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

A series of courses designed to help you specialise your skills. Start a free seven-day trial, subscribe to keep learning at your own pace, and cancel your subscription whenever you like.

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
14 Courses

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

University of Leeds & Institute of Coding

Creating a Great User Experience for Mobile Apps

4.8 (198 reviews)

Discover the essentials of UX and bring products to life by designing your own mobile app with the University of Leeds.

2 weeks

3 hrs per week

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Accenture

Digital Skills: User Experience

4.7 (476 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
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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FutureLearn

UX Design Strategy and Application: Customer Journey Mapping

Explore customer journey mapping and its role in ensuring quality user experience.

4 weeks

4 hrs per week

Find out more
FutureLearn

UX Design Strategy and Application: Customer Profiling and Design Sprints

Learn about the role of customer profiling and design sprints in creating positive user experiences.

4 weeks

4 hrs per week

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FutureLearn

UX Design Strategy and Application: Strategy, Innovation and the Future of Work

Discover the role of creativity, innovation and strategy in UX design and consider the benefits and challenges of remote working.

4 weeks

4 hrs per week

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FutureLearn

UX Design Fundamentals: Design Thinking and Ideation

Learn the role of design thinking in UX – from the five stages of design thinking to defining and creating an ideation plan.

4 weeks

4 hrs per week

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FutureLearn

UX Design Fundamentals: Management and the Business Model Canvas for UX Design

Uncover the role of business strategy and adopt a customer-centric mindset to become a successful user experience designer.

4 weeks

4 hrs per week

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