Perception of UX Researchers
I’m curious how people in other roles perceive the value of UX Researchers. If you’ve had a UX Researcher work on a project, please share your role and what you thought about the UX Researcher’s contribution. Im asking as a UX Researcher. Thanks!
I have had UX on projects. I view them as artist (metaphor her obviously) working with PM. They do important research/art and I respect it, since its an area where I am weak
Highly valuable. Hard to overstate their value, honestly. Every org should have a few and they should be taken seriously. Optimally, a researcher brings a truly objective perspective on a situation, and customer behaviors and needs. They can blend qualitative insights and quantitative data to elucidate what is going on and what features might be most important. We have plenty of smart, capable product managers who think they know what customers need and will ask the best leading questions to confirm their suspicions. It’s usually well-intentioned, but a good researcher can counter that sort of incomplete thinking. I’m a designer, by the way.
Glad that someone started a post on this topic and hope more researchers can comment on this. The role of ux researcher at a big company may slip into a ‘validation’ role. Whenever there is a small tweak in the design, you go and test that out with participants. Sort of a ‘user data monkey’. It’s sad but hard to avoid.
I love ux research. That being said, it's one of those things where if you have a researcher on staff sometimes you wind up finding them studies to do when you really don't need them done. Which in turn causes extra work for other people.