New User Experience Designer Certification: Build Human-Centered Design Experiences on the Salesforce Platform

For the first time ever, we’re empowering Trailblazers to add design skills to their portfolios with the new User Experience Designer certification. Learn how you can up-level your skills and design human-centric experiences on the Salesforce Platform.

Adam Doti
The Trailblazer
6 min readJun 9, 2021

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Astro and Hootie in Trailblazer hoodies next to the Salesforce Certified User Experience Designer logo on a purple background. Banner reads Introducing the Salesforce User Experience Designer Certification.

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Design is an intentional, iterative, human-centric approach to innovation and problem-solving that aims to fulfill customers’ needs and expectations through products, services, and experiences that put people first.

It’s an essential lever companies can utilize to create ethical, equitable, and sustainable solutions that benefit both businesses and communities.

Now more than ever, companies recognize the value of design and are looking for talent with design skills to navigate their evolving business landscape. In fact, there’s a clear link between design and improved business outcomes, and increasing design capacity leads to improved customer satisfaction and product adoption.

In the Salesforce Ecosystem, design skills are a key ingredient across most Salesforce roles. There’s a growing demand for those working on the Platform to harness design skills in their roles to deliver best-in-class customer experiences.

According to data from Burning Glass Technologies, in 2019, Salesforce job posts requiring at least one design skill included:

  • Salesforce Administrators, 15% of job postings
  • Salesforce Developers, 41% of job postings
  • Salesforce Architects, 37% of job postings
  • Salesforce Consultants, 27% of job postings

Up-level your Salesforce career with design skills

We’re committed to meeting this growing demand for design by empowering our ecosystem with the tools needed to add design skills to their portfolio.

This is why we’re thrilled to introduce a brand new Salesforce Designer role on Trailhead and User Experience (UX) Designer certification.

This new role provides a unique opportunity for Salesforce Admins, Architects, Consultants, Developers, and Marketers to cultivate in-demand design skills, advance their careers, and create solutions that sustainably support the needs of individuals, organizations, and communities.

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According to IBM’s The State of Salesforce 2020–21, the best companies use human-centered design in Salesforce and across their business to meet users’ needs, simplify problems, reduce complexity, and align goals and vision across teams.

Cynthia Kaschub, PhD, Salesforce Research Architect

“We know design is good for business. Better design leads to better usability and product experiences, which lead to improved adoption, higher customer satisfaction, and better business for the whole Salesforce Ecosystem.” — Cynthia Kaschub, PhD, Salesforce Research Architect

Become a Salesforce Certified UX Designer

When we say “Salesforce Designer,” we’re referring to anyone who aspires to design human-centered experiences on the Salesforce Platform.

Maybe you’re a Salesforce Admin, Developer, or Marketer looking to advance your career and add design skills to your portfolio. Or perhaps you’re an experienced designer interested in adding Salesforce skills to your toolkit.

The Salesforce Certified UX Designer certification is intended for candidates who are aspiring or experienced designers looking to design and deploy human-centered solutions on the Salesforce platform. This certification is for individuals who want to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and experience in the following areas:

  • Discovery
  • UX Fundamentals
  • Human-Centered Design
  • Declarative Design
  • Testing
  • Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS)

“We’re very excited to support the launch of the new Salesforce Designer role and UX Designer certification. This initiative recognizes the strategic importance of embracing a human-centered design mindset and value-driven approach in customer experience transformations.” Billy Seabrook, Global Chief Design Officer for IBM iX.

Your guide to getting certified

We’ve curated fun and free resources for you to help you ace your exam and become a #CertifiedPro!

  • Explore Salesforce Designer careers: Learn more about your #DreamDesigner career and how you can expand your Salesforce design skills. Take the Build your Designer Career on Salesforce trailmix to learn how to build in-demand design skills to deliver great experiences.
  • Find Designer Trailhead content with new role tag: Later this month we’re launching a brand new role tag on Trailhead — Salesforce Designer. With this new tag, finding and skilling up on Designer content and instructor-led learning is easier than ever before — which enables you to filter and quickly find the relevant trails, modules, projects, and courses you need to succeed.
  • Check out the UX Designer exam guide: This guide includes a description of the intended certification audience, an outline of exam topics, recommended training and resources, and relevant Trailhead modules to help you prepare for your exam.
  • Complete the UX Designer Certification Preparation trailmix: We’ve curated a step-by-step learning path to help you understand and apply the key concepts you’ll need to prove your skills and become a Salesforce Certified UX Designer.
  • Join the Trailblazer Community: Engage in the Design Trailblazers Community Group for help on trails, join a user group in your area, find a study partner/mentor, and connect with other Trailblazers from around the globe with similar experiences and challenges.
Join the Conversation in the Trailblazer Community

Meet Asterisk Loftis, a Salesforce Designer

We sat down with Asterisk Loftis, Practice Manager of Design Services at Fonteva, to hear why he’s excited about the new Salesforce Designer role and UX Designer certification.

Photo of Trailblazer, Asterisk Loftis, Practice Manager of Design Services at Fonteva, in a Trailblazer hoodie in a forest scene.

Why is design important to you?

“Design is inherent to everything on this earth.

We’re all designers in our own way and can communicate design with thought, intent, and purpose that ultimately changes people’s lives and solves their most important problems.”

Why is it important for Salesforce to invest in skilling up Designers?

“No matter your role, having a heightened design mindset will help you better solve complicated problems your users face.

For example, Technical Architects and Product Owners are interfacing with the end-user as much as designers are, so understanding design processes will help them better address their customer’s problems. This means that better ideas will be generated, and outputs will look and behave better, ultimately improving the ecosystem and communities at large.

There’s always more to master, and now I can point my team to Salesforce-specific resources — Trailhead modules for designers, trails, this new certification — to drive continued education so they can grow their designer mindset, skill up and push themselves further in their careers.”


What advice do you have for Trailblazers interested in earning this new certification?

“It’s important to understand that design is not just about making things look pretty, it’s a skill you can cultivate and improve. This new certification will give you the foundational knowledge to confidently build design solutions on the Salesforce Platform.”

Ready to Earn Your UX Designer Certification?

Feeling inspired to be among the first to become a Salesforce Certified UX Designer? It’s time to dive in!

Head over to the Salesforce Certified UX Designer credential page for all the details on this exciting new certification, including access to all of the study resources available to you on Trailhead.

And don’t forget to shout out your success on social using #CertifiedPro so we can follow along!

Follow Salesforce Design on Twitter at @SalesforceUX.

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Adam Doti
The Trailblazer

VP / Principal Design Architect & Product Owner, Salesforce. Design community advocate. Painter/Sculptor/Maker/Adventurer. The mountains recharge me.