Recently, a lot of businesses are focusing more on the user experience of their products and services, this has increased the demand for UX consultants.
The User Experience of products and services is rapidly becoming one of the most important aspects of any business.
To fully leverage the power of UX to create sustainable business performance, UX design needs to be augmented with some big picture thinking, systems thinking, business analysis and even change management.
- What is UX Consultant?
- What Does a UX Consultant do?
- How can a UX Consultant Help Your Business?
- How to Improve as a UX Consultant
- How Much can you Earn as a UX Consultant?
- How Much Does it Cost to Hire a UX Consultant?
- What is the Difference Between a UX Designer and a UX Consultant?
- Which is the Best Field in Designing?
- How Much does Freelance UX Cost?
- Are UX Bootcamps Worth it?
- Who gets Paid more UX or UI?
- How do you Estimate a UX Project
- How to Become a UX Consultant
- Why Hire a UX Designer?
- How do I get UX Clients
- How much does it Cost to Hire a UX Designer?
- UI/UX Consultant Job Description
- Senior UX Designer Hourly Rate
- Senior UX Designer Freelance Rate
- UX Consultant Career Path
- What Qualifications do I Need to be a UX Designer?
- What is The Highest Paying Design Jobs?
- How Does UX Help Business?
- What is UX Design Strategy?
- Why is UX Important to Marketing?
- UX Consulting Rates
- How to Price UX Work
What is UX Consultant?
A UX Consultant is basically a UX Designer with a stronger focus on the business aspects of the design of a User Experience. The term is a synthesis of the terms “UX Designer” and “Business Consultant”.
What Does a UX Consultant do?
When a company contacts a consultant, it’s typically because they’ve noticed symptoms but don’t know how to get better. They need an expert diagnosis and recovery plan.
Read Also: How to Find a UX Mentor Online
Change in one part of a system affects all other areas. Rather than treating isolated issues and moving on, UX consultants have to take a holistic approach to curing design ailments.
But what does that look like?
UX consultants help clients gain a clearer understanding of who their customers are and what they want
Working solo, it can be hard to (or nearly impossible) to oversee a large scale user research project, so UX consultants have to figure out what companies already know about their customers—which often means sitting down with company leaders to draw out key insights.
During this phase, consultants may also conduct user interviews, draft and collect surveys, and review any existing quantitative data that’s relevant to how customers use the company’s product.
UX consultants perform audits of apps, Saas products, and websites
No two projects are the same, but over the years, UX consultants witness patterns emerge. Things that don’t work, ever, become abundantly clear. Design principles and strategies that prove trustworthy are held close.
When hired to audit an app, SaaS product, or website, consultants rely on past experience and an acute knowledge of interface design to create reports that highlight glaringly bad design features.
Audits can uncover all kinds of problems, but they tend to emphasize issues that can be improved quickly. “If we replace this pixelated image and massive wall of text and put a clear call-to-action with a button here, we’ll immediately convert more customers.”
UX consultants build prototypes and perform usability testing
When an audit uncovers deeper UX issues (like poor information architecture), quick fixes won’t work, and consultants have to administer comprehensive care. A prototype must be designed, tested, and iterated upon.
Depending on the project, there are varying degrees of detail that consultants can pursue, but in most cases, functional wireframes and a handful of target users (5-7) will provide a clear picture of a digital product’s usability.
UX consultants roadmap user experience strategies
Our interactions with digital are always evolving. Hardware, software, platforms, and societal expectations are dynamic. If businesses only plan for today’s technology, they’ll quickly be left behind. It’s better to operate from a strategic plan that is extremely focused on users.
What do they want?
What do they need?
Where are they spending their time?
How can we continue to provide a world-class user experience even as their behavior and technology change?”
These are huge questions. Because of their holistic, big-picture understanding of design, UX consultants are well-equipped to provide a framework of answers that companies can use to maintain digital relevancy.
UX consultants provide ongoing direction and means to measure the effectiveness of UX
Consultants don’t simply write one-and-done reports and leave clients hanging when issues arise. Strategies aren’t always executed as planned, and at times, recommendations may need to be revised.
Many consultants are rehired or placed on retainer to continue advising from a big-picture perspective, ensuring that the overall health of a company’s UX stays strong.
UX consultants engage and educate key staff members
Consultants don’t have the relational and experiential history that staff do. In many ways, they’re outsiders.
One of the most important things that a UX consultant can do is include staff in their process and give them reasons to be excited about the (inevitable) changes that must be made. There’s also an element of education that needs to happen. It’s not just, “here are the changes,” but “here’s why we’re changing and how it will improve the UX.”
If these things don’t happen, consultants run the risk of fostering an adversarial mindset in staff.
How can a UX Consultant Help Your Business?
1. UX Consultants Help Better Understand Customers
For a company to provide a better user experience, they need to understand their target audience.
Most of what organisations need to know about their users already exist within the company. It merely requires collating and extracting from the heads of key members of staff.
Most of the time the challenge isn’t gathering the data, but rather expressing it in a way that is useful. Typically most UX consultants do this through various visualisation techniques including customer journey mapping and empathy mapping.
2. UX Consultants Audit Websites
Although user research is vital to improving the user experience, there is often work that can be done even before that.
That is why UX consultants are often asked to audit websites. The result of this is normally a report identifying areas of improvement that will increase satisfaction and conversion in the short term. These reports focus on addressing the ‘low hanging fruit’ that obviously need fixing before more nuanced improvements can begin.
3. UX Consultants Prototype and Test Better Experiences
Often when auditing a website, issues are identified which a UX consultant could address in a variety of ways. The best solution is not always immediately apparent and so different approaches need testing.
To achieve this, a UX consultant will often build a prototype for their clients on which they can carry out usability testing. This cycle of prototyping, testing and iteration is one of the favourite parts of UX consulting.
4. A UX Consultant Will Establish Your Strategy
Creating a great user experience does not happen overnight, and organisations will not achieve it just by improving the user interface. Often it requires organisational change and at least some degree of digital transformation. Organisations need a strategy to make this possible.
