What Does a UX Designer Do?
UX designers bring form and function together by creating user experiences (UX) that are both aesthetic and intuitive. They develop wireframes, workflows, site maps — even storyboards — for mobile and web platforms. UX designers also help implement the visual design elements that give a product or website emotional weight, such as button color and placement, load animations, and logo sizes.
UX designers are thorough researchers and quality analysts, using A/B testing to narrow down design choices to best suit their users’ wants and needs. A great UX designer can use his or her skills to provide a seamless experience that accomplishes several business goals at once, most of all creating the “look and feel” of a product’s user interface.
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National Average Salary
UX designer salaries vary by experience, industry, organization size, and geography. To explore salary ranges by local market, please visit our sister site zengig.com.
The average U.S. salary for a UX Designer is:
$90,670
UX Designer Job Descriptions
When it comes to recruiting a UX designer, having the right job description can make a big difference. Here are some real world job descriptions you can use as templates for your next opening.
Example 1
UX designers must have solid research and analytical skills. They should be versed in relevant testing methods and able to meet customer and company deadlines. Collaboration skills are also required for UX designers as they work closely with stakeholders, such as the marketing and design teams, to ensure the successful implementation of user interfaces. UX designers need to stay up-to-date with emerging trends in user experience design and user interface technology.
Typical duties and responsibilities
- Research target audiences for products and websites
- Create personas to understand user needs and desires
- Design screen flows, wireframes, site maps, and storyboards
- Develop and evaluate a working interaction model
- Conduct user testing and quality analysis
- Collaborate with front and back-end web developers
Education and experience
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, design, or a related field required
Required skills and qualifications
- Proficiency in writing CSS/HTML
- Expertise in building and researching buyer personals
- Knowledge of graphic design tools, such as Adobe Creative Cloud
- Strong organizational and problem-solving skills
- Experience in project management
- Superior communication skills
Example 2
Key things we’re looking for
- Devotion to finding out what user needs are. Using user research findings to drive not only design, but also product development
- We’re looking for someone who’s also fairly detail oriented and able to deal with taking complex data and finding ways to best serve it to clients
- Experience designing accessible interfaces is also highly desirable. Not just checking for color contrast and putting labels on images, but truly keeping all users in mind – folks with cognitive ability limitations, alternate input device usage, hearing impairments, etc.
Formal job description
A User Experience (UX) designer who can plan, create, and communicate appealing, usable, and effective interface designs for mobile, web, and device interfaces. From layout, to visual branding, to motion and interactivity – interactive design is collaborative and comprehensive. The ideal candidate will have knowledge of current digital design trends as well as design fundamentals. This candidate is passionate about all aspects of the digital space that understands how to translate business problems into strong interactive solutions.
Responsibilities
- Collaborate with UX peers (experience architects, content writers, researchers, and visual designers) to create world-class customer experiences
- Create wireframes and prototypes that are both visually pleasing and efficient – focusing on the end user’s experience
- Apply existing brand (visual and interaction) standards to accommodate new products, and applications
- Create strong partnership between front and back end development and business lines
- Present and communicate designs and design goals to teammates, partners, and leadership
- Create prototypes using tools such as AXURE
- Participate as an observer in user interviews and usability test sessions
- Review and understand usability test findings and update designs accordingly
- Validate the design that was developed against UX requirements
Skills
Ux Design, Wireframing, Agile, WCAG, user experience design, interaction design, wireframe, design, user experience, lead, Visual design, Ui design, Product design, Sketch, figma, Usability testing, Information architecture
Additional skills & qualifications
Candidates should have experience across UX and UI, with a depth of experience in Interaction Design
Example 3
Responsibilities
- Understand our users – Plan, conduct, and share user/usability research to support initiatives in a rapid, iterative manner, incorporating customer constraints of budget, time, and contractual obligations
- Translate business needs and requirements – Create compelling user experiences by participating with cross-functional teams from the customer-facing team to quality assurance
- Design awesome experiences – Articulate the vision of the user experience by telling the story from start to finish using process flows and high-fidelity mockups informed by technical and functional requirements
- Understand our customers – Learn industry best practices and integrate them into designs and processes
- Design for accessibility – Produce designs that meet WCAG AA requirements
- Develop design patterns – Identify and develop emerging patterns that impact UX design, development, and usability
- Collaborate effectively – Work with other UX designer/analysts and critique each other’s designs, generating feedback that improves our designs; Preview developer work prior to testing to confirm needed functionality and avoid issues during testing; Assist the quality assurance team verify that user stories are testable and generate testing objectives
- Assist in the evolution, and adoption of the ABC Company Design System
Requirements
- Ability to learn enterprise-level software quickly and deeply
- Demonstrated experience in a design role, providing design deliverables used by others to product a solution
- Proficiency communicating a user journey to enable customers and internal teams to understand how the proposed solution will make user’s lives better
- Curious, positive, independent, collaborative, quick, decisive thinker that can effectively advocate for their ideas and provide and receive constructive feedback
- Interested in learning more about how to build a UX practice and UX maturity within an organization
Education and experience
- Degree in User Experience related field (e.g., HCI) or equivalent experience (at least 3 years of designing awesome user experiences)
Example 4
The User Interface/User Experience UX/UI Designer designs beautifully crafted and well-thought-out experiences that serve the needs of our customers and stakeholders. Capable of working from a loose specification, the UI/UX Designer helps visualize multiple parts of the product design lifecycle by creating workflow diagrams, low-fidelity wireframes, high-fidelity visual mockups, and interactive prototypes. They will be a strong advocate for the UX design process and act as the voice of our users in all that we design and build.
