What would qualify someone as a junior UX designer, apart from years of professional experience?


I think the answer depends on what you mean by UX designer. Knowledge of HTML/CSS is not a core skill of a UX designer in my mind, but obviously others have different viewpoints. Job titles in this field tend to be a clusterf*ck, with a lot of people slapping UX onto theirs because it's the in thing to do.

From my point of view, a UX designer focuses on interaction design and information architecture, e.g. using research (either your own or done by user researchers) to understand the user goals and needs, creating user models such as personas, scenarios, or task analysis, and using that information to inform the behavior and interaction design of a webside or application.

So, I would say that a portfolio that includes sample wireframes, site maps, user models, and other ux deliverables (e.g. http://semanticstudios.com/publi...) is what you want to shoot for.

The best way to move into UX design is to do it sideways from a 'bordering' discipline such as front end dev, visual design, or business analysis. If you already have a job or experience doing one of those things, you can start looking for opportunities to do more "ux-y" work, and before you know it, you're a ux designer!

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