There are FIVE levels of UI skill.

Only level 4+ gets you hired.

Michal Malewicz

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UI Design Skill Levels for Dark Mode
UI Design skill levels

The context

I went through 500 junior UI designer portfolios in 2022 and almost 150 in 2023 already. Then I tried tracking their career — finding out who ended up employed and who didn’t.

The results were quite interesting.

Looking at the data and my comments to their portfolios I noticed patterns. Those patterns in turn led to a simple cutoff line being drawn.

You need to be THIS good to get hired.

There are levels of skill to UI design. If you want to get hired you need to at least aim for level four. You can also go above level five, it’s not the absolute top, but four and five are definitely a place to be.

Most designers I reviewed were on level 3 — almsot there, but not quite. Some were at level 2. There were a handful on level 1.

I paid special attention to levels 4 and 5 though as after just months the majority (88%) of them got their first UI (or graphics design) job.

Key factors

This breakdown is not about problem solving (unless you count ugly, unreadable UI as a problem — which I do). This is about making a UI design that people will…

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