I had already been designing websites for years when a long-term Canadian client gave me a piece of advice that changed how I looked at my work.
I have worked with him for around six years. We meet regularly, and our conversations often go beyond a specific project. We talk about business, customers, customer mindset and psychology, marketing principles, strategy, and why people make certain decisions online.
He is one of the most knowledgeable people I have worked with, and I have learned a lot from those conversations.
A Client Conversation That Pushed Me to Explore UX/UI
During one meeting, while we were working through a project, he suddenly told me something along these lines:
“Riyadh, you do really good design. Everyone on my team likes your work. Why don’t you explore UX/UI design more deeply? You already have design experience, and I think learning the principles will give you more confidence and a stronger understanding of the field.”
That comment stayed with me.
By then, I had already designed many websites and understood a lot through hands-on work. I knew how to build pages, choose layouts, organize sections, and make a website look professional. But I also realized that much of my knowledge came from experience and instinct.
I often knew what looked right, but I had not studied the core UX principles deeply enough to explain why something worked for users.
Why I Decided to Study UX/UI More Seriously in 2023
So in 2023, I decided to explore UX/UI design more seriously. I researched the field, watched videos and tutorials, and tried to understand how experienced UX professionals think about websites and digital products.
After that, I looked for a structured course where I could learn the fundamentals properly and discuss the subject with people who were actively teaching it. In 2023, I enrolled in a UX/UI design course at Creative IT Institute.
The course gave me something I was missing: a framework. Instead of only thinking about what a page should look like, I started thinking more deeply about who the user is, what they are trying to achieve, where they may struggle, and how a digital product can make that journey easier.
What I Learned From the UX/UI Course
The course covered a broad mix of UX research, product thinking, and UI design. Some of the areas that influenced me most were:
- UX laws and core usability principles
- Product architecture and information architecture
- Card sorting, mind maps, and wireframes
- User personas and understanding user pain points
- Qualitative and quantitative research
- Usability testing and behavior analysis
- Research planning and presenting findings
- Visual design fundamentals such as color, typography, layout, spacing, and polished interface design
This was important because it helped me connect the visual side of design with the reasoning behind it. A clean interface is useful, but good UX asks a deeper question: does this actually help the user understand, decide, and complete what they came to do?
How UX Changed the Way I Approach Web Design
Before studying UX more deeply, I naturally focused a lot on layout, responsiveness, visual hierarchy, and the overall feel of a website. I still care about all of those things, but now I look at websites from another angle too.
I think more about the user journey. Is the navigation clear? Is important information appearing at the right time? Is the call to action too early or too weak? Is a form asking for more information than necessary? Does the page structure match what the visitor actually wants to know?
That changes web design from simply arranging sections into solving a sequence of user problems.
The Connection Between UX, SEO, Content, and Marketing
This is where the course became especially valuable for the work I do today. When I research competitors now, I do not only look at their keywords, rankings, visuals, or features. I also look at how they guide users, what questions they answer, where friction may exist, how they present value, and why a user may choose one option over another.
The same thinking helps with SEO and content strategy. Search intent is really a form of user intent. A person searches because they need an answer, a comparison, a solution, or enough confidence to make a decision. UX research made that idea more practical for me.
It also connects directly with marketing. Marketing is not only about getting attention. You have to understand the customer, their problems, their objections, the way they evaluate choices, and what makes them trust a product or business. UX gave me another way to study those behaviors.
A Skill That Strengthened the Rest of My Work
I do not position myself as a full-time UX/UI designer today. My work is broader and includes WordPress, web design, SEO, content, SaaS, and digital marketing.
But learning UX/UI has become part of how I approach all of those areas. It helps me ask better questions before designing a page, writing content, reviewing a product, researching competitors, or suggesting a marketing change.
More importantly, it made my point of view more practical. I am less interested in copying what looks good and more interested in understanding why something works, what problem it solves, and how it can work better for the people using it.
That is probably the biggest value I got from studying UX/UI in 2023. It did not replace the experience I already had. It gave that experience a stronger foundation.
