Career opportunities for user experience designers appear in almost every industry. Why? Because practically every company, organization, product, or service relies on a quality user experience for their success.

The most obvious examples are in tech: How easy is this app to use? Can customers find what they need on your ecommerce site? Is this game challenging and fun to play?

But the possibilities are even more wide-ranging. For example, user experience research can inform road signage and sidewalk mapping, restaurant menus, the shape of a product, the script in a voiceover — anything humans interact with. User experience touches a variety of interactive media, such as games, mobile apps, websites, smart devices, and a lot more. It also plays a vital role in accessibility and usability, important issues gaining more attention from corporations in recent years.

A Bright Future for User Experience Designers

As more companies become aware of the importance of user experience design, more are looking to add fresh, new talent to their teams. In fact, a recent LinkedIn article says user experience design ranks fifth in the most in-demand skills companies need.

That creates a huge potential for job growth and an exciting diversity of career paths for the user experience designer.

Diverse Careers for User Experience Designers

With so many career options in the world of user experience, here are some job opportunities that stand out for user experience professionals according to Impact.

• User researcher: Provide insight on user behavior, offer feedback throughout the design process, identify opportunities for improvement, and give actionable improvements
• Usability analyst: Apply research to project objectives to identify problems, investigate and resolve usability issues, communicate insight from those improvements
• Information architect: Focus on scoping, building, and optimizing how information is optimized for the user, create wireframes and process maps, develop user flow models
• Interaction designer: Create seamless interactive experiences for users, develop rapid prototypes of these experiences, work with visual designers to create full design solutions
• Visual designer: Turn wireframes and prototypes into visuals that are user-friendly, on-brand, and fit graphical standards, then validate the effectiveness of designs
• User Experience designer: Rely on researchers, analysts, and testing to serve as a jack-of-all-trades, drive communication between developers and user research, offer feedback in all phases of the design process

Check out their infographic on "Cool UX Careers You May Have Never Considered".

Job Satisfaction for User Experience Designers

If a vibrant job market wasn't enough, job satisfaction is another apparent benefit for the user experience professional. CNN Money has ranked user experience researcher in their top 100 Best Jobs in America in recent years, grading "Personal Satisfaction" with an "A" in their quality of life rankings.

One user experience designer from a study by the Nielsen Norman Group said, "The role of UX designer is a dream job for creative people who love to invent and get products into people’s hands. In the best environments, it’s pure creativity and invention, which is mostly unattainable with any other role."

Want to learn more? Explore the User Experience bachelor's program at Full Sail.