What is a UX Engineer and Do You Need One? A Comparison to UX Designer

When you develop a SaaS product, the assistance of UX experts is immeasurable. You simply cannot expect to create a great user experience without them. But the roles and responsibilities of various ux professionals may sometimes be confusing.

For instance, terms like UX designer and UX engineer are often used interchangeably. But what is a UX engineer and what do they do, exactly? What are similarities and differences between UX designer and engineer? And most importantly, when do you need one?

If you're developing a SaaS product, you have to answer all these questions. As a pragmatic design agency, we have both UX designers and UX engineers, and we sure know the difference between them. So, let us explain what UX engineers and designers are, and how their roles relate to technical feasibility, along with who you need to hire for your project!

What is a UX engineer?

A UX engineer (UXE) is the glue between design and development. They are experts who ensure user-friendly designs, grounded in design principles,  don’t fall apart when translated into code. UX engineers combine an understanding of UX principles with strong front-end development skills, making the final product look and feel exactly as intended.

In practice, that means UX engineers take wireframes and prototypes and turn them into production-ready UI components. Where a UX designer might hand off a beautiful mockup, a UX engineer ensures that what ends up in the browser actually matches the vision, down to the last pixel and interaction nuance.

They're also the ones who often maintain and scale design systems in collaboration with front-end engineers, keeping everything consistent no matter how many screens or states your app has.

When to add a UX engineer to the team

Not every project needs a UX engineer. But if your SaaS product is growing and your design-to-dev handoffs are starting to crack at the seams, it might be time to bring one in, particularly to collaborate with your engineering teams and make sure your UX design requirements are properly addressed.

Here are a few signs that you could use a UXE on board:

• You’ve got a great design team, but the final product rarely matches the mockups. UX engineers help bridge that gap and make the transition from Figma to code seamless.

• You’re building a design system. Maintaining consistency across dozens of components and screens is no joke. A UXE can own the technical side of the system and make it scalable.

• Your developers spend too much time fiddling with front-end UI tweaks. That’s exactly what a UX engineer is here to take off their plate.
• Your app is getting complex. If your product involves intricate interactions, animations, or multi-step flows, UX engineers ensure they’re usable and performant.

If you're still small and moving fast, a UX designer with some coding skills might be enough. But as your team and codebase grow, having a dedicated senior UX engineer with the required UX skills and soft skills can seriously level up your product quality and speed.

What is the difference between UX designer and UX engineer?

Let's start by addressing the elephant in the room. What's the difference between a UX designer and UX engineer? Both roles are important for the project's success, but their approach and skill sets are different. Here's why.

In a nutshell, UX designers focus on creating user-centric products, employing design principles, wireframing, prototyping, and user testing to ensure the final product meets the user's expectations. On the other hand, a UX engineer's role is to apply engineering principles to the design of user experiences. This term is often used to emphasize their involvement in the technical implementation of the design.

Now, let's break down the comparison in a bit more detail.

UX designer and UX engineer responsibilities 

In one sentence, designers concentrate more on user experience, while engineers are more concerned with the technical side (duh). Let's have a closer look at the design and engineering processes .

UX designers

Design teams' main job is creating intuitive products that prioritize the needs and desires of the users. They strive to make the product visually appealing, easy to use, and enjoyable to interact with. By conducting user testing and understanding user behaviors, preferences, and pain points, UX designers can craft designs that users find pleasant to operate with.

UX engineers

A user experience engineer takes care of the technical implementation of the design. They work closely with the development team to ensure that the design can be effectively translated into functional code.

UX engineers pay special attention to the project's technical requirements and constraints. They make sure that the design is implemented in a way that maintains the product's functionality and meets performance expectations. This involves considerations such as scalability, responsiveness across different devices, and compatibility with various browsers or platforms, integrating principles of software engineering.

UX designers vs UX engineers collaboration team  

To deliver a well-designed and functional product, UX designers and UX engineers each rely on strong cross-functional collaboration, but with slightly different circles of teammates.

UX designers 

UX designers are deeply involved in the discovery and ideation phases, which means they often work with:

• Project managers, to align design work with business goals and timelines.
• Stakeholders and clients, to gather requirements and feedback.
• Business analysts, to understand user needs and define product scope.
• Developers, to ensure the design is feasible and to hand off specs and assets.

They're the ones asking “what do users want?” and turning those insights into wireframes, flows, and prototypes.

UX engineers 

Once the design direction is set, user experience engineering steps in to ensure effective responsive design and make it real. They collaborate with:

• Front-end developers, to code and refine UI components.
• Back-end developers, to ensure smooth integration between UI and business logic.
• QA engineers, to fix interaction bugs and refine performance.
• Designers, to review the implementation and polish the visuals and interactions.

They're the ones asking, “How do we make this work perfectly across browsers, screens, and devices?” — without compromising the design vision.

