ATS Keywords for
UX Designers
UX candidates put their effort into a portfolio and let the CV coast — which is backwards, because the CV is what gets parsed first. Design requisitions screen for two distinct things: the tools you work in, and the research methods you can run. A CV listing only Figma matches half the posting. Add to that the accessibility and design-system requirements now standard in enterprise UX, and the gap widens. These are the terms design postings actually contain.
14 ATS keywords for UX Designer CVs
What each term signals to the system reading your CV.
User research
The highest-weighted UX term after the tools, and the one portfolio-led CVs most often skip.
Figma
The near-universal tool requirement; Sketch or XD alone will not match it.
Wireframing / prototyping
Names the concrete deliverables the requisition lists under responsibilities.
Usability testing
A specific method, screened separately from the general research term.
Design system
A hard requirement at any company past early stage, and a strong maturity signal.
Information architecture
Structural design work named explicitly in content-heavy product postings.
User personas / journey mapping
Artefact names that appear verbatim in requisitions and are easy to include.
Accessibility (WCAG)
A compliance requirement in public-sector and enterprise UX, rarely on candidate CVs.
Interaction design
Distinguishes product UX from purely visual design in a keyword screen.
User flows
Standard phrasing for the end-to-end thinking the role is hired to do.
A/B testing
Evidence you validate design decisions with data rather than opinion.
Design thinking
Process vocabulary that HR-side screens check for even when designers find it dated.
Responsive / mobile-first design
A named constraint on nearly every product design posting.
Stakeholder collaboration
Cross-functional work is an explicit requirement in in-house design roles.
How to use this list
- Describe each portfolio project in CV text too — the parser reads your file, never the case study behind the link.
- Balance tools and methods: a CV heavy on Figma and light on research reads as production design, not UX.
- Add a WCAG or accessibility line if you have any experience; it is required more often than it is offered.
- Quantify a design outcome — task completion, support tickets, conversion — to survive the human review after the filter.
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know before you upload.
Does the ATS read my portfolio link?
No. It parses the uploaded document only. The link matters for the reviewer who opens your CV after the filter, which is exactly why the CV text has to carry the keywords on its own.
Should I send a designed, multi-column CV?
Heavily designed layouts are the single biggest parsing risk in this field. Multi-column layouts, text inside images and unusual fonts routinely come out scrambled. Keep a clean single-column version for applications and save the designed one for the interview.
UX designer, product designer or UI designer?
They are separate search strings with real differences in weighting. Use the title from the posting in your summary line, and make sure the research vocabulary is present for UX roles and the visual-system vocabulary for UI ones.
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