A big part of UX consulting is for the UX consultant to help organisations draw up these strategies. That involves a lot of research, meeting with stakeholders and understanding the business before they even start.
Once that has been done, a UX consultant will draw up a long-term vision for a companies user experience and a roadmap that outlines what needs to be done to reach that goal. That set of recommendations becomes the organisation’s strategy.
5. UX Consultants Help Implement Change
The problem with strategies is that they often lack granular detail, and as we all know, the devil is in the detail.
That is the world of service design, where company processes, structures and systems need to be adapted to meet consumer expectations. An area that I spend an increasing amount of time addressing.
You quickly learn as a UX consultant, that no company has ever succeeded in implementing a strategy as it was written. There is always the need to adjust as you go along.
6. UX Consultants Educate and Inspire Colleagues
One of the most significant challenges in UX consulting are company employees. It is impossible to deliver a quality service to users without staff buy-in. People do not like to change and are often resistant to it. That is particularly true when introducing digital.
Most people don’t fully understand the impact of digital or why they need to change the way they work. That means for any strategy to succeed the organisation must win the hearts and minds of their employees. It is not enough to tell them to change; we need to inspire them to want to change.
Many UX consultants help clients do this by creating training programs that range from workshops and inspiring presentations all the way through to self-learning video guides and internal comms campaigns.
7. UX Consultants Create Design Systems
Enthusiastic staff is excellent, but if everybody doesn’t have the right tools and isn’t moving in the same direction, it can lead to chaos. Before long the user experience becomes fractured as too many people are managing too much online content without explicit coordination.
To help address this problem UX consultants work with clients to create design systems. These contain your classic pattern library, but also include content style guides, design principles and service manuals. Together these things provide a framework within which everybody can work to ensure a consistent user experience.
8. A UX Consultant Will Help Incrementally Improve the Experience
Of course, we never finish our digital services (such as our websites). They are always evolving and improving. We are continually seeking to increase conversion and provide a better experience.
How to Improve as a UX Consultant
If you are starting your career as a UX consultant, you will need to time and some years of experience to succeed. To help you fast track you career, there are some tips that can assist you.
Understand Business Objectives First
This should be taken as read but in our experience it’s often forgotten with the excitement of diving into investigating the user experience on a new project. It’s vital to know what the client expects to achieve through your work; if you miss that objective – it’s likely to lead to a very unhappy end on the engagement.
Understand and Agree the Project Communication Protocols
It is vital to understand how information should be communicated and with whom it should be communicated. Failure to get this agreed and in writing at the start of a project can lead to horrendous workloads down the line.
If you’re one of those people who likes to dash of a one paragraph summary but you’re working for an organization that likes detailed 100 page reports on projects… you’re going to end up banging heads with your client. So agree on communication protocols up front and ensure you’ve budgeted enough time to communicate properly and in the way the client needs you to.
Be an Expert
It’s exciting to be seen as an expert and that’s exactly what a consultant is supposed to be. Unfortunately, many consultants see this as an opportunity to lecture their clients in patronizing tones of “Isn’t it obvious?” If you want to fall out with your clients; talking down to them is the way to go.
They hired an expert because they need your expertise but they don’t need your attitude. Learning to work with all levels of an organization in a way that they respond to positively is part of the consultant’s job.
Meet Deadlines
If there’s one skill that’s going to keep you in a job as a consultant; it’s delivering what you said you would, when you said you would. Now, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to hit every milestone perfectly but it does mean you need to raise the possibility of timescale changes as early as possible.
If you do miss a deadline; apologize and demonstrate how it’s never going to happen again. If you keep missing deadlines – it’s probably best to start looking for another job.
Know Where You Fit in the Project
In most cases a consultant will have a direct manager at the organization they work for. You need to know who this is, and who is responsible for sign off on your work.
A classic mistake is to agree to report to a committee of people; pleasing a committee is nearly impossible (and usually results in lots of additional work – this is great if you’re on an hourly rate but terrible news if you’re on a fixed price contract) and often results in problems that can’t be resolved.
So know where you fit and ensure that the process of having your work accepted is not too onerous.
How Much can you Earn as a UX Consultant?
The average annual pay for an UX Consultant in the United States is $86,830 a year.
While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $150,500 and as low as $24,000, the majority of UX Consultant salaries currently range between $47,500 (25th percentile) to $120,000 (75th percentile) across the United States.
The average pay range for a UX Consultant varies modestly (up to $72,500), which suggests there may be fewer opportunities for advancement based on skill level, but increased pay based on location and years of experience is still possible.
Based on recent job postings on ZipRecruiter, the UX Consultant job market in both Lagos, NG and the surrounding area is very active.
People working as a UX Consultant in your area are making on average $86,830 per year or the same as the national average annual salary of $86,830. ranks number 1 out of 50 states nationwide for UX Consultant salaries.
How Much Does it Cost to Hire a UX Consultant?
The cost of hiring a ux consultant depends on a number of factors. Here are some of them.
Strategy vs. tactical execution
It depends on what you mean by “UX consultancy”. Are you looking for someone who can advise you on customer experience strategy? Service design? Building a UX team or improving the effectiveness of your current team? Are you looking for someone who can bang out a wireframe of a fairly typical-style eCommerce site that you can hand off to a designer?
Location
It depends on where your UX consultant is based. Your UX consultant will charge an hourly rate (if they even sell their services that way; many don’t), based on their own constraints. Physical location is a big determinant, because you are compensating for the UX consultant’s cost of living and the competitiveness of the local job market for their skills.
Experience and Specific Skills
It depends on the UX consultant’s depth of expertise. As a rough guide, a UX consultant with 10 years of experience is more expensive on an hourly basis than one who is just starting out, but you should expect this to be offset with a more efficient level of service.
In this case, “experience” translates roughly to, “has made many of the common mistakes already, and will not make them on your project.” If you’re only looking at an hourly rate, you’re missing at least 1/2 the picture.
