Product designer vs. UX designer: Key differences
Written by: James M. Tobin, Edited by: Mitch Jacobson
Published: February 6, 2025
A good user experience (UX) is so important to successful product design that businesses often employ professionals who specialize in these areas. While the duties of product designers and UX designers overlap, the two roles have different objectives. Explore these differences in our guide.
What does a product designer do?
Product designers create products with unique or innovative features that fill gaps in consumer markets. One famous example is the bendable drinking straw, patented in 1937 by the American inventor Joseph B. Friedman, after watching his young daughter struggle with an inflexible paper straw while drinking a milkshake.
Following centuries of slow development, the field exploded during the 1980s with the rise of dedicated design consultancies. Product designers offer specialized product conception, prototyping, testing, and refinement expertise. Many are self-employed, work with design firms, or in manufacturing and wholesale trade companies.
Key product design principles
Product designers systematically and strategically apply principles and tools known to support successful outcomes. Examples include:
- Iterative design: The iterative design process involves identifying a user need and then gradually refining prototypes through testing.
- Minimalism: Minimalist approaches remove all unnecessary design elements to create simple, intuitive product interfaces.
- Accessible inclusivity: Designers aim to make their products readily usable for the broadest possible cross-section of consumers.
In recent years, product design has become increasingly digital. The term "product designer" generally refers to designers of digital products such as software, and the term "industrial designer" is generally used for designers of physical products. However, the two terms are broadly interchangeable.
Salary and career outlook for product designers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), industrial designers earned a median salary of $76,250 per year as of May 2023. Certain industries, including computer, automotive, and semiconductor manufacturing, pay higher average salaries.
The BLS projects 3% job growth for industrial designers from 2023-33, about as fast as the average 4% projected growth for all occupations.
What does a UX designer do?
UX designers occupy a more niche role, focusing on a product's visual layout and interactive features. Product designers also consider these elements, but their UX counterparts examine them in granular detail and use comprehensive testing and refinement strategies to optimize them.
When applied effectively, UX design principles can help users save time and effort, which may make them more likely to return to the product (or the company that made it) in the future. UX designers also strive to make complicated products as intuitive to use as possible.
Key UX design principles
Creating what is known as a "frictionless" user experience is a UX designer's key objective. Frictionless UX makes it smooth, easy, and effortless for a person to use a product. While the concept most commonly arises in digital design contexts, it also extends to physical products like consumer electronics and appliances.
Other important UX design principles include:
- User-centric design: This principle emphasizes the importance of data-based insights in understanding users and their specific needs.
- Consistency: UX design aims to provide a consistent and predictable experience across aligned product lines and brands.
- User control: This principle stipulates that the user should guide the product, not vice-versa.
The concept of hierarchy is also critically important in information architecture, a UX subfield that heavily shapes user experiences with digital products like websites and databases.
Salary and career outlook for UX designers
According to 2023 BLS data, web and digital interface designers earn a median annual salary of $98,540. The BLS projects 8% job growth from 2023-33, fueled by the expected ongoing growth of online commerce.
Where product design and UX design overlap
Product design and UX design overlap enough that the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. However, it's more accurate to think of UX design as a specialized subfield of product design.
Both fields emphasize:
- Solving specific user problems or improving on products currently available to consumers
- The iterative, user-centric design of products and services to deliver a frictionless experience for the end user
- Drawing Data-based insights from firsthand consumer and market research
Product and UX designers both engage in prototyping and testing to refine their products and optimize their functional performance.
Snapshot of product designers vs. UX designers
Product designers
- Engage with the entirety of the product design process, from conception and brainstorming to marketing and launches
- Focus on broader commercial concerns and objectives
- Design both physical and digital products
- Have experience with project management and UX design
- Work in industries like manufacturing, wholesale trade, and professional services firms
UX designers
- Engage exclusively with the visual and interactive elements of a product
- Focus on the technical elements that support a smoother user experience
- Design digital products like website and software interfaces
- Have experience with graphic design, computer programming, and coding
- Work mainly in the information technology industry