The State of UX in Singapore in 2024

What is User Experience?

Before we get to details of what’s happening to UX in Singapore, let’s break this down for a start.

User Experience or UX (the short term for this) can be referred to the overall quality of a user’s or individual’s interaction with a product or service. It covers the user’s emotional, practical and cognitive experiences as they engage with a design or using your products.

A positive outcome usually precedes from a user’s ability to easily use a product and find that it is efficient and enjoyable. How did this happen? Magic?

It involves understanding user needs by conducting lots of research to designing the interfaces and then further testing to optimize the product’s usability. Sounds easy, yeah? I can assure you it’s not.

What’s happening to UX in Singapore?

When I first started going into the world of UX, Singapore is relatively new to this and lots of my clients don’t understand the need for this. All they want is a beautiful website or app that appeals to the masses. Recent years have shown that UX in Singapore has been steadily growing and evolving. Clients now understand that UX is an important aspect of design and cannot be ignored.

Increased number of UX Designers

You can see the steady rise of UX design courses that are being promoted by our local learning institutes. I think this is a good sign to allow our next generation of designers to be equipped with the knowledge when they go out into the working world.

And if you’re active on LinkedIn, there are many postings and openings for UX designers, both in the government and private sectors. This was something I didn’t see 5 to 10 years ago.

The only drawback is the remuneration. I think it’s fair to say that since this is relatively new, it is still not “stable” in this sense. I would like to stress that being a UX designer is not as fancy as it looks though. If you are expected to have a high remuneration, then be assured that you will be taking lots of responsibilities.

Understanding the role of a UX Designer

Having said that, not many employers know the roles of a UX Designer. They happen to cross between UI designers, graphic designers, motion designers, front end developers and the list goes on. Are UX designers supposed to know all this?

This is my personal opinion. You can learn about all of this and bring value to your CV but do keep in mind that as UX Designers, you are supposed to solve design problems, not making the app dance. So do communicate with your future employers of what you are extremely good at and what are some of the soft skills that you have to help out in your department.

I have already served enough clients to know that yes of course they want more from you but if you communicate early, this would not be a problem. Anyway, having all these skills isn’t bad at all. Many times, I have been asked to consult on certain development frameworks (even though it is not my strong suit), or even make some adjustments to the CSS. I would like to believe that as a designer, I am here to help them solve problems.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the more value they see in you, the likelihood of you being hired has just jumped. Tip the scales in your favour. How you do it is your flair.