If you’re after a competitive salary, demand for your skills, and a varied, interesting career, the answer is a resounding yes.

In this post, we’ll take a look at the state of UX design in 2024, whether it’s the right career for you and your goals, and then see whether your profile is a good fit for UX design. Of course, you can dive right in with our free short course.

Let’s dive in.

1. Is UX design a good career?
   • Demand for UX designers
   • Salary for UX designers
   • Job satisfaction for UX designers
   • Remote work for UX designers
   • Impact of UX designers
2. Is UX design a good career for me?
3. Key takeaways and next steps

1. Is UX design a good career?

Demand for UX designers

In the face of AI and tech layoffs, you’ll be forgiven for wondering if UX design is a reliable career to embark on this year.

But for those interested in jumping into the field, the outcome is undeniably good. As the benefits of UX design to a business’s bottom line become increasingly apparent, the demand for UX designers is only on the rise.

With the new need for UX specialists to inform the use of AI tools and the importance of UX design in the explosive gaming industry, there’s no limit in sight.

Glassdoor added it to their list of best 50 jobs to have in 2022 and CNN Money predicts the demand for UX designers to grow by 13% from 2017-2027. 

Even more recently, Indeed added it to their list of 19 IT jobs that are in demand. 

Salary

Average UX design salary: $93,046

A UX designer’s salary, like any role, depends on your experience level, which company you work for, where you live, and any number of other considerations, even at-the-interview negotiations.

The TL;DR is that the salary is highly competitive, far exceeds the national average of $53,490 per year, and the UX design role makes regular appearances in “highest-paying entry-level jobs” lists.

For more information on what salary you might earn as a UX designer, have a look at our UX designer salary guide.

Job satisfaction and variety

There aren’t too many jobs out there that combine both creativity and analytical thinking. If you want a career that incorporates both, UX design is the ideal meeting point.

On the one hand, you’ll need to conduct user research and analyze the results, identifying trends and patterns in the data. At the same time, you’ll need to be creative when it comes to generating ideas, collaborating with UI designers on visual aspects, and coming up with solutions to problems.

Within the UX design umbrella, there’s so much you can do. From video games to mobile apps, from virtual reality to voice design, there are countless paths you could end up on.

Increasingly, UX designers are expected to have specialized knowledge in areas such as voice design, user research, frontend development, and UX writing. If you don’t want to be tied to one set field and you like the idea of branching out, a career in UX design is full of opportunity.

Remote work

Remote work is on the rise, and UX design is one of the most popular roles for this new work approach.

Research by MarketsandMarkets shows that the remote workplace services market size is expected to increase from USD 20.1 billion in 2022 to 58.5 billion by 2027

If you dream of working remotely and becoming a so-called digital nomad, or even working for yourself, UX design is one career where this is not only completely possible but also fairly common.

To find out more about remote UX design, read up on how to become a remote UX designer.

Impact

As a UX designer, you’ll be doing meaningful work. How? Well, you’re shaping the world around you and influencing—and improving—how people experience it. Not only that: design has a direct impact on business outcomes, with design-driven companies outperforming their competitors.

As the world of UX sets its focus on inclusive design, more companies and design teams are looking for ways to create products and experiences that are more inclusive than ever, and this has a direct impact on users who are often excluded based on their abilities, race, gender, identity, or background.

UX designers have the power to create a world that works better for users along the full spectrum of humanity! Learn more about inclusive design in our beginners’ guide.

3. Is UX design a good career for me?

While anyone can pursue a career in UX, not everyone would necessarily feel at home in this field. When considering whether this is the right path for you, remember that the skillset of a great UX designer is incredibly broad. You need to think about your inherent characteristics, your natural talents, and what motivates you on a daily basis.

A great UX designer has an incredibly broad skill set that encompasses a variety of soft skills, industry skills, and crossover skills.

• Soft skills include things like interpersonal, collaborative, and communication skills, along with empathy, curiosity, and critical thinking. These are often skills that are difficult to teach, but that you’ve likely naturally developed in other work experiences and almost always benefit from continuous cultivation. We’ve seen people from many different backgrounds successfully start careers in UX, and that success starts with soft and transferable skills. So if you’re coming from a career in marketing, graphics design, dance, or teaching, it’s definitely possible to become a UX designer!
• Industry skills are the ones that you can learn, often through a UX design program or bootcamp: user research, UX writing, wireframing, prototyping, and more.
• Crossover skills will take you time and effort to learn, but if you keep an open and curious mind in every kind of work you do, it makes this development easier. These skills include things like business acumen, research, analytics, customer service, coding, and web development.

Here’s a visual breakdown of what the core UX design skillset looks like:

Here are some telltale signs that you’re a good fit for a career in UX design:

1. You put people first

Maybe you work in customer service and live by the motto that the customer is always right. Perhaps you just enjoy being around people and finding out what makes them tick. If you have a natural gift for empathy, you’ll likely enjoy many aspects of UX design, such as user research, creating personas, and gathering product feedback. UX design is all about understanding the user’s needs and putting them first. If you consider yourself a “people person,” you’re definitely off to a good start.

2. You’re interested in technology

UX designers are highly skilled at bridging the gap between technology and people. As Fred Beecher, Director of UX at The Nerdery explains, he is responsible for “humanizing technology.” Essentially, UX designers make sure that all the latest gadgets are easy for humans to use—be it the newest iPhone, the Amazon Alexa voice assistant, or a native mobile app. You don’t need to be a tech wizard to be a good UX designer, but if you do happen to be passionate about the latest trends and devices, a job in UX will put you right in the thick of it.

3. You thrive on variety

If you thrive on variety, you’ll definitely feel at home in UX design. It’s such a multidisciplinary field, comprising elements of design, human psychology, problem-solving and business. One day you could be interviewing users, the next you might be writing microcopy, creating website or app wireframes, or presenting your designs to developers. You’ll rarely be stuck at your desk doing the same task over and over, so you need to be comfortable wearing many hats and navigating an extremely varied to-do list.

4. You enjoy problem-solving

Problem-solving is at the very heart of UX design. First and foremost, you are designing to solve a specific user problem—but even within this process, there are additional layers of problem-solving. How do you create the optimal product within the given time and budget constraints, and how do you design for the user while fulfilling the business objectives? If you’re a problem-solver by nature, you’ll have plenty to offer in a UX design role.

5. You’re a good collaborator

UX design is not a solitary role. It’s a highly collaborative field, requiring clear communication and solid teamwork. At every stage of the process, UX designers need to collaborate with their peers; whether it’s conducting user research, aligning with stakeholders or handing over to developers. If you enjoy working with others and are confident when it comes to presenting your ideas, you should have no problem with this aspect of the job.

6. You’re prepared for a steep learning curve

One of the great things about UX design is that there’s so much to learn and explore that it never gets boring. If you are brand new to the field, you should be prepared for a steep learning curve—but as long as you’re passionate, it won’t feel like a chore. Even once you’ve mastered the fundamentals, you’ll need to constantly upskill in order to succeed. If you’re a keen learner and always want to better yourself, UX is a field that will push you to do so.

7. You’re a stickler for detail

If you’ve got a good eye for detail, you’ll be right at home in UX. When designing for the user, it’s important to think about every single tiny detail—not just aesthetically, but in terms of functionality too. The overall user experience is made up of so many different elements, and these all need to be considered. You’ll also need to revise and refine your designs until they are market-ready, so an eye for detail and a tendency toward perfectionism will go a long way.

3. Key takeaways and next steps

Now that you’ve got a better idea of whether or not you and UX design would be a good match, it’s time to start exploring. Start by reading some great books about design thinking, and taking a free introductory short course in UX design.

Or, go ahead and speak directly with a UX design program advisor.

If you think this might be the career for you, here are some other articles you’ll find useful:

• How to become a UX designer
• The best UX design schools (and how to choose one)
• The UX Job Quiz: Which UX Design Role Is Right for You?

But you may not fully understand just yet how to make the most of them, or what a good user story looks like.

I’ll kick things off with an explanation of what user stories are, before looking at why they’re important. I’ll then explain how user stories are used in Agile. After that, I’ll share some tips on how to write a good user story and some user story examples. 

To skip ahead to any section, use this clickable menu:

1. What are UX user stories?
2. Why are user stories important?
3. User stories and Agile
4. How to write a good user story 
5. Examples of UX user stories
6. Closing thoughts

What are UX user stories?

User stories are short, specific, and goal-oriented statements, written in the first-person, that represent a user’s goals, needs, aspirations, or expectations.

UX user stories are generally one sentence long and made up of three parts:

1. The subject of the action (i.e. the user’s name)
2. The action the subject/user wants to do
3. The outcome they want to achieve

By following this structure they look like this:

As <1>, I want to <2>, so that <3>.

We’ll go into a few specific examples of UX user stories in more detail in a later section, but here’s a one to give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

As <Stephanie>, I want to <get notified in advance about when I need to update my OS>, so <I don’t have to stop working for half an hour when it’s inconvenient>

Another way of thinking about the three parts of a user story that might be helpful for you is “who?”, “what?”, and “why?”:

1. Who am I?
2. What do I want to do?
3. Why do I want to do it?

Here’s how you could apply the content from the example above to the “who?”, “what?”, and “why?” structure: 

1. Who am I? A mac user
2. What do I want to do? Get notified in advance about when I need to update my OS
3. Why do I want to do it? So I don’t have to stop working for half an hour when it’s inconvenient

While this may look like a very simple sentence, it actually reveals a lot about who you’re designing and building for and why.

And it’s for this reason that user stories are used regularly and systematically by UX designers, product designers, and product managers.They’re tools for getting an in-depth understanding of users’ needs, and the starting point for generating solutions that will give those users value.

Now that I’ve explained what user stories are, let’s look at why they’re so important. 

Why are user stories important? 

User stories are important for UX designers, product designers, product managers, and development teams for many different reasons. Let’s take a look at five of the most important ones:

• User stories help keep products user-focused and user-centered. To avoid creating features that haven’t been externally validated, user stories ensure that all features are user-focused, based on real user needs and goals, and driven by empathy for users.
• User stories give designers a realistic and concrete view of the user. User stories help designers to get important context on users’ goals. By putting yourself into your user’s shoes, you understand how your product or feature fits into their day-to-day life. UX user stories should be created with—or at least validated by—UX research.
• User stories encourage team collaboration by creating alignment on the user and development priorities. Many projects include a wide range of stakeholders, including content designers, UX researchers, product managers, product owners, and developers (in addition to the UX designer). Ideally, user stories should be accessible, manageable, and understandable to all of these stakeholders. 
• User stories help with task prioritization by acting as a roadmap or navigational aid. On top of informing the functionality of the product, user stories can help designers determine the order in which features are designed and how they are designed. User stories can help projects stay focused on what is implementable and achievable at each stage, and what should be left out until later on. We’ll talk about this in the context of Agile in the next section.
• User stories drive creative solutions. This collaborative process of putting yourself in your users’ shoes encourages the team to think critically and creatively about the best solutions for the users’ goals. Often, this results in finding creative solutions that would otherwise have been missed.

