Based on data we gathered from our global community of over 300,000 designers, Web Designers working in the UK make an average of £31,000 per year, £18,000 being the lowest reported salary and £57,000 being the highest one.

Salaries vary a lot by the Web Designer’s experience, so let’s break down this data.

Entry-level Web Designer salary in the UK

Entry-level Web Designers have zero years of experience in the field, usually because they have just graduated from university, or because they have embarked on a career shift. In the UK, entry-level Web Designers usually make about £15,000 per year.

Become a better designer by making sure your designs are accessible. Learn about design accessibility, inclusivity, and how to design products that everyone can use with Uxcel's Design Accessibility course.

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Junior Web Designer salary in the UK

If you are a junior Web Designer, it generally means that you have 1 to 3 years of experience in the field. You’ll still be getting to know the industry, but you can already work in a team setting and produce very valuable work. If you are looking to work as a junior Web Designer in the UK, you should be aiming for jobs offering around £20,000 per year.

Mid-level Web Designer salary in the UK

Mid-level Web Designers usually have 3 to 8 years of experience in the field. They are proficient in their craft and tend to produce higher-quality work than junior Web Designers. In the UK, mid-level Web Designers usually make about £30,000 per year.

Senior Web Designer salary in the UK

If you are a senior Web Designer, it generally means that you have upwards of 8 years of experience in your field. By now, you have become proficient in what you do and can often produce the highest-quality work in the shortest time. If you are looking to work as a senior Web Designer in the UK, you should be aiming for jobs offering around £37,500 per year.

What Do Web Designers Do?

The job title “web designer” is a bit of an outdated term that we used to call people who built websites at the dawn of the Internet. Nowadays, a “web designer” is an umbrella term that describes a person who uses the knowledge of UI and UX design and, sometimes, their front-end development skills to deliver websites.

Web designers today are people with a large skill set that includes UX skills, design principles, design software, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and even website strategy.

What else can web designers do?

  • Design websites and build their layout
  • Work on mockups and sample screens
  • Work on a website's color palettes, typography, layout, imagery, and sometimes, texts
  • Ensure websites display and function correctly across multiple browsers and operating systems
  • Collaborate with marketing, design, and web development teams

Skills to Increase Web Designer Salaries

A web design career requires a candidate to have an extensive skill set. They can start their journey with affordable and free resources, like Youtube channels, blog posts, books, or tutorials, and learn the basic design principles. Some technical skills take more time to master, which is why it's a good idea to enroll in specialized courses in HTML, CSS, PHP, and Javascript. Transferable web design skills allow you to move to related fields like UI, UX design, or web development.

  • 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.
  • Before everything else, an understanding of HTML and CSS is important for web designers, allowing them to understand the technical feasibility of their ideas and helping them when it comes to high-fidelity 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 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.
  • 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 web 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.

Career Paths for Web Designers

Designer career path

You may start your career path as a web designer by getting a bachelor's degree in computer science, website design, or a related field. To hone your technical skills, you can take certified courses to learn UX design, visual design, design programs, and coding, or self-study by exploring numerous online resources. When it comes to mastering soft skills like collaboration, communication, creative thinking, time management, or feedback, a bachelor's degree isn't an option. To increase your collaboration skills, for example, you need to practice pitching your ideas more frequently to clients and colleagues.

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