ATS Resume Checker for UX/UI Designers
Tech companies, product teams, and agencies route UX and UI design applications through Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, and Workday before any product manager or design lead reviews a portfolio. A recruiter — often non-technical — runs keyword searches for tools, research methods, and deliverable types before forwarding a shortlist. A strong Figma portfolio can't compensate for a resume the ATS can't parse. Drop your resume below for a free, instant ATS score; the scan runs entirely in your browser and nothing is ever uploaded.
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How resume screening works for ux/ui designers
UX and UI design roles now live in nearly every industry vertical — fintech, health tech, SaaS, e-commerce, consumer apps, enterprise software, government services — and each hiring funnel starts with an ATS. Product-focused companies at scale use Greenhouse or Ashby; enterprises and regulated industries use Workday, iCIMS, or SAP SuccessFactors; agencies may use Lever or Bullhorn. In every environment, the first screen is keyword-driven: a recruiter or talent sourcer searches for tools (Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD), research methods (usability testing, user interviews), and deliverable types (wireframes, prototypes, design systems) before a design lead ever looks at your Figma portfolio link. More than 90% of employers surveyed use software to filter or rank candidates (Harvard Business School, 2021), and UX/UI roles are squarely in that majority.
UX designers face a particular tension with ATS screening: the profession values showing work visually, but ATS keyword matching is purely textual. A portfolio that demonstrates deep user research and interaction design doesn't help if the resume that accompanies it says "worked on mobile experiences" instead of "iOS and Android" and omits "usability testing," "wireframes," and "Figma" as literal terms. Postings are often highly specific — "5+ years Figma," "experience with design systems," "ability to conduct user interviews" — and a recruiter matches those phrases against your parsed resume text. Variants matter too: a search for "user research" won't reliably surface a resume that only says "user discovery" or "UX research." Similarly, a two-column or visually heavy resume template may present well as a PDF but parse out of order or drop content into the wrong section.
The fix is to treat the resume as an ATS artifact and the portfolio as the creative artifact. Use a clean single-column document that names every tool, method, and deliverable type explicitly, with the portfolio URL as a plain-text link in the body. Inside experience bullets, use the language of the posting: "conducted 12 moderated usability tests," "shipped a design system with 60+ components in Figma," "defined information architecture for a 200-screen iOS application." The checker below shows you exactly what the ATS sees from your current resume.
Keywords recruiters search for ux/ui designers
Include the terms you can genuinely defend in an interview — then paste the actual job posting above to see your exact gaps.
Figma
The dominant product-design tool — explicitly searched on nearly every UX/UI posting.
Sketch
Still required at some agencies and established product teams; list it if you've used it.
Adobe XD
Legacy enterprise and agency tool still searched for in non-product-company roles.
Prototyping
Core deliverable term searched in most UX postings; include the fidelity level where relevant.
Wireframing / wireframes
Fundamental deliverable; use the noun ("wireframes") since that's how postings and searches phrase it.
Design system
Searched for senior and product-team roles that own component libraries; say whether you built or consumed it.
User research
The precise phrase in postings; "UX research" is searched too — include both forms.
Usability testing
Method-specific search term; moderated, unmoderated, and remote forms are all worth naming.
User interviews
Searched for generative research roles; specify number conducted where possible.
Information architecture
IA is a literal search term in UX postings; include it if you've done site mapping or navigation design.
Interaction design (IxD)
Searched for roles focused on flows and motion over visual polish.
UX writing / microcopy
Searched by content-design-aware product teams; include if you've written interface copy.
Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 / WCAG 2.2)
WCAG compliance is increasingly a search filter on government, health, and enterprise postings.
Responsive design
Standard requirement for web product roles; its absence reads as a gap.
iOS / Android design (Apple HIG / Material Design)
Platform-specific design knowledge is searched explicitly for native mobile roles.
Design thinking
Used in postings as both a methodology term and a soft-skill filter at product-led companies.
Journey mapping / service design
Searched for senior, strategy, or service-design track roles.
A/B testing
Signals experimentation literacy; searched at data-informed product teams.
Jira / Confluence
Collaboration tool familiarity is searched at enterprise companies using the Atlassian stack.
Miro / FigJam
Searched for workshop facilitation and remote collaboration in discovery roles.