UX designer vs UX engineer workflow

Designers and engineers approach problems from different angles, and their day-to-day workflows reflect that. Here’s how their processes typically unfold with the same goal, but different paths.

UX designers

There are various design tools and methodologies UX designers can follow: human-centered design or design thinking (spoiler alert: you can actually combine them!!), design thinking vs design sprint, agile, and brainstorming strategies. At Eleken, we most often follow the design thinking methodology, but tend to use it more as a guideline rather than a strict set of rules.

With this framework, a UX designer's workflow will roughly be as follows:

• Empathize. The UX designer conducts user research, interviews, and observations to gain a deep understanding of the target users, their goals, motivations, and pain points. This step helps the designer develop empathy for the users and uncover valuable insights.

• Define. Building on the research findings, the UX designer defines the problem or opportunity. They analyze the data collected during the Empathize phase and transform it into user personas, user journeys, and problem statements. This step helps the designer gain a clear understanding of what needs to be solved or improved.

For example, he's a customer journey map we created for Process Place redesign after we realized the messy and repetitive workflow was their main pain point. Visualizing it in such a way helps to streamline the user journey and ensure it's smooth and frictionless.

• Ideate. In this phase, the UX designer generates a wide range of ideas to address the defined problem. They facilitate brainstorming sessions, create sketches, or use other ideation techniques to encourage creative thinking. The emphasis is on quantity and variety, allowing for diverse solutions to be explored.

• Prototype. Based on the selected ideas from the ideation phase, the UX designer creates low-fidelity or high-fidelity prototypes. These prototypes serve as tangible representations of the design concepts. They can be interactive wireframes, mockups, or even functional prototypes, depending on the project's needs.
• Test. The UX designer conducts user testing sessions to gather feedback on the prototypes. Users are invited to interact with the designs and provide insights on their usability, effectiveness, and satisfaction. This feedback helps the designer refine and iterate on the design to enhance the user experience.

Here's an example of the screens we offered for A/B testing when designing Prift. We had two possible designs for a dashboard page that is supposed to help users make important financial decisions, so of course, we wanted to hear from them. Users preferred the second option, and we went with it. 

• Iterate. Using the insights gained from user testing, the UX designer gradually improves the design. They make necessary adjustments, enhancements, and refinements based on user feedback and the project goals. This iterative process ensures that the design evolves and continually meets the user's needs.

• Implement. The UX designer collaborates with engineering teams, developers, and other stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of the design. They work closely with the development team, providing design specifications, assets, and guidance to bring the design to life. The designer maintains a clear line of communication to address any design-related questions or issues that arise during the implementation phase.

It might happen that some designs are simply not viable or require more time than the client has. When we were working with Astraea, for example, we created a design that solved all the client's problems. But it would've taken a long time to implement, and the client needed faster results to demonstrate the product to stakeholders. So, we focused on the little details we could improve immediately, and achieved great results nevertheless. 

• Evaluate. After the design is implemented and released, the UX designer evaluates its performance. They collect user feedback, analyze user metrics, and assess the design's impact on key performance indicators. This evaluation helps validate design decisions, identify areas for improvement, and inform future iterations or updates. 

UX engineers

While UX designers focus on shaping the user experience, UX engineers are the ones who bring those experiences to life in code. Their workflow sits at the intersection of design and development, translating static mockups into interactive, performant interfaces through effective interaction design. Let's walk through the typical steps a UX engineer takes from kickoff to launch.

• Gathering requirements. The UX engineer begins by collaborating with UX designers, project managers, and stakeholders to understand the project requirements. They clarify the technical aspects of the design, discuss functionality, integrations, and technical constraints.
• Technical planning. Based on the project requirements, the UX engineer creates a technical plan. They consider factors such as software architecture, development frameworks, and technologies that will be used to implement the design. They identify potential technical challenges and devise strategies to overcome them.

• Collaboration with UX designers. The UX engineers collaborate with designers to ensure a smooth transition from design to development. They clarify design specifications, interaction details, and ensure that the design is technically feasible. They provide input on design elements that may impact performance or implementation.
• Front-end development. The UX engineer starts the front-end development process, using coding languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to turn the design into functional web interfaces. They pay attention to details like layout, responsiveness, and user interactions to create a seamless user experience.
• Integration and back-end development. Depending on the project requirements, the UX engineer may collaborate with back-end developers to integrate the front-end design with the back-end infrastructure. They ensure smooth data flow, functionality, and seamless interactions between different components of the system.
• Testing and iteration. The UX engineer performs testing and quality assurance to identify and resolve any technical issues or bugs. They collaborate with the development team to address feedback and iterate on the implementation based on user testing and design refinements.

