Are you considering a Master’s degree in UI/UX design? Unsure of the career prospects in 2022? Let’s discuss it, starting with defining the differences between the fields of UI and UX.
UI versus UX designer: What are the differences?
UX designer:
A User Experience Designer is often referred to as a UX designer. The creation of a delightful experience for the user, on their interaction with a digital or physical product, is the responsibility of a User Experience (UX) designer.
UX designers analyze and understand the target audience’s behavior, their preferences, needs, etc., and accordingly create a convenient, intuitive, efficient, relevant, and all-around pleasant user experience. This enables them to accomplish their desired objective with minimal effort.
UI designer:
A User Interface Designer is often referred to as a UI designer. This person focuses on the user’s navigation of a digital product. Navigation can take the form of Graphical User Interface, Voice-Controlled Interface, or Gesture-Based Interface.
A UI designer is also responsible for the aesthetics of the website, app, or video game. That involves icons, color schemes, typography, buttons that users click, interface animations, transitions, and more. The main objective is to ensure the interface is not only visually stimulating but also offers an unrivaled experience.
Even though, both UI and UX design are different, they are usually are terms used interchangeably. While UX designers are accountable to design the wireframe (blueprint), UI designers add visual details in order to bring to life the blueprint (wireframe).
Scope for UI/UX Design
The stats below reveal how UI/UX design is still a relevant field that is highly in demand in 2022:
- Globally internet penetration as of January 2021 was 59.5%, translating to 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide
- As of the first quarter of 2021, 3.48 million apps are available on the Google play store for Android users. On the other hand, 2.22 million apps are available on iOS on the Apple App Store.
- As of the third quarter of 2020, globally the consumer spent 19 billion U.S. dollars on mobile apps via the Apple App Store, while 10.3 billion U.S. dollars was spent via the Google Play platform.
- In 2020, over 90% of the global internet population used a mobile device to go online.
- 28 billion unique mobile internet users were there in 2020
- There are over 1.83 billion websites, globally
- Globally, 6 hours and 43 minutes on average are spent online
- In 2021, it is estimated that e-commerce sales will reach $4.9 trillion, globally
- At a global level, the gaming market is forecasted to reach $314.40 billion USD, growing at a CAGR of 9.64%, by 2026
Today, the digital presence is a must since a website or mobile app presents the face of the brand to your target audience. Hence, the need for good UI/UX designers will always be there and is poised to only grow more.
In addition, the gaming industry is also poised to explode, thus strengthening further the demand for UI/UX designers.
Thus, a masters in UI/UX design from any of the premier colleges will not only add to your skillset but will also enhance your employability as well as the scope of growth. It just might be your next step in life.