Cross-functional collaboration
Standard phrase in UX postings that pairs designers with PMs, engineers, and researchers.
Stakeholder presentation
Searched for senior roles that require communicating design decisions to leadership.
Resume mistakes that hurt ux/ui designers
Portfolio link in an icon or header graphic
The portfolio URL is often the single most important item on a UX resume, and many templates put it in the header as a Behance or Dribbble icon — which parsers routinely skip. Include the portfolio URL as a plain, clickable hyperlink in the document body, ideally under a "Portfolio" heading at the top, so it appears as a live link inside the ATS view the recruiter sees.
Two-column or visually designed resume templates
UX designers are particularly prone to submitting design-forward resumes that impress humans and confuse parsers. Content in sidebars, icon-based section headings, and multi-column layouts merge or drop out of order in ATS text extraction. Use a clean single-column document for applications; save the designed version for direct sends.
Tool names only in a visual skill grid or bar chart
Skill bars and proficiency grids are common in UX resume templates and invisible to most parsers. If "Figma" only appears inside a SVG-rendered bar chart, the ATS never sees it. List tools in plain text — either in a dedicated Skills section or, better, inside the experience bullets where they carry more weight.
Method terms too generic or too abbreviated
Writing "conducted user research" is vague enough to match nothing specific. Recruiters search "usability testing," "user interviews," "card sorting," "diary studies" — the exact method names. Similarly, writing "UX" as a catchall omits the specific terms that appear in searches: "interaction design," "information architecture," "user research." Be precise.
No mention of design system scope or component ownership
Many postings for mid-to-senior UX/UI roles specifically ask for design system experience. "Worked within an existing design system" and "built a design system from scratch" are very different things — and both are different from "maintained and documented a component library of 60+ components in Figma." Name the scope and number of components where you can.
Outcome-free bullets describing process only
UX bullets that describe process without any outcome are common and weak: "Conducted user research and created wireframes." Replace them with scoped impact: how many users tested, what changed in the design, what measurably improved. Even qualitative outcomes are better than none: "Research findings led to a redesigned checkout flow adopted by engineering in the next sprint."
Before / after: bullets that survive the skim
Worked on user research and designed wireframes for new features.
✍️ Conducted 18 moderated usability tests and 10 stakeholder interviews to inform a checkout flow redesign in Figma; the shipped design reduced drop-off at payment entry by roughly 20% in a two-week A/B test.
Helped build a design system for the product team.
✍️ Built a Figma design system with 80+ components and usage documentation for a 15-person product team across iOS, Android, and web; reduced designer-to-engineer handoff time from 3 days to under 1 day.
Created prototypes and presented to stakeholders.
✍️ Designed and iterated on 5 high-fidelity prototypes in Figma for a B2B SaaS onboarding flow, presenting research findings and design rationale to senior leadership in 3 review cycles before development handoff.
Frequently asked questions
Does my portfolio matter to the ATS?
The ATS itself doesn't evaluate your portfolio — it can't open the link or score the work. But recruiters who open your parsed resume almost always click the portfolio URL, and many use it as a first-pass filter before the phone screen. Make sure the URL is a plain-text hyperlink in the document body (not an icon), so it survives parsing and appears as a live link in the recruiter's view of your application.
Should I write 'UX Designer' or 'UX/UI Designer' as my title?
Mirror the title on the posting as closely as honest. "UX Designer," "UI Designer," "UX/UI Designer," and "Product Designer" are searched as separate strings, and many ATS keyword searches are exact-phrase. If you've done both UX and UI work, include both forms once in your resume — in your current title and mirrored from the posting — so either search hits.
Is my resume private when I use this checker?
Yes. The scan runs entirely in your browser using client-side code — your resume is never uploaded to a server, never stored, and never shared. Close the tab and it's gone. No account or email required, and the scan is completely free. The deeper line-by-line Pro report is a one-time $9 for that resume, not a subscription.
How do I handle a case study that's behind NDA on my resume?
On the resume itself, write the project with enough detail to pass keyword screening — company type, product type, your role, methods used, and the outcome — without naming the client. Note "confidential / available under NDA" at the end of the bullet or in the portfolio entry. Many recruiters and hiring managers are accustomed to this; a blank bullet is much worse than a specific one with a confidentiality note.