Last Updated By Ankita Jha on 30 Sep, 2022
User experience (UX) designing is a process used by the design team to create products that offer relevant and meaningful experiences to the users. The duty of User experience (UX) designer is to design the whole process of integrating and acquiring the product that involves vivid aspects such as design, branding, function and usability. User experience designers are expected to have a wider understanding of the UCD (user-centred design), have empathy for the user and strong analytical abilities. A good user experience designer must comprehend the technical limitations along with the goals, strategies and business requirements. They also need to be equipped with sound knowledge of technologies.
A UX designer regularly conducts user interviews, research and surveys and uses the conclusions drawn from them for formulating customer journey maps, sitemaps, prototypes and wireframes. Candidates are not required to have a college degree to break into the career of User experience (UX) designer. Although by pursuing any User experience (UX) design degree an aspirant can fetch in-depth knowledge of the field and better opportunities await them.
The candidates need to know the roles and responsibilities of a User Experience (UX) Designer if they opt career in this.
For becoming a successful user experience designer it is essential to satisfy some of the eligibility requirements of the field. Check out the mentioned pointers discussing the eligibility to become UX designer.
Step 1: Clear 10+2
The candidates must complete 12th boards in computer science, math, physics, chemistry, etc with minimum 50% marks from a recognised board.
Step 2: Entrance Exam
There are many colleges and universities that grant admission through the entrance exam. The candidates are required to appear for the entrance exam for the courses like BE (Bachelor of Engineering), BTech (Bachelors of technology), BSc (bachelors of Science) or any related course in the top colleges. The admissions are conducted on the merit basis. The candidates need to perform well in the entrance exam inorder to be eligible for the admission. There are many colleges who give admission on the basis of 12th marks as well. The candidates can check the popular entrance exam for User Experience (UX) Designer course mentioned below.
Top Entrance Exam for User Experience (UX) Designer
Listed below are the list of entrance exam for User Experience (UX) Designer:
Step 3: Pursue Bachelor's Degree
The candidate after doing 12th needs to pursue graduation in the related field that is required to become a User Experience (UX) Designer. There are many computer science courses that a candidate can pursue for choosing a career as User Experience (UX) Designer. The candidates can check the list of courses available in computer science that will help them to select the proper course for making their career as a UX designer.
UG Courses for User Experience (UX) Designer
Listed below are the popular User Experience (UX) Designer UG courses.
Step 4: Pursue Post Graduation
There are several options one can choose after completing their graduation. However, Post graduation should be the first priority as if they want to make their career in the respective field they must have a proper knowledge about that particular subject. Thus it is very important to specialize in that subject. For User Experience (UX) Designer, there are many courses available in the masters. The candidates can check the list below.
PG Courses for User Experience (UX) Designer
Listed below are the popular User Experience (UX) Designer PG courses.
Step 5: Job
The candidates after pursuing UG and PG can also apply for jobs and start earning money. The demand for User Experience (UX) Designer is growing at a rapid pace. There are a lot of recruiters as well who offer jobs to candidates after graduation.
There are a lot of skills that are required for choosing a career as User Experience (UX) Designer as it requires both creative and technical skills. When we choose a career in any field we must know what are the skills that are required in that particular job and we prepare ourselves for that. So, one must know that there are several skills a candidate must possess inorder to be a perfect User Experience (UX) Designer. So listed below are the skills required in making a career as User Experience (UX) Designer.
Designing skills: Designing skills is a skill that is the key to success for a User Experience (UX) Designer They require learning modular designs, sketching and switching prototyping, Sensitive Designs, dynamic designs, etc. They must keenly learn and understand content of design and produce the content effectively.
Communication skills: One of the most important skills is visual communication that is required by designers. Designers need to be a storyteller, as well. They have to be very expressive and communicative, descriptive in terms of explaining reasons for selecting a specific design.
Rapid Prototyping: As per the advancement of the technical field, now everything is done in a quick span of time be it creating a new version of the program or creating a software. Earlier it used to take a lot of time to create anything in technical terms. Without a specification it is very difficult to parallelize a design so here the skill required is rapid prototyping as it mainly reduces product manufacturing costs. They prefer using the same CAD and printing machinery which reduces the employee costs.
Software Development: The increasing demand of technologies has created a tremendous pressure on UX designers as they have to work amid the difficulties and have to get adapted to any environment because they have to meet the competitive market demand . Software development is a must skill for a UX designer as without it nothing is possible. Software developments conduct work more accurately and efficiently.
Persuasion: Making easy applications and using it cannot fulfill the criteria as in the current scenario we require convincing design specialists so persuasive skill is required. One needs to influence the workforce that would contribute in improving the performance.
Adaptability: Adaptability is also a very important skill for a User Experience (UX) Designer as we have to meet the demand and adopt the changes that are taking place according to the environment. Receiving feedback and evaluating the concepts is the core job of a designer. In an office, we need to be versatile enough to improve, change and modify designs as per the demand. Adaptability makes things easy to manage, and gives solutions to the problem.
Business sense: Nowadays it is very crucial and important to have a business sense to stand in the competitive world. So, one should engage themselves in business development meetings, keeping track of current trends in the market, note the points, give presentations, find out the technical solutions and then can say that they have a business sense.
A UX designer holds an eye for details and an adequate technical understanding. Also, through a sufficient amount of knowledge of software, programming languages, visualisation skills and creativity anyone can carve a successful career path in User experience (UX) design. Enlisted below are the type of role aspirants are offered in UX design.
UX Designer: The responsibilities of a UX designer is to conduct research of the users, write UX copy, design, validate with the users, sell the design solution to lubricate the business.
