Feb 7, 2025
User experience careers Thereâs a good chance that you enrolled in this certificate program hoping to find work as a UX designer in the near future. UX design is a rapidly changing field with a projected 10-year growth rate of 15% (Burning Glass). When you check out most job searching sites, youâll find tens of thousands of job postings for UX-related roles. In fact, recruiters around the world are struggling to fill open positions for UX designers because the demand for people with these skills is outpacing the supply of available UX designers. Thatâs where you come in!
While it might be a little early to begin searching for jobs, itâs important, contextually, to know that âUX designerâ is just one of many job titles within the broader user experience field. As you continue with this certificate program, you might become interested in a certain specialty or career path within the field. In addition, as an entry-level UX designer, you will likely work alongside other UX professionals with various areas of expertise. To help you get started, this reading will explore a handful of different careers within the field of user experience.
Icon showing two smart phone screens with a green arrow pointing between them, text underneath reads "Interaction Designer". Interaction designers focus on designing the experience of a product and how it functions. They strive to understand the user flow, or the path, that a typical user takes to complete a task on an app, website, or other platform.
An interaction designer's work answers questions like: What should happen if a user taps on this button? How do we make this action easier for users to complete? And, how are the design elements within the website laid out?
Icon showing a cell phone screen and color swatches, with "Visual Designer" in text underneath. Visual designers focus on the layout of each page or screen and make all of the design elements fit together in a visually appealing way.
The role of a visual designer is to answer questions like: What kind of icon would look best here? Or, which color and font should we use for this button? The goal of a visual designer is to delight users with designs that inspire, engage, and excite them.
Icon shows a computer screen with a video play button and primary colors, text underneath reads "Motion Designer". Motion designers think about what it feels like for a user to move through a product and how to create smooth transitions between pages on an app or website. They may also create animations or visual effects to bring their design ideas to life.
A motion designerâs work answers questions like: How should an app transition between pages? How do we show the connection between these actions? And, whatâs an engaging animation that will help tell our story?
Other careers in the UX field There are several types of paths your career in the UX field can take, some of which you learned about in the previous video. You will come to learn that the UX field is incredibly broad and vast â it requires all kinds of different roles to provide the user the best possible experience. Some other examples of jobs within the UX field are:
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) designers create products that provide users with immersive experiences, unbounded by the limits of the physical world. A VR and/or AR designerâs work answers questions like: How do we create a user experience that leverages 3D space? Or, will this action cause a user motion sickness?
UX researchers conduct studies or interviews that examine how people use a product. UX researchers often identify pain points that users are experiencing and explore how products can help solve those problems.
UX writers think about how to make the language within a product clearer so that the user experience is more intuitive. UX writers also help define a brandâs voice and personality.
UX program managers ensure clear and timely communication, so that the process of building a useful product moves smoothly from start to finish. This might include setting goals, writing project plans, and allocating team resources.
UX engineers translate the designâs intent into a functioning experience, like an app or a website. They help UX teams figure out if designs are intuitive and technically feasible.
Conversation designers incorporate natural, real-world conversational behaviors into the interactions between users and intelligent virtual assistants, like Google Assistant or Siri, and interactive voice response systems like customer service systems you can talk to.
Explore careers in the field of UX You now know about some of the most common jobs in the field of user experience! As you begin your first job as a UX designer, youâll collaborate with fellow UXers, like the ones listed here, to create innovative and beautiful products that people love to use. Pretty exciting, right?