How to Write a Resume for a UX Designer (2025 Guide)

In 2025, applying to UX design roles is more competitive than ever. Recruiters and hiring managers often filter candidates using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) before they ever see a portfolio. That means your resume must make an immediate, strong impression—both to humans and to machines.

A UX designer’s resume is the bridge between your portfolio and your cover letter. It should showcase your design thinking, measurable impact, and relevant skills in a format that’s optimized for both readability and ATS. As the Interaction Design Foundation – UX Resumes & Job Search notes, UX resumes should be adapted for each role, include a portfolio link, and use role-specific keywords.

This guide walks through exactly how to write a resume for a UX designer in 2025, with tips on structure, metrics, ATS-friendly formatting, role-specific content, and examples to follow.

What UX Recruiters Look For

Before writing your resume, you need to understand what your audience values. For UX roles, that typically includes:

  • Design process and thinking — not just final deliverables
  • Measurable outcomes from your work (e.g. “reduced churn by 15% after redesign”)
  • Collaboration & cross-disciplinary work (with developers, PMs, researchers)
  • Tool fluency (Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, prototyping, usability testing)
  • User research & usability testing skills
  • Domain specialization (e.g. mobile, AR/VR, accessibility)
  • A clean, scannable, ATS-friendly layout

According to Nielsen Norman Group , when career changers shift into UX, the most effective resumes translate existing experience into UX-relevant outcomes and use UX language. And the NNG article “The UX Reckoning: Prepare for 2025 and Beyond” emphasizes that strong UX practitioners must go beyond just toolkits—investing deeper in thinking, user empathy, and outcome-driven work.

Structure & Layout Recommendations

Your resume layout needs to be both visually clean and structurally ATS-safe. Here’s a recommended structure:

  1. Contact & Links
  2. (Optional) Professional Summary / UX Statement
  3. Key Skills / Core Competencies
  4. Work Experience / Projects
  5. UX Projects / Portfolio Highlights (if not part of work)
  6. Education & Certifications
  7. Additional Sections (Awards, Volunteering, Speaking)

Contact & Links

  • Full name, location (city, state or region)
  • Email address + phone
  • Portfolio link (custom domain)
  • LinkedIn or GitHub (if relevant)
  • Avoid cluttering with social icons (stick to text URLs)

Professional Summary / UX Statement

A short 2–3 sentence punch. Tailor it with role-specific language and metrics.

Example:

“UX designer with 4+ years working in mobile apps. Spearheaded redesigns that increased onboarding completion by 25%. Skilled in user research, prototyping, and cross-functional collaboration.”

Key Skills / Core Competencies

This section helps both humans and ATS. Categories might include:

  • Design Tools: Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Framer
  • Research Methods: Usability Testing, Interviews, Card Sorting
  • Prototyping / Interaction Design
  • UX Metrics / Analytics: A/B testing, Conversion, Retention
  • Soft Skills: Communication, Stakeholder Management, Empathy

Make sure the skills you list match the keywords in the job description. Interaction Design Foundation recommends using keywords from the posting and categorizing skills into logical sub-groups.

Work Experience / Projects

List in reverse chronological order. For each entry:

  • Title, company, dates
  • Brief context or your role
  • Bullet points focusing on impact, metrics, and UX process
  • Use action verbs (e.g. “Led redesign,” “Improved retention by …”)
  • Limit bullets to ~2 lines each (Reddit feedback indicates overlong bullets are penalized)

When describing your contributions, structure using STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) mentality. Highlight how your design decisions impacted user metrics or business goals.

UX Projects / Portfolio Highlights

Especially useful if you're junior or adding side/hobby work. Show full process:

  • Problem statement
  • Research & insights
  • Design iterations & prototyping
  • Usability testing & results
  • Final impact (quantify if possible)

Education & Certifications

Include degrees, UX bootcamps, certifications (NN/g UX cert, Google UX Cert). If you're early in your career, you might place education above experience.

Additional Sections

Optional but helpful:

  • Awards / Recognitions
  • Speaking / Conference Participation
  • Volunteer / Pro Bono UX work
  • Publications or writing

ATS & Formatting Best Practices

Your resume should pass ATS filters while still pleasing to human eyes.

  • Use standard section headers (Work Experience, Skills, Education)
  • Stick to sans-serif fonts like Arial, Helvetica, Calibri. Avoid overly stylized fonts.
  • Use 1-column layout for ATS safety; you can maintain a 2-column visual version only if submitting outside ATS systems. Reddit UX designers often use separate ATS-friendly vs design-rich versions.
  • Save as PDF (preserves formatting). Only use .doc/.rtf if requested.
  • Avoid images, icons, text within graphics—ATS can’t parse them reliably. UX Planet recommends eliminating irrelevant visual embellishments in 2025.
  • Keep fonts between 10–14 pt
  • Maintain consistent margins and whitespace
  • Use bullet points, not long paragraphs
  • Avoid headers & footers for key info (some ATS skip them)
  • Use proper date formatting, e.g. “Jan 2022 – Dec 2023”

Role-Specific Voice, Metrics & Impact

A UX resume needs to speak the language of your target role. Here’s how to tailor:

  • Mirror the terminology from the job description (e.g., “usability testing,” “design systems,” “mobile UX”)
  • When possible, quantify outcomes: “Increased task success rate by 15%,” “Reduced bounce rate by 10%”
  • Focus on UX process steps: research → ideation → testing → iteration
  • If you have soft UX work (e.g. accessibility, inclusive design), call it out
  • Mention cross-team collaboration (developers, product managers, stakeholders)
  • Emphasize domain expertise if relevant (e.g. fintech, health, AR/VR)

Examples & Before/After

Here’s an illustrative before vs after snippet in a UX context:

Before (vague):

  • Worked with stakeholders to redesign app
  • Improved user satisfaction

After (impact + method):

  • Led usability studies and stakeholder workshops to redesign mobile onboarding flow, improving completion rate by 18% and reducing drop-off by 12%.