Just as important is what you mean by “UX consultancy” in terms of what this person will be doing. Again, a strategic advisor might cost more on an hourly basis than someone who is hands-on with visual and interaction design.
A top-notch UX researcher (who can help you better understand your audience and their behaviors through various styles of ethnographic and usability research) may cost more than someone who takes direction from you and produces a set of interaction design artifacts.
Someone with a depth of experience in your particular vertical may want to charge you more than someone who is more of a generalist. Again, you should see an offset in costs by efficiency in solving your particular set of problems.
Your next step would be to narrow your focus a bit more, and make some determination about the outcomes you’re looking for a UX consultant to produce. That may help narrow your search and get a more realistic estimate of the potential costs of hiring that expertise.
What is the Difference Between a UX Designer and a UX Consultant?
The functions of these two job titles will help you understand the difference, and ultimately decide the ideal path for you.
What does a UX Consultant do?
A UX Consultant will begin by focusing on research. This ensures that whatever the proposed solution is, it is based on solid fact-based rationale (utility).
The consultants at Nomensa often have a psychology or HCI (human-computer interaction) background which really helps in this part of the job. The UX Designer will then work together with the UX Consultant to create the solution based on the research findings (usability).
What does a UX Designer do?
The UX Designer takes on how the solution – and any documentation created – will look and feel (appeal). It is also their job to ensure that the solution creates the right emotions and feelings research has found it will need to provide (engagement); for instance, creating a sense of reassurance within a banking app. UX Designers often come from creative backgrounds such as graphic design or product design.
There is a known overlap between the two roles and that’s something we take advantage of. We strongly believe in working the power of two, where both disciplines bring their skills and perspectives to the table and work together to create a well-rounded solution. More recently, we have also begun working the power of three, wherein a copywriter joins the team.
Working together on a solution also means that both parties learn from one another. So, although each has their specialisms, they can expand their individual knowledge and improve their perspective of the solution for the next project.
Those that have strengths in both camps are usually known as a ‘hybrid’ or ‘unicorn’. There are a few who span the entire spectrum from research through to visual design, though it’s relatively unusual.
So, next time you’re looking for a new role, try to find out the key skills they are looking for and ask yourself where you fall on the spectrum, and whether the position aligns to your strengths. The context of where the role falls within an organisation really does determine this.
You may be a solo UX practitioner or work as part if a collaborative team. Just make sure you’re not spreading yourself thin instead of focusing on the stuff you’re really good at and more importantly, that you love the work you do.
Which is the Best Field in Designing?
There’s no place quite like the design industry. It’s where creativity and technology meet, and where innovation thrives. Design is absolutely everywhere—from the clothes we wear to the apps we use, from the cars we drive to the chairs we sit on. As a designer, you have the power to shape the world in which we live.
Not only that: design-driven businesses significantly outperform their competitors, so skilled designers are increasingly sought after. Design itself is an extremely broad umbrella, and there are many different routes you can take.
Design is one of the most challenging, fast-moving, and visionary fields to work in—and it can be financially rewarding, too. Here are seven of the of the highest-paid fields within the design industry.
1. UX design
UX design tops the list as the most lucrative field, with an average yearly salary of $96,505.
UX designers are in high demand—87 percent of hiring managers consider recruiting more UX designers to be their number-one priority.
User experience (UX) designers are ultimately responsible for enhancing customer satisfaction, making them absolutely crucial to branding and business.
They conduct extensive research into the customer’s needs and use these findings to make smart design decisions. Whether the product is an app, a website, or a tangible device, the UX designer makes sure that it’s as user-friendly as possible.
A job in UX incorporates elements of interaction design, visual design, information architecture and user research—and therefore calls for a very diverse skill set.
On a day-to-day basis, you may find yourself devising user personas, sketching wireframes, creating prototypes, or conducting usability testing. Essentially, UX encompasses anything that impacts how the user feels when they engage with a product.
2. Product design
Product designers also rank highly in the salary stakes, enjoying an average yearly income of $89,224.
Just about every object you encounter in daily life is the work of a product designer—from staplers and dining chairs to pens and electronics. Much like UX designers, product designers are concerned with both the aesthetics and functionality of a product, and there are many similarities in the way they work.
Product designers also carry out extensive user research before sketching their ideas and blueprints using CAD software. Together with graphic designers and engineers, they then turn these sketches into prototypes, ready for testing.
When designing or redesigning an object, product designers will consider things like shape, ergonomics, size, color, and weight. They are also responsible for finding the most cost-efficient production methods, so an understanding of different materials is essential.
One of the most rewarding aspects of product design is the opportunity to innovate, which may be why it was recently voted the most appealing job for Generation Z.
3. UI design
UI designers rake in around $88,434 per year on average, putting them hot on the heels of their friends in UX. User interface design is, in fact, a crucial subset of UX—but it’s important to recognize that they are two separate roles.
UI design focuses on the user’s visual experience, determining how they interact with the product interface. The job of a UI designer is to design all the screens through which a user moves, and to create all the visual touchpoints and interactions that facilitate this movement.
Consider a dating app where you swipe left and right, or the act of scrolling down a website—some classic UI elements.
A role in UI design offers plenty of variety, with tasks ranging from creating animations, establishing style guides, choosing the right colors and typeface, prototyping and testing. UI designers might work on apps, websites, video games and software; anything with an interface!
4. Video game design
Good news for gamers with a creative flair: Video game design is the fourth highest-paid field in the industry. The average yearly salary for video game designers is $86,510, and with it comes an extremely varied and interesting workload.
Video game designers are storytellers, programmers, and visual artists all rolled into one. They are responsible for drawing up video game concepts based on the target audience, and then bringing this concept to life.
This may involve developing plots and characters, creating the user interface and inputting script to generate interactive gameplay elements.
Becoming a video game designer generally requires a Bachelor’s degree in computer science or computer engineering, as well as some programming knowledge. Creativity and problem-solving skills are also key.
