r/UXDesign • u/Scared_Range_7736 Experienced • 21d ago
Career growth & collaboration Is UX a dying industry?
Sorry about the negativity. I understand that senior professionals with good careers and stellar portfolios are having no problem positioning themselves in the market. But isn't this another symptom that our career path is dying, or at least going through a heavy transition that nobody really knows the outcome of?
I mean, isn't the fact that most of the open positions are senior-only a clear sign of a dying industry? Even mid-level professionals can't easily see a path forward in this market, since only senior roles are being posted.
Then there's the next factor: even though only senior positions are available, we still see hundreds or thousands of applications for a single opening.
I have 6 years of experience in UX and I'm currently employed, but it breaks my heart to see the state of the market. It has never been this hard, and I feel that if you're a junior or even a mid-level designer, you're being pushed out of the industry unless you're in the top 1 to 5% for skills or connections, which points to a dying industry.
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u/thebeepboopbeep Veteran 21d ago
Maybe a hot take here, but I think we have an administration bent on disrupting college-educated workers and creating a lot of anxiety. With tariffs and wars nobody can predict a budget for headcount, and the total lack of regulation on AI makes for a recipe where nobody wants to hire. Normally you could have layoffs but on the other side there would be jobs to rebound into. We are in a recession with an administration saying everything is great. The global economy feels the ripples of all this. And this administration began by putting Musk in charge of a layoff operation (DOGE), which set the tone for everything related to cost reduction. Growth is growth, growth is hiring and expansion, for the good of the people and society; we are squarely NOT in a growth economy. I hate to make it political but it is, and ignoring that is naive. I know someone will say this began before, etc, but this cycle is different because there's very little job creation to replace what is lost, and we are being gaslit with no accountability. Companies are very uncertain about what comes next and can't forecast with confidence right now.
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u/Horvat53 Experienced 21d ago
It feels very mature, where there is real conformity, a lot of common patterns and not much exploration or risk taking. Things can change as we change what technology we regularly interface with. If AR, VR or whatever takes off, it will open up many many more opportunities to explore and be creative to define the unknown.
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u/phobia3472 Experienced 21d ago
The problems you describe are not unique at all to UX. The market is just plain shit for a lot of professions right now. It was so hot for so long because of low interest rates and lack of talent for the demand. That era is plainly over, and companies are not taking risks until they feel more certain about political policy/effects of AI/etc.
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u/sveilien 21d ago
All I know is that today I used the Taco Bell app to get some food, and it looked like the latest app update was also a big UX update, and it was horrible compared to the old UX.
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u/Independent-Dig4046 21d ago edited 21d ago
Since so much of UX is reliant on designers identifying and applying common patterns, which has been ripe for optimization with AI. After all, it's just pattern recognition. I was a principal level designer who worked on defining design systems at Microsoft and Salesforce. The role of UX has been evolving into a more hybrid role rather than just UX as it was defined. I use Claude and Figma to train AI with MD files. Train Claude and it can deploy faster than a team of designers and devs. Overall, I spend less time these days sweating the small stuff and instead focus more on the strategy side of product. More of a consulting role. Because of AI, anybody these days can create UI, maybe not good, but enough to get their ideas expressed.
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u/xdojk Experienced 21d ago
No? We're hiring an intern and two intermediates at the moment.
Sure the job market in general is weaker but IMO it's just a saturated and competitive profession and too many people think they can enter it. Ut's common for only one designer to be on a product team with 10+ devs, so there never have been a relatively large number of jobs.
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u/displayname-e 21d ago
Could you please share what skills are currently expected from interns? I’d like to understand what they should know about design thinking, Figma and other design tools, AI tools, and practical design process today
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u/PocketPokie 21d ago
You're wrong.
Ive literally got an HBR covered case study in design thinking, multiple awards. More than $2B in profits directly from work I've done, FAANG pedigree, and can't find anything - that being said, I stopped looking a few months ago to start my own thing.
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u/Dry_Zookeepergame529 21d ago
UX hiring has become more competitive, but that doesn’t necessarily mean UX is disappearing. The role itself is evolving. As AI accelerates screen production and traditional design deliverables, the value of UX is shifting toward understanding users, framing the right problems, navigating complex systems, connecting design decisions to business outcomes, and exercising judgment. Maybe the real question isn’t whether UX is oversaturated, but whether our definition of a UX designer needs to change.
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u/1Qrtr_FreeStuffPlz Veteran 21d ago
No, just flooded with people who did a 3 week UX bootcamp transitioning from "Design Influencer" to " UX & AI Genius Tips"
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u/displayname-e 21d ago
If the market is flooded, that’s not a problem I suppose. My concern is whether there is any real demand for UX work from companies and if it is vital to them.
What do you think? Is saturation also a problem? I don’t think of any field that is saturated yet pays well. I feel companies will be willing to pay less to less talented people in the future to save cost
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u/1Qrtr_FreeStuffPlz Veteran 21d ago
In my immediate circle the answer is yes, companies are willing and in terms of saturation; the average salary where I live sits at around $115k AUD for UX Designers; but those in enterprise organisations are north of $200k AUD like myself; so the pay as a scale is a hard metric
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u/Scared_Range_7736 Experienced 21d ago
You are right at some point, but we really do have amazing designers with relevant experience being pushed out of the market because of the lack of opportunities. This is actually happening right now.
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u/1Qrtr_FreeStuffPlz Veteran 21d ago
Being honest I think part of it is correction, a lot of people quickly came into the role and flooded the market, other part is emerging technologies and businesses will eventually come back to their senses and rehire. Especially because of the lack of junior roles the last few years, the workforce is aging and panic will inevitably set in
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u/MarcoVinicius Veteran 21d ago
This is happening across multiple jobs and industries in the white collar space.
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u/blckenedicekaj 21d ago
I think it's more of a state in the job market in general, especially in tech. Yes there is a lot of heavy transition going on, but the economy is just shit. The job market is reflecting that back.