How much should you expect to make as a UX/UI designer in the USA? We gathered our information through anonymous submissions from our global community of over 300,000 designers. Based on this data, UX/UI designers who work in the United States make an average of $85,000 every year, ranging from about $50,000 to approximately $160,000.

Let’s break down our findings on average UX/UI designer salaries by experience.

Entry-level UX/UI designer salary in the USA

Entry-level UX/UI designers are those who are just starting out and have no professional experience in the design industry. They may be recent university graduates or people who have decided to shift careers. If this description of entry-level UX/UI designers matches you and you work in the USA, you can expect to make an average of $55,000 per year.

Junior UX/UI designer salary in the USA

Junior UX/UI designers usually have 1 to 3 years of experience in the field. They are still getting to know the industry, but they can already work in a team setting and produce very valuable work. In the USA, junior UX/UI designers usually make about $72,500 per year.

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Mid-level UX/UI designer salary in the USA

Mid-level UX/UI designers are those who have been working in the field for quite a few years (usually 3 to 8) and have gained significant experience. They are proficient in their craft and tend to produce higher-quality work than junior UX/UI designers. If this description of mid-level UX/UI designers matches you and you work in the USA you can expect to make an average of $100,000 per year.

Demonstrate your all-around UX design skills. Take Uxcel’s UX assessments and complete your design Skill Graph.

Senior UX/UI designer salary in the USA

Senior UX/UI designers usually have upwards of 8 years of experience in their field. They are proficient in what they do and often produce the highest-quality work in the shortest time. In the USA, senior UX/UI designers usually make about $120,000 per year.

What Do UX/UI Designers Do?

Although UI and UX design have a lot in common, the abbreviation UI/UX doesn't mean these disciplines help reach the same goals. UX designers are responsible for providing an intuitive, delightful, functional, and helpful user experience in general. They conduct user research, evaluate the gathered data, generate insights, prototype, and test design solutions. UX designers aim to deliver interfaces that help users reach their goals and enjoy the experience all the way.

UI designers rely on the findings of UX designers and create all the screens of a product or service that users interact with. UI designers aim to keep things consistent, simple, functional, and visually appealing. They may also be involved in branding development. In both roles, a solid understanding of color theory, typography, and composition is critical to creating the right feeling about a product or service and helping users locate what they need quickly.

Small and medium companies often look for a generalist — a designer who's able to fulfill the duties of a UX and UI designer. They should know how to prioritize UI/UX design tasks and be prepared to collaborate with product managers, engineers, and the marketing team.

Skills to Increase UX/UI Designer Salaries

Successful UI/UX designers are jacks of all trades and possess both UI and UX skills. They should know how to create a persona, conduct usability testing, build an interactive prototype, have an eye for detail, and be familiar with the core principles of visual design. You don't necessarily need a design degree to develop the necessary skills. There are plenty of online UX design courses, bootcamps, and programs that designers can pursue without having to spend a fortune.

  • Leadership abilities, including project management, design thinking, and workshop facilitation. Depending on your level of seniority, team management skills may also be required. Test your skills with Uxcel's Leadership assessment and see how you measure up to other designers worldwide.
  • Team working and communication skills, as well as critical thinking and problem solving, creativity, openness to feedback, and effective time management. Empathy is especially important, both toward your teammates and your users. Test your skills with Uxcel's Core Qualities assessment and see how you measure up to other designers worldwide.
  • Prototyping and wireframing in high and low fidelity, which will help you communicate your designs to developers and stakeholders and test them with users. Test your skills with Uxcel's Prototyping and Wireframing skill tests, and see how you measure up to other designers worldwide.
  • An understanding of responsive and mobile design to create interfaces that work an all screen sizes. Test your skills with Uxcel's Responsive Design skill test and see how you measure up to other designers worldwide.
  • Accessibility, which is crucial to ensure that your products will be usable by people with disabilities. Test your skills with Uxcel's Accessibility skill test and see how you measure up to other designers worldwide.
  • Solid knowledge of the core principles of visual design, which will allow you to perfect the look of your product. Test your skills with Uxcel's Principles of Design skill test and see how you measure up to other designers worldwide.
  • An eye for detail, which guarantees that you will spot mistakes before launching a product. Test your skills with Uxcel's Attention to Detail skill test and see how you measure up to other designers worldwide.
  • Awareness of the best practices of the most common UI components and patterns. Test your skills with Uxcel's Design Patterns skill test and see how you measure up to other designers worldwide.
  • UX writing and knowledge of information architecture are particularly useful if you are a one-person team, but they can always be helpful in deciding how to organize content. Test your skills with Uxcel's UX Writing skill test and see how you measure up to other designers worldwide.
  • The ability to conduct user research and usability testing and analyze your findings, both qualitative and quantitative. Take Uxcel's Research assessment to put your skills to the test, or take the Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, and Usability Testing skill tests to see where you currently stand.
  • Proficiency with UX/UI design and handoff tools like Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, Avocode, and Zeplin. Test your knowledge of design tools with Uxcel's Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch skill tests, and see how you measure up to other designers worldwide.
  • An understanding of HTML and CSS can be a plus if you work closely with developers. and it can help when it comes to prototyping. Test your knowledge of these languages with Uxcel's HTML and CSS skill tests, and see how you measure up to other designers worldwide.

Career Paths for UX/UI Designers

Designer career path

Like UI and UX designers, UX/UI designers may have different backgrounds. Coming from related fields like graphic design, web development, marketing, information technology, or product design can be an advantage. If they have studied the basics of psychology, computer science, social sciences, color theory, typography, or accessibility, they won't have trouble getting a grasp of this career.

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