The Experts’ Guide to Becoming a UX Designer in 2026
Do you know who helps make digital product s like the apps on your phone and websites like the one you’re reading this article on useful and delightful? Bonus points if you say it’s user experience designers! Also known as UX designers, these professionals work with developers, product teams, and users to build products users would actually use. In this guide, I want to show you how you can become a UX designer and earn a potential entry-level salary between $85,000 and $145,000.
Who Can Become a UX Designer?
User experience designers can start out in graphic design, psychology, market research, UX design (no typo!) and other related fields. The traditional path for many UX designers is a first career in web design or web development, but you’ll do just fine even if you don’t fit this profile.
If you care enough about human-centered design, you are likely a good fit for a UX design career. Human-centered design works to reveal what people truly need to solve a problem through continuous testing and validation.
Should You Become a UX Designer?
This is the natural follow-up question to who can become a UX designer. If you’re interested in a UX career, that’s good. The field is broad so it’s important that you understand why you’re interested and what you want to specialize in. Here’s what I mean:
You may have a thing for quantitative data analysis and want to work in UX research.
You may enjoy developing and testing rapid prototypes on real-life users and iterating to produce a resounding product experience.
You might enjoy writing microcopy and know how to communicate compelling brand messaging in few characters.
You need to first understand the various disciplines that comprise modern UX design to understand if there’s a role that you would like to explore. That said, it’s possible to refine your skills in any area of user experience.
Conclusion
An aspiring UX designer must prepare to understand how programs work and how people think, to be successful at designing human-centered products. The vocation takes time to acquire the right skill set despite not having any formal requirements or single path to becoming a UX designer. Popular apps on UILand have significant contributions from seasoned UX designers, so you can learn a lot by studying them.
