UX design and 3D Graphics: Reasons why this combination is important

The world has gone digital; we already know that. But although digital technology has had massive progress in the last couple of years, you might have noticed that 2D images still dominate most design-related websites, apps, and other media. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as they are still one of the fastest ways to communicate visually and the one most people are used to.

3D modeling now is mainly associated with high-quality CAD models that are used in engineering and architecture design. This type of modeling is done by a CAS (Computer Aided Styling) specialist, and it requires much more technical knowledge than creativity. It is also known for being very time-consuming.

Having this CAD 3D design as one of the most known 3D models out there can put many UX designers off from even trying to learn it. But the truth is, UX designers should consider approaching 3D graphics differently: expand their creative possibilities, improve their appeal, and increase the quality of the final products.

There are plenty more reasons why designers, especially those working in an agency that specializes in UX design, should add 3D graphics to their skill set, and here we will let you know only a few of them:

Expand Your Design Vocabulary

Some shapes and design features are very hard or simply impossible to do or conceive in a 2D design. That is why knowing how to create a 3D graphic can give you the needed ability to increase your aesthetic vocabulary. You don’t have to try and make your 2D design look like a 3D one, but you can use a 3D one.

3D Creates More Real Experiences

A 2D design might look very close to real life, but it will never compare to the realistic look and feel of 3D models. Having things like Pokemon Go out in the market that showed how a 3D model would ignite people’s passion for a game that’s been around for decades is just another proof of how realistic people want their digital experiences.

Another great example is IKEA, the renowned Swedish furniture brand. They are developing an augmented reality app that lets you see how their products would look in your house.

Opens New Creative Workflows

There’s no need to ditch the 2D designing world, but once you learn 3D modeling, you can match and mix in whichever way you see fit to improve the user experience of your customers or users.

One of the most exciting applications of 3D is by combining it with 2D techniques to improve the work’s quality and efficiency. Or even combining hand-drawn sketches with 3D render parts in the same image will let you give a whole new appearance and feel to your work.

Better Communication with Other UX Team Members and Clients

The ability to put into a paper (or a digital page) what you were thinking is one thing, but the ability to show what you were thinking with depth, height, and length is way better. It will let your team members and clients have a better idea of what you want to show them.

Variety of Approaches

Learning how to model 3D graphs will let you approach problems in more than just a way, not only because you can think in 2D and 3D design ways of solving it. But because there is a wide variety of modeling techniques and approaches like NURBS, polygonal, SubD, feature-based solid, digital sculpting, etc. One can also use hybrid workflows that combine two or more 3D design types.

Of course, there is one downside to all these possibilities: difficulty to decide which technique/program to use. The good thing is that it’s better to have many and solve a problem the best way possible, even if that means some tough decision-making.

On the good side, UX designers often benefit from heavily discounted licenses – and sometimes even free versions. Nonetheless, there are still some affordable professional versions out there.

Plenty of Online Resources

Despite it sounding, and being, a complex topic, learning how to do 3D modeling is much easier than you might think, thanks to the vast amount of resources you can find online.

Just as with 2D design, having solid foundations and understanding how it works is necessary, and some free and some paid good quality training material is available online. Even if you decide to invest in your learning process, it will be a worthwhile investment in the middle and long term.

Expand your Career Opportunities

Thanks to the relatively recently introduced 3D design approaches that we discussed earlier, such as polygonal/SubD modeling, the growing use of parametric tools, and all the new emerging Virtual Reality (VR)-based tools and 3D printing technologies, 3D design skills are even more relevant and important today. These abilities have become very valuable in the design world and the UI/UX design industry. As such, acquiring this skill will increase your marketability as a UX designer and open your doors for many other paths if you want to.

According to a report made by Burning Glass Technologies and Epic Games in January 2021, there were more than 315,000 job postings for people with competency in 3D graphics. And that number is only going to grow as the world adapts more and more to 3D graphics.

Conclusion

In the last few years, the emergence of 3D design tools, applications, and techniques has proved to be stable and on the rise, definitely staying here for the long run. 3D images can be used to communicate your design ideas better, promote products, and immerse your users into a much more realistic experience. It is so powerful that 3D graphics’ impact that illustrations created in a 3D fashion bring up to a 10x higher conversion rate than normal 2D pictures.

With 3D modeling, you will transmit much more to your user and leave a long-lasting memory of their experience with your website, app, or product than any other 2D design could ever achieve. Use 3D graphs as a way to improve your storytelling abilities by immersing the user in a whole new world of design.