You have an eye for design, and the ability to spot small details that others might miss. You love finding ways to drive incremental but significant improvements that keep us moving towards a greater long-term vision. You bring curiosity, empathy, and a sense of humor to everything you do.
Responsibilities
- Develop user stories, personas, and usage scenarios
- Determine information architecture and user journeys
- Create wireframes, storyboards, and screen flows
- Develop effective user interfaces and interaction patterns to help users achieve their goals
- Design beautiful and engaging user interfaces that build trust and provide value
- Collaborates with design team to imagine design approach for both full-site and feature-level execution
- Constantly measure how designs are performing for target customers. Iterate and improve those experiences as needed. Influences team. roadmaps to include experience improvements when the design or product is not performing or needs improvement
- Determine best UX solutions based on customer feedback and business goals and helps to determine overall direction, identifying challenges and adapting as needed based on the context of the solution and customer
- Create product prototypes used to demonstrate and test user flows
- Keep abreast of competitor products and industry trends
- Act as an advocate for both external and internal users
- Work with internal division teams to create UX solutions based on business needs
- Articulate users’ needs, tasks, and goals into user stories, journey maps, and user requirements
- Utilize tools and services such as A/B testing, user insight tracking, and analytics for data-driven
Qualifications
- 3+ years of professional design experience
- Experience solving highly complex problems for users
- Self-directed and comfortable making decisions without perfect information
- A solid grasp of user-centered design and usability
- Excellent interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills
- Ability to work flexibly and efficiently
- Passion — A strong passion for improving people’s lives through design
- Creativity – design modern interfaces that are both visually appealing and usable
- High comfort level in working within a self-directed culture and navigating ambiguity
- Empathy and curiosity for how great brands, businesses, and organizations navigate innovation and design
- Working knowledge of design tools such as Figma, Adobe XD, etc.
- Ability to articulate your rationale for design decisions
- A portfolio that demonstrates a history of proven expertise in multiple areas of UX
Candidate Certifications to Look For
- User Experience Design Essentials – Offered through Udemy, this certification teaches design skills in Adobe XD. This certification would be preferable for candidates with a background in computer development and is available to anyone interested in an entry-level UX designer position. candidates will learn the fundamentals of web design, how to manage their workflow, and create design prototypes.
- UX/UI Design Specialization – If candidates are looking to gain an advanced certification in UX design, this is for them! This certification is offered by the California Institute of the Arts and will teach candidates design-centric methods to improve user experience. Topics like UX design principles, wireframe and prototype development process, and information architecture of web design will all be covered.
Sample Interview Questions
- What are your greatest strengths as a UX designer?
- What is UX design?
- What is the difference between UX and UI?
- Which research methods do you use?
- Tell was your most successful UX design project” Your least successful?
- What do you think will be the next trend in UX design?
- What are 3 crucial skills a UX designer must have?
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
- What is your design process?
- Can you describe a challenging project you worked on and how you handled it?
- How would you evaluate a product from a UX perspective?
- What does ‘design-thinking’ mean to you?
- What do you do if a client doesn’t like your design?
- Do you have any UX design heroes or favorite apps for UX?
- Which analytics tools and key performance indicators (KPIs) have you used when evaluating your designs?
- How do you decide which features to add to your product?
- What are your three biggest strengths? Your biggest weakness?
- How well do you collaborate with others on projects?
- What would you do if you disagreed with your team’s recommendation?
- What is the value of a UX designer to a company like ours?
