Salesforce Certified User Experience (UX) Designer Breakdown and Study Guide
Design is not just about the look and the feel. Design is about how it works. – Steve Jobs
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. Design isn’t just about making things look pretty - it’s making your designs functional, and intuitive. Just like any other skill you can practice and grow your design skills too. Enter the User Experience Designer Certificate.
Per Salesforce, “The Salesforce Certified User Experience (UX) Designer candidate should have knowledge of how to build and deploy human-centered experiences on the Salesforce Platform.” Further “Candidates should have a baseline knowledge of how to problem-solve and design using core UX concepts, and be able to deliver those experiences using the Salesforce Platform's core features. Candidates should also be able to work with customers to determine their needs and requirements using human-centered design.”
The exam is broken down in the following objectives:
Discovery: 13%
UX Fundamentals: 16%
Human-Centred Design: 12%
Declarative Design: 27%
Testing: 11%
Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS): 21%
There are no pre-requisites to the exam, however it is recommended that you complete the Salesforce Administrator Certification. If you’ve passed your Admin Exam, or Platform App Builder you should feel comfortable on most of the topics here.
The exam itself is a 60 question multiple choice (select one out of four options) test, with a passing score of 65%. You can find the full exam guide here.
Salesforce assumes that those taking the exam have roughly 6 months of general UX experience, and 6 months of Salesforce specific UX experience.
This exam was an interesting one as the bulk of it seemed like a combination of the Administrator + Platform App Builder + Business Analyst exams rolled into one. The rest was mainly SLDS which I wasn’t familiar with previously, and human-centred design best practices.
Notably this is one of the few Salesforce Certificates that doesn’t have a Focus on Force Study Guide or Practice Exam set. Here’s how I got ready for it.
Before starting I spent some time discovering the why behind this certificate. In my search I found this Medium post by Adam Doti that gives a fantastic breakdown (and great interview) as to the goals Salesforce had in creating this certificate.
The Trailmix for the exam is a large commitment at close to 40 hours of content. While I think that all of the modules are beneficial, if you’re time poor I found that Salesforce Superstar Vanessa Grant has a “UX Designer Studying for Procrastinators” mix that shares the key information for you quickly.
Beyond that the SLDS Website and WCAG Website dive into their respective topics far more succinctly than the modules do.
If you prefer a video I also found this a good watch for a primer on SLDS
As far as revising for the exam Dinesh Yadav has a fantastic blogpost that I used as a cheat sheet when revising for the exam. You can find it here.
If in taking studying for this exam you discover a passion for UX - I can recommend following it up with this course by Google on Coursera. I’ve started it and am enjoying it so far. Full disclosure though - I get access to Coursera at no cost through my current employer.
Personally I feel that everyone can benefit from this exam. UX is a fundamental part of every change that we as Salesforce professionals make. This exam empowered me to more conscious in my choices and provided me some tools to make my design choices more accessible, and more effective for all users.
For anyone looking to undertake any Salesforce certificate I recommend joining the SFXD community on Discord. Beyond the fantastic tools and resources the community has made and shared, they have a frequently updated bot that tracks discount codes. You can summon the bot by typing ?discounts in the #botchat text channel.
Once you are feeling confident with your progress take the exam - good luck! Embrace failure if it happens and try again next time. Enjoy that reward when you get there.
Tag me in your LinkedIn post when you get certified and I promise I'll be there to support your win!
Looking forward to seeing your certificate.
