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User experience designer vs user interaction designer

The differences between user experience designers and user interaction designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-12 months to become a user experience designer, becoming a user interaction designer takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a user experience designer has an average salary of $91,159, which is higher than the $82,651 average annual salary of a user interaction designer.

The top three skills for a user experience designer include sketch, UI and user research. The most important skills for a user interaction designer are UI, sketch, and UX.

User experience designer vs user interaction designer overview

User Experience DesignerUser Interaction Designer
Yearly salary$91,159$82,651
Hourly rate$43.83$39.74
Growth rate3%13%
Number of jobs52,58254,146
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 71%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Average age3837
Years of experience124

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.

What does a user interaction designer do?

A User Interaction Designer works with product management to develop and implement innovative solutions for product direction and visuals. They execute all visual design stages.

User experience designer vs user interaction designer salary

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

User Experience DesignerUser Interaction Designer
Average salary$91,159$82,651
Salary rangeBetween $65,000 And $127,000Between $59,000 And $114,000
Highest paying CitySan Bruno, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateWashingtonCalifornia
Best paying companyBitGoGoogle
Best paying industryStart-upAutomotive

Differences between user experience designer and user interaction designer education

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

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

User experience designer vs user interaction designer demographics

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

User Experience DesignerUser Interaction Designer
Average age3837
Gender ratioMale, 59.6% Female, 40.4%Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3%
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, 6.5% Unknown, 6.5% Hispanic or Latino, 12.0% Asian, 16.0% White, 58.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage13%9%

Differences between user experience designer and user interaction designer duties and responsibilities

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
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User interaction designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage and implement all code changes via SVN.
  • Work closely with ASP.NET developer to attain refine results.
  • Used CSS3 media queries to achieve the responsiveness of the user interface.
  • Lead a remote team of web designers and developers to redesign brands and websites for local small businesses.
  • Manage few mobile iPhone App projects on iOS6 and iOS7, some of which seamlessly complement desktop applications.
  • Used SVN as source control management giving a huge speed advantage on centralize systems that have to communicate with a server.
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User experience designer vs user interaction designer skills

Common user experience designer skills
  • Sketch, 18%
  • UI, 7%
  • User Research, 6%
  • Visual Design, 6%
  • Invision, 4%
  • Interaction Design, 4%
Common user interaction designer skills
  • UI, 16%
  • Sketch, 14%
  • UX, 6%
  • Html Css, 4%
  • User Experience, 4%
  • Visual Design, 4%

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