First: understand the platform.
Just as a web designer needs to know HTML/CSS, as a mobile UI designer, you should know the architecture of mobile APP.
First of all, the language of mobile terminal design is different from that of web page design. Different platforms have different programming languages and interfaces, and the composition of mobile terminal interface can not be realized by CSS and tags.
You need to read the official development documents in depth, learn more about the document knowledge of APP, understand the composition, compilation method, release method and design rules of APP.
These things are not only related to your application development, but also affect the stability and battery life of the system.
As a mobile UI designer, it is not enough for you to understand simple mobile design.
We need to take a long-term view.
Second: understand the technical composition of the mobile terminal.
For a UI designer, it is not enough to know only the basic features of the platform.
Next, you need to know its related technical components: location services (wifi, GPS, etc. ), Bluetooth (low power Bluetooth technology), signals, front and rear cameras, microphones, gyroscopes, position sensors, acceleration sensors, fingerprint scanners (iPhone 5s), eye tracking technology, voice recognition, face recognition and so on.
Behind every new technology are more possibilities of application, interaction design, experience and even business model.
Third, explore the development potential of local UI components.
There are always a large number of local UI components in every mobile phone operating system, and there is great freedom for you to customize.
You need to know their characteristics (size, size, function) accurately, and you can save a lot of working time for the developers you cooperate with.
Fourth: Understand the workflow of the mobile terminal.
Install and run the SDK, and learn about mobile development frameworks such as TubyMotion, Xamarin and Titanium.
Familiar with the integrated development environment, because it contains all aspects needed for mobile development.
Fifth, understand the interface mode of the mobile terminal.
There are similarities among the three mobile platforms, but if we deeply explore their interaction design, we will find their great differences in ideas.
As a designer, you need to understand these differences and how they are reflected in actual cases.
Don't just focus on a single platform, all three platforms need in-depth experience, and play at least once a day for at least half a year.
In this process, experience the differences and keep the screenshots that you think are important, representative and worth keeping records.
As an avid fan of a single platform, you can't be a mobile UI designer.
Sixth: record and explain your UI design.
Considering that screen capture is not enough to show all the features of UI, you need to learn to record different states, transition process, transition animation and other information of the interface, and learn to record the feedback of the interface for different situations.