Web and Digital Interface Designer Career Assessment
Designing how websites and apps look, feel, and work
Welcome
Web and digital interface designers decide what a website or app looks like and how it works when someone uses it. Where the buttons go, what the screens are called, what happens when you tap the wrong thing — a designer chose all of that.
This is a real, ordinary career with a real title. It is also very small in North Dakota and pays far less here than nationally. You will get the full picture, good and bad.
This takes about 15 minutes.
What is a Web and Digital Interface Designer?
A web and digital interface designer plans and draws the screens people use. You talk to the people who will use the thing, sketch how the screens connect, build a clickable version nobody has coded yet, and watch real people try it. Then you fix what confused them. You hand your finished designs to developers, who write the code that makes it real. Common job titles for this work are user interface designer, user experience designer, web designer, and product designer.
The Reality: North Dakota has about 70 people in this job, and the state projects fewer than 5 openings a year. The state middle pay is about $30.90 an hour, or $64,260 a year. The national middle for the same job is about $50.00 an hour, or $104,000 a year. That is a very large gap, and it is the single most important fact on this page. Most people who do this work at a good wage from North Dakota do it remotely, for an employer somewhere else. Plan for that from day one, or look at web developer in this same area, which has more North Dakota jobs and more openings.
Your Responsibilities:
- Talk to the people who will actually use the website or app
- Sketch how the screens connect before drawing anything pretty
- Build a clickable version so people can try it early
- Choose colors, type, spacing, and buttons that stay consistent
- Watch real people use your design and write down where they get stuck
- Make sure the design works for people with low vision or who use a keyboard only
- Hand clear files and notes to the developers who build it
- Check the built version against your design and fix what drifted
When your work is good, nobody notices it. They just get what they came for.
A Day in the Life
8:30 AM — Read notes from yesterday's user tests. Three people missed the same button.
9:00 AM — Sketch four ways to fix it on paper. Pick two.
10:00 AM — Build both versions as clickable screens.
11:00 AM — Show them to a developer. One of them would take three weeks to build. Drop it.
12:00 PM — Lunch.
12:45 PM — Check the checkout screens against accessibility rules. Fix the contrast on two labels.
2:00 PM — Run a short test with two real users over video.
4:00 PM — Update the shared design file and write a note explaining what changed and why.
Focused screen work, broken up by real conversations with users and developers.
Training in North Dakota
A two-year or four-year design degree, plus a portfolio that does the real convincing. O*NET reports that about half of these jobs ask for a bachelor's degree, about a third ask for a certificate after a degree, and about one in six ask for a two-year degree. But every single employer asks for a portfolio. Your portfolio is not a gallery of pretty screens. It is three to five projects where you show the problem, what you tried, what failed, what you tested, and what changed. That is what gets you hired.
Training Pathways:
- Two-year design or web degree (2 years): A graphic design or web associate degree in North Dakota teaches you layout, type, color, and the software, and costs far less than a university. You leave with skills and, if you use your projects well, a starter portfolio.
- Four-year design or communications degree (4 years): A graphic design or multimedia communications bachelor's degree gives you more time, more critique, and more projects. North Dakota has these, though none of them is labeled a user experience degree.
- Build the portfolio while you work (1 to 2 years): Plenty of designers come from graphic design, marketing, or a help desk. Redesign three real things badly in need of it, write up your thinking for each, and apply. This path is slower and harder, but it is real and it costs less.
Where to Train in North Dakota:
- Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Graphic Design and Communications, AAS, 63 credits, about 2 years. Digital illustration, layout, typography, imaging software, multimedia, and portfolio presentation. This is the strongest active two-year design option in the state — catalog.bismarckstate.edu
- Bismarck State College — Web Page Development and Design, AAS, 60 credits. Be aware: the college catalog states that new enrollments into this program have been restricted since Fall 2023, so ask an advisor whether you can still start it before you plan around it — catalog.bismarckstate.edu
- ND State College of Science (Fargo campus) — Information and Communications Technology with a Web Design emphasis (certificate) or Web Developer emphasis (AAS), four semesters. Covers HTML and CSS, graphic design, server-side programming, databases, and a capstone internship — ndscs.edu
- Lake Region State College (Devils Lake) — Information Technology, AAS 60 credits or Certificate 30 credits, with a Web Design certificate track — lrsc.edu/programs/information-technology
- Minot State University (Minot) — Multimedia Communications, B.S., 120 to 128 credits. Includes Print, Web, and Social Media Graphics, Digital Tools, Graphic Design I, and social media design and strategy — catalog.minotstateu.edu
- North Dakota State University (Fargo) — Graphic Design, B.F.A., 120 credits with 79 in the major. Strong on typography, layout, branding, and motion graphics. Honest note: the catalog does not list a dedicated user experience or interaction design course, so you would add that yourself — catalog.ndsu.edu
- United Tribes Technical College (Bismarck) — Computer Information Systems and Indigenous Fine Arts. A tribal college route into either the technical or the visual side of this work — uttc.edu/academics/programs
Before You Start: High school diploma or GED. Take art and computer classes if your school has them. Start now on the thing that actually matters: pick a website or app you use that annoys you, redesign it, and write down why you made each choice. Do that three times and you have a portfolio before you ever enroll.
