UX designer resume example

What recruiters look for

• A process you can explain: research, problem framing, design, testing, iteration. Name methods like interviews, usability tests and card sorts.
• Outcomes, not just artifacts: task completion, conversion, support calls, error rates. Wireframes are the means; these are the result.
• Case studies in the portfolio: two or three that show the problem, your role, the messy middle and the result.
• Collaboration with product and engineering: handoff, design systems, working within technical limits.
• Accessibility: WCAG knowledge is now expected in regulated industries and a plus everywhere.

Writing the summary

Say your years, the products or domains you design for, and how you work, with one detail that sets you apart (a research background, accessibility depth, complex workflows). Keep it under 50 words.

Bullet points that work

Strong lines for this role, beyond the ones in the example. Borrow the shape and put in your own numbers.

• Interviewed 30 small business owners and turned the findings into a new onboarding flow that cut time to first invoice from 3 days to 40 minutes.
• Raised mobile checkout completion from 61% to 74% by removing two steps and redesigning the address form after testing with 12 users.
• Reduced support calls about password resets by 35% by rewriting error messages and adding a self-service recovery path.
• Ran an unmoderated test with 200 participants to choose between two navigation models before engineering started.
• Designed a dashboard for 500 field technicians, tested on site in two warehouses, which cut data entry time per job by 4 minutes.
• Contributed 40 components and usage guidelines to the company design system used by 6 product teams.
• Mapped the end-to-end patient journey across 5 departments, exposing 3 handoffs that caused most complaints.
• Set up a monthly research panel of 150 customers, cutting recruitment time for studies from two weeks to two days.
• Partnered with engineers to ship a redesigned search that lowered “no results” sessions from 18% to 7%.

Skills to list

Certifications and licenses worth listing

• NN/g UX Certification (Nielsen Norman Group): well known among UX managers and a plus for designers without a design degree.
• Google UX Design Certificate: useful for career changers at the very start; less weight once you have shipped work.
• IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC): a strong signal for accessibility-focused roles.

Length and format

One page with up to about eight years of experience. Put a portfolio link in the header and keep education below experience. A short research-methods line in skills helps applicant tracking systems that search for “usability testing”.

Common mistakes

• Describing deliverables (“created wireframes and prototypes”) instead of problems solved and results measured.
• No portfolio link, or a portfolio with screens but no case-study story.
• Claiming research you did not run. Say “partnered with research” if a researcher led it.
• Mixing UI and UX titles carelessly. Mirror the job ad’s language, but describe what you actually did.
• Ignoring accessibility, which hiring managers in health, finance and government now ask about first.