Develop Better Technology: Discovering UX Design & Research with Specialist Staffing Group
This article has been adapted from the recording of our event, “Develop Better Technology: Discovering UX Design & Research with Specialist Staffing Group.”
Haley Dean, Senior Technical Recruiter at a Specialist Staffing Group, sits down with Jen Blatz, UX Researcher at BECU and Co-founder of UX Research and Strategy, Adrienne Guillory, COO at Usability Sciences, Co-founder of Dallas Black UX, and Manu Kaligotla, Design Research Manager at Abercrombie & Fitch, for their event Develop Better Technology: Discovering UX Design and Research.
How would you define UX and UI? What does that mean in terms of your current role?
AG: The difference between user experience and the UI or user interface is that the user interface is the thing that's there, be it a website, an app, a bottle, a phone, or whatever the case may be. That's the interface. The experience is how we use it. The experience is what we can and can't do with it. That's the difference between the two.
MK: I'd like to add the user experience, which is how the product makes you feel as a person using it. We often think of user experience from our standpoint and how we experience the product, which is totally true. There's also another facet to it, which I've lately discovered is how the product makes us feel. Does the product make us feel like we are capable of using it? Does the product make us feel inferior? For example, if you can use a phone seamlessly, that means the phone is designed for you. It's making you feel good about using that product.
What was your journey into UX, and what about the field appealed to you?
JB: I started out in journalism, actually, as a newspaper designer, and then went into magazine design. What was similar was communication and trying to design with people in mind. I designed a newspaper thinking about the person who just wants to get the high-level what's going on rather than read all 20 inches of the story. I was always thinking about entry points and visuals to make that piece of information enticing. Yet enough, if they didn't have time to read the whole story, they still got something out of it. That was an early parlay into user experiences. I started with that, so I have a very heavy graphic design background. That transitioned into UI or user interface design, so visual design for websites.
I was exposed to the other parts of user experience, such as building journey maps and understanding our users. In a lot of roles, I was the UX team of one and had to do all the things and learn how to do all the things ASAP. That's when I got familiar with research. I got more excited about learning about the user than building the interface as a result of what I was learning. I got more and more into the research and have stuck with it.
MK: I started out with a Bachelor in Business Administration and Business Studies. I was so intrigued with consumer behavior, its concepts, and the psychology leading up to certain behaviors. I've taken international marketing and international negotiations in my Master's and got into academic research that way. I have conducted field studies for internships and market research for some companies. Talking to people makes me happier than sitting behind a desk and reading through an immense list of articles and data sheets.
I began talking to people and understanding what makes them like a product and what makes them use a product. How do they go about understanding how to use a product? I actually stumbled upon a book called MeasuringU. There was one chapter that talked about research. I had just heard of user research. I'd only been doing market research. It captivated me. Ever since I've been a researcher. After seven years, I am a research manager, now trying to mentor and coach junior researchers who are just stepping into research.
AG: My journey is completely out of left field; before I came to Usability Sciences, I was a restaurant manager. I loved everything about hospitality but was forced to choose between running a restaurant and finishing my Master's degree. I decided to date jobs for a while, so I started working for a temp agency that brought me Usability Sciences. I needed to find out what user research was. We didn't even call it user experience at that time. My first few months were as a receptionist, and then I was brought on full-time.
My first two years were in participant recruiting. We do this weird thing at Usability Sciences, where we shut down in December, and everybody takes a vacation. We had a last-minute project come in, and I was the only staff recruiter. They needed somebody to support another researcher in the lab and ask if I would do it. I have stuck to user research. I get everybody's business and then tell people what to do with it. I like being able to find disconnects and influence the direction of the product.
Can you explain more of your day-to-day work and how research works alongside design?
AG: Usability Sciences is a full-service user research firm. All we do is research on behalf of our clients. We're doing eight, nine, and ten projects in a month, and I have different clients. Most of my day is spent scoping research projects because I manage the operations team. I need the right researchers to do it, have some subject matter, and make sure we define the right people. More important than all of that is educating my clients. Most of my day-to-day is either scoping new work or building strategies with my team and then developing my team.
MK: I'm in the retail industry at Abercrombie & Fitch. We deal a lot with the website and the UI of the app and how that speaks to the customers, how people go about finding the clothes they need, how they go about the purchasing journey, what's going on with their experience from the time they enter the website till the time they exit? I oversee the research that happens across nine squads and with three researchers. We allocate research projects to each other; we triage which is more complex versus not so complex and which can be pulled up easily versus taking some time. We assess if something needs a survey versus an interactive interview. We also assess how this study impacts the product roadmap and what it means to the business impact that we are developing the solutions. My job also entails developing and coaching my research.
JB: As a principal researcher, I'm higher than some researchers on my team. I mentor others and teach them about research methods, how to create a discussion guide and a research plan, and the importance of doing that. I illustrate the value of research, showing that I can better inform you to mitigate risk, make better decisions, and save the developer's time.
Can you provide advice for job seekers on navigating this market, understanding job advertisements, prepping for an interview, or identifying any red flags to look out for?
AG: A huge question that we're getting lately is, how do you get a job? It's going to be a tough one. It's not because research doesn't love new people. The problem that we have is coming out of the digital transformation, which is what happened in 2020. A lot of companies ramped up. They did a lot of research and design. What's happening is a lot of people have started to finish those projects, so you have more senior people in the market now. Newbies compete with mid- and senior-level people. I don't see a regression in jobs. I see the jobs out there as being harder to get. You have to be creative with how you get experience. Some of it is going to have to be done by your own practice. Some of it is going to be reaching out to families and friends who have businesses or charity organizations and looking for opportunities to help them build up your portfolio. If you love this work, look for opportunities to do it. Find something to pay your bills in the meantime.
JB: The bottom line is you have a lot of competition. Show that you can do the work, speak to it, show it. Don't show that you got a certificate somewhere or that you have a Master's degree. I'm not saying that's not valuable, but you need to show that you've done the work.
MK: A good researcher, a decent researcher, or a not-so-good researcher, the difference is really in how you see the data that comes out of your research. UX research is the art of balancing communications with your product partners. It's a stakeholder management job. It's a client management job. You have to talk to your internal customers and external customers. It's also a self-developing job where you are coming up with your own expertise of broad methods and research, rigor, and coming up with your own improvements for yourself. It's also about selling yourself. Understand what you are really good at and what your strengths are. If you can, speak to your passion because if you can show the employer that you have the skill to see the data for what it is and interpret the data between the lines, I would want someone like that on my team.