Now that I’ve outlined five reasons why user stories are important, I’ll explain why they’re part of Agile software development and how they fit into the bigger picture.

User stories and Agile

User stories and Agile are often mentioned in the same breath.

The concept of user stories originated in Agile, and they remain a core component of an agile program.

As I explained above, user stories help to ensure features and products are user-centered. This means that—in the context of Agile—they act as a user-focused framework for daily work. They help make sure work is collaborative and creative, driving teams towards better products.  

User stories are the smallest units of work in an agile framework and they serve as building blocks for larger agile frameworks like epics (larger projects broken down in multiple stories) and initiatives (multiple epics). Epics and initiatives exist to make sure that the day-to-day work fits into wider organizational goals.

In an agile framework, teams should be able to complete user stories in a sprint. And if a story is too big to be completed in a sprint, it should be broken down into smaller ones or subtasks. 

Completing user stories often gives teams a sense of achievement during a sprint and helps them to build momentum.  

User stories work well in both scrum and agile frameworks. Because of space, I won’t go into the details here, but if you’re interested in learning more about user stories in scrum or agile (and how user stories fit in the wider context of Agile project management), Max Rekhopf has written an excellent guide on the subject for Atlassian: User Stories – Examples and Template.

How do Agile frameworks help UX?

Laura Klein, in a blog post for the Interaction Design Foundation, explains that Agile is “a great aid in user-centered design, not least because it offers us a faster track by which to research and plan, particularly in that we can structure and fine-tune epics to help find every possible dimension of a project”.

She also explains the relationships between user stories and agile compellingly—user stories give us a firm grasp of the users and their wants; and this combines with the structure and flexibility of epics to powerful effect.

To learn more about using Agile as a UX designer, check out our guide to Agile UX.

Now that I’ve looked at how user stories are used in Agile, I’ll explain how to write a good user story.

How to write a good user story 

As user stories are short and follow the same simple structure, it’s easy to get fooled into thinking they’re easy to write.

In fact, they can be very challenging to put together.

A good user story needs to be clear, actionable, and user-focused. Here are five things you can do that will help you create good UX user stories:

1. Involve user research and talk to your customers. Because user stories need to reflect real needs and goals, getting user research is essential. Qualitative user research like observations, interviews, and other ethnographic methods can be extremely useful in generating relevant user insights. You may also realize around this stage that you need multiple user stories for different personas (for more on personas, check out Raven Veal’s comprehensive guide, How to Define a User Persona.) 
2. Define your user stories collaboratively. Creating user stories collaboratively acts as a quality-check, ensuring that the whole team both supports them and believes they are implementable. 
3. Be short, specific, and lead to a measurable outcome. User stories that are too long or vague don’t work because just actioning them—let alone measuring their outcomes—isn’t possible. You can include any extra information in subtasks or tasks, if you need to.
4. Be clear on what the user wants to achieve, not what the feature should be. This is related to number 3—it’s crucial that the user story does not prescribe or spell out the feature or product that needs to be created. That comes later. The team needs to be given freedom to figure out and implement the best solution. Your user story should instead be focused on what the user wants to achieve and why.
5. Include a definition of “done”. Most of the time this is easy to define, because the story will be complete when the user can complete the task. But remember to define exactly what that looks like.

Now I’ve gone over some ways you can create good user stories, it’s time to take a look at some examples and understand what makes them good.

Examples of good UX user stories 

Going back to the first section of the guide, you’ll remember that user stories are made of three components, the subject of the action, the action the subject/user wants to do, and the outcome they want to achieve. This means they typically look like this:

As <1>, I want to <2>, so that <3>. 

Here’s an example with the subject, action, and outcome included:

As Carla, I want to buy a used bike for under $400, so I can cycle to work.

This user story is good because it is clear, actionable, and user-focused. You can see how this would quickly generate design questions, like “How do we let Carla filter bikes by price?” and “Should we suggest price brackets, let users enter them themselves, or both?”

Here’s another example:

As Armin, I want to invite friends to share a cab to a party, so I can save some money.

Like the first one, this user story is clear and user-focused. If you were part of the team responsible for actioning it, you’d ask questions like “Can Armin invite his friends before he’s booked the cab, or only after?” “What if Armin’s friends don’t use our app?” and “How many friends can Armin invite?”  

Going through these questions—and dozens more of course—would help the team come up with potential solutions in the ideation phase.

Let’s look at one final example: 

As Anjali, I want to save the shows I want to watch later, so I don’t have to waste time scrolling for them.

Once again, this example is clear, actionable, and user-focused. It’s short and specific too, and it doesn’t include any prescription on what the feature should be. It also has a very easily measurable outcome and definition of done: “Can Anjali now easily save her shows?”.

Closing thoughts 

Because user stories follow a very simple structure, when they’re done well, they can help your projects in many ways. They can help them stay user-centered, goal-focused, and realistically implementable.

User stories should be based on a solid understanding of your users, one that is based on evidence rather than assumptions (hello, UX research). And good user stories can act as excellent drivers of creativity and innovation, as well as navigational aids for projects.

If you’re new to UX design or product design, it’s 100% worth getting familiar with user stories. Hopefully this guide has helped you do that.

Want to dive deeper on the basics of UX design? Take our free 5-day short course in UX design.

Or explore our comprehensive guides:

• 7 Principles of Design: A UXer’s Guide
• The Best UX Bootcamps and How to Choose One
• The Difference Between UX and UI Design: A Beginner’s Guide

To get a better sense of the day-to-day work of a UX designer, watch this video with Dee Scarano, an experienced UX designer:

UX designers bridge the gap between the business and the user, acting as the key point of contact for stakeholders, developers, and customers. On a day-to-day basis, a huge part of the job involves interviewing users and, in many cases, delivering workshops.

Given the highly collaborative nature of UX, you may be wondering: Is it possible to work remotely as a UX designer?

In a word: yes.

The remote job market is still growing, and UX design is no exception. In this guide to how to become a remote UX designer, we’ll tell you everything you need to know. We’ll cover:

1. Can UX designers work remotely?
2. What kinds of companies hire remote UX designers?
3. How much do remote UX designers earn? [2024 Salaries]
4. How easy is it to become a remote UX designer?
5. How to find a remote UX design job
6. Key takeaways and next steps
7. FAQ about remote UX design

Ready? Let’s jump in.

1. Can UX designers work remotely?

Definitely—the role of a UX designer is one that is ideally suited to remote work. With the right collaborative tools, communication, and a good internet connection, UX design can be done fully remotely.

It’s natural to wonder whether one can be successful in UX design while working remotely. On the r/UXDesign subreddit, one Redditor asks if fully remote UX designers can excel.

Most answers were a resounding yes. The most upvoted response comes from a Redditor with years of experience.

“I’ve been working fully remotely as a UX designer since 2014, so before COVID. I’m not sure what you mean with ‘excel’, but I’ve managed to hold steady jobs and income for almost 10 years now while not setting foot in an office, so I’d call that a win. It’s absolutely doable.”

We asked seasoned UX designer Maureen Herben whether she thinks it’s possible:

For Maureen’s fellow CareerFoundry UX design graduate Tom Hopcroft, becoming a remote designer has allowed him to live and travel in Spain. Here’s his two cents:

If you want true freedom, the best way to achieve that is by learning a skill that allows you to work remotely.

When you learn a skill that you can do online from anywhere, you detach yourself from the limitations of your local job market and all of a sudden, the pool becomes much bigger—you have more options.

Once I’d finished my UX design program, the world felt much bigger all of a sudden, and I was looking at remote roles all over the world.

Just beginning to explore UX as career? Jump right in with our free short course in UX design.

What is the job market like for remote UX designers?

The good news is, there’s more remote work for a UX designer than ever before.

Many employers have returned to the office after the Covid-19 pandemic. But remote work is here to stay: as of 2023, 12.7% of full-time workers work from home, with 28.2% working a hybrid model.

While the majority of the workforce still works from an office, more employers are open to remote work than ever before. By 2025, 36.2 million people in the U.S. are expected to work remotely. And by 2028, it’s predicted that 73% of all teams will have remote workers.

The best way to gauge the state of the remote job market for UX designers is to browse current openings on popular job boards. At the time of writing, there are almost a thousand remote UX design vacancies advertised on indeed.com, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor alone. That’s without factoring in other UX-related job titles, such as product designer and UX researcher, or hybrid roles.

In short, there are plenty of remote UX vacancies out there, and the remote market will continue to grow.

2. What kinds of companies hire remote UX designers?

As you can see, there’s a steady stream of opportunities for remote UX designers—but what kinds of companies tend to hire them? Are there certain UX-related job titles that seem to lend themselves to remote work?

According to a report by Owl Labs, small companies are twice as likely to hire fully remote workers. As with in-house UX roles, remote designers can find work in a range of different industries, with many vacancies cropping up in finance, technology, the automotive sector, software, e-commerce, and healthcare.

Here at CareerFoundry, our UX design graduates who find remote work end up with job titles such as UX designer, web designer, freelance designer, internet analyst, director of web and digital marketing, customer success manager, and UX researcher—to name just a few.

In fact, in this video, CareerFoundry graduate-turned-remote-UX designer Maureen gives us some more insight into a day in her life as a remote designer in Berlin, Germany:

Again, the best way to get a feel for the kinds of remote jobs available is to browse popular job sites. We’ll share some of the best portals for finding remote UX roles in section five.

3. How much do remote UX designers earn? [2024 Salaries]

You’re probably wondering about remote UX designer salaries—and whether or not they differ from that of an in-house designer.

As of 2024, the average yearly salary for a mid-level UX designer in the United States earns $127,364, depending on years of experience (indeed.com). If you’re just entering the field, you can expect to work your way up to this kind of salary within a few years.

So how do remote designer salaries compare? How much you earn as a remote UX designer depends on several factors, such as where your company is based, whether you’re employed on a full-time basis or working as a freelancer, and on your level of experience.

Generally speaking, remote UX designers have just as much earning potential as their in-house counterparts. The average yearly salary for a freelance UX designer based in the United States is $73,216 USD (indeed.com), while the average salary for a remote UX designer is around $89,862 USD (indeed.com).

You can learn more about UX designer salaries in this guide.

4. How easy is it to become a remote UX designer?

If you are a new or aspiring UX designer looking to work remote from the get-go, you’ll want to know just how realistic that is. We’ve covered some of the most frequently asked questions relating to remote work below.

Can you work remotely straight from a UX program or course?

An increasingly popular route into the world of UX is through a bootcamp or certification program, especially for those without any prior design experience. A UX program is also a good way to test out the remote work lifestyle: many programs are remote and self-paced.

Employers are more than happy to hire newly graduated designers; here at CareerFoundry, 96% of our UX program graduates find a job within six months of completing the program.

