UX designer job description is something that a lot of people are looking for before choosing a career path. This career path has become one of the more attractive few out of the “creative IT” area. With that, however, there’s an increasing amount of individuals who don’t have a clear idea of what UX is, and what does a UX designer does.
Worry not, however, for this tutorial will answer all of your questions. You can view it as a UX designer job description with an added twist - I’ll tell you everything that you need to know about this specialty from the technical standpoint, but you’ll also have the chance to find out some of the more subjective information regarding this career path.
Table of Contents
- 1. Understanding UX Designer Responsibilities
- 1.1. Elements of UX Design
- 2. The Three Types of UX Designer Jobs
- 3. Entry-Level UX Designer Job Description
- 3.1. Responsibilities
- 3.2. Requirements
- 3.3. Career Path Options
- 3.4. Salary
- 4. Junior UX Designer Job Description
- 4.1. Requirements
- 4.2. Responsibilities
- 4.3. Career Path Options
- 4.4. Salary
- 5. Senior UX Designer Job Description
- 5.1. Requirements
- 5.2. Responsibilities
- 5.3. Career Path Opportunites
- 5.4. Salary
- 6. Summary
Understanding UX Designer Responsibilities
Typically, the UX designer job description says that it is the person who is responsible for the ‘what is the product’, ‘why is does this product exist, and ‘how this product will be executed’. These are the crucial elements that come from the UX Designers' perspective. The reason for that users’ motivation and need for the product will grow accordingly. The UX designer has to create the product in a way that would relate their targeted user group values, therefore, the users could associate with the product or the service that was created.
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Another responsibility for UX designers is the functionality of the product. It has to be used in a smooth way without any additional frustrations and be presented in an aesthetical way. Answering the question of what are the UX designer's responsibilities may uncover a lot more roles: the strategist, analyst, architect, project manager, and many more.
Elements of UX Design
- Design. One of the main elements that also represents the UX designer job description title itself. UX designers visualize the product in the frames of data that they have collected on their targeted users. They create scenarios that are the narrative ways of representing the user's life and how it will change with the implementation of the product. It is extremely important to analyze every step along the way in which the product plays a specifical role.
- Product Research. Yet another key element in UX design is user and market research. It lays the fundamentals for the whole process because it helps to understand customer needs, goals, behavior, expectations, and motivation. Sketching design accordingly to the found data is vital because the decisions are well informed and planned through. Product research can be done in numerous ways - surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.
- Prototyping. It is obvious for many reasons that the product has to go through a lot of draft phases. Prototyping is the process that experiments with the design, tries to find as many errors and inconsistencies as possible. The main goal is to improve the original idea.
- Testing. A further step that you can find in almost every UX designer job description after improving the prototype is testing, and it may include a complex of procedures. UX designers need to present a few different types of single products and interview the users or ask to fill in surveys. One of the best methods to test a product is to watch the user while he is using it.
- Overwatch. The product is almost never finished entirely. Overwatch process means that the UX designers of the product need to constantly look for ways to improve it, at least for as long it will be available.
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The Three Types of UX Designer Jobs
As I've mentioned a bit earlier, in total, there are three types of UX designers you’ll encounter - jobs that are designed for entry-level, junior and senior UX designers. All of these three levels have different requirements and responsibilities, and we’ll go over all of them one by one.
Entry-Level UX Designer Job Description
Entry-level, or beginner, UX designers are the newbies of the industry. If you’ve just finished your university degree and are looking for your first job - congratulations! You can consider yourself to be a beginner UX designer!
With that said, let’s take a look at the beginner UX designer job description.
Responsibilities
Entry-level UX designer jobs are usually centered around the topic of learning. Employers know that these designers are “fresh out of the oven” - they have no experience, and thus need to be shaped and molded into proper, advanced-level employees.
