Should you Become a UX Designer or Front-End Developer? (Career Advice) 

This explains literally everything that I've been feeling and worrying about with trying to make a decision!

You've literally voiced everything I've been wondering about... hopefully you (and we) get advice because I'm so confused too!

I think I would advise you to do UX on the side. And take what fits your life best and brings you decent income more seriously.

Though I have yet to even understand the difference between UI/UX, Front end, Back end, and have yet to take the first step to learn any of it.

Are we twins?? XD (INFJ here). This is EXACTLY my dilemma too! I come from a Fine Art background. recently been trying to build an Illustration portfolio (food), currently temping as a Receptionist for a corporate firm. A few months back, I enrolled on a UX Design course, but have since been thinking about studying Front-End Development for the exact same reasons as you. I just don't really want to be bothered a whole lot. I spend 15yrs in front of house jobs where I had to be "on". It was never fun, the tech industry felt so intimidating, and I didn't know about coding careers until a few years ago.

What was your job before?

@@Santechnikai I worked for a major international oil company but was retrenched after 11 years.

@Greg Mario Simileer I got side tracked but I found employment at at an online education company. UXD is one of the courses on our portfolio. Expensive though but I can do it for free. I am starting in May. I have always liked design more than intricate coding. Your FE studies will be useful in UXD.

I know of someone who studied coding but it wasn't for her. She switched to UXD and got a job at Mailchimp. Her life changed for the better in a few months.

@@brianjacobs8839 Interesting. I'm teaching myself to code but am interested in UXD. Where did she learn UX?

🤣🤣🤣🤣 My soulmate!!!!

This is where I’m stuck at. Because i love the idea of UX design but I prefer to not deal with people lol

@@luumaven LMFAOO literally same. I’m introverted and have social anxiety

I heard by someone else that UI’s don’t present as much, but I’m pretty sure you still have to deal with people constantly. Also a lot of companies seem to not understand the difference and combine the two

@@torimonet8402 i understand, i think I’m going to just stick with front end dev

Hey! What did you decide to choose in the end?

Hey, that's my description too..😁

which is alot fun

Hey how is being full stack developer? I am clueless bout this all and want a real advice on career! I am creative and hates stress. I also like coding...

I struggled with this issue too. a lot of digital designers have both design as well as coding skill but it is almost impossible to be great in both areas.

Have you got the success now?

Hope you are doing well now.

I've always been in this situation all my career. My current job requires me to do research, design prototypes and code the Front-end development (using angular, typescript). I guess it takes a company that supports specialists instead of a generalist, to support Mike's argument.

Is it true that you are paid less in ui ux rather than in front/back end or full stack?

@@unknown-kn4ufSorry, if this sounds a bit incoherent, it is 5am and my eyes are closing. :D In my country, it depends.There are variables to consider: years of experience, size of company, how saturated the market is, who you know, how broad and/or deep your skills are, how you are with people... After more than 3 years in UX trenches (1 year of coding) I am paid slightly better than some of my acquaintances, who are backend engineers of 4-6 years of experience + 5 years of uni. I have seen some statistics about UX salaries here and currently I am in the mid-range of what is possible. Market in my country is not too saturated with UXers, much less the good ones and companies are desperate. I am quite versatile, as I can do anything from research to work in Illustrator (with varying results tho); easy to work with, perceptive and quite quick thinking. But consider this - I started from the bottom being ridiculously underpaid (partially my fault too, I was so happy to get my foot in the door, that I undervalued myself), so I'm the long-term, they have more money than me. For now, because I think, that UX is a bit more sustainable for future in terms of staying atop of your game when it comes to skills. That is, if you are in a company, where people are not assholes, because when you're UX, politics can affect your work a lot and you could burn out there - happened to me. While UX principles won't change much due to human psychology, technology is rapidly evolving and frankly, I don't see many old programmers in my vicinity. So if you consider income over years, it might be a tie or even slightly better for UX. I mentioned backend engineers, now I will mention the front-end ones. Most programmers who have CS background frow upon frontend here. People get into frontend by studying in bootcamps. There aren't that many frontend devs and yet again, even fewer good ones. Good react engineers usually earn 40% more, than my backend friends.

Hi there can you share how much of your job is presenting and working with others? Is it constant interaction? I'm an introvert former teacher and textile designer wanting to change careers. I'd like something that's not super stressful where I could work remotely, ideally doing something creative. Someone recommended UI design to me which I'd never heard of before.