A portion of these graduates go straight into remote jobs, procuring job titles such as UX designer, web designer, freelance designer, director of web, and digital marketing, customer success manager, and UX researcher.

It is entirely possible to find a remote UX design job straight from your chosen UX program—as long as you can demonstrate the necessary skills through your UX portfolio, and you have the right mentorship and career coaching behind you.

Will you struggle to find remote work with no experience?

There’s no denying that it’s easier to find a job once you’ve got experience, and that goes for both in-house and remote positions. When it comes to remote work, junior and entry-level designers may find fewer opportunities than senior UXers, simply because employers have traditionally tended to train junior designers in-house.

However, there are remote opportunities out there for entry-level designers, and the market will grow as companies adapt to more flexible ways of working. And, if you are unable to find a full-time remote position right off the bat, there are other ways to gain experience while remaining flexible, such as taking on freelance gigs through sites like Fiverr or volunteering your design skills to non-profits.

As with anything, you may have to work a little harder to prove yourself as a designer before you forge a stable remote career, but it’s absolutely possible.

5. How to find remote UX design jobs

When it comes to building your career as a remote UX designer, there are several components:

• Familiarize yourself with UX processes and remote tools
• Where to find remote UX jobs
• Be adaptable in your approach—consider a partly remote or negotiable position to start with if necessary
• Get your portfolio ready

Let’s take a look at each of these points in more detail.

Familiarize yourself with UX processes and remote tools

First and foremost, it’s important to think about how you’ll adapt your design practice to the remote environment.

To do this, you’ll need to demonstrate you understand the most common processes and conventions of UX design. You’ll find a complete guide to learning the UX design process here.

Next, you’ll need the right tools. There are a lot of great UX design tools out there, but how do you adapt your process for remote work?

How will you conduct user research and usability testing? How will you ensure open communication with key stakeholders if you’re not meeting them face-to-face?

Start by familiarizing yourself with tools that make remote work possible, such as HotJar for user research and Crazy Egg for user testing. You’ll find a complete guide to the best remote UX tools here.

Where to find remote UX jobs

If you’ve got your heart set on a remote UX design position, it’s important to know where to focus your search. While there are a number of job boards dedicated to remote jobs, you’ll still want to browse general job sites too.

CareerFoundry Career Specialist Danielle Sander recommends focusing on companies based in your timezone, and in those areas where you are legally authorized to work. Below are some of our favorite websites for UX design jobs:

• AIGA Design Jobs
• UX Jobs Board
• Just UX Jobs
• Behance
• Indeed
• Glassdoor
• Dribbble jobs
• Remote.co
• Remotive.io
• Weworkremotely.com
• Justremote.co
• Remoters.net

Consider a flexible approach (to start with)

Remember that it takes time to build a sustainable career as a remote UX designer. It may not be possible to find a full-time remote job straight away, so it’s important to be flexible in your approach.

Consider roles that offer a combination of in-house and remote work; once you’ve established yourself in the company, there’s every chance that your role could evolve to be completely remote. Another way to build up your remote career is to take on freelance work. While this doesn’t always offer the security of a full-time role, it’s a great way to gain experience and remain flexible in the meantime.

Polish your UX design portfolio

Whether you’re searching for in-house or remote jobs, it’s absolutely crucial that your UX design portfolio is up to scratch. Through your portfolio, you’ll showcase your skills and expertise, showing employers not only what you’re capable of, but also what you’re passionate about within the field of design.

Is your portfolio ready for the job market? Make sure it adheres to these seven UX portfolio best practices.

6. Key takeaways and next steps

• UX designers will increasingly find opportunities for flexible and remote work, even as many companies return to the office
• Average salaries for mid-level designers in the U.S. range from $73,000 to $120,000
• Seeking a remote UX role requires familiarity with remote processes and tools, a solid portfolio, and a flexible approach

You can learn more about becoming a remote UX designer in the following:

• A day in the life of a remote UX designer
• 5 challenges remote UX designers face (and how to overcome them)
• How to run a remote design thinking workshop
• Top trends to follow in UX design

7. FAQ about remote UX design

1. Is working remotely as a UX designer difficult?

Working remotely as a UX designer can present certain challenges, but it is not inherently difficult.

Remote UX designers need to ensure clear and frequent communication with team members, adapt to online collaboration tools, and actively participate in virtual meetings. They must also possess self-discipline, time management skills, and the ability to create a conducive work environment to stay focused and productive.

2. Do most UX designers work from home?

While a large number of UX designers work from home, many still work in a traditional office. The work arrangements for UX designers can vary depending on the company, industry, and individual preferences. Some UX designers work in traditional office settings, while others may have a combination of remote and on-site work.

3. Is UX design a flexible career?

Yes, UX design is generally considered a flexible career. The field of UX design offers various opportunities for flexibility, including flexible work hours, remote work options, and freelancing possibilities. 

It’s to note that the level of flexibility can vary depending on factors such as the company’s work culture, project requirements, and individual agreements.

Since its rise in 1993, user experience design has been an ever-changing profession. Now, nearly 30 years later, many trends are buzzing around the industry with the potential to shape the field’s continued evolution. 

In this guide, we’ll delve into how the current state of technology and the world at large will impact UX designers and their craft. We’ll discuss topics such as the implementation and ethics of extended reality, budding concepts like the Metaverse, and how UX-specific tools, events, and work habits are set to influence UX design in 2024 and beyond. 

Here’s a brief overview of what we’ll cover:

• Why is it important to stay on top of UX trends? 
• Top 5 UX design trends in 2024
  1. Artificial Intelligence
  2. Extended Reality
  3. Web 3.0 and the Metaverse
  4. Remote work
  5. No-code tools
  6. Bonus: UX maturity
• Key takeaways

There are a lot of exciting topics to cover, so let’s get started!

Why is it important to stay on top of UX trends? 

If you were expecting this article to be a list of the hottest, flashiest UI features or aesthetic trends—let’s shift our focus. While those concepts do hold an important place in the industry, taking a broader look at the world around us as well as up-and-coming technology can give us a more accurate picture of what’s to come in UX design. 

To effectively design solutions for modern-day problems, designers need to have an in-depth understanding of the challenges and types of environments people encounter each day. Considering advancements in technology, changes in politics, current global health issues, and new forms of communication can guide designers to create impactful and useful products for their users. 

These dynamic and influential changes in our world can also shape how UXers design and what their day-to-day work habits will look like.

Maintaining a curiosity for current events and UX best practices can help designers understand what to expect when entering the field as well as assist seasoned UX designers in implementing up-to-date work strategies. 

Top UX design trends in 2024

Now, let’s dig a bit deeper and take a look at where the UX design profession is headed.

For those who prefer the written word, here are the most important factors we believe will influence UX in the coming year and beyond:

1. Artificial intelligence (AI)
2. Extended Reality (ER)
3. Web 3.0 and the Metaverse
4. Remote and hybrid work
5. No-code tools

We’ll also throw in a bonus discussion on UX maturity in companies and how that will influence the field. 

1. Artificial Intelligence

It’s on everyone’s mind, and it’s set to dominate the industry in 2024.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term used to describe any intelligence expressed by machines or computerized technologies as opposed to natural animals and humans, but in 2024, we’re generally talking about generative AI, like ChatGPT or Midjourney. 

How will AI technology affect UX designers? 

In many ways, AI technology is already impacting UX design. Designers have been using AI tools that generate color palettes or draw fictional portraits for personas for a few years now. We have been getting used to designing for personalized, adjustable interfaces and sites that recommend content for our users. Even widely used photo editing apps use AI technology to enhance images or remove backgrounds. 

But with the recent dramatic rise of generative AI, it will reach new levels in 2024.

Here are two key ways AI is going to be used by UX designers this year:

1. Automating Repetitive Tasks: AI can automate many of the time-consuming and repetitive tasks involved in the design process, such as resizing images, creating responsive designs, and generating design assets. This frees up valuable time for designers to focus on their work’s more creative and strategic aspects, such as user research, prototyping, and testing.

2. Personalized User Experiences: AI can be used to personalize the user experience based on individual user preferences and behavior. This can be done through AI-powered features such as:

• Adaptive interfaces: These interfaces can adjust to the user’s device, environment, and preferences in real-time.
• Chatbots and virtual assistants: These AI-powered tools can provide personalized support and guidance to users, helping them to complete tasks more efficiently.
• Content personalization: AI can be used to personalize the content that users see based on their past behavior and interests.

By using AI to personalize the user experience, designers can create products and services that are more engaging, relevant, and enjoyable for users.

The use of AI in UX design is still in its early stages, but it has the potential to revolutionize the way we design and interact with digital products. As AI technology continues to develop, we can expect to see even more innovative and powerful tools emerge that will help designers create even better user experiences.

Check out some of the top AI tools for UX design in our complete guide.

Is there a downside to using AI?

Behind every AI is a human that programmed it, meaning it is not always neutral or without flaws. Designers must find a way to ensure AI is inclusive and doesn’t discriminate. Furthermore, there are concerns that AI could obliterate the need for UX designers altogether, as companies can rely on AI-based websites and tools to do the work for them.

However, trends show a promising future for designers and AI working together to form better work environments and more efficient design solutions.

Read our full guide on the impact of AI on UX design.

2. Extended Reality (ER)

We’ve already seen the beginnings of extended reality (ER) technologies being integrated into our society through companies like Ikea, Adidas, Walmart, McDonald’s, and Instagram. These big names are already using ER to train their employees via realistic simulations, helping users “try on” products at home, and connecting people through virtual games and entertainment. 

What is extended reality?

The term “extended reality” encompasses a few concepts, the main ones being augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Augmented reality allows you to add non-physical (or digital) items to the existing world around you while virtual reality completely immerses you in a computerized world. 

For example, an app that allows users to see how a piece of furniture looks in their home is representative of AR technology. VR technology on the other hand might be a med student wearing a headset to practice seeing and treating virtual patients. 

How will VR/AR, etc. influence UX design?

With VR and AR technology comes the need to start designing more for 3D spaces that may be paired with headsets and haptic suits. Designers will also have to account for holography, spatial and audio augmentation, designing for mixed reality developers like WebXR, and devices and experiences being more linked than ever before. Being able to create quality designs for these platforms in an efficient yet ethical way is a challenge many UX designers are bound to face in the upcoming years. 

Possible pitfalls of extended reality

There are many positive aspects of extended reality such as greater interconnectivity, easier professional and personal collaboration, and more immersive learning and entertainment experiences. It’s pretty exciting to think we could be designing for actual holodecks and holograms like a Star Trek or Marvel movie. However, with great technology comes great responsibility. The implementation of AR and VR into our daily lives will pose questions such as:

• How will extended and altered reality affect our mental and physical health?
• Will these technologies impact the environment in any way?
• How will AR/VR be distributed and regulated? What companies will be involved and what will their incentives be?
• How can creators ensure these technologies are accessible, inclusive, and safe?

As AR/VR becomes more 3D and more widely utilized, UX designers will need to become well-versed in designing for virtual platforms in creative and ethical ways. 