5. Multimedia art and animation
Multimedia artists and animators earn $63,800 per year on average. Aside from the financial reward, this is an extremely varied field with countless potential career paths.
Multimedia artists and animators are responsible for creating the cool visual effects you see on TV, in movies, and in video games. Depending on their exact specialization, they might work on developing storyboards, creating drawings and computer graphics, and designing 3D figures and characters.
The most common route into multimedia art is a degree in 3D animation or computer graphics—but there are no hard-and-fast requirements. Above all, you need to feel at home using computer animation software, conducting project research, and presenting your ideas to key stakeholders.
If you do go down the multimedia route, you could find yourself working in TV, film, advertising, PR, or the video game industry. With a projected employment growth rate of eight percent through to 2026, this is both an interesting and steady career path.
6. Web design
Often described as the graphic designers of the digital world, web designers pocket an average $59,633 per year. They are responsible for planning, designing, and building websites, calling on a mixture of both technical and creative skills.
For a web designer, the art lies in understanding the client’s vision and turning it into a visually compelling, fully functional website. This covers a vast range of tasks, from planning the site architecture to choosing colors, layout, typography, and graphics. The web designer may also oversee the written copy and set up the domain name.
To excel in this field, you need a highly diverse skill set. One day you might be working on visual design, and the next you may be tweaking code and running tests. An understanding of content management systems, basic programming languages, visual design principles, and SEO will all come in handy.
While it’s possible to study web design, this isn’t the only way in. Employers are largely focused on practical experience and an impressive portfolio, and many web designers come from a fine art, graphic design, or software engineering background.
7. Exhibit design
Perhaps one of the lesser-known professions on the list, but a well-paid one nonetheless: A career in exhibit design could see you earning an average yearly salary of $57,600. Exhibit designers are the creative geniuses behind the displays and fixtures you see at museums, galleries, conferences, and trade shows.
For those who like to combine computer-based design work with off-screen applications, this role provides the best of both.
The designer takes ownership of the exhibit from start to finish. After working with the client to establish a vision, they will sketch out ideas and create computer-generated models. These are then turned into prototypes which are reiterated until the final design is approved. Exhibit designers may also be involved in constructing the display onsite.
Exhibit designers have many skills. Not only are they experts in layout and design; they are also able to work within very specific spatial limitations.
To become an exhibit designer, it helps to study a design-related degree such as 3D or interior design. Outstanding communication skills, solid drawing ability, and knowledge of computer-based design programs are also essential.
How Much does Freelance UX Cost?
Having undertaken a fair bit of research across a number of resources and tapping into the Freelancer Club database, here’s what comes out:
The average contractor rate for a UX/UI Designer in the UK (excluding London) currently stands around £315 per day. In contrast, the average contractor rate for a UX/UI Designer in London specifically, sits around £350 a day.
UX and UI Designers provide a range of services and some of these services will be priced differently. For example, you may be looking for a UX Designer to work on wire framing or user research. Whereas most UX Designers will offer multiple services, some specialise. Here is a breakdown of a few UX Designer services and their average hourly rate.
Project Type | Average Hourly Rate |
General UX Design | £20 – £60 |
Wireframing | £25 – £50 |
User Research | £22 – £55 |
Storyboards / Personas | £25 – £50 |
Are UX Bootcamps Worth it?
So, is it worth it to enroll in a UX Design bootcamp?
To see if a bootcamp is for you, answer these questions:
Are you good at deeply learning new skills by yourself?
Can you find real projects to work on that incorporate the UX Design process?
If not, do you have the will power and patience to put yourself out there and create a professional network and opportunity for this?
Do you excel at public speaking and debate?
Are you confident in your ability to be creative?
Do you have the drive and patience to apply what you’ve learned into 2–3 projects and build a portfolio showcasing your processes?
If you answered no to one or more of these questions, a UX Design bootcamp is worth exploring. There are tons of different options nowadays, but in the end they all want your money.
Make sure your bootcamp covers the following criteria:
Modern curriculum — Your best bet is to have a professional UX Designer look at the curriculum with you to make sure it’s current and relevant. Then reach out to folks on LinkedIn that have completed the course you are looking into and ask them to tell you about their experience. Would they recommend it? Did they get a job after? How long did that take?
Real projects — Bootcamps either offer real projects with real companies or pretend projects that employers will always know are fake. The former gives you real world experience and a possible job offer from your client. The latter is like that guy at the office that tells everyone he’s in a band but for some reason never plays shows.
Coding — Knowing the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript helps you create realistic designs and helps you communicate with developers. You’re going to want to know these skills because Generation Z is coming and they will leave you in the dust if you don’t learn the basics of front end code.
Portfolio — A bootcamp should spend at least a couple weeks guiding you on your portfolio. You can’t get hired without one. Do not even try.
Networking — Make sure your bootcamp helps introduce you to people that might actually hire you.
Criticism of your work — Make sure in the reviews of the bootcamps you’re looking into that past students mention getting their work critiqued on a regular basis. Getting critiqued might be the hardest part of the job, and us millennials are soft as little canned peaches, so prepare your ego for it.
Remember, 3–6 month-long boot camps could not possibly cover everything. You will have to do a lot of the hardest work on your own regardless of the Bootcamp you choose.
Who gets Paid more UX or UI?
On average, UX designers make around $70,000 a year for entry-level jobs in the United States, $90,000 a year when they reach mid-level and about $110,000 a year once they gain experience. While UI designers, make an average of about $60,000 a year at entry-level, $75,000 a year at mid-level, and $90,000 a year at higher levels.
The above averages might be higher or lower than what you might truly make as a UI or UX designer.
However, PayScale has found the entry-level salaries to be a little lower than Glassdoor. According to them, UX designers on a beginner’s level will bring in about $45,000 to $100,000 max. Mid-level designers could earn about $60,000 to $125,000. Senior-level designers in the field would take home around $65,000 to $155,000, that’s a higher estimate than Glassdoor.
