Career advice

Become a UX Designer

The role of a UX designer is to make products and technology user-friendly so that audiences find them simple, accessible and enjoyable to use. User experience is at the forefront of their minds when designing a product or service.

  • Average salary in UK

    £31,508 (PayScale)

  • Average salary in US

    $85,277 (Glassdoor)

  • Average salary in Canada

    CA$63,235 (PayScale)

  • Average salary in Australia

    AU$73,148 (PayScale)
Source: PayScale

What skills do you need to become a UX designer?

  • Research skills

    A lot of time and research goes into creating an app or website, and UX designers must ensure that their decisions are backed up with evidence. They gather a lot of data, research their target audiences, and evaluate user expectations and motivations.

  • Collaboration

    UX designers work very closely with other members of the team, including developers and content strategists. This means they have to be able to listen well to others, collaborate and compromise in order to design the best possible product.

  • Analytics

    Since UX design is all about user experience, designers need to understand analytics so they can see how users interact with different content. Data is becoming increasingly important when making decisions related to user design.

  • Coding

    You don’t need to be an expert coder, but it’ll certainly help if you have an understanding of coding in this role. It will be particularly advantageous to know HTML, CSS and Javascript, as these languages will help you bridge the gap between design and user experience.

Develop these skills. Start a short UX design course.

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2 ExpertTracks

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FutureLearn in collaboration with Canva

UX Design Fundamentals

Launch your career in user experience (UX) design by developing your skills and knowledge of UX principles.

3 courses

12 weeks

Introductory

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FutureLearn in collaboration with Canva

UX Design Strategy and Application

Develop UX skills in customer journey mapping, service design and customer profiling.

3 courses

12 weeks

Introductory

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Courses
15 Courses

Learn new skills, pursue your interests or advance your career with our short online courses.

Accenture

Digital Skills: User Experience

4.7 (598 reviews)

Learn about why user experience (UX) is important, the research and design basics, and the tools and testing techniques used in UX

3 weeks

2 hrs per week

Free digital upgrade

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University of Michigan

Evaluating Designs with Users

Learn how to evaluate your designs by using effective UX testing methods and building robust UX research processes.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

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University of Michigan

Introduction to User Experience Principles and Processes

Learn the basics of the UX design process, how to conduct effective user research, and kickstart your career in user experience.

6 weeks

3 hrs per week

Find out more
University of Michigan

UX Design: From Concept to Prototype

4.0 (5 reviews)

Better understand the UX design process and learn how to build a user-centred product from concept to prototype.

6 weeks

3 hrs per week

Find out more
University of Michigan

UX Research at Scale: Surveys, Analytics, Online Testing

Build your skills in conducting UX surveys at scale to gain UX insights, and explore alternative testing and research methods.

8 weeks

3 hrs per week

Find out more
University of Michigan

Understanding User Needs

Discover qualitative UX research methods, UX interview best practice, and affinity programming for user-centred UX design.

5 weeks

3 hrs per week

Find out more
UAL Creative Computing Institute & Institute of Coding

Introduction to UX and Accessible Design

4.7 (93 reviews)

Explore the world of user interfaces and accessible design, and discover how you can start a career as a UX designer.

2 weeks

2 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

Find out more
Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

Getting Started with Agile and Design Thinking

4.5 (31 reviews)

Get an introduction to agile product development and design thinking so you can build better digital products.

4 weeks

4 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

Find out more
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