Potential Career Paths for UXD Professionals

User experience (UX) is all about how users interact with a product, system, or service. If you’ve ever been on a website or app that you found confusing or difficult to navigate, then you’ve been on the end of a bad user experience. Since the term was coined in 1995, there has been growing consideration for the user experience and demand for professionals.

If you’re looking to start a career in user experience, you might be surprised to learn that roles under the umbrella of UX are quite extensive and can range from highly technical to strategic to artistic. Which direction you may choose to pursue will depend on which part of UX interests you most. If you’re more visually creative, a role like visual designer might be of interest to you. If you’re more analytical, a UX strategist or researcher might be a better fit. The UX Design bootcamp can help you learn more about UX and the skills needed to be successful in a variety of UX career paths. Here are some career options for students studying user experience.

UX Designer: The role of UX designer encompasses quite a few responsibilities. Most UX designer roles include duties like researching, wireframing, prototyping, and testing. UX designers can be responsible for collaborating with engineers and driving overall strategy for user experience, depending on the company. As a UX designer, professionals work to create new features and improve existing ones. In addition, they also work to align the product and its features to the company's overall business objectives as well as the needs of the individual user.

UX Strategist: A UX strategist takes a more high-level look at the user experience. They sit in between the UX designer and product managers and work at the intersection of the user’s needs and the business’s goals. The strategist role focuses more on business outcomes and how UX fits into the overall business strategy. The strategist is responsible for tying together the viewpoints of different stakeholders like designers, product managers, and owners.

UX Researcher: At larger companies with bigger UX teams, a UX researcher is often its own role. UX researchers use qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data on how users behave, their motivations, and their needs. Before engineers spend money and resources building a product, the UX researcher ensures the plans are aligned with what the users actually want and need.

Interaction Designer: Interaction designer is another role, typically found at larger tech companies. This role has a lot of overlap with a UX designer, however, interaction designers focus on the specific moments when a user interacts with a product and how to make that experience more successful. A UX designer, as previously mentioned, is much more robust, covering overall strategy.

Visual Designer: A visual designer is a role at the intersection of graphic design and user interface design. They create artwork, designs, and layouts for a variety of digital products such as websites, mobile devices, apps, and other software. Visual designers are responsible for ideating and executing visual products while considering how the user interacts with the user interface.

UI/UX developer: A user interface/user experience developer develops the front-end of a website, program, or software. Unlike the other positions listed, this role requires a proficiency in coding and front-end development. Unlike a front-end developer, a UX/UI designer has the design skills to bring the interface to fruition, whereas front-end developers usually bring the designer’s vision to life.

There’s a lot of overlap between different roles within the UX job family. Duties such as prototyping, wireframing, and testing, will likely be found across various user experience roles. A company’s size, resources, and organizational priorities will often determine what type of UX roles they have available. Regardless of the direction your UX career path may take, DigitalCraft's UX bootcamps are designed to equip you with tools and knowledge to pursue an entry-level role in user experience.

DigitalCrafts cannot guarantee employment, salary, or career advancement. Not all programs are available to residents of all states.