Robert Half has gone a step further and provided the above information on UX salaries across the US. Here’s how the salary information breaks down:
- Designers in Seattle: $112,530 a year
- Designers in San Francisco: $130,200 a year
- Designers in Los Angeles: $121,830 a year
- Designers in Denver: $101,370 a year
- Designers in St. Louis: $92,535 a year
- Designers in Chicago: $114,855 a year
- Designers in New York: $130,665 a year
- Designers in Boston: $124,620 a year
- Designers in Dallas: $102,300 a year
- Designers in Fort Lauderdale/Miami: $99,045 a year
Based on the information above, you can make the most money working as a UX designer in New York, where the annual salary is $130,665. That’s closely followed by San Francisco with a salary of $130,200.
There are a few problems with the above information though. First, we have no idea in what year these numbers were collected. Salary information can fluctuate, so the year would have been good to know.
Then there’s the issue of not knowing what level designer you’d have to be to earn these salaries. We doubt it’s entry level, but perhaps it’s junior mid-level.
According to PayScale, an entry-level UI designer would make around $40,000 to $85,000 a year. While a mid-level UI designer would make about $50,000 to $100,000 a year and an experienced UI designer would make around $55,000 to $125,000 a year.
How do you Estimate a UX Project
Estimating something that is very variable in time can be super challenging. Since UX is not a fixed and linear process you tend to iterate over multiple designs over time. So how do you estimate a User eXperience (UX) project? And what should you say to a potential client of yours that ask “how much will it cost”?
Ideally, base these estimates on historical data. As an example, here are some typical activities:
- Kickoff meeting — 2 hours
- User interviews — 1.5 to 2 hours per interview
- Go through and structure notes from interview — 0.5 days
- Create personas: 0.5 to 1 days
- Create user journey map: 1 to 2 days
- Competition analysis: 1 day
- Impact map: 1 day
- Create mockup: 1 days per unique view (original version + 2 revisions included)
- Create prototype: 1 day
- Usability testing: 2 hours per usability test
- Summarize learnings from usability test: 0.5 days
When you do this, break down the activities in as granular / fine details as you can.
For instance, don’t group all interviews + analyze interviews + create personas as one activity. Put them all as separate activities and estimate each and every single one of them. This way you get more precise estimates.
How to Become a UX Consultant
There are multiple ways to get the qualifications you need to become a UX consultant. One option is to earn an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer programming, software development, or graphic design.
Alternatively, you can take UX certificate courses to learn the skills and methodologies of UX development and design. You need experience with UX software and design tools like Infragistics and InVision, as well as a background in graphic design or web development.
Why Hire a UX Designer?
1. UX designers are experiential guides that will get you through the design process.
As you may have noticed, until now we have yet to mention the visual design, or graphic user interface design, of a product. The reason for this is because the visual design is usually not a responsibility of the UX designer. That’s the role of the User Interface (UI) designer. Also, in order for a product to be really good, there are some steps that have to be taken in consideration before thinking about the visual style or design.
2. UX designers will bring you down to earth when you try to jump ahead of key steps.
It’s normal for product owners to be excited about their products. They want to see their idea come to life and getting a shape. After all, they are the ones who are investing in this product and the ones with more to lose in case anything goes south.
Therefore, it is also normal that, with all this excitement, they would want to skip ahead to the fun part where they can see the design of the product (where UX and UI comes in). However, like with everything in life, you need to learn how to walk before you can run, and you can always count on the UX designer to remind you of this.
Every step in the process will lead you to a better product because every step will serve as a foundation for the next and to support decisions that will be made along the way.
3. UX designers know how important and crucial it is to understand who the user target is and to remind everyone that we’re designing for them.
As mentioned before, UX design is a User-Centered discipline so naturally understanding the users and their needs is crucial. This understanding is achieved in the user research step. This is where all the biases are deconstructed and where we’ll gather solid data to determine the product requirements instead of basing them on assumptions.
There is no point in trying to fight this, we all have biases. No matter how well we think we know the target user we usually assume so on the base of our biases. In this way, we guarantee that our product decisions are based on research, and that represents a big risk reduction.
You have to keep in mind that we’re working on a product for the target user, not for us, so personal preferences and biases should stay at the door and all decisions should be taken based on data and information.
Keep in mind that, if you’re about to start building a new product, the UX designer is the most reliable professional to guide you on a product design process and to help you get your web or mobile app off the ground.
A project should always follow a process to keep all the necessary steps on track and to avoid skipping important stages. This way, you can be sure to see the full picture and not just focus on your own assumptions or product features and neglect the most important: what your users need and value.
How do I get UX Clients
There isn’t one way, it’s a combination of about 8 things you can do. Here they are:
1. Do good work, build a portfolio, and then you will be recommended
2. Build up a database of all clients and influencers, associates and mail them your news… keep in touch with them via a regular newsletter
3. Write for influential industry publications and get your name and ideas out there
4. Speak and/or attend conferences where clients hang out
5. Your brand and company need to be active on social media… Make a noise about what you are doing and what others are doing
6. Know your ecosystem and visit key players in it… there will be leads for you here
7. Have a good official site, with strong relevant content on it
8. Network, network, network…where your heart on your sleeve…tell everyone what you are doing for and what your are looking for. Don’t be shy.
How much does it Cost to Hire a UX Designer?
Let us examine three key factors of UX design to help you get a better understanding of how to budget for your next project.
1. The Scope of the Project
How complex is your project? A UX designer works to discover how users will best interact with each feature included in your website or application, whether it’s the homepage, a form, a product page, drop-down menu, or search functionality. For larger projects, this can mean that the designer’s job becomes exponentially more involved in order to gather the necessary data for each element within the app or site. Generally, some of their more common tasks include:
- Analyzing competitor products; functionality
- Defining the ideal users and their preferences
- Creating an initial product strategy
- Testing early prototypes & gathering feedback
The more clearly your project brief is defined in terms of scope and functionality, the easier it will be for a UX designer to anticipate the minimum viable product that will meet your users’ needs. This also allows designers to provide much more accurate bids and projected timelines.
