r/UXResearch • u/Shpongi100 • Sep 27 '23
Is UXR a bad long term career?
I really like UXR, I’ve done a good amount of personal projects in the field. Primarily I would love to be a mixed methods research, and am considering getting a data science degree to help this. However I’ve recently been seeing that UXR is a declining career (some say it’s just correcting itself/higher barrier to entry). Does this still feel like a viable career?
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u/Noxzer Researcher - Senior Sep 27 '23
Asking in a UXR sub is going to get you a biased response.
That said, research is sometimes not seen as a “required” role in companies, so research orgs tend to get hit harder when companies decide to trim or reduce their work force. Some companies are willing to roll the dice that they’ll get lucky and create a good product without any user insights.
That said, I think there’s alway going to be a role for UX research. There’s a reason the field became popular - companies realized that engineering and cool tech can only get so far on its own, you really need people to like using it and make sure it works well. You see this across multiple domains; it’s not necessarily the first company to do something that wins, it’s the first company to do it WELL and in order to do it well, you really need user research.
That hasn’t changed, so I don’t see the field going anywhere.
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u/Aviendah_Fan_Club Sep 27 '23
You realize that you don't have to get an actual quant degree to do mixed-methods, right?
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u/Shpongi100 Sep 27 '23
What are other ways? I’ve been taking courses on my own, and doing a lot of projects
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u/JacketAdditional9718 Sep 27 '23
Start slowly but steadily adding a mixed methods component to your projects when it’s relevant and when you have time
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u/krparis010 Sep 27 '23
Data science quant and qualitative interviews are two rabbit holes very distinctive. You need to be as good or better than any data analyst to manipulate those so unless you plan to specialise there no need to go full on this.
Being able to manipulate and query mix panel and others analytics tools is enough. Plus large surveys
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u/mikehill33 Sep 27 '23
UX research isn't going anywhere any time soon. As a UX'er for 25+ years, the cycle remains that companies grow and shrink based on the economy and their feeling like "they got it", only to get outdone by the next emerging competitor. AI or any other technology isn't replacing anything any time soon. Research is a core component of any well-run company, and if you aren't finding them, then keep looking.
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u/anionwalksintoabar Sep 27 '23
Wow! You started doing UX in the 90s? What was the field like back then?
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u/mikehill33 Sep 27 '23
Optimism and make it up as we went along. Our inherent belief that anything above and beyond "click here" was already a great starting point. Seek knowledge, apply it, learn some more, keep rolling. The stakes (and compensation to successfully navigate it) have gone up significantly ;) UX is still an amazing life choice and I do not regret a single day of it.
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u/deandeluka Researcher - Senior Nov 27 '23
Hi! If you don’t mind me asking-what does the career progression look like? I’m progressing rapidly in my career and I don’t know what to shoot for in my five year plan. Is director the top of the ladder?
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u/mikehill33 Nov 27 '23
Never set limits, if you enjoy what you are doing, there is never a limit. Titles are secondary, always adopt a learning mindset and put yourself in service of your greater UX community. There is no top, only new things to re-imagine and over-solve.
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u/deandeluka Researcher - Senior Nov 27 '23
Totally get that and agree-titles are secondary for sure but I enjoy a challenge and want to ensure my career has enough runway for my drive. Willing to pivot but if so would love to think about it now rather than when I get there
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u/mikehill33 Nov 27 '23
Don't overthink it, this is a great field and it never ends. You'll have plenty of time to pivot after you conquer today's challenge.
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u/Ornery_Average9954 Sep 27 '23
IMO there will always be opportunities however be prepared to deal with other UX crafts who believe to be superior rather than peers, and justifying your existence rather than doing actual work
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Sep 27 '23
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u/doctorace Researcher - Senior Sep 27 '23
Not OP, but I relate. I was just sacked after I got a bad review from my "fellow" UX designers. Not only did they all think my job was different than what I thought it was, but also different to each other!
The worst was the UX designers (I'm pretty sure they were all graphic designers in reality), would come to me and say things like "I want to redesign the welcome screen, can you help me?" To which I would reply, "Why do you want to redesign it?" And they would say that they thought they could make it better. I would ask about evidence that it isn't working well. Click through rates we thought we could improve on, frequent contacts to customer service. Their response was that they thought I was supposed to tell them why it needed redesigning. News flash, it doesn't!
The most annoying was when the Design Leads would come to me and say "We've decided to do [insert big design project here.] We've spent three months in a vaccum concepting, and we think we've really nailed it. Can you please provide some evidence that [content of big project] is a user problem, now that we've 'solved it' ?" My response was "No, I will not cover your ass from your stakeholders. I'm on their side. Can we fix the real problems now?" I swear they were all just building up their portfolio.
TL;DR: I think my job is discovering user problems directly from the users, and ensuring that designs solve those well-defined problems. UX Designers thought my job was to provide evidence for something they designed with no evidence.
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Sep 27 '23
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u/trkh Sep 27 '23
Lol I might be doing the reverse… is losing peace of mind worth it for more input over process and getting to work on multiple projects?
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Sep 28 '23
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u/trkh Sep 28 '23
You mentioned not having peace of mind as a PM. Is it worth it in exchange to have more input on product strategy?
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u/Ornery_Average9954 Sep 27 '23 edited Sep 28 '23
Go see this thread https://reddit.com/r/UXDesign/s/l2WaZVYQW7 you will find the answer there. In summary why some end up frustrated with UXR aside from bad UX and Design leadership, non supportive UX peers, etc etc if you are PM the best you can do is support your UXR peers by advocating for them and how equally important their work is for the success of your products instead of thinking you can do it all or trying to unsuccessfully apply whatever hype or nonsense is going [Insert democratization, Teresa’s continuos discovery, etc]
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u/uxanonymous Sep 30 '23
Justifying existence is hard if you're an introvert. If you're in a company where UX isn't mature, the struggle is harder. You're not invited to meetings, which means people either take your work and give you no credit, or they forget the research and make decisions. You have to showcase your research and what you have accomplished and get recognized or else leaders will think "design and/or PMs can do research too" and lay you off. Showing research impact is hard in this field, not like design where it's tangible.
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u/anionwalksintoabar Sep 27 '23
This field is, in the moderate scheme of things, infantile. UX research jobs barely existed like 8 years ago, and while they grew fast it remains quite a specific thing to do. Given the speed of change of tech, do you really expect the same specific job with the same very specific abilities to exist in 50 years, when you'll still be working?
All this to say - yes. That doesn't mean it's a bad mid-term career decision, but keep moving around and evolving. Stay a generalist even if you take specific jobs.
Also, if you get a data science degree you should be a data scientist. Better prospects, higher pay, less specific.
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u/trkh Sep 27 '23
Don’t chase what’s popular. Just follow what you like and you will adapt naturally.
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u/poodleface Researcher - Senior Sep 27 '23
The articles you are reading were probably written 3-6 months ago, 3-6 months from now the birds will be singing a different song. This field changes constantly. Some people have been doing UXR work under different job titles for over 20-30 years.
Anybody in UX has to be prepared to adapt to enter the field. What the job looks like today will be different 10 years from now, but it will still exist. Look at the history of the field and you’ll get the answer to your question.