Is UI Design a Good Career?

UI design can be an outstanding career.The field offers various opportunities for growth and competitive salaries. UI designers can choose to work in a wide range of industries as well as remotely, abroad, or even on a freelance or consulting basis. Working in UI design can provide a sense of accomplishment through problem-solving, creative design, and knowing one’s efforts contribute to the success of a company or product or the overall user experience. 

What is a UI Designer?

A UI Designer designs user interfaces, usually for digital applications such as the web, mobile, or video games. They build visual and interactive elements such as buttons, menus, and widgets. They also develop prototypes and refine their designs based on information gained from user research. Primary job duties of UI Designers include:

• Developing and enforcing a style guide that establishes a consistent visual “look” across the application.
• Designing each screen and individual elements within that the user can interact with.
• Making decisions about layout and visual elements that drive an intuitive user experience.
• Creating animations.
• Building wireframes and prototypes.
• Ensuring layout responsiveness across various screen sizes.

UI Designers craft designs for various industries, such as financial and banking, healthcare apps, retail apps, education, automotive, and gaming. A UI Designer’s primary goal is to design applications so that users intuitively understand how to use them and perform the actions or find the information they need without learning how to use the application first. UI Designers play a significant role in influencing how we use digital technology in our daily lives. 

Read more about what a UI Designer does.

UI Designer Salary and Job Outlook

UI design is a career with a steady growth outlook. As dependence on technology continues to grow among businesses and the public, so does the need for intuitive and visually appealing interfaces. Thus, UI Designers can expect their job to remain in demand and secure.

UI Designers are needed in a variety of industries. While computer science is the birthplace of UI design, many other industries depend on technical applications to communicate or conduct business with customers. Thus, UI Designers can also find work in finance, education, government, military, and healthcare industries.

The average salary for UI Designers falls around $85,000. However, the pay range for the position can vary greatly depending on location and work experience. UI Designers can generally expect their salary to increase with industry experience and newly acquired skills. Senior UI Designers can see six-figure salaries, with the highest-paying jobs available at major software and technology firms.

Read more about UI Designer salaries and the job outlook for a UI Designer.

What Makes UI Design a Good Career?

Several factors make UI design a good career choice, especially for creative individuals with a passion for technology. Listed below are a few things UI Designers commonly love about their job: 

You Get to Be Creative

UI design is an excellent career for creative individuals. UI Designers get to stretch their artistic muscles by creating graphics and manipulating images that become part of their interfaces. They also incorporate branding into the color and layout of their design. Creativity is an essential component of problem-solving. It allows UI Designers to consider multiple aspects of a problem and come up with numerous possible solutions. It’s also a powerful tool for iterating on solutions and designs.

You Stand on the Cutting Edge of Technology

UI design can be an exciting career. Due to the ever-evolving nature of technology, UI Designers are constantly learning new skills. They also play an important role in designing the interfaces that guide users on using emerging technology. So, if you’re a technology enthusiast, UI design is one of the best careers that allows you to be hands-on with what’s new.

You can Help People

UI design can be a very fulfilling career. Since UI Designers are often responsible for designing the user interfaces of crucial company apps, they get the satisfaction of knowing their work plays a significant role in that product’s success and, by extension, the success of the company they work for. They can also take pride in customer satisfaction with a product, knowing their designs helped users gain access to the needed services. Additionally, UI Designers also play a role in implementing accessibility features and ensuring applications are usable by people who might otherwise struggle with certain interface features.

Competitive Salaries

UI design is a career with a broad salary range of $55,000 to $125,000. While entry-level UI Designers will begin on the lower end, salaries in the field are competitive and mainly based on a professional’s proven skills. For this reason, any UI Designer needs to maintain a professional portfolio that showcases their abilities and aids in salary negotiations.

Plenty of Room to Grow

UI Designers commonly learn UX design, a field with a lot of overlap, which allows them to work more with users and improve existing UI design skills. There are several specializations a UI Designer can pursue to grow their skills and career. Some areas are more technical, such as diving deeper into software engineering or programming. Other UI Designers may focus on front end development and specialize in website or video game development. 

Work Where You Want

UI Designers can work in virtually any industry. While computer science is the most common industry, other UI Designers may choose to work in finance, education, government and military, healthcare, retail, advertising, telecommunications, business, automotive, or entertainment, among others. UI Designers also don’t have to confine their work to a traditional office cubicle. Many UI design offices are open to collaborative spaces, and remote work is becoming increasingly popular. It’s also not common for UI Designers to work as freelancers or consultants.

Career Paths Related to UI Designer

There are numerous careers that are similar to UI design. Usually, these fields focus on one aspect of UI design, such as visual design, graphic design, and user interaction. These related job positions may serve as jumping-off points for individuals interested in becoming UI Designers but who haven’t yet acquired the necessary experience or education. 

• Visual Designers– focuses on the visual aesthetics of a system. 
• Interaction Designer – focuses on how a user interacts with specific aspects of a system.
• Graphic Designer – creates individual graphic assets and animations.

Other related UI design careers possess crossover skills but aren’t explicitly related to UI design. For instance, a UX Designer focuses on a user's experience when interacting with a system. They focus on user research and testing and give iteration suggestions to UI Designers. However, they don’t work on UI design themselves.

A Product Designer manages the creation of a product from conception to launch. A UI Designer follows a similar life cycle of a product, including conceptualization, design, prototyping, and user testing. They are also likely to work within a team led by a Product Designer. However, they don’t see the whole of a product’s lifecycle.

A Web Designer performs job duties similar to a UI Designer. They design and create all front end aspects of a website, from visual design to graphics and navigation. However, they don’t often focus on user interaction or research.

Read more about other career paths related to UI Designer careers. 

Learn the Skills to Become a UI Designer at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers several UI design classes for those seeking professional instruction in pursuing a career as a UI Designer. Classes are small and feature expert instructors and free retake options. Courses can be attended in person in NYC or online from anywhere. 

The UI Design Certificate is designed to prepare students to launch a career in UI design. You’ll learn essential design principles as well as how to use the most popular UI design tools: Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Throughout the course, you’ll complete a number of hands-on projects and build a portfolio to showcase your skills to potential employers.

Should you be interested in UX design as well as UI design (the two fields commonly overlap), you can pursue the UX & UI Design Certificate. You’ll learn the design principles and industry tools of both UX & UI design, build a professional portfolio, and receive one-on-one job preparation assistance. 

Bootcamps are also available where you can learn the ins and outs of the most popular UI design tools, including Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator. These courses are open to pure beginners and are designed to guide you to mastery of the program. 

If you’re not ready to jump into a full UI design course, you can explore Noble Desktop’s learning hubs. These hubs are designed to inform you about a topic and offer learning resources, including free tutorials and self-guided education. UI design learn hubs include:

• Learn UI Design
• Learn Visual Design
• Learn Adobe XD
• Learn Figma
• Learn Sketch

Key Takeaways

• UI design is an excellent career for creative individuals to flex their artistic and problem-solving skills.
• UI Designers commonly work with the latest technology, making it an ideal career for technology enthusiasts. 
• UI Designers can take satisfaction in knowing their work helps users and their company succeed. 
• UI Designers see competitive salaries based on proven skills.
• UI design is a career with much room to grow as a professional in skills, specialization, and industry choice.
• UI Designers have many options in how they work and beyond a traditional office cubicle. 
• You can receive comprehensive training to become a UI Designer through an in-person or live online course with Noble Desktop.