@@katec9893 Hi! Well, my job as a UX designer is very much about the communication (and my Teams account says I spend 30% of my time doing it however they count it from 9-5 and I don't work 8 hours, but about 6). I talk to people all the time (standups and groomings with developers; meetings with my UX team, research and testing with customers and communication with product team). Developers tend to be rather introverted (the stereotypes are there for a reason lol) and they tend to be more neurotic and disagreeable. My UX colleagues are mostly introverted as well, but more agreeable and less neurotic. I am semi-introverted. The introversion thing is great because we don't waste much time on small talk. 😅 Our product managers are more extroverted, less neurotic and semi-agreeable and it depends with the customers. But when someone is interested in talking to us, they are usually pretty friendly and eager to help (polar opposite of what customer service people have to deal with). But your work is under constant scrutiny from everyone. You need to explain what kind of problem you're solving, why you're solving it this way (show us user flow and use cases) and what's the desired outcome and what metrics you'll use to measure it. This is my experience as UX designer of three years. Maybe UI designers are more on their own but we don't have such highly specialized people, only UX designers and UX researchers. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. :)

@@katec9893 I usually present my work up to 8 people max.

Appreciate you sharing your insight.

If that's what you're heart tells you, then yes. Don't listen to your head.

Great explanation! Thanks for the insights!

@@LOL99663 LOL what a name you have 😂😂

Hey! I am also the same like you. I love aesthetics. So how are you doing in your life?

So how’s it going for you?

@@abhasgupta354 I'm an event planner now 😅😂 funny how things shake out

@@shaliah6827 oh wow that’s quite a pivot 😆

Guts that’s eye opening

the grass is always greener on the other side isn't it?

i figured cause its tooo technical..spending most of your day coding sounds boring

@@octm1 thats not true.. there are meetings client feature implement bugs rewriting googling to do. not just sit there all day and code. that is like me saying ux designer spend all day being creative but in actuality there are research, case studies, analytics you gotta go through.

Jacob Tran i didn’t say all day though i said MOST debugging etc to me falls under coding

Hi! You mention that you taught yourself FE Dev. Please I'd like to know how you went about it. I also want to start the journey from level 0 lol. I have no prior knowledge of coding or anything relating to it. Thanks

You know now I find ourselve in the same position and I really don't know which way will be right...

@@FreddieMercuryyy I started to learn by my self a few months ago as well, and I think u should start with HTML, CSS and Java script. U will find some interesting videos about them here and one of my favorite teacher is Mike he as a video about HTML that is extremely helpful

Me too brother!

Same here what did yiu end up doing?

Just X yeah! that helped realized UI/UX design was for me i don’t give a shit about what kind of engine a car has lmaooo i like the look of it that’s it

Mario Mitchell thanks for this. I’m very creative, but love coding really torn between the two. You hit the nail on the head I’d totally miss fixing things too! Who says a designer/dev can’t continue to be creative :)

Right, it seems like employers are more willing to hire self taught front end developers moreso than self-taught UX Designers.

I took on a Jr. UI/UX and Developer role just to get my foot in the door. I come from a heavy graphic design background. While in my current role, I do UI, UX and UI Development (html, css, bootstrap), I'm realizing that I won't master one area. Instead, I'll just be good in different areas. Now that I have a little bit of all 3 under my belt, I can now choose my next position more wisely in deciding what field I want to place more focus on. For me, it won't be front-end development as I miss opening Sketch and diving into the aesthetics.

Be a web designer while changing to UX/UI. Its more easy because you have more direct contact with design, and to be a web designer or a front end designer you will learn basically the same tools of UX/UI designer (Adobe CC Tools, prototype apps like XD for example) and a little bit front end (HTML, CSS and JS) maybe a very Basic PHP. It's more easy beacuse, with these skills you can get empathy with programmers, create connections between product and coding and understand some parts of the thecnical aspect of software developing and buisness/User. The principles that web designers and UX/UI designers are the same (Taxonomy, gestalt, and typography for example) So, can be more easy to move between theese positions. In design or programming, a good portfolio and certifications are very valuable.

as someone who is a ux designer who doesnt like to talk to many people, there isnt rly a way around it. Ive had to talk and present to countless teammates, managers, VPs, PMs, engineers and its difficult if you are not social or dont like talking much :/

I like both but i can't in terms of career like both in the same way. I love code personal design projects to give life to them. Like when it to code an arduino robot that i designed first or to build my own business website from scratch so i can figure out how each part work. But in terms of career i just got the conscience that i would not have what make code fun for me . Is just make it or that and you are almost of time out of the final product decision. Just a maker, not an inventor. So I will continue coding for personal projects, hobby and use it to display for client i have a big image of what happen behind in the final product. The code will be a diferential. It is my decision and it is like put in the ground a heavy bag of javascript frameworks books and how to increase the javascript performance.

so what did you end up doing?

@@abhasgupta354 Ended up researching bootcamps (because I had no interest in returning to university/college) and then went with Career Foundry's UI Design program with a specialization in Front End Dev. (which is just a mini 3-5wk course at the end). The UI program had a project that was UX and I ended up liking UX even more than UI, so, if I was doing it again, for me personally, I would choose their UX program. I've since completed everything, have my certificates, and now job searching.

@@kristannlee good luck for the job hunt!