How This Grey Area Hurts UX/UI Hiring

Ask five UX/UI Designers what they actually do, and you'll likely get five different answers. Ask five companies why they want to hire a UX/UI Designer, and the same thing happens.

This disconnect has many causes, but from our perspective as specialized recruiters, here's what we consistently see: on the professional side, skills that have been "rebranded" without truly mapping to actual UX disciplines, and claims of being equally capable across every step of the UX process. On the company side, unclear demands about what's actually needed, and unrealistic expectations of how much one person can handle.

At the root of all this, we believe, is a fundamental problem with the term UX/UI Designer itself.

As most practitioners know, UI is just one discipline within the broader UX umbrella — alongside user research, information architecture, interaction design, usability testing, UX writing strategy, and more. Placing "UX" and "UI" side by side as if they carry equal weight already introduces a conceptual error. No one knows exactly when or why this term became so widespread, but one thing is clear: it generates far more confusion than standardization — on both sides of the hiring table.

From the Professional's Side

It's common for professionals to think: "I'm a UX/UI Designer, meaning I can handle both the strategic and the visual sides of the work."

In practice, this is rarely true. Even if you have knowledge and some experience across all the disciplines in a traditional UX process, it's simply not realistic to perform all of them at the same level. Beyond that, better and faster results consistently come from collaborative work — teams of professionals with complementary specializations, not one person wearing every hat.

A sharper professional identity comes from going deeper into your actual areas of focus and strength, breaking them down into more specific disciplines: interaction design, interface design, research, and so on. The clearer and more specific those strengths are, the stronger — and more valuable — your professional proposition becomes.

From the Company's Side

In organizations where the design vision isn't yet fully mature, it's common to hear: "Let's hire a UX/UI Designer so our product looks better and is easier to use" — with the expectation that one or two hires will cover all their needs.

Except in very specific cases (like an early-stage startup with an intentionally lean team), this approach almost always reveals unrealistic assumptions about what one person can actually do. The result: a limited, error-prone design process that skips critical steps — not to mention professional burnout, high turnover, and an underwhelming final product.

There's also a deeper point worth making here, for both sides:

User Experience is not a domain that belongs exclusively to designers — let alone only digital product designers. As Don Norman famously put it:

"User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products."

This means far more people are shaping the user experience than just designers. In reality, product managers, marketers, executives, and engineers often have more decision-making power over the final user experience than the designer does. Understanding this is fundamental: designers must be clear about their role within this ecosystem, and companies must recognize that delivering a great user experience is not one person's job — nor even one department's. It's an organizational practice, and a shared responsibility.

Hiring Better

One of the most effective ways to reduce this misalignment is straightforward: get more precise about what you actually need.

When a company says "I need help improving the UX/UI of my product," nothing is really clear — not what the problem is, not what kind of professional could solve it.

Compare that to:

"I need to understand why more than half of our users — who we paid to acquire — are dropping off before completing the purchase."

Now it's obvious: you need someone with strong skills in research, user testing, validation methodologies, and an understanding of technical constraints.

Or, on the visual side:

"I need to standardize our typography and iconography and bring brand consistency into our product."

Clear again: you need someone who understands layout systems, brand guidelines, type and color application, and design consistency.

The more specific the brief, the more specific the skill set you'll be able to identify — and the fewer mismatches you'll encounter down the line. A job description built around real product needs will always outperform a generic list of "UX tasks."

Conclusion

Terminology doesn't always accurately reflect a profession. Because there's a real gap between how professionals define themselves and what companies expect when hiring, starting from the actual product need — not the job title — is essential. That way, designers can align their value proposition with a genuine, specific demand. And companies can hire with clarity rather than assumption.

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