List Of 20 Female UI And UX Designers From All Over The World

If you have a knack for designing, digital or print whatever it may be, UI and UX designing roles might just be the job for you. When we say “design,” a non-tech person would not be able to either get the broadness of this term or the wealth of varying responsibilities this area of occupation encompasses. To begin with, let us have a briefing of what job titles like UX/UI Designers actually mean in the non-IT terms – Mifsud, who founded the Usability Geek, says about UX designing that: “It is the process of designing used to determine what the experience will be like when a user interacts with your product.” As for UI designing, Hickey, an expert UI designer explains: “User interface design is prettying the pixels up. It’s a component of user experience design. It’s no less important than any other part of the process, and a huge part of what constitutes a great user experience.”

With years passing by, women are tiptoeing up to the forefront of industries whether it is entrepreneurships, fashion fields, science or IT-related professions. We believe it is now safe to say that as of 2018, women have topped quite some of the lists in terms of competitive employment. In this article, we are going to celebrate milestones of designer females who rock the design industries in UX and UI from all over the world. (As a disclaimer, you may find some of them not just doing a marvelous job, but taking control as well.)

1. Cathy Pearl – The VP Of UX Design For Sensely

Cathy Pearl tops our list because she has been the most influential voice user interface expert designer since the 90s. In voice design, Pearl leads the way with her superb resume that includes designing simulators for helicopter pilots at National Aeronautics and Space Administration and, as of recently, authoring her published book named “Designing Voice User Interfaces.” In addition to these milestones, Cathy Pearl now works as the Vice President of User Experience design at Sensely – a health-care technology that utilizes plenty of mediums including artificial intelligence and voice technology for treatment.

2. Debby Alberts – 60 Years Old, Design Manager At Digital Karma

You read it right – Debby Alberts is a whooping 60 years old UX (and UI) designer, now working as Design Manager at Digital Karma. Alberts graduated in graphic designing, became a graphic production designer, then a Creative Director and then finally, she decided to go for UX designing just to polish up her skills. Alberts did not know she was so much equipped for UX designing after all those years that the job would feel so smooth and easy. Debby says she was not aware of the extent of her knowledge, thanks to the years she spent in the field and in networking. She has quite valuable tips for freshers going into Design industries and for those who are not yet into this process but wish to go for it, Alberts advises them to overcome their fears and let the experience do the talking.

3. Elizabeth Churchill – UX Director For Google!

Churchill is at the forefront of humanizing everyday products in her capacity as the director of User experience (Google). She’s a social scientist who has worked academically and practically towards the betterment of the interception between humans and computers. Her brilliance is showcased by her being affiliated with Yahoo!, PARC, Fuji Xerox, eBay, and many more companies for their research. She’s also a staunch proponent of gender equality and has co-authored several studies on the subject.

Also Explore: Nifty Quotes From Top Web Design And Development YouTubers On UXD

4. Alana Washington – The Design Manager At Capital One

She first explored her designing talent for her high school’s yearbook, which apparently became a success. Alana Washington’s expert flair for designing was rediscovered when after completing college, she was working on a presentation course for HBO. Washington is one of the top most influential designers we have there in the tech industries and she’s super proud of it as well. Currently, Alana is working as the Design Manager for Capital One.

5. Alison Park Douglas – Senior UX Designer At SMART Technologies

She is a senior UX designer at SMART technologies, 43 years old and has previously worked in advertising and photography fields. Douglas also states that she has been an entrepreneur as well; she ran a company for more than 15 years and then sold it to one of her customers. Alison is a graduate from Harvard in Fine Arts, and later got a degree in business as well. She wanted a career that mixed either of her degrees instead of settling for the academic fields. After years of a colorful career start, she freelanced in web design and finally went into UX Designing after ending her ecommerce business. Alison very much likes the concept of UX designing as it connects everything she enjoys doing including analyzing, creativity and planning.

6. Adrienne Rodgers – Mobile App Magician

She is an Oxford graduate, belongs to Austin, Texas and is the key behind the amazing user interface and user experience in apps of IPhones, Androids and IPads. Adrienne Rodgers has 15 years of vast experience in designing apps for IOS and Android and we were wondering why she wasn’t “upper” in this list. Rodgers began her career as a freelancer and as of today, she stands as the senior UI and UX designer for mobile applications and Photoshop – expanding towards mobile websites as well.

Image Source: Pexels/Pixabay

7. Irene Au – The Face Behind Browsers

Irene Au has the stunning achievement of launching commercial web browsers on the Internet. Being an operating partner for Khosla Ventures, she worked to help portfolio companies with their product design. She has been a leader in design for huge companies like Yahoo! and Google. As such, Au has been directly involved in shaping the internet to make it what we have today.

Au is also the mentor for several designers, having had an illustrious career from the very beginning. She continues to influence the field with her written works, including the book “Design in Venture Capital: How Design Drives Investment and Company Success”.

8. Melissa Chapman – Lead Interaction And Service Designer

Melissa Chapman is currently serving as the lead designer for the Chief Design Office of USAA and is one of the top-notch whiz(s) of user interaction design who has years of training and experience in user-centered product designs. In addition to rendering her exceptional UI services, Chapman teaches Research and Synthesis at her grad-school, Austin Center for Design as well.

