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Lead designer vs interactive designer

The differences between lead 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 lead designer and an interactive designer. Additionally, a lead designer has an average salary of $110,001, which is higher than the $97,929 average annual salary of an interactive designer.

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

Lead designer vs interactive designer overview

Lead DesignerInteractive Designer
Yearly salary$110,001$97,929
Hourly rate$52.89$47.08
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs45,42348,136
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age3838
Years of experience1212

What does a lead designer do?

A lead designer is responsible for addressing the clients' needs of digital content and coordinating with the design team for the planning and innovation of the visual design and concept. Lead designers conduct the initial layout of frameworks and collaborate with the art staff for the specifications and outputs using various software applications and digital boards. They regularly update the client of the project's status, including adjustment and design recommendations, ensuring that the plan meets the client's budget goals. A lead designer must have excellent communication and organizational skills, especially on running diagnostic tests to improve optimal performance.

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.

Lead designer vs interactive designer salary

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

Lead DesignerInteractive Designer
Average salary$110,001$97,929
Salary rangeBetween $78,000 And $154,000Between $67,000 And $141,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Bruno, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyAirbnbMeta
Best paying industryStart-upTechnology

Differences between lead designer and interactive designer education

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

Lead DesignerInteractive Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Lead designer vs interactive designer demographics

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

Lead DesignerInteractive Designer
Average age3838
Gender ratioMale, 73.2% Female, 26.8%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 lead designer and interactive designer duties and responsibilities

Lead designer example responsibilities.

  • Lead development of HTML5, CSS3 and mobile platform prototypes.
  • Lead team in fit meetings and collaborate with TD on sketch updates.
  • Lead & design all creative content stemming from apparel design to web identity.
  • Prepare HTML, CSS and JavaScript coding guides and best practices, and implement, enforce through peer code reviews.
  • Provide expertise skills in CSS, dynamic HTML, java script, and Java development languages.
  • Develop interactive UI features, database schema design, security module design and development.
  • 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

Lead designer vs interactive designer skills

Common lead designer skills
  • Sketch, 14%
  • User Experience, 6%
  • Architecture, 5%
  • UI, 5%
  • Design Solutions, 5%
  • Project Management, 4%
Common interactive designer skills
  • Sketch, 13%
  • User Experience, 7%
  • UI, 6%
  • Interaction Design, 6%
  • Invision, 4%
  • Visual Design, 4%

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