3. Web 3.0 and the Metaverse

It’s well-agreed that the internet has changed immensely since its inception. The internet is beginning to undergo even further developments in the form of Web 3.0 and the Metaverse.

What is Web 3.0 and the Metaverse?

It’s hard to define Web 3.0 exactly as it’s still in the early phases. But, what we can gather thus far is that this next evolution, the Semantic Web or Web 3.0, will have a focus on using AI and blockchain technologies to process information with human-like ability.

No longer built by governments and public institutions but by tech companies, Web 3.0 takes a more decentralized approach, thus creating a more shared, secure, and transparent web environment. It will also have a greater focus on implementing 3D graphics, behavioral advertising, and smart applications to assist individual users. 

The Metaverse is an even further step into the future that joins VR technology with the decentralized web. Think of a network of 3D worlds or, as the recently rebranded Meta describes it, “A set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you.”

Very much like the digital universes described in movies like Ready Player One or Tron, the introduction of a Metaverse has huge potential to change the way our society functions and interacts. 

How will Web 3.0 and the Metaverse influence UX design?

Other than the possibility of hosting UX events in a virtual space-world while being projected as your latest orc avatar (although this is probably just my wishful thinking), there are many other more immediate effects Web 3.0 and the Metaverse will have on UX. These technologies will make devices more connected than ever.

Designers will have to keep this in mind when designing for multiple platforms that can be accessed and used virtually anywhere. UX copy will also have to be streamlined for interpretation by AI with human-like abilities as opposed to search engines looking for keywords and numbers.

Additionally, 3D graphics will be more widely used by designers in a variety of areas like e-commerce sites, gaming, museum and historical institutions, and medical and social service apps and tools. 

4. Remote and hybrid work

The Covid-19 pandemic forced many designers to work from home for weeks and months on end. While this was a challenge for some, others quickly saw the benefits and ease of remote work. Since then, many UX designers have expected remote work to be an option.

What does remote work actually mean?

Remote work is a work arrangement where employees do not travel to or gather at a central place of work like an office building, store, or warehouse. Other names used for remote work are telecommuting, flexible workplace, distance working, work from anywhere, or working from home. Remote workers may choose to stay in their places of residence to work or choose another destination like a co-working space, coffee shop, or library. 

Although UX design is a highly collaborative profession, becoming a remote UX designer is possible and increasingly popular. 

New UX designers often get into the career because it’s known as one that supports a remote or hybrid model.

The future of UX will continue to reflect this trend as designers continue to stay home because the remote lifestyle works best for them.

How has remote work influenced the UX design industry?

With a few years of working from home under our belts, designers, agencies, and employers have learned a lot about how remote work fits them. We’ve made our homes more ergonomic and work-friendly and learned what topics warrant a full Zoom meeting versus a quick email. 

As UXers find distance working to benefit their lifestyles, designers, their clients, and co-workers will continue to learn and adapt their remote working habits to be more efficient and enjoyable for all. Less linear and more flexible schedules and a focus on healthy work-life balance will be key for project and company success.

Furthermore, design communities may flourish more online than in person. Remote UX networking events, seminars, and lectures can benefit from technologies like Web 3.0, VR/AR, and the Metaverse to host larger numbers of designers worldwide in a safe yet engaging way. 

However, this also means a UX designer’s online persona and personal brand will be of the utmost importance when positioning yourself in your networking and displaying your values as a designer to clients, stakeholders, and colleagues. Designers may find themselves making unorthodox design decisions in order to stand out from the crowd and typify their personal brand. 

What are the downsides to remote work?

Potential pitfalls to working from home depend greatly on your personality as an individual and a designer. If you’re someone who craves the buzzing feeling of a group brainstorm or looks forward to friendly, water-cooler talk, the shift towards distance working may not feel exciting to you. 

Designers must get to know their work habits and personalities to ensure their creative process and mental health are not stifled by working remotely. 

Remote work may also negatively affect user testing and other design processes where picking up quick and subtle behavioral indicators is crucial. Usability testing, card sorting, and interviews may not be as easy with a laptop screen standing in the middle and could lead to designers missing out on crucial feedback or users becoming frustrated with testing methods. 

For this and other reasons, a hybrid solution—which combines working remotely with a few (predetermined) days at the physical office location—is becoming increasingly the go-to choice.

Read our full guide to remote work. 

5. No-code tools

With or without knowing it, most people (designers or not) have probably already encountered and utilized a no-code tool. The use of this subtle, yet important technology is poised to be on the rise in UX design communities in the upcoming years. 

What is a no-code tool?

A no-code tool is a way of programming that doesn’t require the user to have knowledge of or write code to use it. Instead, it relies on a graphic user interface (GUI)—a type of interface where users interact via icons or other visual indicators as opposed to text-based commands or navigation. This isn’t to say that there is absolutely no coding involved but rather the developer has coded the tool so its user simply has to drag, drop, click, or scroll through icons to use it. 

Examples of no-code tools already in use in the UX design field are Figma, Weblow, Survey Monkey, Google Analytics, UserGuiding, and Notion. 

If you’re not that familiar with it and would like to take a look through all that Notion can offer, in this video our friendly neighborhood UX designer Maureen sings its praises:

How will no-code tools affect UX design?

Prevalent use of no-code tools in the UX design industry has made designers less reliant on developers to make the code for their app and web designs function properly. Instead, developers are relied upon to code tools that help designers develop on their own without the use of code. This has the potential to drastically shift our skill sets as designers. 

Instead of taking that extra online course to up your coding skills, you may want to focus on getting familiar with common no-code tools. Becoming an expert at using these tools can significantly expedite your work and the design process overall. To help with this, we’ve collected a list of ten of the best no-code tools for designers.

Are there downsides to no-code tools?

The ability to use no-code tools without any coding knowledge makes them easier and more accessible to even non-designers. This may influence how potential clients view UX design and the validity of our expertise. If anyone can learn to use a no-code tool to build a decent webpage, why spend money on hiring a UX design team? The increasing popularity and convenience that no-code tools bring may require designers to defend why they are still needed and what their skillsets have to offer. 

Which brings us to our final topic: UX maturity in companies. 

Bonus: UX maturity

Although the demand for UX designers is increasing, many designers are still finding themselves having to explain their positions, what they do, and why they are valuable. This phenomenon can be interpreted as a reflection of the level of UX maturity in a company. 

What is UX maturity and why does it matter? 

UX maturity is a measure of an organization’s desire and capacity to provide successful user-centered products. It looks at how well a company understands what UX designers do and why it is important. It displays if the organization sees the worth in focusing on the user and creating a beneficial user experience within their product. 

The level of UX maturity in the company you are designing for may indicate what resources and tools are available, how much funding they are willing to allocate to your work, and how well your position may be understood and valued. This can have a critical effect on what your day-to-day work may look like, how easy or difficult it may be to accomplish your tasks, and how appreciated you feel your efforts and expertise are. 

How is UX maturity changing?

Unfortunately, UX maturity in a variety of industries is still quite low. However, there are still pockets where UX designers are highly desired and recognized. These organizations are seeing the benefits of investing in quality user experience and setting aside proper funding to help UX designers succeed.

A high level of UX maturity is especially demonstrated in organizations where specialized UX roles are welcomed and sought-after. The increased demand for UX designers has led to the ability for designers to choose a focused niche such as UX analysts, researchers, writers, strategists, and engineers. A company that makes space for specialized roles often has a good understanding of the UX design process and how valuable each component is. 

How to increase UX maturity where you work?

Here are a few tips on how to increase UX maturity in your workplace or with potential future clients:

• Understand your company’s or client’s business objectives and how your work can help achieve them. Seeing things from a corporate or financial point of view not only makes you a well-rounded designer but also aids in helping convince your employers of the value of UX work and your position.
  
• Utilize quantitative data alongside qualitative insights to back up your design decisions. For business-driven colleagues like CEOs and other higher-ups, hard, statistical data is often more enticing and convincing. Pairing quantitative data with qualitative shows your work has measurable and significant positive effects.
  
• Reach out to non-designers in your spare time to actively collaborate and co-create. Doing this spreads awareness of the UX design position and gets people outside of the design industry familiar with what you do. With prior knowledge of the UX design skillset and its value, they may be more likely to recommend you or work with you on future projects. 

Key takeaways

UX designers have the potential to be major changemakers in our society. To do this ethically and efficiently requires empathy. 

One of the best ways to practice and cultivate empathy is to keep yourself up-to-date and connected to the world around you by actively learning about current events, and societal changes—as well as connecting with peers in and out of the tech industry. 

Focusing on genuine, industry-led insights that encompass larger fields like work culture, developments in UX practices, and big tech breakthroughs can give you the wherewithal needed to become an empathic, modern, and cutting-edge designer. 

If you’d like to learn more about UX design and how to thrive in this ever-evolving field, here are a few other articles that will be helpful to you:

• How to Become a UX Designer
• The Power of Storytelling in UX Design
• 11 Outstanding Podcasts for UX/UI Designers
• What Salary Would I Earn as a UX Designer?

From tools for creating new fonts to crafting custom images, AI has been helping designers create innovative designs in almost half the time. 

But sifting through all the AI graphic design tools available today can be difficult. To help you, we’ve compiled a list the best tools on the market and what they can be used for. Here’s what we’ll cover: 

• How to use AI for graphic design
• The 10 best AI graphic design tools
  1. Uizard
  2. Adobe Firefly
  3. Midjourney
  4. Khroma
  5. Looka
  6. Autodraw
  7. Canva
  8. Let’s Enhance
  9. Designs.ai
  10. DreamStudio
• Key takeaways

Now, let’s get started!

How to use AI for graphic design

The introduction of different AI tools in graphic design has proven revolutionary. 

There are so many ways in which using AI can improve your designs, keep them competitive, and lessen your workload. This leads to better work output and less stressful days for you as a designer.  

AI tools can be used in many different ways throughout the design process.

Graphic design AI tools allow users to upload existing designs to create more iterations or edit them in specific ways using text prompts. 

They can assist in creating fine elements like buttons, text boxes, menus, and icons.

Or, AI can assist in creating various types of imagery like pictures, photos, or logos with different styles and themes. 

AI can also be used to help inspire designs or edit existing ones. With thousands of iterations being created in seconds, AI can give your mind a bit of a boost when it comes to brainstorming different ideas. 

Whether you need something hyper-realistic or maybe something more cartoonish, there’s an AI graphic design tool that can help. 

The use of AI in graphic design is becoming limitless, and new tools are coming out every year. Read on for an in-depth look at some of the best AI graphic design tools. 

The 10 best AI graphic design tools

We’ve researched and tested some of the top graphic design AI tools and compiled this list of the best ones on the market. 

1. Uizard

Up first, we have Uizard, an intuitive AI tool that allows you to effortlessly design websites, mobile and web apps, and desktop software. Uizard contains a huge library of design elements to play with by simply dragging and dropping them onto the workspace. 