Information Architect: The key function is to make the information appealing and accessible to the audience. It consists of technical writing, web development, graphic design and written format creation.
Researcher/Analyst: The duty of a researcher is to conduct research using UX designing elements followed by analysing and interpreting trends and patterns.
Content Strategist: A content strategist tends to create as well as manage campaigns on social media. They also manage marketing campaigns, build strategic partnerships and monitor engagement.
UX Design Manager: A good UX design manager coordinates with a team of designers and manages workstreams and staffing resources. They manage the team and their work.
UX designing is a burgeoning field and multiple sectors are willing to employ a skilled User experience (UX) Designer. Captured below are few of the popular opportunities for a User experience designer.
With the ever-evolving market of UX design, zillions of companies are recruiting UX designers. Enlisted below are few of the leading companies for a User experience (UX) designer.
UX design is a vast field and it has multiple job profiles within it. Pay structure and possible growth opportunities in each of them varies from profile to profile. Tabulated below are the pay Scale/Salary of User experience (UX) designer in multiple possible profiles.
Job Profile | Starting Salary per annum (in INR) | Mid Level Salary per annum (in INR) | Senior Level Salary per annum (in INR) |
UX Designer | 3,00,000 | 10,00,000-13,00,000 | 20,00,000 |
Information Architect | 4,00,000 | 12,00,000-14,00,000 | 30,00,000 |
Researcher/Analyst | 3,00,000 | 9,00,000-12,00,000 | 20,00,000 |
Content Strategist | 2,54,000 | 10,00,000-13,00,000 | 20,00,000 |
UX Design Manager | 8,11,000 | 19,00,000-22,00,000 | 40,00,000 |
The career path of UX designers is very bright as there are a lot of options one can choose in the User Experience (UX) Designer career. The technical path is one of them and the other is the managerial path. It depends upon the candidate's choice and on their job satisfaction. There is a lot of flexibility and satisfaction in the User Experience (UX) Designer career.
Technical Career
The candidates who are interested in technical career progression must gain experience in that domain only. They have to choose fields like GUI designers, graphic artists or interaction designers that are all related to technical fields. It is just that you have to be passionate about that particular job and keen on learning and welcoming the challenges in web technologies and you need to be dabbling in CSS, HTML and Java script. The candidates can also go for front-end web developer as it is also a flourishing job in User Experience (UX) Designer career. One can learn languages like Ruby, PHP for full stack developers, Python, etc. The mobile has become a core part of everyone's life in recent times. So, one can also consider choosing mobile development techniques by creating app design for mobiles, video games, software, etc.
Managerial Career
In many cases candidates are good at managing things, people are suitable to adjust in any environment, so for them managerial posts are best. Candidates can work to lead teams or can say managing a team. You can become a manager, then director and the leading post vice president of an office. For a managerial career candidates can involve themselves in business orientated roles and recruit people, resource allocation and be a team motivation person. This will make a person a perfect leader and manager.
The work environment for a person who is working as User Experience (UX) Designer represents the company they work for. It is expected that the environment should be cool as it is the most creative department in such organizations where user interface is being developed. The employees should have the freedom to wear dresses of their choice and not follow a pacific dress code. There should be an option of flexible hours. The organization should also consider working from home if that suffices the need.
As far as timing and working of User Interface (UI) designers are concerned, they have to make sure that they are available as per the requirement and availability of the clients. Even though some of the organizations hire employees for full time who work for fixed hours, there are many organizations where employees work for part time. The individuals who work on their own also charge on hourly basis. Many organizations allow their employees to work from home. Most designers of User Interface (UI) work full time, but schedules differ depending on the workload and deadlines.
UI designers have multiple choices to engage themselves with the organizations. They can work either on a permanent basis or can be a contractual employee who works for a particular project. They can also work independently and tie up with people working for professional User Interface (UI) agencies. They can also set up an office as per their choice like a living room. Such individuals may be ready to travel places to meet clients and understand their requirements.
A UX designer needs to be fully equipped with technical skills and knowledge in order to build a successful career in the field. Mentioned below are some of the books that candidates can refer to in order to broaden their knowledge and enhance their skills.
Take our test and find out if it suits your strengths.
It is not mandatory to have a degree in design if you seek to become a UX Designer. However, some companies may give preference to those who have a relevant UG/PG specialisation.
A senior level UX Designer is paid in the range of Rs. 20 LPA to Rs. 40 LPA.
A few of the leading companies that hire UX Designers are Lazyeight, Lollypop, Koru Technologies, Redd, The AntiAlias, Yellow Slice, Parallel Labs, etc.
Some of the best books for User Experience Designers are 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk, About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper, and Smashing UX Design by Jesmond Allen and James Chudley.
The starting salary of a User Experience Designer is between Rs. 3 LPA to Rs. 8.5 LPA. It depends entirely upon the company and job profile of the candidate.
In order to become a User Experience Designer, you must have certain educational qualifications and skills that make you apt for the job. The role of a User Experience Designer demands for expertise in the field with sound knowledge and sufficient experience. A candidate can opt for a career in UX design even without a relevant degree in design. However, he/ she must possess a deep understanding of the domain and should know the basics.
The job roles of a UX Designer are diverse.They have to advocate the product for the end user or customer. Whether they are designing a brand new product, coming up with a new feature, or making changes to an existing product or service - the UX Designer has to consider what is best for the user and the overall user experience. At the same time, they are also responsible for making sure that the product or service meets the needs of the business.
User Experience or UX Designers make products and technology usable, enjoyable, and accessible for peopke. UX designers tend to work as part of a wider product team, and will often find themselves bridging the gap between the user, the development team, and key business stakeholders.