The State of UX Design Education, Part 2: Graduate Degree and Certificate Programs

PhD Versus Master’s Degree Programs

If you love school and have the luxury of delaying the beginning of your career, if you want to conduct research in an academic setting, or if you want to teach User Experience, graduate school is the right move for you. But you need to choose between a master’s degree or a PhD program. Here are some thoughts to guide you. Completing a PhD program requires that you attend school full time for, on average, four to six years—and sometimes as many as eight years—depending on the program. Most PhD candidates teach while attending classes, conducting research, and writing their thesis. This leaves little time for work, either full-time or part-time. On the plus side, you’d have teaching experience and a research portfolio. This should leave you well positioned to teach at an accredited college or university or to practice UX research or design.

If earning a master’s or PhD checks all your boxes, you must find the program that is the right fit for you. As with undergraduate degree programs, graduate programs can be tough to evaluate. To name just two examples of PhD programs in User Experience, Berkeley offers a PhD in Information Management and Systems, while the University of Washington offers a PhD in Human Centered Design and Engineering.

If you’re interested in a master’s degree program, you’ll have a lot more options and more flexibility, too. However, as with undergraduate programs, you’ll have to decide what degree would be right for you. A Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is the terminal degree in the arts, which means you could apply for teaching positions sooner or later in your career. You could get a PhD in art or design, but that’s not necessary for you to teach. Just as with science and humanities PhDs, these programs take time to complete, but might not yield a higher salary for a UX designer than an MFA would. Many great colleges and universities, including School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Vermont College of Fine Arts, offer low-residency MFA programs that are designed for working artists and other design professionals.

Similarly, if you want to complete a master’s degree in human-computer interaction or UX design, many programs offer part-time or online options. You could complete a Masters in Human Factors in Information Design at Bentley University as a full-time or part-time student, online or in person at campuses in Waltham, Massachusetts, or San Francisco, California. In addition, Bentley’s User Experience Center offers consulting services to local and global clients. Graduate students at Bentley assist with these projects, learn alongside experts, expand their networks, and can list these projects on their resume. Northwestern University offers a Master’s in Information Design and Strategy, with optional online courses. And California College of the Arts offers a two-year, low-residency MBA in Design Strategy, which sounds like my next must-have, totally unnecessary degree.

Other Educational Options

Graduate school might not be right for you for a variety of reasons. But if you still feel that you need formal education in User Experience, you could consider other options. Organizations such as General Assembly and Springboard offer bootcamp-style, immersive courses for career-changers. While still pricey, these programs are cheaper and faster than graduate programs from accredited colleges, and they claim to offer career support and mentoring. Taking this non-traditional route could save you time and money. Plus, you could make valuable network connections. You’ll have instant, curated access to like-minded mentors and colleagues who could be hard to find in an unstructured world. However, I recommend approaching their sales pitches with a healthy dose of skepticism. Remember, their success stories are just that. There’s no room on their Web site for the students who did not land dreamy-sounding job titles with six-figure salaries.

The Nielsen Norman Group offers conferences, courses, and certifications in design and research along with their weekly newsletters and extensive library of articles and videos. Jared Spool’s UIE group has a vast collection of recorded seminars that are available through a subscription. Lynda.com, which is now LinkedIn Learning, claims to offer hundreds of courses and thousands of videos tagged User Experience. I recommend exploring every option before committing. Ask whether your current employer would pay for conferences or courses. Find out whether your company already has a subscription to one or more of these services. Make friends with someone in your organization who is already doing the job you want to do. Ask that person out for coffee and mentoring.

Conclusion

Can you afford to forgo graduate school? Yes. Can you afford to go? That depends. First figure out how to pay for it. If someone else is paying, just say yes. If you’re paying for graduate school out of your own pocket or considering taking out student loans, you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. If you’re already a UX professional, don’t assume you need a degree—graduate or otherwise. Even if you’re doing the job without the title or were denied a promotion because you don’t have a degree, don’t assume that’s a “you problem” as my teenagers say. Start searching for an organization that would value your contributions and try not to get caught up in hoop jumping. Don’t pay for an expensive graduate program just to get a bigger paycheck. Your boss might not give you a raise the second you receive your degree anyway. You still might have to leave your current position to realize that bump in salary you’re seeking.

Education is important. I believe it’s the great leveler. I am a life-long learner myself. I wouldn’t be teaching if I didn’t think I was contributing to something worthwhile. But, according to a survey of employers, there is no substitute for professional experience. According to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce: “Most employers confess that master’s degrees are nice, but they’d simply prefer to hire a candidate with a larger overall professional background than one that is deeper in educational pursuits.”

Changing careers requires changing the way you think about yourself and your previous work experience. It could be just a question of repackaging yourself rather than having to engage in expensive re-education.