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.

Courses
5 Courses

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

University of Michigan
New

UX Design: From Concept to Prototype

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

Included in Unlimited

Find out more
University of Michigan
New

UX Research at Scale: Surveys, Analytics, Online Testing

Build your skills in conducting UX surveys at scale to gain actionable UX insights with experts from the University of Michigan.

8 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

Getting Started with Agile and Design Thinking

4.6 (24 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

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University of Michigan
New

Evaluating Designs with Users

Learn how to evaluate your designs using effective UX testing methods on this UX design course from the University of Michigan.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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UAL Creative Computing Institute & Institute of Coding

Introduction to UX and Accessible Design

4.7 (70 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

Free digital upgrade

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Browse more courses in Creative Arts & Media

The benefits of taking UX design courses online with FutureLearn

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