Also, BrainStation’s UX resume guide recommends using white space wisely, limiting font variety, and minimizing color usage.

UX Resumes for Career Changers

If you’re switching into UX, your resume must translate existing experiences into UX-relevant outcomes. NNG’s Resumes for UX Career Changers article suggests:

  • Use projects (school, volunteering) that evidence UX thinking
  • Emphasize transferable skills (research, problem solving, collaboration)
  • Structure your resume such that UX-related items come first
  • Use consistent UX language to reposition your past work
  • Show passion by linking to side projects or case studies

Common Resume Mistakes UX Designers Make (and How to Fix)

Mistake Why It’s Harmful Fix
Overly artistic layouts ATS may misread layout; distracts from content Use clean, minimal, consistent layouts
Overlong bullets or paragraphs Hard to scan; eyes glaze over Limit to 2 lines, bullet format
Missing metrics or outcomes Lacks proof of impact Always include numeric improvements
Not tailoring per role Generic resumes don’t resonate Mirror keywords & responsibilities
Including irrelevant visuals/icons Images break ATS parsing Keep essential visuals minimal or omit them
Neglecting process descriptions Hiring managers want process, not just final UI Narrate your design thinking
Excluding portfolio link or consistency with LinkedIn Missing chance to showcase work Keep cross-channel consistency

UX Planet outlines many of these as things not to include in 2025.

Sample UX Resume (Markdown-style Example)

Jane Doe
San Francisco, CA | jane.doe@example.com | (555) 123-4567
Portfolio: janedoeux.com | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/janedoeux

UX Designer
Designed mobile and web experiences for SaaS platforms, focusing on usability, research, and iteration. Spearheaded experiments that improved conversion funnels and retention.

Skills
Tools: Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Miro
Research: Usability Testing, Interviews, Surveys
UX Metrics: Retention, Task Success, Drop-off Rates
Soft skills: Stakeholder Management, Communication, Empathy

Experience

UX Designer, Acme Corp — Jan 2023 to Present

  • Led redesign of onboarding flow, raising completion rate by 20% and reducing drop-offs by 14%
  • Conducted weekly usability tests and iterated designs, improving task success from 75% → 89%
  • Built and maintained a design system, accelerating new feature builds by 30%

Product Designer (UX-heavy role), Beta Inc — Jun 2020 to Dec 2022

  • Collaborated with PMs and engineers to roll out new feature, increasing retention by 8%
  • Created interactive prototypes used in A/B tests across 5,000 users
  • Presented research findings to senior leadership, driving data-driven decisions

Projects / Portfolio Highlights
E-Commerce Mobile Redesign
Redesigned checkout flow through prototype testing, increasing conversion by 15% and reducing steps by 3.

Accessibility Project
Audit and redesign of header nav, improving compliance with WCAG contrast ratios and boosting usability by 10%.

Education & Certifications
B.S. in Human-Computer Interaction, University X
UX Design Bootcamp, XYZ School
NN/g UX Certificate

Awards / Volunteer
UX meetup speaker, “Inclusive Design in 2024”
Volunteered UX audit for non-profit website

Implementation Tips & Final Checklist

  1. Always tailor your resume per application — adjust summary, keywords, bullet emphasis.
  2. Use resume scanners (e.g. Jobscan or built-in tools) to validate ATS compatibility.
  3. Maintain a clean backup version (1-column, minimal styling) for ATS submissions.
  4. Update your resume frequently with new impact metrics.
  5. Proofread carefully — UX design demands precision.
  6. Keep your portfolio and LinkedIn consistent with your resume content.

FAQs

Q: Should I include a portfolio link in my resume?

A: Yes—always. Your portfolio shows depth that a resume can’t. Ensure the link is short, memorable, and leads users directly to your work.

Q: How many UX projects should I include?

A: Ideally 2–3 strong ones. If you have many, pick those most relevant to the role’s domain or method (e.g. mobile, research, AR).

Q: Is it okay to go over one page?

A: Yes—if you have substantial experience. But avoid cramming. Maintain white space and clarity. Design Institute notes that for senior roles, going over one page is acceptable. UX Design Institute

Q: Can I use a creative layout or graphics?

A: Use caution. A clean, functional layout is safer for ATS. For non-ATS submissions, you may add subtle design flair—just ensure legibility and parseability.

Final Thoughts

Writing a UX designer resume in 2025 means balancing form, function, and impact. You need to present your design process clearly, quantify your contributions, and optimize for ATS. Using the structure, recommendations, and examples in this guide, you can craft a resume that stands out to both AI systems and human recruiters in the UX field.