Sorry to come late to this. I have a background in design (I've worked in different fields related to design and advertising during the past 13 years) and I can give you some tips.
First of all, you need to separate technical skills from design skills.
Technical skills are mostly related to software and tools (Illustrator, indesign, photoshop, bla bla bla). Some people tend to confuse being a designer with being good with photoshop / illustrator.
Now, as for design skills, I'd highly encourage you to learn visual communication first. UI and Web design, like graphic design, are based on a set of principles and rules. Learning 'that language' first it's the correct approach if you are interested in improving your knowledge in that field. I always recommend this book, A Primer of Visual Literacy -by Donis A. Dondis. Probably not the best, but it's very easy to follow and a good start.
Design in general is a thrilling field, but there is a lot of misconception and misinformation out there. It's pretty easy make things to look pretty, but good design is a serious matter and like every other field takes years and training to get good at it. The best way to start training your 'designer eye' is start looking at graphic design history and understand where and when was born what we call Visual communication today, why it's important and how can we use it.
Answering your question, is it worth it? Absolutely! You don't need to become a designer, or who knows, maybe you discover your passion and switch careers! One way or another, it will give you another way of seeing things.
And the last tip. To improve your creativity, follow this simple exercise every time you are doing something.
Use pen and paper.
Write down (or draw) a minimum of 20 different approachs. Don't worry about quality. Just force yourself to do those 20. If 20 are too hard, try to make variations of the same. But important to do that on paper!!
Let those 20 rest, and focus on other task during the next hour.
Come back to the old task and create another 20 without looking the 20 before.
Focus on another task during the next hour.
Get your 40 variations / versions and now it's time to filter. Cross over those that doesn't WORK (<- this is important, doesn't work it's not the same as I don't like it). You need to have a clear idea of what do you want to accomplish or convey with what you are doing. If you filter your work with "like or don't like", that's not design.
Once you filtered good solutions with bad solutions. Take what works and try to create a new version with the good things you have in your filtered solutions. This will be your first set of proposals for your task here.
If for some reason, final result doesn't work at all. Rise and repeat.
So, the steps are these: First we enter in a divergent phase, no judgement here. The idea is create as much as posible, without thinking if it is good or it's not. Next phase is convergent, and we filter. That's how creativity really works ;)
I hope it helps! If you need something or want to ask anything, just send me a pm or in this same thread! I'll be happy to answer!
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Sorry to come late to this. I have a background in design (I've worked in different fields related to design and advertising during the past 13 years) and I can give you some tips.
First of all, you need to separate technical skills from design skills.
Technical skills are mostly related to software and tools (Illustrator, indesign, photoshop, bla bla bla). Some people tend to confuse being a designer with being good with photoshop / illustrator.
Now, as for design skills, I'd highly encourage you to learn visual communication first. UI and Web design, like graphic design, are based on a set of principles and rules. Learning 'that language' first it's the correct approach if you are interested in improving your knowledge in that field. I always recommend this book, A Primer of Visual Literacy -by Donis A. Dondis. Probably not the best, but it's very easy to follow and a good start.
Design in general is a thrilling field, but there is a lot of misconception and misinformation out there. It's pretty easy make things to look pretty, but good design is a serious matter and like every other field takes years and training to get good at it. The best way to start training your 'designer eye' is start looking at graphic design history and understand where and when was born what we call Visual communication today, why it's important and how can we use it.
Answering your question, is it worth it? Absolutely! You don't need to become a designer, or who knows, maybe you discover your passion and switch careers! One way or another, it will give you another way of seeing things.
And the last tip. To improve your creativity, follow this simple exercise every time you are doing something.
So, the steps are these: First we enter in a divergent phase, no judgement here. The idea is create as much as posible, without thinking if it is good or it's not. Next phase is convergent, and we filter. That's how creativity really works ;)
I hope it helps! If you need something or want to ask anything, just send me a pm or in this same thread! I'll be happy to answer!