Design your way

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

What is a user experience designer salary? What can you do to get it?

With the increasing value of the IT industry, user experience designers (or UX designers) are more and more important. User experience determines so much of a platform or application’s success.

A good UX designer can make or break the development process. To succeed at UX design, you need a number of skills, some hard and technical, others soft.

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Taking the time and effort to excel at these skills have great rewards. UX designers are assets to their company and they are interested in making sure you can put your hard-earned skills to use for them for as long as possible. They pay pretty well, especially if you are a senior UX designer.

Let’s break down what goes into being a UX designer and what a UX designer salary typically is.

What is a UX Designer?

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A UX designer creates user interfaces. Your phone’s user interface, for instance, was designed by a UX designer, or more likely a team of them. UX designers make these user interfaces both functional and attractive.

A UX designer needs to have a good grasp of programming and graphical design. A bachelor’s degree in computer-related fields or graphic design is typically required, though demonstrated experience can be substituted for a degree. You should have a lot of experience and proficiency with HTML, CAD, Adobe Suite, and CSS.

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User interface design is a highly technical art. Like with other aspects of the IT industry, a UX designer needs to stay on the cutting edge of technological developments and industry trends. Those who want to be UX designers should make sure they follow those changes. Follow blogs that cover the IT industry.

Join forums for UX designers and discuss ideas with other UX designers. Find successful UX designers whose work you like and follow their professional writing and work. Strive to stay ahead of trends and don’t get caught up in already passing fads. Arming yourself with this sort of knowledge throughout your career will help make you one of the best UX designers around.

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If you want to be a UX designer (with a user experience designer salary), you also need to learn how people think. UX design is not an abstract graphical design project. A user interface determines how easily people learn to use a product and is a major factor in how much they enjoy doing so. A bad user interface design can ruin an otherwise great product.

You’ll also want to learn how to work in a team. As wonderful as the projects you made on your own may have been when UX design was what you did in class or for fun, a professional UX designer works on a team very often. Even if you are the company’s only UX designer or their head UX designer, you are a part of a larger project team.

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You need to figure out how to address the concerns and needs of other team members who are working on other aspects of the product. A good product comes from good teamwork. This doesn’t mean the UX design world is all sunshine, bunnies, and rainbows.

There will be conflict within a team, stemming from competing interests or even clashes of personality. Learning how to handle these conflicts in a productive way is vital not only for a UX designer but for anyone who wants to do professional work in any field.

What is a UX Designer’s Work Environment Like?

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UX designers can expect to work full-time, even over time. Long hours are very common especially when deadlines loom. As mentioned above, expect to work in a team. You’ll create a product, test it, and make modifications based on the results of those tests.

As for the physical work environment, a UX designer spends a lot of time at a computer. Most companies allow you to modify your work area as you need to so you can work at your best, whether that’s a standing desk or even a bosu ball chair.

Companies arrange their workspaces in different ways, ranging from the dreaded cubicle frames to potentially annoying open floorplans. If you luck out, you can work at a place like Google or Facebook, which have a lot of perks at their offices to help encourage creativity and productivity.

What is a typical user experience designer salary?

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A user experience designer salary will depend on many factors. Your experience level is one of the biggest factors. The longer you work in UX design, the higher your salary is likely to be.

Location is another. A UX designer in San Francisco will generally make more than a UX designer in Kansas City. However, keep in mind that living expenses in San Francisco are much higher than in Kansas City, so you won’t get to keep as much of a percentage of your salary in San Francisco as you would in Kansas City.

There’s also a lot more competition in places like San Francisco than there is in places like Kansas City, though there are more UX designer jobs in cities like San Francisco that are heavily oriented around the IT industry. It’s a tradeoff and one you may be able to make based on your own needs and preferences.

Higher paying entry level UX designer positions often require internships that are 1 to 2 years long. They also need an extensive and impressive portfolio.

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