Our focus on Digital is around User Experience (UX) or User Interface (UI) Designers. Put in the simplest terms, UX/UI is a procedure of improving the overall experience of the users when they interact with an application or website in order to achieve its objective to provide maximum customer satisfaction. This keeps customers in mind and creates the basic skeleton of any application or website.
Over the last 7 years salaries in the digital arena have increased drastically with UX/UI Designers having the choice of roles and a very buoyant contractor market to contend with. 10-15% increase over the last 2 years with senior level positions easily attracting £80,000 - £90,000 basic salaries depending on the size of an organisation. If building a new team it is imperative to find a thought leader to attract more junior talent into an in-house team with natural progression options for these less experienced individuals.
With the majority of UX/UI Designers working for consultancies, it's imperative you hire a thought leader who is known in the market and can attract this talent from a consultancy to “in-house”. By hiring this critical role, it should ensure you hire talent that little bit easier and also retain the talent.
Offer flexible hours if you can and not the standard 9-5. As most employees say, work-life balance is important and while some consultancies do offer
this, when the workload increases it does put demand on this flexibility. By working in-house, the designers have the ability to forecast workload and in turn find this balance.
The market is in a state of flux, with 40 entry-level, 340 mid and 3400 senior roles open across the UK. Organisations often try to retain talent by promoting early or giving out senior titles, like “Lead UX Designee” OR “UI Director”. So it’s essential to check the experience, qualifications and portfolio, to see if this is the right level for this individual.
| SALARY BENCHMARKS | RANGE | DAY RATE |
|---|---|---|
| UX Researcher | £35,000 - £65,000 | £500 |
| UI Designer | £35,000 - £65,000 | £500 |
| Product Owner | £55,000 - £65,000 | £500 |
| Product Manager | £60,000 - £70,000 | £500 |
| Head of Product / Design | £90,000+ | £850 |
This is open. A background in graphical design is useful. Good UX/UI Designers can come from a wide range of educational backgrounds, so be open-minded when looking through CVs – often the best approach is to start with a Portfolio to get the measure of their talent or abilities.
