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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for UX Assistant

💰 $45,000 - $70,000

DesignUXProductResearch

🎯 Role Definition

The UX Assistant supports product and design teams by executing tactical UX tasks and research activities that advance product usability and user satisfaction. Reporting to senior UX Designers or Design Leads, the UX Assistant helps translate user insights into actionable wireframes, prototypes, documentation, and test reports. This role balances hands-on design work (wireframing, prototyping, UI asset production) with research and operational responsibilities (scheduling interviews, processing usability data, maintaining design libraries) and is ideal for early-career UX practitioners who want to grow into UX Designer and UX Researcher roles.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • UX Intern or Design Intern
  • Visual/Graphic Designer transitioning to UX
  • Customer Support or Product Coordinator with exposure to product feedback

Advancement To:

  • UX Designer / Product Designer
  • UX Researcher (Junior)
  • Interaction Designer
  • Design Operations Specialist

Lateral Moves:

  • Content/UX Writer
  • Visual Designer
  • Front-end Developer (with additional technical skill-building)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Assist senior UX designers in creating user flows, wireframes and low- to mid-fidelity prototypes that clearly communicate interaction patterns and design intent for web and mobile experiences.
  • Produce pixel-accurate UI assets and exportable design deliverables (SVGs, PNGs, icon sets) while maintaining the project’s existing visual language and brand standards.
  • Build and iterate on interactive prototypes in Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, or InVision for stakeholder reviews and usability testing sessions.
  • Facilitate and schedule usability test sessions, recruit participants, manage consent and incentives, and ensure logistics for both remote and in-person research.
  • Observe usability tests and take structured notes, video timestamps, and screen recordings to capture pain points, task completion issues, and user quotes.
  • Synthesize qualitative research (test notes, interview transcripts) into actionable insights, affinity maps, and prioritized recommendations for product and design teams.
  • Run routine heuristic evaluations and accessibility audits (WCAG basics) across product flows and report issues with remediation suggestions.
  • Support A/B test setup by preparing test variations, documenting hypotheses, and coordinating with product analytics and engineering teams to ensure accurate experiment tracking.
  • Convert research findings and stakeholder feedback into clear design tickets with acceptance criteria for engineers and product managers in JIRA or similar systems.
  • Maintain and update the team’s design system, component library and style guides, ensuring consistent use of tokens, spacing, and typography across products.
  • Assist engineers in design QA: validate implemented UI against design specs, capture visual or interaction bugs, and follow up on fixes during sprints.
  • Prepare and present concise UX summaries, research reports and slide decks for cross-functional stakeholders, highlighting user problems, proposed solutions and expected impact.
  • Conduct competitor and market analysis on experience patterns and document best practices and inspiration that inform design direction.
  • Create and refine personas, journey maps, and scenario-based use cases to ensure design decisions are anchored to user needs and behaviors.
  • Collaborate with product managers to translate user needs into prioritized backlog items and help define acceptance criteria for UX-related tickets.
  • Support content strategy by drafting and reviewing microcopy and error states to improve clarity, conversion, and usability.
  • Monitor user feedback channels (support tickets, reviews, NPS comments) to identify recurring usability issues and escalate them with quantitative and qualitative evidence.
  • Run basic product analytics queries or work with analytics leads to track UX metrics (task completion, time-on-task, conversion funnels, retention) and report trends.
  • Maintain organized project files, version history, and documentation so design work is discoverable and reusable across projects.
  • Mentor or onboard new interns and junior contributors by documenting workflows, templates, and best practices for usability testing, prototyping and asset management.
  • Support cross-functional design sprints, workshops and co-creation sessions, including preparing materials, facilitating exercises and synthesizing outputs.
  • Assist with user recruitment, incentive management, and participant communications, ensuring compliance with privacy policies and ethical research standards.

Secondary Functions

  • Maintain a running backlog of small UI enhancements and quick wins, triaging visual polish and accessibility fixes for future sprints.
  • Contribute to the organization’s UX toolkit and design ops initiatives by creating templates, checklists and process documentation.
  • Participate in sprint planning, stand-ups and design review rituals to keep design deliverables aligned with engineering schedules.
  • Help maintain the usability lab or remote testing setup, including test scripts, recording tools and participant management platforms.
  • Provide operational support for customer research partnerships, vendor coordination (e.g., UserTesting, Lookback, Optimal Workshop), and budget tracking.
  • Assist marketing and content teams with design assets for landing pages, feature announcements, and onboarding flows to ensure UX consistency.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Wireframing and prototyping with Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD or InVision; ability to build interactive flows for rapid validation.
  • Foundational knowledge of interaction design principles, information architecture and user-centered design methodologies.
  • Practical experience conducting usability tests and user interviews, including session scripts, consent handling, and note-taking.
  • Familiarity with basic accessibility (WCAG) guidelines and techniques to identify and document accessibility gaps.
  • Working knowledge of design systems, component libraries and version control for design assets (Figma libraries, Storybook awareness).
  • Basic front-end literacy: HTML/CSS understanding to communicate effectively with engineers and validate implementation.
  • Experience with analytics and experimentation tools such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Optimizely, or A/B testing platforms.
  • Proficiency with research and collaboration tools: Miro, FigJam, Notion, Airtable, Lookback, UserTesting, Dovetail or similar.
  • Ability to create clear, exportable design assets (icons, SVGs, responsive assets) and prepare developer handoff documentation.
  • Competence in translating qualitative data into visual artifacts: affinity diagrams, journey maps, personas and prioritized issue logs.
  • Basic familiarity with product management and agile tooling (JIRA, Trello, Asana) for creating workable tickets and tracking progress.

Soft Skills

  • Strong written and verbal communication tailored for design critiques, executive summaries, and cross-functional collaboration.
  • Empathy and user-centered mindset to synthesize user needs and advocate for users during product discussions.
  • Attention to detail in visual design, interaction behavior and accessibility compliance.
  • Highly organized with the ability to manage multiple research rounds, design tasks and stakeholder requests simultaneously.
  • Problem-solving and critical thinking to translate ambiguous business requirements into testable design hypotheses.
  • Collaboration and teamwork — proven ability to work with designers, PMs, engineers, and researchers in an iterative environment.
  • Time management and prioritization to deliver high-impact work in tight sprint cycles and shifting roadmaps.
  • Curiosity and continuous learning attitude toward new UX tools, methods and industry best practices.
  • Facilitation skills for running workshops, design critiques and usability test debriefs with diverse teams.
  • Stakeholder management and diplomacy to present findings, negotiate scope and align on next steps.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Interaction Design, Graphic Design, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Communication Design, or a related field. Equivalent portfolio and demonstrable experience accepted.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s or Master’s in HCI, Interaction Design, Industrial Design, Cognitive Psychology, or related discipline; coursework or certificate in UX research and accessibility is a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
  • Interaction / Industrial / Graphic Design
  • Psychology or Cognitive Science
  • Information Architecture
  • Computer Science with UX coursework
  • Communication Design

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 0 to 3 years of professional experience in UX, product design, research, or related roles; strong internship or project portfolio may suffice for entry-level hire.

Preferred:

  • 1–3 years contributing to product UX work (internships, contract, freelance or full-time), demonstrable portfolio with examples of wireframes, prototypes, usability test reports and design systems contributions.
  • Experience collaborating with engineering and product teams in agile environments and a track record of executing end-to-end usability studies and translating findings into prioritized design work.
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