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The differences between user experience managers and user experience designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 8-10 years to become a user experience manager, becoming a user experience designer takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a user experience manager has an average salary of $115,443, which is higher than the $91,159 average annual salary of a user experience designer.
The top three skills for a user experience manager include user experience, sketch and user research. The most important skills for a user experience designer are sketch, UI, and user research.
| User Experience Manager | User Experience Designer | |
| Yearly salary | $115,443 | $91,159 |
| Hourly rate | $55.50 | $43.83 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 59,745 | 52,582 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Average age | 39 | 38 |
| Years of experience | 10 | 12 |
A user experience manager's role is to oversee the processes and the workforce involved in creating and designing web-based platforms or applications, ensuring all aspects are user-friendly and easy to navigate. Moreover, most of the user experience manager's responsibilities revolve around crafting strategies and systems, coordinating all personnel involved in web development, recommending guidelines and improvements to make platforms more user-friendly, and producing progress reports. Furthermore, as a manager, it is vital to lead and encourage the team, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
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.
User experience managers and user experience designers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| User Experience Manager | User Experience Designer | |
| Average salary | $115,443 | $91,159 |
| Salary range | Between $69,000 And $190,000 | Between $65,000 And $127,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Bruno, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | Meta | BitGo |
| Best paying industry | Insurance | Start-up |
There are a few differences between a user experience manager and a user experience designer in terms of educational background:
| User Experience Manager | User Experience Designer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Most common major | Graphic Design | Graphic Design |
| Most common college | University of Wisconsin - Madison | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between user experience managers' and user experience designers' demographics:
| User Experience Manager | User Experience Designer | |
| Average age | 39 | 38 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 59.1% Female, 40.9% | Male, 59.6% Female, 40.4% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | 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 Percentage | 10% | 13% |