Becoming a UX designer is becoming a global skill most people are going after because of the low entry to barrier. Being a designer is an achievement you can be proud of and let’s be honest, if you aren’t passionate about it, then it’s not a suitable profession for you.
Indeed.com published a recent study that the demand for UX and UI designers has increased by around 16%, which is the highest increase in this category yet.
Let’s not wait any further because in this article we will discover the seven reasons you can become a UX designer this upcoming year.
7 Reasons for becoming a UX designer in 2024
1. UX designers are becoming more special
The future of UX is becoming more specialized. As the capacity and expertise of UX designers go up, it becomes more important for designers to focus on discipline and becoming better at what they do.
Currently, many trends combine UX/UI designers, interaction designers, UX designers, product designers, and voice-guided UI specialists. Moreover, moving from a junior UX designer to a specialist isn’t challenging when you already have a background in UX.
Now is an excellent time to start planning and advancing your UX design skills because, as we said before, UX/UI designers are becoming highly in demand, so it’s becoming a special skill to learn.
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2. You have many career options
Becoming a UX designer isn’t only one direction but has many options you can choose from. Let’s take a look at what kind of career options you have once you choose to pursue a UX design career:
- UX Designer: This is quite obvious, but if you like to be responsible for setting up the design process and brainstorming new and creative ideas.
- UX/UI designer: If you want to mix UI design into your UX design career, you aren’t on the wrong path. In this type of role, you’ll be dealing with the visual and creative elements of web design. Additionally, you’ll be able to use your experience in design to create an outstanding user experience.
- Freelancer: Many companies are seeking to hire freelance UX/UI designers because they might not have the necessary budget to hire a full-time UX/UI designer. Working as a freelancer is excellent for helping you increase your knowledge and experience while gaining UX design experience.
- UX Researcher: If you love research, becoming a UX researcher will be the right field for you. As a UX researcher, you continuously analyze results and research solutions to problems that arise during your work.
- Product designer: Last but not least, we have product designers. Product designers play a huge role in contributing to a product design vision and design. These projects might be either long or short-term. If you love dealing with marketing and are interested in expressing your creativity, becoming a product designer is the right role for you.
3. Ease of use, motion design, gestural interfaces and more
With technological advancements, it isn’t enough anymore to use a product that solves the user’s issues. Now, it’s becoming more important for the products to be easily interactive with, engaging and highly useful. Motion design is an excellent way of keeping users engaged and making their experiences unforgettable.
Moreover, animations and live transitions are ideal for fulfilling the user’s emotions, keeping them engaged and making their experiences feel entirely in their control.
Furthermore, users rely on mobile devices more than ever and expect to finish everything on a website through their mobile phones or tablets. No more desktops, or at least not as common as before.
Therefore, it’s a good reason to become a UX designer because utilizing gestures is becoming an essential skill. Designing powerful gestural interfaces enables you to store more content in an app without overcrowding the screen or complicating the user.
4. There are plenty of job vacancies for UX designers
During the intro, we mentioned that the demand for UX designers is only growing and what does this mean? It means we’ll have an increase in job vacancies. If you currently visit popular job sites like LinkedIn, you’ll find out that there are more than 25,000 worldwide UX design job vacancies.
Furthermore, there are plenty of other job sites you can use to find a job, but the number of vacancies only keeps growing and it’s a good sign for you.
5. You can learn UX design without a degree
Yes, you heard us. It’s highly possible to become a UX designer without having a degree. Many people don’t want to go back to university only to get a degree. Maybe you just started to realize you belong in the UX design industry, but it’s never too late to make a switch.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to learn UX design without sacrificing many years of university studies. Here are some alternatives for learning UX design:
- Participating in free UX design courses: If you do not know UX design, you can participate in free UX courses. Plenty of free courses will help you get your “foot in the door.” However, once some time passes by, it’s important to start registering for more advanced courses.
- Consider paid UX design courses: If you aren’t starting from scratch or have spent a considerable amount of time in free UX design courses, it’s time to move on to paid UX design courses. Paid courses have more value because they include a more skilled professional. Free courses can be good, but if you want the premium features, you must pay for them. There are plenty of great paid courses you can consider, such as Brainstation, Coursera, UX Design Institute, etc.
Alternatively, Google has the answer for almost all your needs, so you can just type in “UX design course,” and you’ll find plenty of online courses. More importantly, you can check out the reviews and see where participants got after finishing the course.
6. Design for 3D interfaces, VR/AR, and zero UI
It’s no surprise that zero UI products, VR and other 3D interfaces will become much more accessible and used as time passes. Large corporations like Google, Nvidia, Avegant, and many other corporations are beginning to use AR and VR. Whether they are putting it to partial or full use, many companies are moving towards environmental technologies and making users more excited than ever to use them.
Nowadays, designers need to understand how they should design for these technologies. For example, products that use 3D interfaces and zero UI devices will rely on technologies such as voice commands, gestures and other uprising technologies.
Moreover, all UX designers dealing with 3D interfaces, VR/AR, zero UI, and other recent technologies should understand the importance of effective animations and design in more than one dimension.
7. Remote work
Almost everybody would love to take the opportunity and work from home. Becoming a UX designer allows you to do this and according to recent stats, more than 20% of professional jobs are expected to become entirely remote by 2023.
As demand for UX designers increases, this is an even bigger opportunity for them to start the remote work life!
Expected earnings of a UX designer in 2023
While the demand for UX designers is going up, 2023 will be the ideal year for them to start receiving some excellent salaries. However, keep in mind that each country has its own average salary rate, so it’ll differ. The good news is that now, we can work remotely and this means that if you aren’t happy about something, you can apply anywhere you like.
Currently, the annual average salary of a UI/UX designer is around $98,000, but this will differ in each country. If you want to take your chances, you can go on popular job sites like LinkedIn, Indeed.com, Glassdoor and apply for a remote job. Remote jobs are much better because they might offer you a higher salary if you work in a less developed country.
Why it’s a good idea to become a UX designer in 2023
2023 will bring many new surprises and if you are passionate about starting your UX design career, you aren’t going to make a wrong turn in your career. Nevertheless, the online world has brought many new opportunities to your table, so it’s now time to take charge of your life and start your new UX career!
Read Toptal's UX Designer hiring guide to learn more about hiring a UX designer.
About the author:
Tony Ademi is a freelance SEO content and copywriter. He has been in the writing industry for three years and has managed to write hundreds of SEO-optimized articles. Moreover, he has written articles that have ranked #1 on Google. Tony’s primary concern when writing an article is to do extensive research and ensure that the reader is engaged until the end.
