From sleek mobile apps to intuitive websites and innovative physical products, design has the power to captivate users, foster brand loyalty, and drive business success. A certain subset of video games can also fall under the category of digital products as we are describing them here, but not all of gaming. Where a game’s distinctiveness has to do with its mechanics rather than its unique digital interface, the roles of UX and Product Designers take a backseat in favour of truly specialised game designers.
- A website, for example, is certainly digital, but it is not necessarily a product.
- There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.
- This includes collating A/B testing data, communicating between marketing and developing, and acting as a creative leader of the project ship to make sure it’s all smooth sailing.
- Product designers have to align user needs with business goals because a product solution also needs to be sustainable and profitable for the company.
- It’s their job to make sure it’s easy for the visitor to use an app or website to top up their winter wardrobe.
For instance, working in industries such as technology, finance, or e-commerce might offer higher compensation compared to other sectors. Additionally, larger companies often have the resources to offer more competitive salaries. Figures for the European market are actually much more indicative, because the title Product Designer – in English irrespective of the country – has entered the job market to describe the tech role exclusively. As you may have gathered from the above descriptions, the roles of UX Designer and Product Designer often overlap with each other. Their focus will be on how the product has to enter and perform on the market.
Typical Requirements for a Career in Product Design
The most significant difference between UX designers and product designers is their design roles rather than any specific tasks in a product lifecycle—development, introduction, growth, maturity, saturation, decline. PayPal’s product designers now use the power of Merge technology to build one-page, fully functioning prototypes in less than 10 minutes! That’s eight times faster than an experienced UX designer using a popular vector-based design tool! Learn more about UXPin Merge and how you can sign up to request access for your company. Even when a product is highly successful, product designers look for sources of continuous improvement. In the beginning, the product might only offer simple features, such as checking the account balance, paying bills, and transferring funds.
According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a product designer in the United States is $104,000. Out of the 4,000 product designers surveyed, the highest salary was $171,000 while the lowest was $64,000. The graphic below outlines the difference between where UX and product designers spend the majority of their time working on a product’s design. With such a broad and ever-growing spectrum of design roles currently on the scene, the comparison between product designer vs. UX designer is frequently hashed out. Consider your interests, skills, and long-term goals when choosing a career. Both fields offer rewarding career opportunities, but they each require a unique set of skills and focus.
What Is Hick’s Law & Why Does It Matter for UX?
It’s important to reflect on your strengths, aspirations, and the kind of impact you wish to achieve through your design work to make an informed decision about your career path. In a nutshell, a product designer manages the product design process by studying customer needs and creating a solution to deliver an appropriate what is ui ux meaning experience. Both UX and product design roles follow the five-stage design thinking process. But while UX designers work on products before launch, product designers work on them after. While product designers and UX designers have distinct roles, they both play a critical role in creating a successful product.
Instead, avoid specialization and gain demonstrable foundations in UI and UX design so that they can find a hybrid role to build on before deciding which specialization they prefer. I talked with three people from the industry and asked them what they think is needed to make a great career in either field. There are no cons from a certain point of view because you get to take responsibility for the end product and users’ happiness.