It’s user-friendly and allows for free design from scratch or one of the hundreds of templates available.

Uizard’s AI features are easy to use and expedite the design process with a text assistant, a text-to-image generator, and the option to turn uploaded sketches or screenshots into digital mockups. Two other stand-out features are Uizard’s theme generator, which can provide colors and fonts based on uploaded images or URLs. 

Pricing: Uizard starts at $12 per month for paid plans; however, there is a free version with limited features and templates. The most expensive plan, with access to all features and priority support, is $49 monthly.

2. Adobe Firefly

If you’ve worked within the Adobe suite before, you’re probably familiar with how innovative their products are. Adobe Firefly is no exception.

Once in the public beta test phase, Firefly was available to anyone subscribed to Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. However, it is now commercially available as a stand-alone tool.

Not only does it offer a text-to-image generator, but it can also create different text fonts based on detailed prompts inputted by the user. 

Furthermore, Firefly can recolor SVGs to provide a wider range of color variations to vectors. But keep in mind that the platform will watermark any AI-generated images as Adobe discourages users from using them commercially. 

Pricing: If subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud, Firefly will now be part of the package. However, users are only allotted a certain number of free credits per month to offset the substantial amount of computing it takes to generate the AI images and design elements. 

Credits allotted depend on whether you use the free versions or your subscription level to different Adobe products.

3. Midjourney

Midjourney is an AI graphic design tool with many mixed emotions from its users. Whatever you may think, the hyperrealism in the images it creates is what helps it maintain its spot as one of the best graphic design AI tools on the market. 

Midjourney can only be accessed through a Discord channel, offering a free or paid subscription option. That being said, users may find it difficult to use if unfamiliar with the Discord platform. 

However, it is quite simple once you learn the access commands needed to create exactly what you’re looking for. The images it produces are so realistic, it can be hard to distinguish them from ones made by humans. 

Pricing: Midjourney can be accessed for free, but there are often so many users on the server at once it can be frustrating and time-consuming to use. The paid subscription keeps your workflow moving a bit quicker with less lag. 

Paying subscribers also have access to un-watermarked images to use for commercial purposes. Paid plans range from $10 to $120 with anywhere from 3.3 to 60 hours per month of fast GPU time. 

For more information, read our full guide on Midjourney.

4. Khroma

Looking for stunning and attractive color palettes? Look no further than Khroma. Khroma is a graphic design AI tool that provides users with an infinite number of color combinations to design with. This tool completely takes the guesswork out of selecting compatible, engaging colors. 

When first using Khroma, it’ll have you select 50 of your favorite colors from a large selection provided. 

Using your answers, Khroma provides countless color combinations that users can view in text, image, side-by-side, or gradient view. Users can then favorite or edit the palettes provided, further informing the AI of preferences for the future.

You can even upload images to add color to them or copy and paste the provided hex code to use in other design platforms.

Pricing: The best part? Khroma is completely free for anyone to use. 

Learn more about Khroma in our complete guide.

5. Looka

A common task graphic designers have is to create cutting-edge, appealing logos for multiple companies. Looka Logo Maker is an innovative software with an easy-to-use configuration wizard that creates multiple logo options based on answers from previous prompts. 

The wizard will present multiple pre-made logos to identify your preferences. Then, you’ll select preferred colors, symbols, and slogans that best represent the business.

Users then choose from the dozens of provided logos and, if necessary, can further edit them using a library of layouts, icons, colors, symbols, and fonts.

Pricing: Looka has a one-time fee of $20 for a JPG of your logos. Or you can upgrade by paying $65 for higher resolution files like PDF or EPS. 

6. Autodraw

One of the earlier AI tools for graphic design, Autodraw is still a great resource. Autodraw allows designers to create icons and elements based on their own drawings.

Just do your best to draw what you need, and the AI will provide multiple guesses for what you are trying to produce. Then, you can select the image that best suits your needs. 

Users can then download the image or icon as a PNG for their creative projects. This versatile tool is great for a diverse range of projects and is a top choice for designers who are not the best illustrators or those who just want access to quick design elements. 

Pricing: Autodraw is a completely free design tool and can be accessed using any web browser.

7. Canva

Canva is one of the most accessible design tools of today and can be used by professionals with a range of skill levels.

With Canva, designers can easily create social media posts, posters, brochures, presentations, and more. It uses a simple drag-and-drop design method that is intuitive for all to use. It also includes a large library of free images and pre-made templates. 

However, if scrolling through tons of templates doesn’t sound appealing, designers can utilize Canva’s Magic Designer, an AI tool that will create a template based on text prompts and uploaded images.

Further edits can then be made using the Magic Edit tool. Brush over what part of the image you want removed and input a text prompt for what to replace it with—simple.

Pricing: The basic version of Canva is free. However, pro plans start at $119 per year and contain a greater number of templates, fonts, images, and features. 

8. Let’s Enhance

Let’s Enhance is a great option for users looking to enhance the quality of their images using AI. The neural networks in the program can even fill in missing details that were not originally present. Not only can you increase the resolution of low-quality photos, but you can also enlarge photos and images of any resolution without losing detail or quality.

Therefore, Let’s Enhance is a good choice for preparing images for print or digital media with the highest resolution possible. The software can take even the most pixelated image and make it print-ready using powerful and effective AI. 

Pricing: Let’s Enhance works on a credit system, and users are automatically given ten free credits upon signing up. Then, get anywhere from 100-500 monthly credits from $9 to $45 billed monthly or annually. 

9. Designs.ai

Designs.ai is one of the most comprehensive AI graphic design tools available. Its extensive toolkit helps users to create social media posts, logos, videos, and more.

Additionally, the machine learning abilities make designing a breeze. As you create, your likes and preferences are studied and learned to offer you various custom design solutions.  

Not only does Designs.ai offer an optimized and personalized workflow, but it also boasts an impressive library of graphics, fonts, design elements, and colors. This platform is a great choice for graphic designers who use lots of different kinds of media or need access to various tools. 

Pricing: Access to the creative suite starts at $19 for a Basic plan, $49 for the Pro version, and $169 for an Enterprise level subscription. Each tier offers a wider range of design tools and elements. 

10. DreamStudio

Built by stability.ai, DreamStudio is a text-to-image generator that utilizes stable diffusion and, as a result, reduces the amount of energy needed to produce stunning visuals.

Users can pick from various photo themes and styles (i.e., photorealistic, comic book, gothic, art deco, and so on) and have a high-quality image in less than three seconds. You can even upload, enhance, or edit your own photos.

A unique feature of DreamStudio is the negative prompt feature. By entering a text prompt that clarifies what you want to be excluded from the image, you can further personalize your generated images and ensure the AI creates exactly what you want.  You can even customize how many images are generated, their size, and their level of realism. 

Pricing: DreamStudio offers a pay-per-image system using credits that you can purchase as needed. 

Key takeaways

So there you have it, the top 10 AI graphic design tools in 2024.

The ever-evolving landscape of graphic design has been significantly enhanced by integrating artificial intelligence tools. The AI graphic design tools highlighted in this article exemplify the remarkable strides made in automating and augmenting the creative process.

From image recognition to advanced color palette generation, these tools streamline workflows and empower designers to push the boundaries of their creativity.

Dive deeper into design with our free UX design short course or speak directly with a program advisor. 

If you’re interested in learning more about AI for design, or AI more generally, check out the articles below:

• The 10 Best AI Tools for UX Designers
• The 20 Best Graphic Design Schools
• The 20 Best AI Tools for Digital Marketing   
• The Top 14 AI Certifications

The Midjourney AI art generator is one of the most popular. As with competitors DALL·E and Stable Diffusion, the Midjourney AI uses deep learning technology to process and analyze huge amounts of data, honing its performance over time. However, as we will explore in this article, the Midjourney user experience offers something a little different from its rivals. 

Read on to take a closer look at exactly how Midjourney functions before we provide a step-by-step guide on exactly how to use Midjourney. We’ll look at examples and applications of Midjourney AI art and close up with some thoughts on the platform’s future. 

You can use the clickable menu here to jump straight to individual sections:

• What is Midjourney?
  1. Deep learning
  2. Neural networks
• How to use Midjourney to create AI art
  1. Join Discord
  2. Join the Beta
  3. Embrace the community
  4. Choose a plan
  5. Write your first prompt
  6. Invite the bot to a third-party server
  7. Additional commands
  8. Fine-tune your prompts
• Final thoughts

What is Midjourney?

In the ever-evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, Midjourney has emerged as a pioneering generative AI program and service. 

Founded by leading tech thinker David Holz, the previous co-founder Leap Motion, Midjourney Inc.’s independent research lab is based in San Francisco.  

As of July 2022, Midjourney is available in open beta, meaning users can explore and experiment with the platform to unlock its full potential. This remarkable platform harnesses the power of AI to create images from natural language descriptions, often referred to as “prompts”. 

A Midjourney user’s abstract, sci-fi-inspired imagery.

1. Deep learning

As mentioned, Midjourney uses deep learning technology to respond appropriately to different prompts. Deep learning falls under the umbrella of machine learning, employing intricate neural networks with multiple layers to assimilate and adjust to novel situations. 

These networks consist of layers of interconnected nodes, or “neurons,” tasked with processing and scrutinizing data. Each layer plays a role in extracting diverse levels of information, with deeper layers handling more abstract and nuanced features.

In the context of Midjourney AI, deep learning models undergo training on extensive datasets encompassing details about human emotions, speech, and visual cues. This enables the AI to grasp and interpret human emotions and subtleties, responding in an intuitive and empathetic manner.

2. Neural networks

The deep learning models within Midjourney AI possess the capability to process substantial real-time data, a critical factor in delivering precise and prompt interactions with users. Moreover, these models can undergo fine-tuning and optimization to enhance their performance in specific tasks, such as recognizing particular emotions or objects.

A pivotal technology in crafting Midjourney AI is neural networks. Modeled after the workings of the human brain, neural networks are a type of machine learning algorithm capable of learning and adapting to new scenarios by adjusting connections between network neurons. This continuous learning process enhances Midjourney AI’s effectiveness and efficiency over time.

How to use Midjourney to create AI art

Now we have a rough idea of how Midjourney was built, let’s dive straight in with a crash course on how to use the Midjourney AI art generator. In order to get going, you’ll have to take some steps.

1. Join Discord

Much of the Midjourney experience exists in the world of Discord, a free messaging app where users can share voice, video and text. Discord works pretty much like Slack, but was established by groups of gamers to discuss strategy during ongoing campaigns. This legacy is still tangible in the world of Discord, which is populated heavily with gamers, developers, and other digital creative communities. 

In order to use Midjourney, users are required to create a Discord profile and join the Midjourney server, a thriving creative community with well over 16 million members. The server provides a multitude of rooms for newcomers to ask questions, listen in on Midjourney Office Hours live discussions, or explore Midjourney’s deeper functions with more seasoned users.

Joining Discord is free, so go ahead and sign up if you don’t already have an account. 