• Collaboration with developers. Throughout the development process, the UX engineer collaborates with other developers, such as front-end developers, back-end developers, quality assurance engineers, and system administrators. They communicate technical requirements, address integration challenges, and so on.
• Documentation and maintenance. The UX engineer creates documentation, such as coding guidelines or component libraries, to ensure consistency and facilitate future development efforts. They may also provide technical support and maintenance, addressing any issues that arise post-launch.

UX engineer skills and responsibilities

UX engineers wear many hats, so finding the right one means looking for a mix of technical expertise and design sensitivity. Their role demands a sharp eye for design details and the coding skills to bring those designs to life without breaking things (or breaking the designer's heart).

Below are the essential skills and responsibilities that make a great UX engineer stand out.

Front-end implementation

Writing clean, scalable front-end code is the bread and butter of UX engineering. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are non-negotiable—these are the tools they use to turn static mockups into living, breathing interfaces. Most SaaS teams also expect them to be fluent in component-based frameworks like React (sometimes Vue or Angular), especially when working within a design system.

Version control integration

UX engineers are part of the engineering team, which means they work in the same repositories, use the same workflows, and follow the same version control standards. They use Git to push code, create pull requests, resolve conflicts, and review changes, just like any other developer.

If a designer tweaks a component in Figma, the UX engineer is the one updating that component’s code, committing the changes, and making sure it all plays nicely with the rest of the product.

Cross-functional collaboration

A huge part of the user experience engineering job is communication. They need to translate design decisions into technical solutions and vice versa. That means working closely with designers to understand intent and with developers to align on architecture, performance, and feasibility. They’re the ones ensuring no one gets lost in translation between design and dev.

Human computer interaction (HCI)

In the UX engineer vs. front-end developer debate, the latter may focus primarily on functionality and performance, while the former is expected to have a basic understanding of how humans interact with digital systems. That means understanding how users scan a screen, what kinds of interactions slow them down, and how to apply interface patterns that feel intuitive.

For example, when implementing a modal, a UX engineer knows it shouldn’t trap keyboard users. When creating navigation, they think beyond “does it work?” to “is it usable without guesswork?”.

Accessibility and responsive design

UX engineers are on the front lines of user experience, which includes making sure the product works for all users. This involves implementing accessibility best practices (such as ARIA labels and keyboard navigation) and designing layouts that are responsive across various screen sizes, devices, and edge cases. No awkward breakpoints allowed.

Prototyping and interaction behavior

Sometimes, a static screen isn’t enough to explain how something should feel. UX engineers step in to build functional prototypes that let stakeholders and users interact with a real version of the design. They often handle animations, transitions, and micro-interactions, anything that makes the product more intuitive and delightful to use.

Testing and quality control

Before anything hits production, a UX engineer is typically involved in testing their components. They check for layout bugs, browser inconsistencies, and general weirdness that might slip through the cracks. The goal is to make sure what users see and interact with is polished and predictable.

UX engineer salary outlook

To give you a realistic picture of what UX engineers earn, we looked through a few open sources, and the numbers don’t differ too much across the board. On average, UX engineers in the U.S. make around $90,000 per year, but the range is wide, depending on location, experience, and company size.

Some sources report salaries starting at $60K and going up to $165K, with top-tier positions (think senior roles at big tech companies) reaching as high as $180K+. According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary for a UX engineer in California is $116,568/year, with certain cities offering even higher pay.

What UX specialist do you need to hire?

With a combination of their skills, UX and engineering collaboration results in a pleasant experience and a well-working product overall. That's all good in theory. But then reality strikes, especially in the context of the software development process .

When you're working with a smaller organization or have a project with a limited budget, hiring both a dedicated UX designer and a UX engineer might not always be doable. But you don't have to look for a UI/UX design engineer or any other unicorns during your hiring process . In most cases, it will be more than enough to bring in a UX designer with a little pinch of technical knowledge, rather than needing a dedicated ui engineer . These professionals are a valuable addition to any development team as they possess a combination of design, engineering skills, and technical expertise. They can work closely with developers, ensuring that the designs are implemented correctly.

One of the great things about having a UX designer with a technical background is that they can provide insights during the design phase that take into account feasibility and technical constraints. Their technical know-how allows them to make informed decisions early on, ensuring that the designs are practical and align with what can be realistically implemented. This proactive approach saves time and effort by avoiding major design modifications later in the development process.

Additionally, a UX designer with technical skills can contribute to optimizing the user experience from a technical standpoint. They can make informed choices about performance, responsiveness, and compatibility, ensuring that the final product not only meets user expectations but also meets the necessary technical requirements.

So, even with limited resources, considering a UX designer with technical knowledge can make a significant difference. If you feel that's your case, for more step-by-step guidance, check out our article on how to hire UX designers

At Eleken, our UX designers have vast experience of creating stellar user-focused products and collaborating with developers to make sure their vision can actually be implemented. So, if you're looking for UI and UX design services that can satisfy all your SaaS design needs, don't hesitate to contact us!