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Creative designer vs user experience designer

The differences between creative designers and user experience designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a creative designer and a user experience designer. Additionally, a user experience designer has an average salary of $91,159, which is higher than the $69,771 average annual salary of a creative designer.

The top three skills for a creative designer include sketch, graphic design and adobe creative suite. The most important skills for a user experience designer are sketch, UI, and user research.

Creative designer vs user experience designer overview

Creative DesignerUser Experience Designer
Yearly salary$69,771$91,159
Hourly rate$33.54$43.83
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs47,39452,582
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Average age3838
Years of experience1212

What does a creative designer do?

A creative designer's duties depend on their place or industry of employment. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around meeting with clients to learn their needs and preferences, understanding the message and purpose of the subject, developing concepts and ideas, drafting preliminary designs and prototypes for approval, and updating clients on the progress of procedures. In a company setting, a creative designer must coordinate with different teams and personnel for the production processes, all while adhering to the company's policies and regulations.

What does a user experience designer do?

A User Experience (UX) designer is an individual who measures and optimizes applications to improve the experience of end-users. His/Her or her duties and responsibilities include considering a design's human-computer interaction element, defining interaction models, and working with creative directors and designers. The key skills for UX designers include strong mathematical and problem-solving skills and excellent information technology and programming skills. Having a bachelor's degree in a design or computing-related subject is an advantage to qualify for the UX designer position.

Creative designer vs user experience designer salary

Creative designers and user experience designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Creative DesignerUser Experience Designer
Average salary$69,771$91,159
Salary rangeBetween $48,000 And $101,000Between $65,000 And $127,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Bruno, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaWashington
Best paying companyMetaBitGo
Best paying industryAutomotiveStart-up

Differences between creative designer and user experience designer education

There are a few differences between a creative designer and a user experience designer in terms of educational background:

Creative DesignerUser Experience Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Creative designer vs user experience designer demographics

Here are the differences between creative designers' and user experience designers' demographics:

Creative DesignerUser Experience Designer
Average age3838
Gender ratioMale, 51.2% Female, 48.8%Male, 59.6% Female, 40.4%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 10.4% White, 70.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 10.4% White, 70.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage13%13%

Differences between creative designer and user experience designer duties and responsibilities

Creative designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage website redesign including copywriting and updating all website content.
  • Design functional and effective website with wide knowledge of UI design, HTML.
  • Implement PHP and JavaScript to make sites dynamic to deliver the best user experience.
  • Design of large scale posters.
  • Create concept design, style frames and animation for channel bumpers.
  • Assist with updating and maintaining social media site such as Facebook.
  • Show more

User experience designer example responsibilities.

  • Lead Ektron CMS implementations and content migration projects.
  • Lead UX/UI design, personas research and emphatic analysis, participate in user story creation.
  • Lead and administrate the creative direction of WorkFusion crowd computing platform and its iOS apps.
  • Lead design working sessions, create storyboards and a Visio wireframe library for all project elements.
  • Work with the Java developers/programs to achieve timely development and review of assignments to assure on--time project completion.
  • Design and code original and cms-base websites / user interfaces using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP
  • Show more

Creative designer vs user experience designer skills

Common creative designer skills
  • Sketch, 15%
  • Graphic Design, 9%
  • Adobe Creative Suite, 5%
  • Design Concepts, 5%
  • CSS, 4%
  • HTML, 4%
Common user experience designer skills
  • Sketch, 18%
  • UI, 7%
  • User Research, 6%
  • Visual Design, 6%
  • Invision, 4%
  • Interaction Design, 4%

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