2. Join the Beta

Now you’re signed up to Discord, you can head over to the Midjourney website and click “Join the Beta”. This will transport you to Discord with an offer to join the Midjourney server. 

Click “Accept Invite”, then return to Discord. The journey’s about to begin. 

A Midjourney user’s photorealistic interior design images.

3. Embrace the community

Midjourney’s connectivity with Discord sets it apart from rival AI art generators: it positions itself first as a creative community experience rather than a simple design tool. 

There is no web interface for Midjourney (although one is purportedly in development). In order to create images, new users must first navigate the server, which can feel like a forest of code, artwork, and discourse.

As the name suggests, using Midjourney is a durational process. Like the training area in a good adventure game, tools and skills must be gathered to break through to the next level. 

Midjourney is the only AI generator with this kind of learning curve. The absence of a homepage (and inviting “prompt” field) certainly makes Midjourney feel less instantly rewarding than its rivals.

The payoff is that Midjourney users are thrust into the midst of an inspiring creative community. Some online art generators can feel like throwing random combinations of words and objects into a vacuum. 

Midjourney users, on the other hand, are encouraged to share and critique iterations of their work. This collaboration leads to more refined work, and coaxes users to innovate and push the AI to its limits. 

4. Choose a plan

Midjourney is not free. A subscription is required to generate images, and they range from $8 per month (“Basic”) to $96 per month (“Mega”) plans. 

To choose a plan, type  “/subscribe” in the Discord message field, before hitting enter. This action is referred to as a slash command, and serves as a means to engage with Discord bots, including the Midjourney bot. It’s essentially a way of informing Midjourney that you wish to subscribe.

Upon doing so, a link will appear, guiding you to the sign-up process for a paid Midjourney plan.

5. Write your first prompt

Though a little chaotic, the lively newbie chat rooms are a constant stream of prompts and their resulting images. This is a great jumping-off point. 

These rooms carry a non-judgmental air, and taking some time to study the churn of experimental prompts and AI responses should begin to give a picture of which commands work and which don’t. 

Prompts are sent by typing the command “/imagine” into the message box at the bottom of the group page, followed by your prompt.

For example, you could try:

“/imagine old man, blond hair, receding hairline, thin, crooked legs, wearing jeans, sneakers, light eyes, Disney Pictures illustration.”

Hitting enter effectively sends a command to the Midjourney bot to action your prompt. After a few moments, Midjourney will create four different versions of your image, which are publicly visible in the chat room and members’ gallery. 

A Midjourney user‘s imagined Disney character.

For a less hectic, more introspective creative experience, users can upgrade their membership to the pricey Pro or Mega plans. These unlock the ability to send and receive private messages to the bot, meaning AI images can be generated away from prying eyes. 

6. Invite the bot to a third-party server

If you prefer an alternate setting for your creative endeavors, you can invite the Midjourney bot to a third-party Discord server. This way, you can collaborate and explore the world of AI-generated art with friends and like-minded enthusiasts from different communities.

For more advice on creating your own server, and inviting the Midjourney bot to join in on the fun, you can check out this official Midjourney tutorial.

7. Additional commands

Beneath every set of generated images, you’ll find eight buttons, labeled: U1, U2, U3, U4, V1, V2, V3, and V4. 

These are just some of Midjourney’s array of additional commands, which collectively provide you with the means to refine and exercise better control over the type of images produced by Midjourney. We have detailed more of those functions below:

• The U buttons serve to upscale the chosen image, producing a larger version with additional details. This is particularly valuable for users of versions of Midjourney prior to V5. The latest models generate images of 1024 x 1024 pixels by default, so the U buttons essentially extract them for further editing and more convenient saving.
• On the other hand, the V buttons are responsible for generating four new variations of the selected image while preserving its style and composition.
• A “Re-roll” button is available, which re-executes your prompt and generates four fresh images.
• Should you opt to select an image using the U buttons in the latest Midjourney version, you gain access to additional controls, some of which are context-dependent, including:
  • “Vary (Strong)” and “Vary (Subtle)” (accessible from Midjourney 5.2), which generate four variations of the selected image.
  • “Zoom Out 2x” and “Zoom Out 1.5x”. These zoom your image out and automatically generate additional content around the original panel that fits with your image.
  • “Custom Zoom”: this allows you to both zoom out your image and add an extra prompt simultaneously. This feature can be used, for instance, to display your image on a wall as a framed piece of art.
  • The four Pan arrows that expand your image in the chosen direction based on the existing content and your original prompt. Once you start panning either horizontally or vertically, you can only continue in that direction.
  • “Make Square”, which transforms a panned image into a square crop.

Through experimentation with these various options, you can transform your generated images into substantially larger scenes. It’s worth noting that while the Pan commands can create images larger than 1024 x 1024 pixels, the Zoom commands cannot. Consequently, your zoomed-out images will have a lower resolution than the original.

8. Fine-tune your prompts

Undoubtedly, the true mastery lies in the prompts you provide to Midjourney. Currently, understanding how to craft effective prompts is the key to achieving outstanding results with various generative AI tools. Here are some tips:

• Be Specific: The more precise and detailed your prompt, the better the results. Employ powerful and vivid language, specify quantities and references, and express precisely what you wish to see. 
• Avoid Over-Description: Adding excessive words to your prompt doesn’t necessarily lead to superior results; in fact, it might divert the AI’s focus to less crucial details. 
• Be detailed: Midjourney suggests taking into account the subject, medium, environment, lighting, color, mood, and composition when formulating your requests. 
• Utilize Images: Midjourney permits you to include images in your prompts by pasting a URL. If you haven’t previously uploaded the desired image, you can add it to Discord using the “+” button in the message box, then drag it into the prompt to automatically include the URL.
• Play with Parameters: In addition to written prompts, you can employ specific parameters to set key details such as aspect ratio, randomness, and style. For instance, you can use the “No” parameter to prevent specific elements from being generated by adding “–no houses” at the end of your prompt. 
• Another parameter worth experimenting with is “Weird,” which, although experimental, allows Midjourney to create more unconventional results. You can find a complete list of parameters here, along with instructions on how to use them.

An example of Midjourney struggling to express an over-complicated prompt.

There’s also an array of slash commands at your disposal, which can be deployed to edit and create new work. These include the “/blend” command, which enables users to mix two works into a new hybrid image. There’s also the “/shorten” command, a handy tool for condensing lengthy prompts into concise and powerful expressions.

It’s worth noting that Midjourney is continuously evolving, with the team actively working on a web interface to provide even more accessibility and flexibility for users. 

Final thoughts

With its subcultural setting and leanings towards the world of gaming, fantasy, and animation, Midjourney is sometimes characterized as a subversive or “gothic” AI art generator. 

That said, it is undoubtedly capable of some astonishing images, and the range of editing capabilities far outshines those of other online AI art engines. The supportive, creative network of Midjourney’s huge online community also sets it apart from the likes of DALL·E and Stable Diffusion.   

For these reasons, Midjourney has been described by the BBC as “challenging the arts industry”, which is high praise indeed.

For more material on how to get the most out of Midjourney, you can explore a wealth of documentation over at their website, such as guides on How to Use Image Prompts, Multi-Prompts, and the Remix button.

Did you enjoy this article? You might also like these:

• Midjourney vs Stable Diffusion: What Are the Differences?
• The 10 Best AI Tools for Graphic Design
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So, we’ve put this list together to showcase some of the most renowned UX design experts from across the industry: product design, UX design, UX research, and UX writing/content design.

We’ve spotlighted a wide range of UX design experts with different backgrounds and levels of experience. But they all share two things in common—they have a wealth of UX expertise and are generous about sharing it with the wider design community.

Our list of UX experts isn’t in a particular order, and they share their knowledge across a mixture of platforms, including LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Medium, Instagram, YouTube, SubStack, and their personal websites. We’ve included links to the relevant platforms. 

Let’s get started!

Top 15 UX experts and influencers

1. Erika Hall

A legend of the UX design world, Erika Hall is the author of Just Enough Research and Conversational Design, and co-founder of Mule Design, one of the most prestigious studios in the world. She helps clients ask tough questions and collaborate to find the answers.

As a writer and speaker, she focuses on subject areas that challenge conventional design wisdom and prompt designers to examine the consequences of their work in new ways. If that piques your interest, follow her on LinkedIn, medium, and X, formerly Twitter.

Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, user research, design leadership 

Website: https://www.muledesign.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikahall 

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/mulegirl 

Medium: https://medium.com/@mulegirl  

2. Sarah Winters

Sarah Winters is the founder of Content Design London, the person who coined the phrase “content design”, and the author of Content Design. So you could say she’s a huge influence in the UX space and world of content design. While Head of Content Design at the UK’s Government Digital Service, she oversaw the overhaul of over 3,000 local government websites into www.gov.uk.

Today, it’s held up as a shining example of a government website with exceptional UX design, content design, and accessibility and has influenced many other government websites globally.

Area(s) of expertise: Content design, UX writing, accessibility, design leadership

Website: contentdesign.london   

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahrichardscontentstrategist 

3. David Hamill

David Hamill is a UX researcher with over 20 years of experience who offers “on-demand help for companies seeking to improve their UX maturity and product direction”.

He regularly shares insights from both his research and his experience as a practitioner in a wide range of organizations. If you’re interested in learning about user research and the realities of the industry, he’s definitely worth following or connecting with.

Area(s) of expertise: User research, product development, design leadership

Website: https://www.upux.biz/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidhamill 

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/dav_hamill 

4. Jesse James Garrett

As the author of The Element of User Experience and a renowned executive design leadership coach, Jesse James Garrett is a major player in the design world.

Prior to creating his design and UX consultancy, Adaptive Path — which was acquired by Capital One, where he became Senior Director of Digital Design, in 2014 — Garrett worked as an information architect.

His semi-regular LinkedIn posts touch on a wide range of design-related subjects and are definitely worth reading.   

Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, design leadership 

Website: https://jessejamesgarrett.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessejamesgarrett/ 

Medium: https://medium.com/@jjg 

5. Aladrian Goods

We’re so proud to say Aladrian Goods is a CareerFoundry graduate and former tutor, but even better than that she’s gone on to become a true leader in the design community.

She’s risen through the ranks at Intuit to become a Design Manager in Content and a major influence in the industry. 

Area of expertise: Content design, product design, UX design, design leadership

Website: http://www.aladriangoods.design/ 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aladriangoods

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/drogoods 

6. Tom Scott

Tom differs from the others on this list as he’s not actually a design practitioner, so he probably can’t be considered one of the true “UX experts”. Instead, he’s the founder of a design recruitment agency called Verified, through which he aims to place “the top 1% of design leaders”.

But he is worth following on LinkedIn for his regular posts that look at the UX industry from a bird’s eye view, often shaped by his conversations with C-suite executives. 

