The average salary range for a UX designer in Austin is between $70,000 and $90,000, according to the latest data compiled by Built In.
Job Outlook
Although the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) doesn't have specific data on UX designers, it predicts web development positions to grow 27% from 2014 to 2024, which is much faster than the average for all other occupations.
More searches now take place on mobile devices than on computers in the United States, according to Google.
With more eyes on shrinking screen sizes than every before, it's important for any business in need of a mobile presence (i.e., most all of them) to design for the user experience, and the bottom line.
The Design Management Institute found that companies with a significant investment in design have outperformed the S&P 500 by 228% over the last ten years.
Our job board currently has many openings from Austin startup and tech companies looking for people with UX design skills—and the listings are growing everyday.
Related: View open UX designer jobs
Austin vs. National Average
Career website Glassdoor recently listed UX designer as the 18th "Best Job in America," citing the national median salary as $91,800.
CyberCoders, which released its 2016 salary guide in January, places the average salary nationwide at $95,269, with the highest earning designer making $212,500.
Built In Austin’s salary range of $70,000 to $90,000 is based on a survey of hiring managers at local tech companies. Salary is dependent on company size, employee experience, and the negotiating ability of the employers and applicants.
Skills Required
UX designers wear many hats, but they are ultimately responsible for improving user engagement across devices, studying the behavior of users and employing A/B testing to monitor how changes in design influence the customer experience.
As Danny Boice, the co-founder and CTO of Speek, wrote in a blog for 500.co:
"User experience people think about the holistic usability of your product. This includes things like personas constituting your users, the flows users will follow, how to make flows and screens as user-friendly as possible, and what goes (or better—gets left off of) each screen."
A UX designer will work with product managers, developers and visual designers on the following:
- Design and prototype of aesthetically pleasing interfaces
- Defining and developing new features
- Creating ideal user flow for new and existing customers to and from a site's most important touch points
- Optimal placement of key features in the design
- Copy, labels and messaging
