. In fact, before you got to this article, you may have interacted with one or more of these interfaces today. If so, you’ve experienced the work of a user interface (UI) designer.
UI designers impact how people interact with technology by shaping the visual design of an app, website, or other product. Human skills, such as empathy, strategic thinking, and creative problem-solving can’t be replicated by AI, and therefore UI skills are still very much in demand. Whether you’re upskilling, pivoting your career, or just starting out, UI design skills will open doors on a wide range of opportunities and future-proof your career.
Are UI design skills still relevant?
The short answer is “yes,” UI design skills are still relevant today. In fact, they’re more relevant than ever as there are more interfaces than ever before. As a result, there is a greater need for people who can make them functional, accessible, and aesthetically pleasing.
Take your smartphone. You can go from checking the weather, to using your banking app to check your account balance, to ordering a car with a ride sharing service all in the space of a few minutes. Or say you want to order takeaway from your favourite restaurant before you leave the office. You can log on to their menu, order your meal, decide whether you want to pick it up or have it delivered, and pay for it all on one website.
All of those screens need UI designers to make them look and feel right. Those screens have to be in line with the overall website and specific to the given task the user is trying to do. UI designers design those screens’ visuals and behaviour, including the buttons, links, information, colours, and fonts you interact with. Check out what good UI design looks like.
Demand for UI skills is growing: Here’s why
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report for 2025 ranks UI and UX design as the eighth fastest-growing job worldwide, with strong growth projected from 2025. As more products and services are going digital, such as the restaurant around the corner or the TV set you recently picked up, and emerging fields like AI, AR/VR, and voice interfaces really get going, there will be more demand than ever for human-centred design, including UI designers.
This may bring up fears of AI replacing designers. But you don’t have to worry. While AI will continue to rise, it will be a tool for designers, not a replacement. While AI can be used as a starting point for designs, UI designers will use their irreplaceable traits, like creativity, empathy, understanding human behaviour, strategic thinking, and curiosity, to make those designs even better.
UI skills aren’t just for designers: How learning UI can boost your career
If you’re not a designer by trade, there’s great value to adding UI to your skillset, even if you don’t plan on switching careers. In fact, continuous learning and upskilling in UI design can enhance and complement your existing role.
Here are a few examples:
- Developers and software engineers: UI skills can help you create more intuitive, user-friendly products. They will also enable you to collaborate better with your colleagues in design and product roles.
- Marketers and content professionals: Learning UI design will play a major role in delivering effective content and marketing campaigns. Understanding how typography, colour, consistency, and hierarchy impact scannability and readability will improve your solutions and strategies You can also communicate better with visual and brand designers.
- UX designers: Learning UI will give your work that design craft and polish that many senior UX designers are looking for. Plus, you can collaborate better with other members of the design team.
- Product managers or owners: Knowledge of UI design will help you make smarter product decisions. It will also help you communicate and collaborate better with your design teams.
As you can see by these instances, UI literacy makes you a more versatile employee and increases your value across any digital role, whether it’s as a project manager, a developer, or something else.
UI design skills open the door to exciting new job opportunities
If you’re looking to kickstart a career in UI, there’s no time like the present. For example, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are nearly 11,000 new or existing jobs filled by new UI designers yearly.
Learning UI design skills can open many opportunities for an exciting new career path and UI design is accessible for those from diverse backgrounds. While graphic designers have the most obvious trajectory to switch into UI design, those from psychology, customer service, education, and more, have the ability to transfer into the field as well. Transferable skills such as creativity, empathy, and communication that are highly relevant to becoming a designer are already in their toolkit.
However, you can’t just take a bootcamp over a weekend and think you’ll be ready to get into the field, but you don’t need a college degree either. Instead, you can successfully learn UI design and transition into the field with a structured and industry-relevant course, such as the UX Design Institute’s Professional Certificate in UI Design. These kinds of courses give you all you need to get started and help you get there more easily.
The long-term advantage of learning UI design: Career growth and future-proofing
Learning UI design will help you future-proof your career and ensure your long-term professional growth. This is due to a variety of factors including:
- Unlike other careers, UI skills are essential in nearly every industry. These skills increase employability in industries such as technology, healthcare, e-commerce, finance, government, and education. This allows you to take your pick of industries while still experiencing career growth.
- There are an abundance of remote and freelance opportunities, keeping your work hours flexible and giving you the ability to work for a variety of clients from different industries.
- UI skills will keep your skillset relevant as businesses digitise their products and services, even those businesses that haven’t digitised their products and services before.
In summary: Why learning UI design is a career game-changer
To summarise:
- UI design skills are more relevant than ever today as there are more interfaces to design than ever before.
- The World Economic Forum cites UI and UX design as the eighth fastest growing job around the world through 2030.
- There is some concern that AI will replace designers, but AI will be a tool, not a replacement. UI designers are still needed to bring uniquely human traits to their work.
- Learning UI design can ensure your long-term career growth due to the fact that it opens up employability in nearly every industry, there are an abundance of remote and freelance opportunities, and your skillset will be relevant as businesses digitise their products and services.
UI design is not just about making things look good; it’s about shaping user experiences in almost all industries for humans. That will always be an important skill that requires a human touch.
If you’re ready to take the leap, check out the Professional Certificate in UI Design. This course offers:
- A university credit-rated qualification
- A relevant curriculum designed around current industry needs, including the essential AI skills employers are looking for in UI designers
- Self-paced learning with 1:1 mentoring
- A stand-out portfolio showcasing your job-readiness to potential employers
Curious to dive deeper into UI design? Discover more in our blog with articles like:
- The 13 visual principles of design,
- The importance of iconography in UI design, and
- What is a design language and how to create one?
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