Area(s) of expertise: UX recruitment

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomscottt 

7. Adam Silver

An interaction designer with coding experience, Adam Silver has been in the web and UX design space since 2005 and is the author of Form Design Patterns published by Smashing Magazine. His resume boasts notable gigs at the BBC, Tesco,  the Financial Times, Sage, and the UK Government.

He regularly shares posts with his 9k LinkedIn followers on service design, interaction design, and accessibility. His LinkedIn profile displays his mantra, (and one that a good number of design subscribe to): “Fancy design gets awards. Boring design works.”

Area(s) of expertise: Product design, UX design, service design, accessibility

Website: https://adamsilver.io/  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamsilverhq 

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/adamsilverhq 

Medium: https://medium.com/@adamsilverhq 

8. Sarah Doody

Sarah Doody has been in UX since 2004 and, according to her website, leverages “power of storytelling and research to help teams reduce the risk of re-work and instead, build the right products and features the first time around.”

She’s also the founder and CEO of Career Strategy Lab, a UX career incubator, and its little sister, the Career Strategy Podcast. A sharp thinker generously shares advice with the design community, she’s worth following for—you guessed it—UX career advice and job interview tips.

Area(s) of expertise: Design leadership, UX design, product design, UX careers

Website: https://www.sarahdoody.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahdoody 

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/sarahdoody 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahdoody/ 

Medium: https://sarahdoody.medium.com/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SarahDoody 

9. Jen Romano, PhD

A hugely admired voice in the UX community, Jen Romano is an experimental psychologist, a UX specialist, and a UX research coach.

With spells at Google and Meta on her resume, she now runs her own strategy and consulting agency and holds teaching roles at UC Berkeley Extension and the University of Maryland.

You can follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn, where she shares both insights and a lot of UX research vacancies.  

Area(s) of expertise: UX research, design leadership, design consultancy 

Website: https://www.romanocog.com/  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferromano 

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/romanocog 

10. Katie Dill

If you want a resume that looks like a guided tour around the San Francisco Bay Area, look no further than Katie Dill, who has been Head of Experience Design at Airbnb, Head of Design at Lyft, and is currently Head of Design at Stripe.

As you’d expect she’s an extremely sharp thinker and is generous about sharing her wealth of knowledge and experience with the community—you can follow her on LinkedIn and X, formerly Twitter.

Her recent appearance on Lenny’s Podcast — Building beautiful products with Stripe’s Head of Design — is a fascinating listen that’s available for free on YouTube. 

Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, design leadership

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-dill-79168b3/ 

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/lil_dill 

11. Julie Zhuo 

In Julie Zhuo’s bio on X, formerly Twitter, she describes herself as “obsessed with systems” and a “design and data person”.

She has a large following in the design community and an impressive track record that includes climbing the ladder from Product Designer to Design VP at Meta. A co-founder at Sundial, she’s also the author of The Making of a Manager. She’s worth following on LinkedIn or X, formerly Twitter, for nuggets of wisdom on the intersection of design, data, and business.  

Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, data analytics, design leadership

Website: https://www.juliezhuo.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-zhuo

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/joulee 

Medium: https://joulee.medium.com

SubStack: https://lg.substack.com

12. Irene Au

As a former head of design at two little-known startups—Google and Yahoo—Irene Au has been a leader in the design community for many years. Her talk from 2014 Talks at Google is still super relevant today and is available to watch for free on YouTube—Cultivating Focus, Empathy, and Creativity for Better Product Design.

She currently juggles her role as an operating partner at Khosla Ventures with teaching Advanced Product Design as an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University. You can follow her on X, medium, or LinkedIn for career advice, job opportunities, and her broader thoughts on the direction of design.

Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, design leadership

Website: https://ireneau.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ireneau 

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/ireneau

Medium: https://medium.com/@ireneau

13. Jakob Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen, the co-founder along with Don Norman of the renowned Norman Nielsen Group has been in UX since the early 80s and even has a law named after him (Jakob’s Law, which states users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know).

A true pioneer of the industry, he has more recently founded UX Tigers as a way of spreading UX knowledge to the worldwide community. Follow him on LinkedIn for his takes on the design industry or Substack for longer, more nuanced reads.   

Area(s) of expertise: UX design, user research, accessibility, design leadership

Website: www.uxtigers.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakobnielsenphd 

SubStack: https://jakobnielsenphd.substack.com/ 

14. Ioana Teleanu

Ioana Teleanu is a Senior Product Designer working on AI at Miro, a mentor, and the founder of UX Goodies, a hugely popular Instagram community that describes itself as “a space for designers to learn and grow with bite-sized nuggets of design deliciousness”.

She’s extremely active on IG but also worth following on LinkedIn and X, especially for those of you looking for tips on transitioning to UX and starting or growing your career. 

Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, mentoring, AI, design leadership

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ioanateleanu 

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/uxgoodies 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uxgoodies 

15. David Dylan Thomas

With over 20 years of experience in experience design and content strategy, David Dylan Thomas is a UX expert who specializes cognitive biases and inclusivity in design.

The author of the acclaimed Design for Cognitive Bias, he also hosts The Cognitive Bias Podcast and runs regular workshops on inclusive design and bias through his company David Dylan Thomas LLC.

He’s someone you should follow—on LinkedIn or Twitter—where he regularly shares his thoughts and free links to recordings of his insightful and engaging talks.       

Area(s) of expertise: UX design, product design, design leadership, content strategy, inclusive design, cognitive biases

Website: https://daviddylanthomas.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddylanthomas1/ 

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/movie_pundit 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daviddylanthomas/ 

Final thoughts

There’s an almost infinite amount of content about UX design and product design out there in the digital universe. 

This means that just knowing where to start reading it and who to follow of those who share it can feel like an almighty task. 

Hopefully, our list of UX design experts can help with that. We think that together, they’ll give you a range of insights, analysis, and commentary on the direction of UX design, the latest industry trends, and events and job opportunities.

If you want to dive into the world of UX design, try our

Did you enjoy this article? Then you might like these:

• The Top UX Bootcamp Reddit Advice: The Complete Guide
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• The UX Job Quiz: Which UX Design Role Is Right for You?

It’s the case for UX, too. Reddit has long been the spiritual home of forward-thinking digital nomads, with a wealth of information and advice written by and for a broad UX community. 

In this article, we’ve scoured the subreddits for you, collecting the hottest UX bootcamp Reddit advice and related questions and highlighting the most upvoted responses, edited only for language or comprehension. 

Let’s jump right in.

The Best UX Design Advice From Reddit

1. Is doing a UX bootcamp worth it?

In the subreddit r/UserExperienceDesign, a UX novice asks a simple question about the value of UX design bootcamps:

The most upvoted response tells a bootcamp success story. For this UX designer, the educational framework and networking opportunities offered by a bootcamp provided the perfect foundations to excel in their career:

“The main factor is whether you have the knowledge to figure out everything you need to shift your career into UX, and if you have the discipline to acquire it.

Personally, I preferred to pay for the structure of the curriculum, camaraderie from the classmates, and support from the teachers. I just don’t think I would have been able to achieve the same thing in the same amount of time.

Five or six years ago I did a bootcamp and, within 6 months, got an offer from an agency that works in-house at one of the big tech giants. Two years ago, I moved in-house with the company, and I’ve worked there since.

I had 12k debt from the bootcamp, plus around 15k in credit card debt and college tuition. I am currently debt free, planning on buying a house with stock in the next few years.

Some say the bootcamp thing is not worth the investment but for me it was totally worth it, one of the best decisions of my life.

Job prospects? Do not know. Bay Area always has some company hiring UX, but it has declined due to covid. But remote has gone up because most of the job can be performed remote. Sign up for email alerts for ux designer in Glassdoor and LinkedIn and others in areas you want to work to get a sense for job prospects.”

2. Do people actually get hired after taking a bootcamp?

Continuing in the same vein, in the subreddit r/uxdesign, a user queries the likelihood of UX design bootcamp participants finding employment at the end of their course:

The top-rated comment comes from an experienced UX designer, with some insightful stats on the career outcomes for UX design bootcamp enrolees.

This Redditor details their experience hiring applicants with bootcamp credentials, observing that, while bootcamps provide UX designers with the basic tools to tackle projects, coaching and experience on the job are also critical:

“I’m a designer who, in a past role, worked on a team that hired lots of entry-level positions out of boot camps (we have a few popular ones in our region).

I’d say about 40% of the people end up as designers, 30% as researchers or copywriters, and the rest often struggle to get jobs and end up pursuing other opportunities.

Bootcamps are effective at teaching you a basic toolset that can be applied to projects. In the real world, few projects follow that model, but we don’t expect entry-level designers to be self-starters and fully able to navigate a project independently; we anticipate that with adequate coaching, curating the right types of projects for them to tackle and placing them in a highly collaborative environment, they will expand that toolset and understand which tools make sense for the right job. Just as when I was in college, I had a hammer, 2 screwdrivers, and a set of pliers, but now have multiple power tools, wrench sets, etc.

I always look for strong design rationale (why did you make that design decision?), clear communication skills (a portfolio or slide deck introducing yourself and your work help), and solid critical thinking (when did you decide to stop ideation and start researching, how did you structure and conduct research, how’d you define requirements). Universally, bootcamps will tee-up success in these areas, but I’ve seen plenty of people fall short.”

3. Soft skills in UX careers

In r/UXDesign, a Redditor prompts senior UX designers to reflect on lessons learned after several years in the game:

The top comment is a no-holds-barred breakdown of difficulties and challenges UX designers should expect to encounter on the job.

The Redditor touches on UX design bootcamp teachings and how these are applied in real work scenarios:

“Most people don’t want great designs from you; they want someone who is easy and enjoyable to work with. You’ll spend most of your time managing egos, not design work.”

Another top-voted response posits, “That marketing yourself is half the work required to make career progress. Sharp business acumen, as well as skills in advertising and graphic design, are underrated and necessary for long-term success.”

So when looking at bootcamps, find one that stresses soft skills.

4. Must UX designers know all the tools to be employable?

In r/uxcareerquestions, a Redditor expresses concern over their grasp of the interface design tool, Figma. 

The top comment for this question reassures the original author that UX design success is not dependent on fluency in any given software or system.

Figma may be the go-to program for UX firms in 2023, but that will change—as it has done many times before. Rather, designers should look to fit the needs of any given role on a case-by-case basis:

“Re: about your ideas, not what tools you use. I think it’s really about whether you can do what the employer needs from the role. A large percentage of shops are using Figma now, so that’s a part of the need. Why not just learn it? (I’m old, so my tool was still Illustrator when everywhere else was getting into Sketch.. so I feel ya, but I had to get over it)

Also, I can see the downvotes in my future, but very few companies are really hiring UX/product designers for their ideas. I feel like the belief that they are is one of the biggest factors in grouchiness about the career.”

5. Which bootcamp?

One Redditor asks which bootcamp is best, and the top-rated comment actually attended the CareerFoundry UI program. They caution that one has to be prepared to put the work in, although notably, the user actually went out of their way to do additional work! 