Beginner UX designers tend to be assigned tasks that would not only benefit the company, but would also reveal the person’s motivation levels, skills, and specific character traits. These designers will most likely create various illustrations according to provided design description, practice working in a team and create their own, original designs.
When it comes to beginner UX designer job description, most of them have a single, important requirement responsibility-wise: the designer has to understand WHY user experience is such an important aspect of the overall marketing sphere. If the beginner designer understands the importance of how a user feels when he or she interacts with a platform, it becomes much easier to answer the question “what does a UX designer do?” (and why they do it?).
Requirements
As I’ve already mentioned in the previous chapter, the beginner UX designer jobs are mostly centered around teaching these designers essential, industry-specific skills. Knowing that it should be much easier to deduce what do UX designers do.
When reading a UX designer job description, you will notice that most employers are going to ask you to have a higher education degree in either Design, Computer Science, or any other field that’s somehow related to UX design. It is worth mentioning that a lot of people take the “unofficial” route and turn towards online learning (i.e. certified courses), which is also an option. BitDegree also has a platform where you can try for a scholarship for online courses if UX design is your passion, but your finances currently can't allow you additional spending even for a course.
Since you’re trying to get an entry-level job, there will probably be little to no prior experience requirements involved. Sure, if you already have experience in the field of UX design (for example, have had an internship), it will help a lot! It’s not mandatory, though.
Finally, probably the most important part that all of the potential UX designer jobs are going to require is your portfolio. Every single UX designer job description will mention this, but a great portfolio of your work will be the highlight of a job interview, and will frankly guarantee you a job in UX design.
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Career Path Options
Now, we’ve talked about all of the responsibilities and requirements… But what about the things that will benefit YOU? Well, most beginner designer jobs are going to be your entry points into a huge industry of IT-based designer jobs. Even if you decide to stick with your very first job, if the company is constantly growing and advancing their business model, you can be sure that you’ll have the opportunity to grow, too (assuming that you do the work, of course).
In general, if you’re wondering what does a UX designer does and if this profession is worth it, you can rest assured that there will always be career-building options found within the industry.
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- Nanodegree programs
- Suitable for enterprises
- Paid certificates of completion
- A wide range of learning programs
- University-level courses
- Easy to navigate
- University-level courses
- Suitable for enterprises
- Verified certificates of completion
Salary
According to Payscale.com, the salary of an entry-level UX designer should be around the annual $62,500 mark. That’s a great salary for sure, especially when you consider that we’re talking about beginner levels!
Junior UX Designer Job Description
Junior UX designers are people who have already spent a significant amount of time within the industry, and kind of know their way around. A junior UX designer job description would tend to be a very interesting one - it also best represents the answer to the question “what does a UX designer do?”. This is because junior UX designer jobs are going to be ones that you’ll encounter the most.
Requirements
If you’re looking for junior-level (or advanced) jobs, the first thing that you should keep in mind is that your potential employers are going to expect that you’re already quite familiar with the industry and that you won’t require handholding and constant supervision (as opposed to entry-level UX designers).
Additionally, you should also by this point have a pretty well-designed (no pun intended) and built-out portfolio to show to your potential employers. If this point is a bit more lenient for entry-level jobs, juniors should focus on creating the best portfolio of their work that they can.
Responsibilities
As a junior UX designer, you will have a lot of different responsibilities to uphold. You will now have to work closely with other members of your team, make specific design decisions and adjust the current designs so that they would fit the quality standards of the platform, plan out your course of work, and so on.
Almost every single UX designer job description is aimed at people who already have a certain sense of a workflow. This means that they can perform their given tasks independently, without much interference. Having said that, this increases their responsibilities by a lot - you now have to not only manage your tasks daily but also make sure that the quality of the work that you do is up to par.
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Career Path Options
Honestly, junior-levels offer the biggest variety of possible career paths to choose from. Even though UX design is somewhat of a niche specialty (at least when you compare it to, let’s say, python development), you still have some leniency. You can specialize in layout designs, work on UI elements, etc.
