Tech companies all around the nation are in search of UX / UI designers, as people with digital design skills are in high demand in 2022.
Because visual designers are needed in every industry, you may want to learn more about…
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How much do UX / UI designers really make?
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Where do they earn the most?
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Where to get started with a career as a front end designer?
Before we can talk about UX / UI designer salaries, let’s talk about what they do.
What does a UX / UI designer do?
A user experience / user interface designer generally creates digital products in figma — websites, apps, software programs, for example — that are easy and enjoyable for people to use. Their overall task is to keep their platform clean, simple, and easy to use for everyday users.
UX / UI designers are different from application or website designers because visual designers pay special attention to how usable a product is.
Often, that means they could focus on specific parts such as a website’s heading size, the spacing size between texts, the body’s text size, an element’s alignment, the functionality of a navigation menu, etc.
Because so much goes into it, Product Designers are vital to website or application development and must be appropriately compensated.
To see more about what Product Designers must learn, check out this bootcamp syllabus.
Is UX / UI design a promising career for me?
While education isn’t necessarily a requirement for this field, it is highly recommended that to be successful, you have an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, website development, user interference, or a related field.
You can be successful in this career if you have a keen sense of design and aesthetics. Most customers and companies have a dream or a vision for a website or application, but they often overlook essential properties like color, font, size, and alignment.
If you have a great sense of color theory, an understanding of which fonts go together, what size fonts to use, and other related things, you might have what it takes to tackle digital designing.
What job titles can UX / UI designers get?
UX / UI designers don’t often have “UX / UI designer” as their title. They may have a different job title, as many job titles incorporate the user-experience aspect of designing in with their other responsibilities.
UX / UI designers often have these job titles:
- Product designer
- UX / UI Designer
- Web Designer
- Website architect
- Front-end web designer
- Visual engineer
- UX Research Assistant
How much money do UX / UI designers make?
Since UX / UI designing involves a broad career field, the salary of a Product Designer can vary depending on what position you have, what hiring platform you use, and what part of the nation you’re in.
According to the US Labor Board of Statistics(2), user-experience designing has been ranked as the sixth highest paying, entry-level position for freelancers with a median base salary of around $81,365 per year.
But since salary often varies by state, we’ve listed average entry-level designer salaries from various locations in the United States and from three different hiring platforms (Indeed, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter).
2022 Digital Designers Salaries by US Cities
Nationwide
- Indeed: $60,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $50,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $56,000 Per Year
Austin
- Indeed: $57,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $79,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $55,000 Per Year
Chicago
- Indeed: $56,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $78,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $54,000 Per Year
Denver
- Indeed: $54,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $79,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $54,000 Per Year
Houston
- Indeed: $53,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $75,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $56,000 Per Year
Los Angeles
- Indeed: $56,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $83,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $60,000 Per Year
Miami
- Indeed: $51,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $69,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $53,000 Per Year
New York City
- Indeed: $59,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $84,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $62,000 Per Year
San Diego
- Indeed: $55,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $73,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $58,000 Per Year
San Francisco
- Indeed: $63,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $106,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $66,000 Per Year
Seattle
- Indeed: $58,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $91,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $54,000 Per Year
Washington, D.C.
- Indeed: $60,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $90,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $56,000 Per Year
Senior-level UX / UI designer salaries by location
Nationwide
- Indeed: $97,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $103,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $99,000 Per Year
Austin
- Indeed: $101,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $115,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $94,000 Per Year
Chicago
- Indeed: $95,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $83,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $94,000 Per Year
Denver
- Indeed: $92,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $104,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $94,000 Per Year
Houston
- Indeed: $102,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $103,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $94,000 Per Year
Los Angeles
- Indeed: $82,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $97,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $105,000 Per Year
Miami
- Indeed: $72,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $77,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $94,000 Per Year
New York City
- Indeed: $102,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $104,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $108,000 Per Year
San Diego
- Indeed: $105,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $88,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $101,000 Per Year
San Francisco
- Indeed: $138,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $118,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $116,000 Per Year
Seattle
- Indeed: $111,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $112,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $94,000 Per Year
Washington, D.C.
- Indeed: $102,000 Per Year
- Glassdoor: $95,000 Per Year
- ZipRecruiter: $94,000 Per Year
Why are UX / UI designers paid so much?
For many companies, user interface designers and their design teams create the entire interface and full user experience for customers. Likewise, for many software companies or companies that require an application or a website to be used (Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, etc.), almost all of the design and development portion falls to the UX / UI designers.
User research, user testing, wireframes, customer insights, prototypes — everything a user experience designer and user interface designer does — is behind how good a company is at helping their customers succeed.
Where to get started with a career as a front end designer?
Check out the user interface design course at Flatiron School. You can finish the program in as little as 15 weeks and develop a job-ready portfolio so you can start your new career.
Apply now to learn more about the program.