“I graduated from CareerFoundry’s UI course and got a job as a product designer in 1.5 months. It’s a decent course, but you have to put in the work – on the side, l watched YT videos on breaking into the industry, listened to design podcasts, and consumed tons of design content on Twitter, IG, LinkedIn and TikTok to make sure my work/knowledge was up to date. Also, find designers that work for design-first companies like Apple/Twitter/Airbnb, etc, on LinkedIn or folios and take notes on how they put together their portfolios.

It’s a great time to enter UX; everyone is looking for screen-based designers right now. With a few right moves, you can make it.”

Key takeaways

Reddit is a deep mine of information and discussion on the latest UX design topics. It’s a great place to seek advice on the current UX jobs market and what steps to take next to further your career in the field. 

Reddit’s users have different opinions on UX bootcamps. Some Redditors offer up success stories about their experience of UX design bootcamps and the careers that came after, while others warn of risks around subscribing to an expensive bootcamp, with no guarantee of employment, in an already saturated jobs market.

However, subreddits do seem to agree that the networking and employment opportunities that continuing education allows are vital.

One common theme is that a strong portfolio and good ideas are crucial in a job application. If you’re considering doing a bootcamp, one that stresses the importance of building these—or even includes doing so as part of the curriculum—is critical.

Dive deeper into the world of design with our free UX design short course or speak directly with a UX program advisor. 

For more insight on the world of Reddit, check out these CareerFoundry articles:

• The Top 15 UX Influencers You Should Be Following in 2024
• The Best UX Design Bootcamps: And How to Choose One
• The Best Career Change Reddit Advice

Most recently, two state-of-the-art image generators, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, have gained attention and popularity for their AI-generated pictures that rival professional artists and photographers. Midjourney versus Stable Diffusion has been a popular topic as users navigate which software is best to use. 

In this article, we’ll help you understand each program and decide which is better for your current project, budget, skill level, and needs. Here’s what we’ll cover:

1. Midjourney vs Stable Diffusion at a glance
2. What is Midjourney?
3. What is Stable Diffusion?
4. Midjourney vs Stable Diffusion: Which is better?
5. Final thoughts

Now, let’s get started!

1. Midjourney vs Stable Diffusion at a glance

Here’s a quick breakdown of the major differences between Midjourney vs Stable Diffusion:

• Both are relatively new, cutting-edge image generators released in 2022.
• As of June 2023, both offer the ability to edit or fill certain parts of an image using inpainting or outpainting.
• Midjourney must be accessed with an internet connection via a Discord chat—Stable Diffusion has an installable version you can run on your hard drive and an online and mobile app.
• Midjourney only provides a few customizable models—Stable Diffusion has many. 
• Midjourney must be paid for and starts at a minimum of $10—the downloadable version of Stable Diffusion is free. However, the paid version of Stable Diffusion starts from $29.
• Midjourney uses a machine learning model—Stable Diffusion uses a free source code.
• Midjourney is reportedly more user-friendly—Stable Diffusion is more complex and has a steeper learning curve. However, this may be due to the greater number of customizable features that Stable Diffusion offers compared to Midjourney.

2. What is Midjourney?

Midjourney is a generative AI computer program released in July 2022 by San Francisco-based research lab Midjourney Inc. The program generates strikingly realistic images via natural language descriptions called prompts.

Midjourney creates four different images from each prompt that the user can then select to download or create more variations.

Midjourney also offers a unique feature not seen in most other AI image apps. By uploading your own image, the AI will generate four different prompts based on what it sees. Users can then input those prompts to create an endless variety of different images with a similar theme. 

Unlike other popular generative AI programs, Midjourney must be accessed through the Discord chat app. Therefore, it can only be used when internet connection is present. Subscriptions range from $10 to $120 per month with four different plans to choose from and a 20% discount if paying for a full year at once. 

Pros

• Custom art syles
• Ability to upload an image as a prompt
• Flexible image parameters allows more control
• High-quality images

Cons

• Must have a Discord sign-in to use
• Needs access to internet connection
• Paid plans still offer limited features
• Image generation takes much longer if not paying for Fast Hours

3. What is Stable Diffusion

Stable diffusion is a text-to-image diffusion model that produces stunning, photorealistic images in seconds. Using any text prompt, stable diffusion will generate high-quality images with various styles. It is a newer program just released in August of 2022 that, while more complex to learn and use, offers greater customization than most image generators today.

One standout feature of Stable Diffusion is the ability for users to input negative prompts. Negative prompts allow the user to specify what they don’t want to see or what they would like the generator to leave out. For instance, if your first search shows the moon on a snowy night, you can add the negative prompt “hide the moon” if that is something you want to leave out of the image. 

Users can access stable diffusion both online and offline via a web version, the mobile app Dreamer, or an installation to your hard drive. It is free on your hard drive or you can purchase a paid plan with a greater variety of features. The paid plans range from $29 to $149 and provide credits that are then used to generate images. Alternatively, you can pay per credit. 

Pros

• Includes negative prompt feature 
• Can be used without an internet connection
• Large degree of customization
• Free source code available for installation

Cons

• Image quality varies depending on which version you use
• Less intuitive to use with a steeper learning curve
• Downloadable version requires lots of gigabyte space and a graphics card
• Credits are easily exhausted in paid version

4. Midjourney vs Stable Diffusion: Which is better?

Determining which image generator is better than the other depends on a few factors. When looking at Midjourney versus Stable Diffusion, things like your budget, what you’ll be using them for, internet access, and complexity level will influence which one will work better for you. 

Pricing

Because Stable Diffusion offers a free download of their source code onto your hard drive, it seems like the better choice as far as your budget is concerned. However, the downloadable version can be a bit complicated and requires heavy-duty processing power that most people don’t have access to.

The paid versions of each Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are similar with Midjourney being a bit cheaper. That being said, the cheapest Midjourney plan is quite limited and might not be an adequate choice. 

Quality

Midjourney produces higher-quality images at a faster rate and with more ease than Stable Diffusion. Stable Diffusion has the potential to create at a similar level of quality but it will take more time and users will need to master how to use the vast number of different features and custom options to do so. 

Accessibility

As mentioned before, Stable Diffusion’s downloadable version is free but may not be the most practical option for users without access to lots of gigabyte space and processing power. While you do need internet access for the online version, it is quite easy to access compared to Midjourney which requires a Discord sign-in as well as internet access. 

Ease of use

Although Midjourney does require a third-party app to use it, the learning curve is not as steep as Stable Diffusion. Once you have accessed Midjourney through the Discord chat, it’s quite intuitive and very easy to navigate. Stable Diffusion has much more complexity, flexibility. and customizability and therefore takes a bit longer to figure out and use effectively.

Speed

Stable Diffusion generates images a few seconds faster than even the Fast mode in Midjourney. The relaxed mode in Midjourney is cheaper but takes an even longer amount of time to produce the same number of images. 

5. Final thoughts

Artificial intelligence is changing how we work, create, and interact with our surroundings. When it comes to creating high-quality artwork, many people are turning to image generators for their limitless possibilities, ease of use, affordability, and customization.

Both Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, as well as other programs like them, will likely continue to increase in complexity, convenience, and modernity with new updates and features as technology advances into the future. 

Find out more about Midjourney with our complete guide.

If you want to dive into the world of design, try our free UX design short course or speak directly with a UX program advisor. 

If you’re interested in reading more comparisons and breakdowns, check out these articles below:

• The Impact of AI in UX Design: The Complete Guide
• Khroma: The Groundbreaking AI Design Tool Explained
• Figma vs. Sketch: Which Is the Better Tool for UI Design?   

The answer to that is exactly what I’ll be sharing today.

I’ll take a wild guess that at some point in your career you didn’t get a job offer or interview, and as a result, you thought to yourself, “I need to rewrite my resume for the fifth or 15th time.” Or maybe you thought about your portfolio or your LinkedIn profile.

So many candidates think the solution to not getting interviews or job offers is to redo their resume or portfolio. If so, you’re making a mistake. You’re jumping to a solution without understanding the underlying symptom. 

Let’s give an example: I’ve had a lot of positive experiences with acupuncture for various aches and pains and injuries. Acupuncture is based on balancing the flow of chi or life force in the body. One of the interesting things I learned about acupuncture early on is that if I have pain in my ankle, that’s a sign that the chi or energy might be blocked somewhere else far away from my ankle.

This is why the acupuncturist might not put needles in my ankle, but instead, they might put them in different parts of my body. This is because the root problem might be far away from my ankle so even if I iced and rested and stretched my ankle, it might not get better. 

The same concept of identifying the root cause of a problem applies to your job search. 

You can keep rewriting or redesigning your resume, your portfolio, and hope that this version will be the winner. However, standing out when you apply and during interviews goes way beyond wordsmithing, bullet points, and massaging pixels. 

The problem is not your resume or your portfolio. The root problem is your inability to connect the dots and tell the whole story of your work and life experience and how that relates to the job you’re applying to.

This is exactly why your resume and portfolio don’t stand out in the sea of other candidates, and this is also why you don’t stand out in interviews. You may be great at talking in interviews, but if what you’re talking about only scratches the surface, you’ll sell yourself short.

Your resume and your portfolio may be beautifully designed and have perfect spelling and grammar. But again, if the content of your resume and portfolio doesn’t sell your skills and experience, you’re not going to stand out. 

So how do you overcome this? You have to learn a new way to connect the dots about your experience in a written, visual, and audible format.

In other words, you have to know the words to write, and how to design and lay out your resume and portfolio so those words stand out to busy recruiters and hiring managers. You have to know how to verbally talk about your experience in interviews. 

No amount of rewriting or redesigning can help if your story isn’t solid. It’s kind of like that saying, right? You can’t put lipstick on a pig. 

You have to look at your work history and learn the process of developing your career experience story so you can share it and help the right people understand why you’d be an awesome candidate.

This is why paying to have your resume written isn’t worth it because if you can’t connect the dots, how is the person you hired to write it going to be able to write it effectively? 

Here’s what you need to do to improve the quality of writing of your resume and portfolio:

1. Review the job description for the jobs you are applying to.
2. Identify the skills and experience the companies are looking for. 
3. Thoughtfully consider your previous experience and identify examples of when you’ve used the skills and experience mentioned in the job description. 
4. Work those examples into your resume, portfolio, and what you say in your interviews.

Recruiters and hiring managers don’t just want to hear about what you did, they want to hear about why you did it, how you did it, and what happened. They want the receipts! 

They want to hear your process and don’t be afraid if your process had twists and turns and didn’t follow the traditional way that you think something should have been done.

I’ve talked to enough recruiters and hiring managers to confidently tell you that they want to hear about when things didn’t go perfectly when things went off course, and what you did to overcome that.

Did you find this article useful? These articles will help you avoid being overlooked for job opportunities as a UX designer, too:

• How To Find Tech Jobs Outside the Tech Industry
• Here’s How to Become a UX Designer in 2024
• The Best UI/UX Design Agency: The Complete 2024 List