UX Designer vs. UI Designer

A UX designer is a tech professional tasked with managing the user interaction with a product or service, while a UI designer focuses on the actual construction of a product or service's interface.

How To Become A User Interface Designer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a user interface designer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Sarah Satterfield Ph.D.

A User Interface Designer has an important job. As a User Interface Designer, you will ensure that the user experience while using or interacting with the product adheres to the overall vision. You will work closely with other designers as you cater to your clients and their preferences and needs.

In addition, as a User Interface Designer, you will design and develop website interfaces and applications. You will optimize the user experience and liaise with clients. You will conceptualize plans and create visual ad web elements, too. As a User Interface Designer, you need to have analytical skills, artistic ability, and communication skills.

You can earn around $95,327 per year on average as a User Interface Designer. You can also take on other roles like being a User Experience Designer, a Senior User Experience Designer, a Creative Director, and a Marketing and Creative Director when you start as a User Interface Designer. It all depends on the path you plan to pursue and the goals you want to achieve.

What general advice would you give to a user interface designer?

Dr. Sarah Satterfield Ph.D.

Department Chair Visual and Performing Arts, Professor of Music and Humanities, College of Central Florida

I was once told, if you do what you love, you will never "work" a day in your life. I have found this true in my own career and hope our VPA graduates will find it true in theirs as well. The arts offer such a unique means of engaging and we, as arts educators, have an ability to "reach" those we have contact with, in a unique way.

ScoreUser Interface DesignerUS Average

Salary

7.2

Avg. Salary $92,247

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.2

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.37%

Asian 10.42%

Black or African American 3.42%

Hispanic or Latino 10.63%

Unknown 4.99%

White 70.17%

Gender

female 34.79%

male 65.21%

Age - 37

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 37

Stress level

4.2

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.5

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.9

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a user interface designer

Explore user interface designer education requirements

Most common user interface designer degrees

Bachelor's

71.0 %

Master's

16.0 %

Associate

9.6 %

Start to develop specific user interface designer skills

Skills	Percentages
Invision	11.55%
Interactive Prototypes	9.37%
UI	9.32%
Sketch	8.43%
User Experience	4.47%

Complete relevant user interface designer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New user interface designers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a user interface designer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real user interface designer resumes.

Research user interface designer duties and responsibilities

Manage prototype content in wireframes when necessary.
Introduce utilization of mock-up screens, CSS, and style guides to create a consistent look across product screens.
Perform rapid HTML prototyping for intranets and online applications.
Analyze the business requirement and conceptualize UI design patterns through paper prototyping.

Prepare your user interface designer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your user interface designer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a user interface designer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable user interface designer resume templates

Build a professional user interface designer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your user interface designer resume.

Apply for user interface designer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a user interface designer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do user interface designers rate their job?

-/5

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1 star

User interface designer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2022

Pros

There is so much to like about working as Graphic Designer ... the seeing how all the elements of words, space, colors, visuals (photos, graphics, charts,...) come together on a page...sharing info with others to learn and use

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019