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Head designer vs interactive designer

The differences between head designers and interactive 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 head designer and an interactive designer. Additionally, a head designer has an average salary of $116,986, which is higher than the $97,929 average annual salary of an interactive designer.

The top three skills for a head designer include product design, UI and sketch. The most important skills for an interactive designer are sketch, user experience, and UI.

Head designer vs interactive designer overview

Head DesignerInteractive Designer
Yearly salary$116,986$97,929
Hourly rate$56.24$47.08
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs53,87648,136
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age3838
Years of experience1212

What does a head designer do?

The Head Designer is the overall command over the creative team's design and the entire company. The heads of the organization look toward the head designer to provide insights into the artistic path the company will take to achieve a unique brand in the market. The head designer is highly-creative, good in management, and can articulate abstract ideas clearly and relay them to company administrators, customers, and clients. A head designer's responsibilities are to handle the creative team, train each member, and provide guidance in every part of the designing process.

What does an interactive designer do?

An Interactive Designer takes the business product and transforms it into a product that the user interacts with perfectly. They support engineering efforts to develop designs and get the details right.

Head designer vs interactive designer salary

Head designers and interactive designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Head DesignerInteractive Designer
Average salary$116,986$97,929
Salary rangeBetween $71,000 And $191,000Between $67,000 And $141,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Bruno, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyAirbnbMeta
Best paying industryHospitalityTechnology

Differences between head designer and interactive designer education

There are a few differences between a head designer and an interactive designer in terms of educational background:

Head DesignerInteractive Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 66%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Head designer vs interactive designer demographics

Here are the differences between head designers' and interactive designers' demographics:

Head DesignerInteractive Designer
Average age3838
Gender ratioMale, 50.1% Female, 49.9%Male, 66.8% Female, 33.2%
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 head designer and interactive designer duties and responsibilities

Head designer example responsibilities.

  • Help manage e-commerce website with adding new product to the site and uploading of website banners, and photography.
  • Create HTML files and CSS style sheets for integration with JavaScript.
  • Create interface mock-ups out of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for integration into the broader, web-base application.
  • Sketch, design artwork, develop tech packs and communicate overseas to assure the understanding of the details of garment.
  • Provide production level UI design tweaks need for development.
  • Produce video cassette labels, brochures, newsletters and advertisements.
  • Show more

Interactive designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage website properties including design, content and marketing using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.
  • Create, implement, and manage web content projects (HTML emails, web sites, digitizing audio/video).
  • Use ASP.NET and XML to automate common workflow tasks due to extremely high volume of designs to be create.
  • Develop a custom object-orient prototyping model in the design of a highly dynamic user interface.
  • Work primarily with JQuery to design/develop full screen overlays and dynamic forms.
  • Develop clean, table-less web sites using valid XHTML and CSS according to standards.
  • Show more

Head designer vs interactive designer skills

Common head designer skills
  • Product Design, 12%
  • UI, 9%
  • Sketch, 9%
  • User Experience, 8%
  • Product Development, 6%
  • Lead Design, 5%
Common interactive designer skills
  • Sketch, 13%
  • User Experience, 7%
  • UI, 6%
  • Interaction Design, 6%
  • Invision, 4%
  • Visual Design, 4%

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