Is UX design a good career?
The tech industry has a lot of fantastic opportunities, and UX design is one of them. But is UX design a good career? An important question to ask yourself before you take the leap and go for it. Let’s answer that question together.
- Updated on January 3, 2024
If you want to get a job in UX, you might be wondering whether or not UX design is a good career. As someone that has been in UX for years, I can honestly tell you it is an excellent place to be.
But, in case you were not looking for such a simple answer, I will explain why I think UX design is such a good career. We’re talking about career choices, and those deserve careful consideration.
Table of Contents
Is UX design a good career?
Yes, UX design is a good career. Based on the growing demand for UX designers, it is an excellent career option for those seeking job opportunities in design, tech, and startups. Even in 2024, UX designers are more and more in demand.
But why? Why is UX such a good career? I can tell you several reasons, including the salary and demand for UX designers.
UX design is in demand
First of all, UX is a great career because it is in demand. That demand is even growing! Imagine the following.
- Working from home has increased internet use by over 10% in 2020. This increase is the largest one in a decade.
- In addition, there’s the fact that user retention rates of downloaded apps are very low.
- And finally, more than half of mobile users leave a website that takes more than 6 seconds to load.
The critical role of a UX designer becomes very clear if you look at these facts. There’s a lot to gain here. Why not create a very satisfying UX design for your clients and their users?
More and more recruiters believe that UX designers are of ever-increasing importance. If that doesn’t tell you how valuable your career as a UX designer could be, I don’t know what will.
In short, UX design is getting more in demand by the day. The best moment to hop on the UX train is right now!
UX designers earn a high salary
Now that you know there’s a market for UX, the next thing to consider is how much you can make as a UX designer. Of course, that growing demand must increase salaries, right?
As it turns out, UX designers can earn a lot of money. According to Glassdoor, UX designers can make a base salary of 97,000 USD in the US in 2022.
How that compares to your wants and needs is up to you, of course. But to me, UX looks like a good career to pursue based on salary.
UX is unlikely to be automated
Solid markets and a good salary don’t mean anything if you risk losing your job to a machine. Luckily, UX is unlikely to be automated.
That’s because a big part of UX involves custom work. For example, you can see this in the research and ideation phase of UX projects.
And even the somewhat repetitive work in UX, like building a design system, requires manual work by a designer. It will get easier to work on it, like we discuss in the YouTube video above. But no need to worry. UX isn’t going away.
Is UX design dying?
And finally, something on the future of UX. There’s this discussion in UX where some designers say that UX is going away. It replaced some roles many years ago and, in turn, will be replaced by something new.
Are they right? Is UX design dying? I don’t believe so. Sure, UX replaced a few roles. But the tasks and activities of the role did not change.
It evolved as everything else does. New insights and tech cause change. We did not have smartphones 20 years ago, for example. Back in the day, we called it interaction design. Before that, UX design didn’t have a name, but it sure was around already.
If you look at it like that, there’s no reason to believe that we will not keep evolving the design role. We might even give it a different name at some point. Does it mean UX design died? Not at all.
By the way, we are already moving past UX in a way. It is called service design.
Further reading
Yes, UX design is a good career. It is even better than good. As someone with over six years of working experience in UX, I can highly recommend it as a career choice. Here’s why.
- There’s a high demand for UX designers
- The salary is great.
- UX is unlikely to be automated.
But where to start your career in UX? Reading about UX is one, but taking action to become a designer is an entirely different second step.
To help you out, I wrote an ebook called The UX Jobs Handbook. It will help you land your first job as a UX designer.
Do you have feedback on this article? Missing something? Or just a question? Reach out to me and I’ll get back to you!
About the author
Hi! I'm Nick Groeneveld, a senior designer from the Netherlands with experience in UX, visual design, and research. I'm a UX coach that supports other designers and have completed design projects in finance, tech, and the public sector.
Through The Designer's Toolbox, I'm an Educational Partner for Interaction Design Foundation.
☎️ Book a 1:1 mentor meeting with me or let's connect on LinkedIn, Twitter and Medium.
