Can I Become a Ux Designer if Im Not Good at Art

UX Design vs. Graphic Blueprint: Choosing the Right Career Path

Written by Coursera • Updated on May iv, 2022

What's the difference between a UX designer and a graphic designer? Learn what sets these roles autonomously and how you can transition between them.

User feel pattern (UX design) and graphic design—these two pattern-centric job titles may sound similar, but they actually perform singled-out tasks using different skill sets within the production development process. While graphic designers focus on visual elements, UX designers focus on the complete interaction between a user and a production.

In this article, nosotros'll get over the difference between UX designers and graphic designers, clarify some other blueprint roles, and discuss how you lot can brand the transition from graphic blueprint to UX.

Read more: What Does a UX Designer Do?

A quick guide to design roles

Browse some task boards, and you'll likely see several different roles that include the word "designer." To confuse matters further, some hiring managers use some of these terms interchangeably. But each typically has a specific part to play in the product development process. Let's accept a quick look at four mutual design roles.

• Graphic designer: Graphic designers utilize color, shapes, images, and fonts to create visual content for both print and digital media. These designs often serve as static, not-interactive layouts—logos, production packaging, advertisements, signage, brochures, or displays—used to communicate with customers.

• Visual designer: Visual designers typically focus on designing a production or brand identity that spans multiple platforms and customer touchpoints.

• UI designer: Where graphic designers create static visual content, user interface (UI) designers create interactive visual content. This includes the graphical elements of apps, websites, and electronic devices that users interact with.

• UX designer: UX designers focus on the entire interaction between a user and a production, including how that feel fabricated them experience. This type of blueprint goes beyond the visual to include information architecture and product prototyping.

UX designer vs graphic designer: What'due south the difference?

Ane of the biggest differences betwixt graphic design and UX design is the scope. Graphic designers focus on visual elements. UX designers take a broader perspective past focusing on the unabridged interaction between a user and a product. Graphic design is often just one part of the bigger user experience.

There are other differences likewise. Allow'south accept a await at a few of them.

Graphic designer	UX designer
Designs visual elements	Designs interactions
Brand-centric	User-centric
Specialized role	Multidisciplinary function
Skills include creativity, typography, color theory, computer-aided design	Skills include empathy, user enquiry, wireframing, prototyping, information architecture
Popular tools include Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, Pixlr	Pop tools include Balsamiq, Adobe XD, Figma, Sketch
May accept a bachelor's degree in graphic design	May have a bachelor'due south degree in human-computer interaction, figurer science, psychology, or design
$48,541 average salary (US) [ane]	$77,200 boilerplate bacon (Us) [2]

Type and focus of blueprint

Graphic designers design visual elements. UX designers pattern interactions. The one-time might involve a specialized fix of pattern-related skills, like color theory, typography, and computer-aided design. The latter involves a multidisciplinary set of skills that includes not just design, but user inquiry, information architecture, wireframing, and prototyping.

Graphic designers use visual elements to communicate a brand message. Therefore, their focus volition oftentimes be on staying true to a brand identity. UX designers advocate for the user, making certain a product meets user needs in a way that is accessible, intuitive, and enjoyable.

Tasks and responsibilities

With such dissimilar focuses, UX and graphic designers oftentimes spend their fourth dimension on dissimilar elements of the product evolution procedure.

Day-to-mean solar day tasks for a graphic designer might include:

• Collaborating with clients and art directors

• Creating logos, images, and illustrations

• Choosing colors, images, and fonts for layouts

• Using digital analogy tools and photograph editing software

Solar day-to-solar day tasks for a UX designer might include:

• Identifying user needs, goals, behaviors, and pain points through user inquiry

• Creating user personas and user journey maps

• Designing site maps, wireframes, and prototypes

• Validating designs through user testing and iterating with new features or fixes

• Collaborating with product designers, developers, UI designers, and stakeholders

Tools and software

The tools and software UX and graphic designers utilize to consummate their tasks also differ.

Graphic designers might use pen and paper, a tablet and stylus, or a estimator at different stages of the design process. While particular software choices differ from designer to designer and company to visitor, many volition utilize analogy apps, photo editing software, graphic vector editor, and layout editing software.

A UX designer might use a variety of tools for different tasks. At that place are tools specifically for depression and loftier-fidelity prototyping, flowcharting, building questionnaires and surveys, wireframing, and usability testing.

