User experience (UX) design is a growing technology career, but the job titles advertised can be confusing. UX design is a relatively new field and it is still evolving, so what to call a particular job hasn’t been generally agreed upon, especially by hiring managers. Let’s take a look at some of the titles that you might see when you look for a job as a UX Designer.
An Abundance of Job Titles
The Nielsen Norman Group, a leading design consulting firm, conducted a survey of 693 UX/UI Designers in 2019 to get a picture of what a career as a designer looks like. Survey respondents were asked about their level of education, what industries they worked in, what they did as part of their jobs, and what job titles they held. Respondents reported 134 unique job titles and indicated that they often had more than one UX role in a particular job title.
Almost half of the titles were UX Designer (48%), with UX Manager, Lead, or Director (15%) being the next most popular, followed by Researcher and non-specialized UX (12%). Another 11% held the titles of Product Designer, Product Developer, Quality Assurance, and Creative and Art Director. The title Content Specialist was reported by 1% of respondents.
UX Maturity
Those answering the survey indicated that if they worked for a company with high UX maturity, there was more specialization and they performed fewer UX roles, whilein less UX mature companies, there was less specialization and respondents performed more roles. When a company recognizes the importance of designing products with the experience of the user as the central focus, that company is considered to be a UX mature organization. This can look very different across different businesses and the Nielsen Norman Group has developed a scale of assessing UX maturity according to six different stages.
Stage One - Absent
In this first stage, there is no focus on UX at all. There is no user testing and the user experience is not considered important at all. The company culture may range from indifferent to hostile.
Stage Two - Limited
At this stage, there is a little bit of UX work being tried, but what there is not widespread or supported. A few employees are just starting to talk about the benefits of user experience research, but they feel that no one is listening.
Stage Three - Emergent
In the Emergent stage, UX work is there but it is inconsistent and inefficient. There might be resistance from management over the cost of conducting research or concern about slowing product development.
Stage Four - Structured
At this stage, UX methods are accepted and widespread but with different levels of effectiveness and efficiency. There are still some holdouts who don’t recognize the importance of UX research and design. Education is important at this stage to ensure that support for UX grows and strengthens. Forming a working group with members from across the organization can help.
Stage Five - Integrated
At the Integrated stage, effective UX work is carried on throughout the organization, and the management level recognizes the worth of focusing product development on users.
Stage Six - User-driven
At stage six, the user experience is central to the company. It is evident in the mission statement, staffing, and budget. A company at this level is fully UX mature.
Six Basic Roles
UX design jobs fall into six different roles according to job descriptions. These are UX Designer, UI or Visual Designer, Product Designer, UX Researcher, Content Strategist, and UX Engineer.
UX Designer
UX Designers need to advocate for the user throughout the design process. They conduct interviews and usability tests that they use to create personas and journey maps. They conduct presentations and ideation sessions and then collaborate with the team to create wireframes, and prototypes. They run usability tests, document the results, and analyze the data.
UI Designer
User interface Designers (UI) usually create the prototypes used to test the design. These can be simple, low-fidelity, pen and paper drawings or high-fidelity, interactive digital mockups, depending upon the needs of the team. UI Designers also create and maintain the design style for the team.
Product Designer
Product Designers are concerned with the appearance, functionality, and quality of the product they are assigned to work on. They strive to create successful products that meet the needs of customers and that sell well. Product Designers often have more of an overseeing role and a responsibility to the business interests of the project.
UX Researcher
UX Researchers conduct different types of tests to find out about users’ attitudes and behaviors toward the website or app under development. They conduct quantitative and qualitative research to test the product and then report on their findings. UX researchers conduct interviews, run surveys, and perform usability studies of various types. Then they analyze the data and report their findings to the design team.
Content Strategist
Content Strategists create a plan to ensure consistency and brand identity through website copy or content. Copywriters create articles, blog posts, and web pages that are original, creative, and can engage a reader to click on a link, visit a website, and purchase goods or services.
UX Engineer
UX Designers who develop an interest in website coding can become UX Engineers. This involves learning programming languages like JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and others that are used in front end web development.
Where to Learn UX Design
Most people start out in UX design and move into a product design position. If you would like to learn more about UX design in order to switch to a new career, one of the best ways to do that is to sign up for classes. 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.
The best way to prepare for a career shift to a field like UX design is to enroll in a bootcamp or certificate program. These are intensive training courses that run from a few weeks to a few months and another plus of training is that you will leave class with a professional-quality portfolio that you can show to prospective employers.
Conclusion
It’s easy to learn UX design and start a new career. Check out Noble Desktop’s UX design classes. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online UX design courses and attend from anywhere. Use Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me to find other UX design bootcamps in your area.