2. Storyboards and Personas
Any UX designer worth his or her salt will take the time to create user personas that reveal common traits of your users. This process involves interviews, surveys, user testing and other activities to get actionable intelligence about who will eventually use your product. This information is then compiled into scenarios and storyboards that show the user’s journey through your site and what influences each decision the customer makes.
Competent UX designers will have specific processes to identify user types as efficiently as possible. By exploring each candidate’s process during an interview, you’ll have a lot more insight into the overall value of their rate.
3. Amount of User Testing Required
Once a UX designer identifies the target audience, the majority of their time is spent defining the user’s preferences and creating wireframes to show how they will interact with your application. This is accomplished through manual user testing, during which they can:
- Monitor user interactions
- Review user interviews and other feedback
- Run A/B Split testing
- Study key performance indicators
Some products may require multiple rounds of testing in order to reach the proper levels of refinement.
How Much Should I Expect to Pay?
SAMPLE UX DESIGNER RATES (Estimated billing rates charged by intermediate-level, U.S.-based specialists) | |
Project Type | Average Price (per hour) |
UX Design (General) | $25-$75 |
Wireframing | $30-$60 |
User Research | $25-$65 |
Storyboards/Personas | $30-$70 |
Many freelance UX designers prefer to work at an hourly rate since their discovery process can be very time-consuming. Some may also consider fixed-price, although this is less common. Billable hours can include everything from wireframing to user testing, storyboards and persona work, and each designer you interview will have a different process for completing these tasks.
Additionally, the large variance in hourly rates between UX designers does not necessarily represent overall talent or value. Less experienced freelancers may use a very similar process as a more seasoned professional, but they may require more time to uncover truths about your users. So there’s no clear choice among the many skill-levels; it often comes down to the freelancer that your team feels the most comfortable working with.
UI/UX Consultant Job Description
UI/UX Designers are responsible for the design and implementation of all the experiences a user has when interacting with a digital tool, such as a website. The UI/UX Designer will work closely with our marketing team and designers to ensure seamless web/mobile design and the successful implementation of UI/UX best practices and principles across all our digital platforms.
UI/UX Designer job description should contain a variety of functions and roles including:
- Plan and implement new designs
- Optimize existing user interface designs
- Test for intuitivity and experience
- Communicate with clients to understand their business goals and objectives
- Develop technical and business requirements and always strive to deliver intuitive and user-centered solutions
- Combine creativity with an awareness of the design elements
- Create prototypes for new product ideas
- Test new ideas before implementing
- Conduct an ongoing user research
Senior UX Designer Hourly Rate
The average hourly wage for a Senior UX Designer in the United States is $54 as of April 27, 2021, but the salary range typically falls between $49 and $59. The hourly rate can vary widely depending on many important factors, including education, certifications, additional skills, the number of years you have spent in your profession.
Senior UX Designer Freelance Rate
the average annual pay for a Freelance UX Designer in the United States is $101,966 a year.
Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $49.02 an hour. This is the equivalent of $1,961/week or $8,497/month.
While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $172,000 and as low as $29,000, the majority of Freelance UX Designer salaries currently range between $83,500 (25th percentile) to $118,500 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $149,000 annually across the United States.
The average pay range for a Freelance UX Designer varies greatly (by as much as $35,000), which suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay based on skill level, location and years of experience.
UX Consultant Career Path
A career in UX not only offers immense job satisfaction but also provides great flexibility. There are a couple of routes that can be taken. One is the technical path, while the other is the managerial path.
Technical Career Progression
If you enjoy working as a UX designer, you might want to dig a little deeper to gain expertise in a domain and become a specialist. You can choose from a range of different fields including interaction designer, GUI designer, or graphic artist.
Perhaps you’re passionate for web technologies and love dabbling in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If this sounds like you, a future in front-end web development could be perfect. You also have the option of learning new languages like Python, Ruby, and PHP to transition into a full-stack developer.
With the recent growth in mobile tech, you might also want to consider mobile development, app design, or even video game design.
Managerial Career Progression
If you believe you’re good at managing people and would like to lead teams, then this path might be right up your alley. You can work your way up from UX designer to UX manager and then to UX director. This path can also lead you to become the VP of user experience.
You’ll take on a more business-oriented role and be involved in recruitment, resource allocation, and team motivation. This path requires a natural flair for leadership and strong interpersonal skills.
What Qualifications do I Need to be a UX Designer?
If you decide to pursue a career as a UX designer, what degrees should you go after? There are many, and one of the biggest draws to UX jobs is the versatility and broad scope of required knowledge.
However, this creates a potentially confusing path for people who want to learn UX design. A future lawyer knows she needs to go to law school. A future teacher knows he needs to get a teaching degree. There’s no specific UX design degree—at least yet—so the path isn’t so clear.
Essentially, your education should focus on two key areas: software and people; you need to know both to be a great UX designer. The software aspect of your education will help you become familiar with a wide range of programs and systems, including HTML, Javascript, Photoshop, iWork, and more. For many UX designers, a software-related subject will be their major.
Common degrees for UX designers include:
- Computer science
- Graphic design
- Visual design
- Web programming
- Information architecture
- UI design
Because the application of user design deals so heavily with how people think, a college education will also be sprinkled with liberal arts topics like psychology or philosophy. Understanding how people think is just as important to UX design as understanding how programs work. While this may be a minor, it could potentially be a UX designer’s major.
Typical minors for UX designers include:
- Anthropology
- Psychology
- Human-computer interaction
- Sociology
Required UX Designer Skills
Because a UX designer has to deal with a wide variety of softwares and programs, there are many technical skills and techniques that they must use. Mastering these skills, or at least having a comprehensive understanding of them, will make you more attractive to potential employers.
The UX process deals with many different steps. Initially, a UX designer will need skills involving research. This could include the analysis of competitor’s programs and products, analytical reviews of current software, or interviewing potential customers to gain insight on what they want from the product.
