Also called: UX/UI Designer (tech)
Designs how apps and websites look and work, from user research to final screens.
A product designer might sketch a new checkout flow, build a clickable prototype in Figma, and watch five users try it. Then they fix what confused people and hand designs to engineers. Daily standups and design critiques are part of the rhythm.
Estimate; tech company product designers earn more than the BLS digital designer median.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in design, HCI, or psychology; bootcamps and self-teaching also work with a strong portfolio.
Ways in: 4-year college, Self-taught, Certification. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Graphic Design, Psychology.
Growing faster than average (about 7% over 10 years). Faster-than-average growth for digital designers, though tech layoffs have made hiring uneven.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI now turns prompts into screens and prototypes, trimming junior work; user research, product thinking and tradeoffs stay human.
Classes: AP Psychology, AP Computer Science Principles, Graphic design CTE.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-1255.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.