Since these people usually don’t ask “what do UX designers do?” anymore, they receive better working conditions, more freedom for self-expression and personal idea development, and have a bigger say in the processes that happen in their area of expertise. Furthermore, junior UX designer job description tends to “T-shape” the designers' skills - this means that they become rather flexible employees capable of taking on different tasks and challenges.
- Easy to use with a learn-by-doing approach
- Offers quality content
- Gamified in-browser coding experience
- Free certificates of completion
- Focused on data science skills
- Flexible learning timetable
- High-quality courses
- Nanodegree programs
- Student Career services
- Nanodegree programs
- Suitable for enterprises
- Paid certificates of completion
- A wide range of learning programs
- University-level courses
- Easy to navigate
- University-level courses
- Suitable for enterprises
- Verified certificates of completion
Salary
According to Glassdoor.com, a junior UX designer should make around $83,000 per year. That’s a really good salary!
Senior UX Designer Job Description
Senior UX designers are the top of the food chain - they are industry veterans that have (usually) spent years perfecting their craft. These senior designers are among the most valued and appreciated experts in their own respective companies - let's take a look at what the requirements to become a senior UX designer looks like.
Requirements
Needless to say, senior UX designer job descriptions have the highest requirements out of them all. Since these designers are the most advanced and experts in their craft, employers expect them to have mastered all of the essential programs and skills needed to be a fully-fledged UX designer.
That being said, it is a rather rare occurrence to see a senior UX designer in a job interview. This is mostly because senior members of the team (whatever their line of expertise might be) tend to stay within the companies in which they became, well… senior employees.
Responsibilities
Senior UX designers have a huge amount of responsibilities within their own, respective workplaces.
First of all, senior UX designer job description will most likely be tasked with some of the most important assignments. As a senior UX designer, you are the leading expert of your craft - it is only natural that you deal with the tasks that require the biggest amount of attention and skill to manage.
In addition to that, senior designers are commonly tasked with mentoring newcomers to the team. This means that you won’t only have to manage your workloads and schedules, but also find the time and the energy to pass on your skills to other, less-experienced people, some of who might still wonder “what do UX designers do?”.
Career Path Opportunites
As you’ve probably understood by now, senior UX designers are some of the most sought-after experts of their particular area of expertise. They are especially popular with big companies and enterprises - while a smaller company might not need such professionals, bigger corporations are the place where senior UX designers will be able to find work.
In addition to that, a lot of senior UX designer job descriptions offer great benefits - specific seminars, conferences, meetups, and so on. You can be sure that, as a senior designer, you will have countless opportunities to perfect your skills even further.
- Easy to use with a learn-by-doing approach
- Offers quality content
- Gamified in-browser coding experience
- Free certificates of completion
- Focused on data science skills
- Flexible learning timetable
- High-quality courses
- Nanodegree programs
- Student Career services
- Nanodegree programs
- Suitable for enterprises
- Paid certificates of completion
- A wide range of learning programs
- University-level courses
- Easy to navigate
- University-level courses
- Suitable for enterprises
- Verified certificates of completion
Salary
As you may probably expect, the senior UX designer salary is going to be the highest that this career path has to offer.
According to Ziprecruiter.com, a senior UX designer can expect to earn upwards of $118,600 per year. That’s a huge amount of money! This sum should represent the amount of work and responsibility that this title carries, however.
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Summary
UX design is a career that many people around the world are striving to achieve. It’s great in that it offers people the opportunity to show off their creative sides while also being able to learn more about human behavior and what effects different designs have on it. Just to make sure that the information that we’ve covered sticks, let’s quickly recap what we’ve learned.
All of the UX designer job descriptions involve a lot of creativity, communication skills, and understanding of human psychology. If you think you’ve got what it takes to become the next great UX designer (and if it’s a field you’re truly passionate about) - don’t hesitate! Jump straight into your future career path!
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