During design and analysis, you will need to understand the basics of user testing, which involves letting people actively use your product, or experience mapping, which lays out the step-by-step path that users should take.
You’ll need to be competent in wireframes, which are rough outlines of websites or apps, and A/B testing, which simultaneously tests variables to see which version performs best.
One of the best things you can do for your UX design career is to learn code. While an understanding of HTML and CSS is not the golden ticket to a user experience career, it’s one of the most vital components of the field. These codes act as the foundation or skeleton of a program, so you can’t work in UX design without a basic understanding of code.
What is The Highest Paying Design Jobs?
Here are five design career paths that can lead to a cushy salary.
Video game designer
What you’d do: Video game designer probably sounds like a dream job to any video game enthusiast, and if you can make it in the business, it comes with a pretty lucrative career path. As a video game designer, you will be responsible for the creation and implementation of creative designs alongside engineers, programmers, and artists.
Having a degree in computer graphics, programming, art, or another related field will help you gain the experience you need to become a video game designer.
What you’d need: Abachelor’s degree in computer graphics, art, or a related field is typical. Video game design is a highly competitive field, so you will need to be on the top of your game (no pun intended) if you want to succeed.
The level of technical understanding you will need to create video games can be intense and the expectations are generally very high from consumers and clients. Important skills include a strong understanding of math, analytical skills, written and verbal skills, object oriented programming (OOP), and Adobe Photoshop.
What you’d make: According to PayScale, the average salary for a video game designer is $60,013 per year, with a reported salary range of $36,201 to $99,576.
Product designer
What you’d do: Think about the items you use in your daily life and ask yourself, “Who made this?” Answer: A product designer made that. From toothbrushes and tools to cameras and camping equipment, a product designer was hired to either come up with new designs or improve existing ones.
Product designers work in a variety of fields—basically, any industry that makes consumer products relies on product designers to see an item through the initial stages of sketches and illustrations to the final stages of mass production.
What you’d need: A bachelor’s degree in industrial design is an ideal first step in your career as a product designer.
What you’d make: According to PayScale, the average salary for a product designer is $76,081 per year, with a reported salary range of $43,988 to $122,267.
User experience designer
What you’d do: We all like our web, mobile, and desktop experiences to be functional and appealing to the eye, but those outside of the design industry might not realize how much goes into creating that palatable user experience. User experience designers are tasked with developing functional designs that are appealing to the front end user.
As a user experience designer, you will work closely with developers and other designers in the process to make sure the overall vision is ultimately realized. You will work closely with clients and other departments to figure out the overall design within the requirements.
Part of your role will include working closely with departments such as sales, marketing, and product to better understand what users and clients want.
What you’d need: You will need a bachelor’s degree, and it will help if you have have a background in psychology or sociology to better understand the end user. The skills required for this role include user research, usability testing, interaction design, information architecture, and user interface design.
What you’d make: According to PayScale, the average salary for a user experience designer is $72,886 per year, with a reported salary range of $48,593 to $103,650. User experience designer is a job with a strong career path if you can get in on the ground floor and move up through the ranks.
Animator
What you’d do: Animators are responsible for bringing us some of our favorite forms of entertainment, but the job isn’t all fun and games. As an animator you will have a demanding schedule, so you’ll want to make sure you are truly passionate about animation before dedicating time and energy into getting a job in the field.
Your main responsibilities will include working with teams to develop your creative goals as well as designing, refining, improving and updating videos.
What you’d need: In order to become an animator, you will want to first get your bachelor’s degree in in fine art, computer graphics, animation, or another similar field. Your portfolio will be important in landing you a job, so be sure to add strong pieces and keep it up to date as you go through school and even after you graduate.
What you’d make: According to PayScale, the average salary for an animator is $50,680, with an average salary range of $31,937 to $82,072 per year. Skills associated with higher pay include 2D animation, 3D animation, and Autodesk Maya.
User interface designer
What you’d do: A user interface designer is responsible for making sure that the user experience on desktop, mobile, or the web is seamless and functional. Unlike a user experience designer, a user interface designer needs experience in programming and software development for desktop, mobile, and the web.
The main responsibilities of a user interface designer are to develop and create a usable and attractive user interface. You will also be responsible for testing out the design for usability as well as researching trends to ensure you create a finished product that both the end-user and your client will want to use.
What you’d need: You will need a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, human computer interactions, cognitive psychology, and any related field. It will be important to understand not only how programs work, but also how users interact with those programs in a fluid way. Popular skills for this role include JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Adobe Illustrator, and HTML.
What you’d make: According to PayScale, the average salary for a user interface designer is $68,362 per year, with a reported salary range of $42,678 to $100,821 per year. It’s a role that can lead to other higher-paying roles down the line, including senior user experience architects or senior user experience designers.
How Does UX Help Business?
Such frictionless, satisfying experiences are important for small businesses, as they help boost customer satisfaction by providing enhanced accessibility, usability and enjoyable interaction with a product.
The increased customer satisfaction generated through UX design means small businesses help attract and retain customers, sell a greater number of products and remain more competitive and profitable.
Users expectations on their experience of products are on the rise. Consequently, to remain competitive, businesses need to implement UX design into their products to ensure their customers have the seamless, pleasurable experience they have come to expect.
What is UX Design Strategy?
A UX strategy is the plan and approach for a digital product.
UX strategies help businesses translate their intended user experience to every touchpoint where people interact with or experience its products or services. A solid UX strategy ensures that the business vision, user needs, and technical capabilities are aligned and helps to prioritize a team’s attention and resources by keeping them focused on solving the right problems for target users.
How to Create a UX Strategy
There are a number of methods product teams can use to create a UX strategy. At the core, it involves researching, planning, testing and validating ideas before the implementation of design or development begins.
Some common approaches include:
Stakeholder Interviews
- What is the scope of the project?
- What is the company’s mission?
- What are the goals and objectives of this product?