Tip: Start with financial aid and scholarships. Fill out the FAFSA, ask the school’s financial aid office what you qualify for, and ask an employer whether they help pay for school. That is where the money starts. After that, a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota may be able to help with what is left over, like tuition, books, a laptop, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you enroll rather than after. Worth asking about specifically: two-year degrees that train you for a job, like civil engineering technology, land surveying, mechatronics, electronics, or instrumentation. North Dakota two-year colleges also cost far less than a university. Ask about paid summer internships too — engineering firms, plants, and survey crews hire students while they are still in school.
Certification & Licensing
No license, no required certification. Your portfolio is the credential. There is no state license for this work anywhere in the country, and no certification an employer will hire you on instead of a portfolio. What follows is what people actually look at.
What Employers Actually Look At:
- Your portfolio — three to five projects, each one showing the problem, your sketches, what you tested, what failed, and what you changed. Case studies, not screenshots
- Proof you talked to real users — even five people is enough. Most junior portfolios skip this, so including it puts you ahead
- Accessibility knowledge — designing so that people with low vision, color blindness, or a keyboard instead of a mouse can still use it. Public agencies and health systems require this, and it is a real hiring edge in this state
- Design software you can prove — the main interface design tools change every few years. Learn whichever one the jobs you want are asking for, and say so on your resume
- Enough code to talk to developers — you do not need to build the site, but knowing HTML and CSS means you stop designing things that cannot be built
- Optional short courses — accessibility and user research courses exist and are worth listing, but no employer will hire you on one instead of a portfolio
The Exams: There is no exam. The equivalent is a portfolio review, where you walk someone through your work out loud and answer why you made each choice. It is harder than a test and you should practice it.
Cost: Your real costs are school, a computer that can run design software, and a subscription to whichever design tool you use. Most of the tools have free or student versions. Check current prices before budgeting.
Keeping It Current: Nothing to renew. But a portfolio older than two years reads as stale. Keep making things and keep swapping the weakest project out.
Salary & Job Outlook
North Dakota Web and Digital Interface Designer Pay (May 2025):
- Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $24.49–$28.39/hour ($50,940–$59,050/year)
- Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $30.90/hour ($64,260/year)
- Experienced (top 25–10%): $38.70–$43.00/hour ($80,500–$89,440/year)
What that means: The North Dakota middle is about $30.90 an hour, or $64,260 a year. That is decent money in this state. But the national middle for this same job is about $50.00 an hour, or $104,000 a year, and even the North Dakota top 10% at $43.00 an hour does not reach the national middle. That gap is the whole story of this career in North Dakota. It is also the argument for remote work: designers here who work for out-of-state employers are the ones earning near national pay. If you want to stay put and work locally, web developer in this same area has a lower middle wage, about $34.71 an hour, but more jobs and more openings, which matters more when you are trying to get hired the first time.
Jobs in North Dakota: About 70 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 70 (about 1% growth, which is almost no change). Expect fewer than 5 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 7% growth — much faster than average.
Outlook: Thin in North Dakota, strong nationally. The state projects this job going from about 70 people to about 70 people, with annual openings that round to zero — which means fewer than five, not none ever. Nationally it grows about 7% with roughly 9,100 openings a year. So the demand is real, it is just not here. Two honest routes: work remotely for an out-of-state employer, or aim at web developer in this same area, which has about 250 people in North Dakota and about 20 openings a year, and then bring design skills to it. Software developer has about 100 openings a year, the most of any job in this area.
Who Hires in ND: In North Dakota: marketing and advertising agencies, banks and credit unions, health systems, insurance companies, universities, state agencies, Microsoft's Fargo campus, and software companies in Fargo, Grand Forks, and Bismarck. Outside North Dakota: remote work for employers anywhere, which is where most of the good pay is. Freelance and contract work is also common.
Work Setting: Offices or remote, regular weekday hours. Deadline weeks get long. A lot of video calls with developers and with the people who will use what you build.
Physical Demands: Light. Long hours at a screen. Eye strain and wrist strain are the real risks. You need to be able to see fine differences in color and spacing.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 15-1255); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.
Where This Leads
Path 1: Junior Designer — Your first job. You design pieces, someone else sets the direction.
Path 2: Web or Interface Designer — You own whole screens and flows.
Path 3: Senior or Product Designer — Harder problems, and you guide the junior designers.
Path 4: User Researcher — Specialize in testing with real people and telling the team what you learned.
Path 5: Accessibility Specialist — Make sure everyone can use it. Public agencies and health systems need this.
Path 6: Design Lead or Manager — Run a design team and set the standards.
The Real Talk
What's Great:
- A real, ordinary career with a real job title
- Your work is visible and you can point at it
- Two-year degrees in North Dakota can get you started
- Remote work reaches national pay
- A portfolio can beat a degree
- Accessibility skills are genuinely in demand here
What's Hard:
- Only about 70 of these jobs in the whole state
- Fewer than 5 North Dakota openings a year
- North Dakota pay is far below national pay
- No North Dakota program is actually labeled user experience
- Your work gets picked apart in critique, constantly
- Getting the first job without a portfolio is very hard
Be Honest: Are you willing to build a real portfolio before anyone pays you? Can you take your work being criticized without taking it personally? Are you open to remote work, since that is where the North Dakota pay gap closes?