9. Indi Young – The Owner Of Self-Made UX Agency

Indi Young is just about my favorite from the list. If we look at her resume, there is no doubt that we would not leave rather too impressed. An independent data scientist, an author, an entrepreneur, a researcher and an amazing pro at user experience designing, Indi Young has it all. To begin with, she founded an agency by the name Adaptive Path in 2001 which dealt with User Experience designing and subsequently marked her as one of the successful female entrepreneur in the tech industry. In addition, her work as a mentor, in consultancy and as a coacher is widely appreciated.

Image Source: Pexels/Rawpixel

10. Christina Wodtke – The Woman Of Wonders

This particular woman has been helping out with designs at ElegantHack.com. She has been in the executive role several times within the field of tech. Wodtke also led a redesign for MySpace, headed teams to build events platforms and created an algorithm to make LinkedIn better. The design and launch of Zynga.com are also her doing. Her accomplishments are many, but for now, she is teaching at CCS to train up new designers and is writing works on design and business.

11. Hwanghah Jeong – Microsoft UX Design Intern

Hwanghah Jeong is an undergraduate at Savannah College of Art and Design and is already interning for UX design at none other than the billionaire’s business of Microsoft. She has superb technical prowess which is showcased on her personal website where her portfolio and insight of visual design reflects her excellence in user experience designing.

12. Lizzie Dyson – Lady At The Rentalcars

Lizzie Dyson is another gem from the designing profession we have with us, who is surprisingly a female as well! She has it going smooth for her – graduated with a degree in website designing in 2012, and then went onto work for BBC in User Experience. However, Lizzie Dyson makes it to our list because of another venture that she is working on. Called as “Ladies That UX,” is a global meetup that empowers women in the tech industry where they are continuously underrepresented. Dyson, along with other ladies, provide support and other necessary requirements needed by women to breakthrough in the UX designing. Currently, Lizzie Dyson works at the Rentalcars.

13. Leslie Park – 50 Years Old UX Designer

She neither graduated with a degree in designing nor did she work there for her entire career. Leslie Park worked in account management at ad agencies for all those years before she took up a course of UX designing and began to see things clearly. We might think without a designing degree and experience in the said field, making it through into the job market would be close to impossible. Not for our Leslie Park. She is one of the three (or four, to the max) women from the designing industry who have joined the team quite late, but they did make their places noticeable.

Image Source: Unsplash/Rawpixel

14. Leah Buley – The Woman Who Can Train

This woman has influenced several thousand professionals as well as the final users of many products. She is an established name in experience design, being both an analyst and practitioner. Leah Buley’s main goal is helping organizations compete well with regards to the design of their products. She is also able to help out the design-teams first-hand. Her formal position is that of lead experience designer with Intuitive Adaptive Path. Fresh faces in designing industries should read her work “The User Experience Team Of One: A Research And Design Survival Guide”

15. Julie Zhuo – The Vice President Of Design At Facebook

Ever wondered who was behind the captivating UI and UX design of your favorite social engine? Meet Julie Zhuo. She exclusively rules the designing team for the world-famous social browser, the Facebook application. She is also an avid reader, writer and tweeter. The product design executive is also authoring the book “The Making of a Manager” which is scheduled to be published by Penguin in 2019.

16. Laura Klein – Interaction Designer And A “Principal”

She might be 60 years old, but Laura Klein has taught the world her name when talks about UX designing surface amidst conversations. She bags blogging about User Experience designing, lean startup, product management and is popularly the Principal at Users Know – a complete package for people in the tech and designing industries. Laura has authored the famous book, “UX for Lean Startups.”

17. Whitney Hess – UX Expert Turned Coach

Whitney Hess is one heck of a woman in the designing industry. She reigned as the Queen in User Experience for a decade, turned to Consultancy and then became a Coach to train the newbies and guide the experts. She believed she wanted to make an even more effective impact on humanity through rendering her knowledge and experience. Whitney is Professional Certified Coach (PCC).

Image Source: Pixabay/StartupStockPhotos

18. Carol Barnum – Founding Partner At UX Firm, LLC

Carol Barnum belongs to Atlanta and attended the Northern Illinois University, graduating with a degree in special education. Today, she is the founding partner at the UX Firm with Jimmy Ginn, where she is also the Director of User Research.

19. Jessie Ren – Senior UX Designer At Apple

Jessie Ren is another young woman, based in San Francisco, who currently works as a Senior UX Designer at Apple. She also mentors students at Designlab and is a product designer by academics.

20. Carolyn Li-Madeo – UX Designer At Wikimedia

Ever heard of Wikimedia; the global movement that brings free educational content just a click away? Well, the User Experience designer at the website is another influential woman who concludes our list – Carolyn Li-Madeo. She is a designer by profession, a user researcher and has also worked at the Internet Archives. Carolyn once worked as a university librarian where she realized the importance of archiving, planning and execution.

Who inspires you the most from our amazing list of designers?