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User Experience

2018’s UX Designer Salary Forecast

Experienced designers can expect wild disparities in pay ranges by region and specialty, as wide as $80,000
2018’s UX Designer Salary Forecast

August.com Salary Negotiations for Designers

This article will focus on the job classification of UX designer —future articles will focus on other design fields, like visual and research.

Which designer are you?

Design is currently one of the hottest, in-demand fields — 2018 will be no different. However, the biggest trend for 2018 is the widening salary range for more experienced designers.

In the early 2000’s, design was just beginning to be defined as a broad speciality. No one really knew what it was. Was it visual design? Were you designing for interactions and experiences? What was user experience? Are these people web designers? Visual designers? Apps and mobile design didn’t even exist yet.

As we hit 2010, design started to codify itself on a spectrum. We saw the emergence of multiple specialities, though the lines were still blurred. We had graphic designers, visual designers, web designers, and UX/UI designers. But, companies still didn’t really know who they were hiring for and what type of design was needed. As designers, we didn’t really know what to call ourselves either.

As we march towards 2020, we have a much clearer picture of the design field: visual designer, UX researcher, UX designer, interaction designer, and product designer. Keep in mind, I said “clearer” not “clear”. Companies are still defining each role differently, but these capture about 85% of the design job openings on Indeed and LinkedIn.

The Creative Group — Robert Half 2018 Forecast Salary Midpoints

UX Designer Salary Ranges (2018 Forecast)

The following metrics combine Glassdoor and Robert Half data for 2017 and forecasts for 2018:

Jr. Designer: 0–2 years of experience

Mid-Level Designer: 2–5 years of experience

Sr. Designer: 6–10 years of experience

Principal Designer: 10+ years of experience

2018’s UX Designer Median Salary

"In 2018, The Creative Group projects that the midpoint (50th percentile) salary for a UX designer to be $93,000."

The Trends

All Designer Jobs (UX, Industrial, Fashion, Visual) 2001–2025

Emsi Analyst 2017 | UX Designer Job Growth Over Time

Regional Distribution of UX Designers

Emsi Analyst 2017 | UX Designer Job by Region (2016)

UX Designer Annual Salary 1997–2017

Nelson Norman Group

UX Designer Salary by Region — CPI Adjusted 2015

UX Design Salaries Around The World — Hanno.co

UX Designer Education in 2017–2018

Enterprise UX Industry Report 2017–2018

UX Designer Job Maturity 2017 — 2018

Enterprise UX Industry Report 2017–2018

The Key Points

The UX design industry continues to boom, but roles are still not well defined. Hot tech hubs like Silicon Valley and New York are seeing salaries at 1.5x or 2x the rate of non-tech regions.

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This article was originally published on Justin's Medium page

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Sr. Product Designer at Auction.com — President of CA Product Designers — Co-Founder at TheTechLadder.com — Top Writer in Tech & Design at Medium

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