UX and UI are very different areas of design. It helps to avoid routine work, but you need to become a generalist. A mandatory skillset like that:

Knowledge of the basics of digital marketing. Businesses turn to creating websites and apps to make more profits with them. The designer must understand what motivates people to buy and be able to reach any audience.

Understanding UX research methods. This isn’t just important to conduct your own. Major analytics companies and marketing agencies also study user behavior and publish results – you need to understand and use them.

Communication skills and the ability to quickly immerse yourself in the product. Customers will come from different spheres: you may need to design a marketplace, an internet banking application, or an online cinema. Each business has its own specifics and audience, and you need to be able to listen to the client and ask the right questions.

Proficiency in vector graphic editors. The most popular program for interface design is Figma: you can use it to make window frames, draw icons and buttons, add simple animation. An alternative program is Sketch, though it is used less now.

Know the basics of typography. Fonts – an important part of the interface. The designer must choose them correctly – so that all the text is easy to read.

Skills in working with the grids. To make the interface uniform, all the content is placed on the grid. Small elements are usually aligned on the cells, reminiscent of millimeter paper (a pixel grid). And the main blocks are aligned by columns (this is a column grid). The most popular grid is a 12-column grid.

Understanding Coloristics. Choosing good colors for an interface is also a challenge. Colors can be used to accentuate the main thing and convey a particular mood.

The ability to make adaptive versions. Now it is extremely rare to find non-adaptive sites – they usually make versions for the desktop, tablets and mobile devices. And even if we are talking about mobile applications, smartphone screens are also different – and this must be taken into account. Nowadays, there are two ways to adapt the interface to the device – adaptive versions and responsive.

The ability to work with content. To create an interface you have to select photos, illustrations, icons at stock sites, change them slightly and repaint them. You can look for photos on Unsplash and Pexels, illustrations and icons on Freepik, Fraction and Icons8. You can also look for plugins for Figma with ready-made pictures. By installing them you can add free graphics, icons, diagrams and illustrations without leaving the program.

Inspectability. You have to look closely at the sites of major companies, spotting good compositional techniques, typography, colors. And some brands make their design systems publicly available – a set of elements and layout rules with explanations. These are almost textbooks: they show and tell how the interface was made.