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Visual information specialist vs interactive designer

The differences between visual information specialists 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 visual information specialist and an interactive designer. Additionally, an interactive designer has an average salary of $97,929, which is higher than the $65,085 average annual salary of a visual information specialist.

The top three skills for a visual information specialist include photography, video production and adobe creative suite. The most important skills for an interactive designer are sketch, user experience, and UI.

Visual information specialist vs interactive designer overview

Visual Information SpecialistInteractive Designer
Yearly salary$65,085$97,929
Hourly rate$31.29$47.08
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs66,80248,136
Job satisfaction5-
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 65%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age3838
Years of experience1212

What does a visual information specialist do?

A visual information specialist is in charge of developing visual materials in adherence to the needs of a company or business. In a company setting, their responsibilities include coordinating with different departments to gather and analyze data, come up with designs and layouts, plan materials based on the purpose and availability of resources, and work together with the creative team. Furthermore, as a visual information specialist, it is essential to maintain active communication with teammates for a smooth and efficient workflow.

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.

Visual information specialist vs interactive designer salary

Visual information specialists and interactive designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Visual Information SpecialistInteractive Designer
Average salary$65,085$97,929
Salary rangeBetween $41,000 And $102,000Between $67,000 And $141,000
Highest paying CityWashington, DCSan Bruno, CA
Highest paying stateWashingtonCalifornia
Best paying companyFood and Drug Law InstituteMeta
Best paying industryGovernmentTechnology

Differences between visual information specialist and interactive designer education

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

Visual Information SpecialistInteractive Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 65%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Visual information specialist vs interactive designer demographics

Here are the differences between visual information specialists' and interactive designers' demographics:

Visual Information SpecialistInteractive Designer
Average age3838
Gender ratioMale, 56.0% Female, 44.0%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 visual information specialist and interactive designer duties and responsibilities

Visual information specialist example responsibilities.

  • Manage content updates and PR/communication material on intranet website and ensure content are visible on mobile phones and tablets.
  • Manage and maintain the organization s online content via a proprietary content management systems (CMS) and social media channels.
  • Manage and utilize extensive internal photography libraries and external resources.
  • Lead the development and execution of several overhead presentations, advertising design, brochure marketing, and desktop publishing initiatives.
  • Administer in house CSS and HTML training for colleagues and coworkers.
  • Develop and deliver proofreading and software training to other word processing operators.
  • 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

Visual information specialist vs interactive designer skills

Common visual information specialist skills
  • Photography, 15%
  • Video Production, 7%
  • Adobe Creative Suite, 7%
  • Adobe Photoshop, 6%
  • Adobe Indesign, 5%
  • Web Pages, 5%
Common interactive designer skills
  • Sketch, 13%
  • User Experience, 7%
  • UI, 6%
  • Interaction Design, 6%
  • Invision, 4%
  • Visual Design, 4%

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