Business: Role of UX

This month, the Ask UXmatters expert panel discusses how UX professionals can best collaborate with automated UX tools, considering the different, but complementary strengths of AI systems and human beings. Our experts also consider the deeper question of whether artificial-intelligence (AI) tools will replace UX researchers and designers and what the future holds for UX professionals working in an artificially intelligent environment.

Our experts also describe the respective roles of automated UX tools and UX researchers. Plus, they discuss the merits of automated versus moderated usability testing. Read More

Should UX designers be able to facilitate teamwork and engage in organizational design? A few years ago, the most likely answer would have been: No. We have process consultants, Human Resources (HR) consultants, and all sorts of coaches to help organizations organize their people and processes. But today’s businesses are confronting some significant changes that impact the role of User Experience, as follows:

1. Design challenges have become more complex. Some prominent. independent design firms have decided to join bigger collectives to address such issues. Recently, IDEO joined the kyu collective, Adaptive Path was acquired by CapitalOne, and there have been many other instances of this trend.
2. The role of the UX designer is shifting from merely imagining and executing on solutions to fostering collective creativity and engaging all sorts of professionals in a co-creation process.
3. Just as the impact of the design discipline has gradually expanded from products to services, over the last few decades, it continues to expand to process and organizational design. Branding agencies like Wolff Olins and transformation consultancies like SYPartners are leveraging the power of design to help companies re-imagine the way they work and organize themselves.

Read More

UXmatters and the UX research consultancy User Fountain recently teamed up to survey UX professionals around the world on the role of User Experience within their organization. The Role of UX: 2020 Benchmark Study explores UX roles, tools, methods, and organizational structures, as well as organizations’ various levels of UX maturity.

Our analysis of the survey’s findings explores three key themes:

1. How did the work of UX teams change in 2020? What impact did the COVID-19 pandemic have on these teams and their work?
2. What might 2021 bring for UX professionals?
3. What impact has User Experience had on organizations?

Finally, we’ll take a look at the UX professionals who participated in our survey—particularly their role within their organization—and the UX community resources on which they rely. Read More