One of the big questions when you are considering changing careers is how much money you can make. That isn’t always an easy question to answer. It depends upon where you are located, how much experience you have, and what career path you take. But User Experience (UX) Designers are in demand and that trend is expected to continue in the coming decades.
What Do UX Designers Do?
UX design focuses on what users need, what they value, and what their abilities and limitations are. It stands at the intersection between the experiences of users and the desires of businesses. UX is made up of many interconnected disciplines like psychology, visual design, programming, interactive design, and accessibility and accommodation.
UX designers do a variety of tasks depending upon the situation. UX designers need to find out what users what, then create a design that meets the needs of the users and the business or client the designer is working for. Designers create personas of users and mockups of products or websites. They analyze data they have collected, and they also give presentations and workshops to other members of the design team and to clients. Finally, designers test the product or website to see if it works the way it was expected to, and the process begins again. Designers are always looking to create the best user experience possible.
Qualities of UX Designers
Some qualities that successful UX designers exhibit are empathy, curiosity, humility, attention to detail, meticulousness, organization, attentiveness, and the ability to communicate well. UX designers need to imagine themselves in the users’ position so they can determine the best solutions for the particular problem.
As a UX designer, you need to love solving problems and puzzles and be fascinated by people and why they do what they do. You need to be good at collaborating with others and working as a team to figure things out. You need to conduct research, analyze the data, and write reports as well as present your findings at workshops and meetings. You also need to be able to create wireframes and prototypes of websites and products.
How to Become a UX Designer
You can enroll in a four-year college degree program to learn UX design, but bootcamps and certificate courses are faster and less expensive. In a UX design bootcamp, you will learn all of the skills you will need to find a job in the user-centered design field, and you will also create a case study documenting your process, which will go into your portfolio to help you get your first design job.
Bootcamps include around 30 hours of instruction, while certificate classes are more than twice that long. There are classes that are designed for part-time or full-time attendance. When you successfully complete the class, you receive a certificate of completion that you can upload to your LinkedIn profile, and if you want to review or get extra practice, you can retake the class within a year for free. The cost of classes varies from school to school. Noble Desktop offers a UX Design Bootcamp for $1,495 and a certificate course for around $3,000.
You can choose classes that meet in-person or online to learn design software and other applications. Some people prefer to attend brick-and-mortar sessions when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends.
Average Salary of UX Designers
The job portal Indeed.com lists the average base salary for UX Designers in the US at $93,761 per year. Your salary as a UX Designer varies depending upon where you live, how much design experience you have, and whether or not you specialize.
Location
According to a study by the Nielsen Norman Group, most UX Designers live in the US. Below is a list of the most popular cities for UX design with their average yearly salaries:
- San Francisco, California -
- San Diego, California - $100,000
- Seattle, Washington - $109,000
- Redmond, Washington - $102,710
- Boston, Massachusetts - $105,000
- New York, New York - $104,000
- Chicago, Illinois - $105,000
- Austin, Texas - $103,000
Experience
As with any field, the more experience you have at UX design, the higher salary you can command.
- Entry level (0-1 years) - $80,928
- Mid-level - (7-9 years) - $104,580
- Senior level - (10+ years) - $113,368
Sometimes, it isn’t the number of years that is important but the amount of experience with a certain platform that makes the difference. A solid portfolio is another factor in determining how much a company is willing to pay for your services. Ideally, you should choose three to five examples of your best work, depending on how long you have been working as a designer. Use examples of the best work you have done with the highest quality images. Make sure that there are no spelling or punctuation errors because this is a sign of sloppy work.
Career Path
In smaller companies, UX Designers are often expected to cover all of the parts of the design process, but in larger companies employees have the option to specialize. This is often a choice designers make as they work and discover what interests them most. Different roles tend to pay different salaries. Indeed lists the average salaries for different design roles:
- User Experience Designer - $93,761
- User Interface Designer - $78,326
- User Experience Researcher - $68,193
- Product Designer - $86,222
- User Experience Manager - $99,993
- User Experience Researcher - $68,193
Conclusion
It’s easy to take UX design classes and start a new career. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online UX design courses and attend from anywhere. Find UX bootcamps in your area and get started in a new direction today.