What is a UX designer?

A UX Designer is a professional who specializes in designing optimal user experiences for digital products and services. They use research, analysis, and design methods to create intuitive and attractive interfaces, aiming to improve user satisfaction and meet user needs.

What is the role of a UX designer?

This role is sometimes absorbed by front-end developers when the tech team is small or when the visual quality of the user interface isn't a priority.

However, as soon as it becomes one, it's necessary to separate the front-end developer's technical skills from the UI Designer's creative and artistic skills, in order to deliver a high-quality interface that will play a major role in distinguishing one solution from another offering roughly the same features.

The UX Designer's role being highly complementary to the UI Designer's, it's common to see UX/UI Designers combining all the skills. We have chosen to separate them to clearly distinguish the UX (more ergonomic) and UI (more visual) roles.

Why do companies need this role?

Like UI Designers, all companies looking to deliver an IT project that requires a high-quality, intuitive, and ergonomic user interface.

With access devices and technologies evolving every year, this brings new specializations to the web designer role, particularly on tablets, smartphones, and connected objects.

The ergonomics and ease of use of an application are a key asset for differentiating from the competition and retaining customers. A simple, fast solution can sometimes be enough as innovation, like simplifying an insurance company's user interface for example.

What does a UX designer do day to day?

• Gather the need with the requester and the product owner to get as much information as possible about the desired user experience.
• Build personas and create scenarios of how those personas will use the solution.
• Lay out the customer experience strategy that meets user needs and business objectives.
• Bring all these behaviors together in a user map explaining the journeys envisioned for users.
• Design an ergonomic user experience (UX) mockup that the UI Designer will make visually appealing.
• Measure customer satisfaction and proper use of the solution through KPIs.
• Evolve the user experience by testing new journeys.

Their place in the team and who they work with

UI designer: they work together on a site's mockup, and need to collaborate very closely, hence the merging of the two roles into UX/UI Designer.

Product Owner: unlike the UI Designer, the UX Designer also works with the Product Owner alongside the requester to gather customer needs and design a successful user experience.

Front-end Developer: the UI designer (and the UX) provides the visual mockup to the front-end developer so it can be translated into code readable by the client's browser, with the goal of displaying a usable user interface.

What are a UX designer's challenges?

User experience strategy: understanding how to guide the user on the interface, balancing business goals and user experience optimization.

Studying user behavior:

• before design, through studies and surveys
• after design, through measuring the user journey

Responsive Web Design: starting from a reference interface for one device, propose functional and intuitive interfaces on every device (tablet, smartphone, computer, watch, etc.).

What tools & methods are used?

• Miro and Zeplin for visual collaboration
• Figma, Axure, Marvel for the prototyping interface
• Sketch for design
• Adobe XD, Sketch, Framer, Invision Studio for design
• The Adobe Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator).

What training is needed to become a UX Designer?

Like many roles that emerged with the arrival of agility in tech companies, there is no dedicated educational path for UX. A foundation in one of the role's dimensions is recommended.

• Graphic and design school
• Marketing studies

What is the salary of a UX designer?

Here are the salaries based on experience:

Junior UX Designer: 32 to 40K€

Mid-level UX Designer: 38 to 52K€

Senior UX Designer: 50 to 60K€

What career paths are possible?

Career paths after UX designer include:

• UX/UI Designers
• Product Owner
• Head of Design
• Art Director