Graphic and UX designer salary

How much you earn as a graphic or UX designer will depend on a number of factors, including your location, education, corporeality of feel, and industry. But in general, UX designers tend to describe a bigger salary than graphic designers. Here's a await at how three unlike sources report average or median salaries in the US.

	U.s. Bureau of Labor Statistics	Glassdoor (Us)	PayScale (US)
Graphic designer salary	$53,380 median salary (2020)	$48,537 average bacon (2021)	$46,162 boilerplate salary (2021)
UX designer bacon	$77,200 median salary (2020)	$102,056 average salary (2021)	$74,522 boilerplate salary (2021)

Educational requirements

UX designers and graphic designers might come from different educational backgrounds too. Graphic design jobs often require a available'southward degree in graphic blueprint or a related field.

Since UX is a relatively new field, you lot won't find as many established caste programs in UX specifically. Instead, UX designers might go their degree in computer science, human-figurer interaction, psychology, or design.

Every bit the field of UX continues to grow and evolve, some universities are taking notice and offering new programs in user experience. These might take various titles, like:

• Interaction blueprint

• Digital technologies

• Advice design

• Product design

• Multimedia blueprint

Which type of blueprint is correct for me?

If you have a passion for creativity and technology, a design career could exist a good fit. Which type of design will depend on your unique skills and interests. If you're visually-oriented and could spend hours manipulating color palettes and fonts to make a graphic look just correct, graphic design work might be for you. If y'all're interested in human psychology and love investigating a problem through research and information, and so consider a move to UX.

From graphic designer to UX designer: Making the transition

If you lot accept some experience in graphic design, there are some compelling reasons to consider shifting into UX. Demand for graphic designers is projected to turn down by four percent over the next decade [three], according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The need for UX designers is slated to grow by eight percent—that's much faster than boilerplate [iv]. UX designers besides depict a larger salary on average.

So how do you lot make the transition? Luckily, many of the visual design skills yous've adult in the world of graphic design will transfer into user experience. Good aesthetics have an bear upon on UX. An Open up University study in 2005 found that nosotros perceive visually pleasing things equally more than usable, fifty-fifty when there is no correlation between attractiveness and performance [5].

That means y'all can focus on building out your skills in some other areas of UX design, including:

• User research: A large part of the UX designer's job is understanding what users need and how a production tin best run across those needs. This requires user research.

• Data compages: In UX, function oft trumps grade. It'southward dandy if something looks good, only that ways petty if information technology doesn't work. Learning best practices for information architecture can empower you to structure content on websites and apps that is intuitive to the user and makes every click count.

• Testing and iteration: In graphic blueprint, once something looks right, your job is likely washed. UX involves a more iterative process, where you pattern something, build it, exam information technology with existent users, then render to the blueprint process to revise.

Michael, a UX designer at Google, explains how he maid the transition from a career in animation into user experience.

Go started in UX

If you're set up to make the shift to a career in UX, enroll for gratuitous in the Google UX Design Professional Certificate on Coursera. This program helps you build job-fix skills in less than six months—no experience or degree required. Y'all'll walk through the design process with UX professionals from Google and complete 3 terminate-to-finish projects for your portfolio—a website, a mobile app, and a cross-platform experience. Get started with a 7-day gratis trial.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Related articles

• What Does a UX Designer Do? [Updated 2021]

• What Does a Graphic Designer Do? (and How Do I Get One?)

• What Is a User Interface (UI) Designer? Your Guide [2021]

Article sources

1. Glassdoor. "Graphic Designer Salaries, https://world wide web.glassdoor.com/Salaries/graphic-designer-salary-SRCH_KO0,sixteen.htm." Accessed May 5, 2021.

2. US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Web Developers and Digital Designers, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htm." Accessed May five, 2021.

3. US Agency of Labor Statistics. "Graphic Designers, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-pattern/graphic-designers.htm." Accessed May five, 2021.

four. Usa BLS. "Web Developers and Digital Designers."

v. The Open University. "Exercise "attractive things work amend"? An exploration of search tool visualisations, https://cadre.air conditioning.uk/download/pdf/82971727.pdf." Accessed May five, 2021.

Written by Coursera • Updated on May 4, 2022

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued run into their personal, professional person, and financial goals.

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Source: https://www.coursera.org/articles/ux-design-vs-graphic-design

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