What does a UX Designer do?

A UX designer researches user needs, defines flows and wireframes, builds prototypes, tests with real users, and shapes the design logic that then front-end converts into code.

When I joined a U.S.-based SaaS startup five years ago, we had exactly one designer who was supposed to “just do UI”. Within six weeks I realised her role was far more crucial: mapping user journeys so we could convert designs from Figma into production-ready front-end code with fewer iterations. Today, as a founder of a design-to-code tool, I’ve overseen dozens of design-engineering hand-offs across U.S. product teams. In the United States, the role of the UX designer bridges product strategy, design craft and engineering translation.

In this post I’ll unpack what a UX designer truly does, from research through to code hand-off, why it matters for U.S. companies, and how design-to-code workflows change the game.

What is UX design in the U.S. market

In the U.S., UX design is more than making screens look pretty. According to Mailchimp:

“The role of a UX designer is to make the experience of using a website, program, app, or other software accessible and enjoyable.”

The Figma resource library puts it this way:

“UX design is both an art and a science, focused on creating digital products that are visually appealing, intuitive, and easy to use.”

In plain terms: a UX designer in the U.S. context acts as the user's advocate, the product team's strategist and the design-engineer translator.

What a UX Designer Does (Day-to-Day)

Research & discovery

• Conducts user interviews, surveys, context-observations.
• Builds personas and customer journey maps to represent U.S.-based user segments.
• Reviews competitive products to benchmark flows and pain-points.

Definition & planning

• Defines user flows and information architecture: how one screen leads to another, what tasks users need to complete.
• Creates wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes early in tools like Figma.
• Aligns design tasks with business metrics (e.g., conversion rate, user retention).

Design & prototyping

• Designs interactive prototypes to test usability before development.
• Uses Figma (or similar) to build UI components that map to real front-end code.
• Works closely with UI designers (or may perform UI design themselves) to ensure visual and interaction consistency.

Testing & iteration

• Moderates usability sessions with real users (often U.S. users if product is U.S-focused).
• Collects qualitative feedback + quantitative metrics (e.g., completion rates, error rates).
• Iterates design based on findings. Often this is an ongoing process even after launch.

Handoff & developer collaboration

• Prepares design documentation, specs, component libraries, links to code assets.
• Works with front-end engineers (often React, Angular, or Vue in U.S. SaaS) to ensure designs translate into working code, component naming, spacing, behavior, state, accessibility.
• In companies using design-to-code conversion tools, the UX designer ensures Figma specs are fully annotated for automatic or semi-automatic front-end code generation.

Why This Role Matters (especially in the U.S.)

• A poor UX leads to user churn: as Mailchimp points out, “88 % of online users are less likely to visit a site again after a bad experience.”
• In U.S. SaaS markets, time-to-market and developer efficiency are critical. A well-defined UX speeds up front-end build significantly.
• As I’ve seen across dozens of U.S.-based clients, when the UX designer bridges design and development with clarity, we reduce iteration loops by 30-40 %.
• With design-to-code tools emerging, UX design is no longer a “make it pretty” step, it directly influences how quickly Figma artboards become production-ready front-end components.

How Design-to-Code Changes the UX Designer’s Workflow

From my vantage point running a design-to-code tool (for teams in the U.S.), here’s how workflows shift:

Earlier engineering alignment

• UX designers now define component libraries with code-friendly naming and structure upfront.
• They collaborate even earlier with engineers to agree on code-auto-conversion constraints (grid, spacing, responsive breakpoints).

Fewer guess-work hand-off moments

• Elements in Figma must include proper states, variants, constraints so that the tool can generate correct front-end output.
• UX designers need basic understanding of front-end tech (CSS classes, states, responsive behaviour) rather than leaving this entirely to developers.

Continuous iteration post-launch

• Since design changes can propagate rapidly into code, UX designers monitor real-world analytics faster.
• They may directly update the Figma system and trigger code output, reducing developer idle time.

Higher skill demand

• Beyond research and wire-frames, UX designers in U.S. SaaS now benefit from basic HTML/CSS/JS literacy.
• Understanding component-driven development (React, Vue) gives them credibility and speed.

Key Responsibilities Broken Out by Phase

What Skills Does a UX Designer Need (U.S. Market)

• Strong user research ability and empathy for diverse U.S. user groups.
• Wire-framing and prototyping skills (in Figma, Sketch, XD).
• Understanding of front-end constraints (responsive design, accessibility, component libraries).
• Communication and collaboration across product, design, engineering.
• Analytical mindset: able to interpret usability data and iterate designs with evidence.
• Bonus: knowledge of code or design-to-code workflows to reduce friction.

Real Example: U.S. SaaS Product, Figma → Code Workflow

When our design-to-code company worked with a fintech firm in San Francisco:

1. UX designer created user flows for onboarding, KYC verification, dashboard tasks.
2. In Figma, they built a component library with name convention “Card_Variant/Success” etc.
3. Front-end engineers used the auto-converted code (React + Styled-Components) from Figma assets.
4. Usability tests revealed users in the U.S. often abandoned at verification step, so the UX designer adjusted flow and the component library, releasing the update in two weeks instead of traditional six.
5. Result: 18 % reduction in drop-off rate.
   This shows how the UX designer was central to both design and code conversion flow.

When to Involve a UX Designer (for U.S. product teams)

• At product conception: before any UI visuals are created.
• At the moment you define user journeys, flows, onboarding steps.
• Before major design system updates or shifting to component-driven front-end.
• Before the hand-off to engineering to ensure Figma assets align with code.
• Throughout product evolution: monitoring user behaviour and iterating.

Common Pitfalls UX Designers Should Avoid

• Designing without research: jumping to visuals without user insight.
• Ignoring front-end constraints: producing artboards that cannot map easily into code.
• Neglecting continuous testing: assuming the design is done at launch.
• Lack of documentation for developer hand-off: resulting in repeated rework.
• Treating UX as only aesthetic: missing the deeper structure of flows, logic, usability.

How a UX Designer Supports the Design-to-Code Journey

Since our company builds a Figma → frontend conversion tool, I’ve noticed UX designers become even more pivotal:

• They define Figma variants and components that match code structure (e.g., states, breakpoints).
• They ensure accessible and responsive design, which means fewer bugs after auto-conversion.
• They coordinate with engineering to set up a components/ folder naming logic inside Figma, aligning with code.
• They monitor analytics post-launch and adjust design system in Figma, triggering updated code exports.
  In short, the UX designer becomes not just a “designer of experience” but a “designer of experience + code-readiness”.

Conclusion

At its heart, a UX designer in the U.S. is the link between user needs, design thinking and front-end execution. From research to wire-frames to prototypes to code hand-off, they drive product experience. And when design-to-code workflows come into play, their role expands to ensure Figma designs translate cleanly into production components. My recommendation: if you work in a U.S. SaaS environment (especially using Figma and design-to-code tools), embed UX design early, align your component names with your front-end structure, and constantly measure user behaviour to iterate. If you’d like a deeper dive into how to set up your Figma-to-code hand-off or a checklist for UX designers in this workflow, just let me know.