- What is the budget?
- What defines success for this project?
- What success can the user experience deliver?
User Research
- Who are the target users?
- What devices are they using?
- What problems do they need solved and how are they currently solving them?
- Why they are or aren’t using the product? (for existing products)
Competitive Research and Analysis
- What is the competition doing?
- Is there an opportunity to create a unique value proposition?
Often, a UX Strategy can take the form of a document containing the information learned during the discovery phase: This document can be used to guide the product team and keep everyone working towards the same goal.
Why is UX Important to Marketing?
User experience is an important topic in today’s digital environment. And for digital marketers, sometimes it is hard to know what is a priority and what is not.
So, we’ve compiled a list of 5 reasons why UX should be a priority for digital marketers.
1. Positive UX leads to customer satisfaction
Businesses must ensure the user experience is as seamless as possible as it affects every way people interact with your company. That is why UX is an inevitable element to building relationships with your customers.
It is essential to build a positive user experience because it boosts customer satisfaction and repeats business. Your customers are going to be happier and ready to share their experience.This is also the best way to differentiate your product or service from your competitors.
2. Good UX improves SEO
A good UX can contribute to visibility in searches to potential customers. Having a good UX encourages users to explore through your content to find out more, therefore reducing your bounce rate.
Google is giving more consideration to your site’s client experience than you might suspect. The lower the bounce rate, the higher the indication to Google that your website is full of useful content and that it satisfies the user’s search intent.
3. UX Builds Conversions
UX has a significant impact on your conversions. Good marketing strategies provide customers with all the information needed about a product or a service. So, you need to put yourself in customer view, and then adjust your strategy according to that.
Read Also: How Much Money can a UX/UI Designer Make?
Guide them in the right direction, without any issues. If or when the user found that information useful, it will drive them to follow through the website to find out even more information. And from that moment, UX will guide them to a conversion.
Also, don’t forget that a simple call to action, if placed on the right spot, can lead to a conversion rate.
4. Effective landing page design
79% of customers admit to searching for another site if the one they landed on does not live up to expectations, which is telling you what?
That you need to create a perfect landing page that will pop up from the rest. It is the first visual sight that affects everything.
Well-designed websites may have a visitor-to-customer conversion rate of up to 200 percent higher than a poorly designed site. The better the user experience of your site is, the more likely visitors are to become customers.
So, make it easy for your visitors to find the information they need without any hassle. And also, by having a perfect landing page you are also improving your website conversion rate.
5. Optimize it to mobile
Some mobile statistics:
- 67% of mobile users say they’re more likely to buy the product from a mobile-friendly site
- 48% of the users feel frustrated when products are not optimized for mobile
- With mobile now accounting for 65% of digital media time, the desktop becomes the secondary touchpoint for a growing amount of digital customers
You can see it is highly important to optimize your landing page for mobile users if you don’t want to lose your conversions and damage brand reputation. More important, the mobile-optimized site is crucial for a high SEO mobile rank.
UX Consulting Rates
An excellent way to figure out what to charge is to first ask the company what their budget is for the job. This takes some of the pressure off of you to come into discussions with a fixed number of your own.
They may come back and ask you again what you estimate a job of that scope will cost. So just in case, you can come up with a ballpark range of your own. We encourage you to do your own research before meeting with a company so you can get a better idea of how much they could and should offer you.
By the Hour
If you’re charging by the hour, you can use this handy chart Upwork shared with the latest data on what people are charging for freelance UX work in the U.S. Here’s what they found:
SAMPLE UX DESIGNER RATES (Estimated billing rates charged by intermediate-level, U.S.-based specialists) | |
Project Type | Average Price (per hour) |
UX Design (General) | $25-$75 |
Wireframing | $30-$60 |
User Research | $25-$65 |
Storyboards/Personas | $30-$70 |
While these ranges are quite wide, it’s a good starting point if you’re totally lost on what to charge. Be sure to consider how much time you estimate you’ll be spending on this job, as well as the non-billable work you did to land it (personal branding, searching for jobs, interviewing).
How to Price UX Work
There are typically three methods you can take when giving your client a quote for UX and design work:
- fixed price,
- hourly rate (often called time & materials), and
- ballpark figure + hourly rate.
The cost for each is based on the same hourly rate, and the process of estimating is the same. There are, however, subtle differences between these methods, and each has their advantages and disadvantages.
Fixed price
Fixed price, as the name suggests, means providing the client with a flat fee for the work. This is great for the client—they understand upfront what they’ll need to pay, and there will be no surprises. However, this approach places all of the risk with you, the designer. If the project runs over time on a fixed price job, you may have to wear the extra cost (depending on your contract).
Due to the risk involved, I would recommended that you be very comfortable with the full scope of work before agreeing to a fixed price schedule. Ensure you watch for scope-creep while the project progresses, and be sure that your contract leaves no room for ambiguity.
Many design firms add a percentage of “padding” hours to fixed price estimates. This allows them to weather any unforeseen scope and reduces the risk.
Hourly rate (time and materials)
Charging an hourly rate—also known as time and materials is the fairest, most accurate method, since you simply track the time it takes to do the work and charge for that time at the end of the project (or at agreed milestones).
While this is great for the designer, the client harbours all of the risk in this situation; if the project overruns due to underestimating or changes in scope, the clock keeps running. It is typically rare for clients to agree to pay by time and materials on large projects due to the risk, but it’s quite common for much smaller gigs.
Ballpark figure + hourly rate
A ballpark figure + hourly rate is a combination of the previous two methods. In this instance, the designer provides the client with a fixed (ballpark) cost based on their estimations prior to starting the project, but with the understanding that if the project overruns they will continue to charge, tracking the additional hours.
This is a good solution for projects where the full scope isn’t known at commencement and the client doesn’t want to invest time in preparing a detailed brief.
Final Words
The UX consultant is on-demand and it looks promising, so if you are considering a career in that field please go ahead. As a business, you can already see the importance of a UX consultant on your products and services.