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In today’s evolving UX research landscape, researchers have faced significant challenges, including a wave of recent layoffs that have hit the profession hard. This has raised concerns about the perceived value of UX research. In a climate where teams are shrinking, expectations for those who remain are higher than ever. Being proficient in usability testing or conducting interviews is no longer sufficient. Professionals must master three foundational pillars: Science, Discipline, and Profession. These pillars work together to shape a well-rounded, impactful UX researcher and help ensure the long-term survival and success of the profession.
Before diving into each pillar, I’ve established simple definitions for each:
Science is about knowledge creation. It forms the foundation of research, emphasizing rigor, accuracy, reliability, and data-driven insights and recommendations.Discipline is about the process and structure of research. It ensures that research is conducted ethically, systematically, and consistently across projects, safeguarding the reliability of research.Profession is about strategic impact and career growth. This pillar emphasizes how research drives organizational strategy while highlighting the importance of professional visibility and advocacy for career advancement.
This isn’t about professional preciousness (being exclusionary), where only those with advanced degrees can participate. There is more than one path to becoming an expert UX researcher. However, regardless of background, we must uphold the same high standards around science, discipline, and profession. Anything less not only harms the individual practitioner but, more importantly, harms the perception of UX research as a credible, strategic discipline.
If we want our work to be taken seriously, we need to take our profession seriously.
1. Science: UX research as an evidence-based practice
Many in the UX research field see themselves as primarily ‘empathizers’ or storytellers, excelling at understanding human emotions and crafting compelling narratives. While these skills are important, they are just one part of what makes UX research valuable. At its core, UX research is a scientific discipline, focused on generating evidence-based, repeatable insights that can be trusted and stand up to scrutiny.
“There is no research without rigor.” — Janelle Ward
Rigor ensures that the data we collect and the insights we generate are credible and trustworthy, both to ourselves as researchers and to our stakeholders. Whether qualitative or quantitative, research must be conducted with precision, using appropriate methods, careful data collection, and thorough analysis.
Key elements of the science pillar:
Formulating research questions: Science begins with precise questions that guide the research. These questions form the basis for evidence collection and help define the problem the research is trying to solve.Research methods selection: Choosing the right method ensures that research is both rigorous and reliable. Researchers must carefully select qualitative or quantitative approaches, depending on the problem at hand, while ensuring they meet scientific standards of accuracy and reproducibility.Systematic data collection: Science demands that data collection processes be consistent and repeatable. Whether through interviews, usability testing, or surveys, researchers need to follow a precise plan that ensures data is verifiable and can be analyzed effectively.Data analysis: Rigorous analysis is essential for deriving meaningful conclusions. Statistical methods and critical thinking are key to ensuring insights can stand up to external scrutiny and lead to reliable recommendations.
Too many researchers downplay the science because, frankly, it’s harder and sometimes foreign. It’s easier to ‘read between the lines’ of a few interviews and present your takeaways, but a science approach requires rigorous methods, critical thinking, and statistical literacy. When was the last time you brushed up on research methods or statistics? Continuous professional development in research methodology isn’t optional. This is the foundation on which the credibility of UX research stands. Judd Antin in The UX Research Reckoning is Here warns,
“Researchers who fail to embrace scientific rigor risk becoming irrelevant.”
He advocates for the importance of tying research back to measurable outcomes and calls for a stronger focus on evidence-based research that delivers value to organizations. This shift ensures that UX research can continue to influence decision-making and stay relevant in competitive industries.
Professional development focus:
Deepen your knowledge of research methods, both qualitative and quantitative.Become proficient in tools for analysis, such as R, Python, or advanced features in Excel or SPSS.Engage in continuous learning about emerging fields like AI-driven UX research and advanced statistical techniques to ensure you remain competitive.
To be a well-rounded UX researcher, it’s important to understand and apply basic statistical principles to your work. Science provides the foundation, and having a solid grasp of data, analysis, and the scientific method will help ensure your research is credible and impactful. If you’re not yet comfortable with these skills, it’s a great opportunity to enhance your toolkit and stay ahead in the field.
2. Discipline: Maintaining structure and ethics in research
Everyone loves to talk about creativity in UX research — how to get stakeholders on board or how to think outside the box. But creativity without discipline is chaos.
Discipline is about following a structured, systematic approach to research — one that’s transparent, repeatable, and ethical.
This is the glue that holds scientific rigor and practical application together.
UX research is sometimes too informal. Researchers “wing it,” pulling methods from thin air or bending the rules to meet deadlines or appease stakeholders. Loose methods hurt our credibility and weaken the impact of our findings. If you’re not following a process that’s documented and rigorous, your research can easily be dismissed as “fluffy” or unreliable.
Key elements of the discipline pillar:
Planning and documentation: Discipline starts with clear planning. Each project should have a defined goal, methodology, and a roadmap from start to finish. Documentation ensures that every step is visible and can be reproduced by others, fostering replicability.Ethical standards: Discipline demands the highest ethical standards, including informed consent, confidentiality, and unbiased research processes. Ethical rigor ensures that participants are treated respectfully, and their data is handled properly.Replication and consistency: Research should be designed to be replicable, ensuring that future studies can validate the results. This involves detailed documentation and adherence to structured processes, making the conclusions drawn more reliable.
As Chris Liu notes in his article What does ‘rigorous’ research really mean?,
“Rigor is about reducing bias and ensuring that the conclusions drawn are valid and can be replicated.”
This underscores that maintaining discipline isn’t just about following a process; it’s about ensuring the reliability and accuracy of insights through sound methodology.
Janelle Ward similarly notes that transparency about the trade-offs made during research builds trust. Researchers must be upfront with stakeholders about the limitations of their studies, such as constraints related to time or resources. This transparency ensures that insights are applied correctly and builds trust with stakeholders, ensuring that the work of UX researchers is respected.
Moreover, a crucial aspect of doing justice to the discipline is recognizing that we can’t call ourselves exclusively “quantitative” or “qualitative” researchers. To do so would be to limit the value we bring to our role. It would be like a carpenter claiming they only use manual tools and refusing to use electric tools. Both sets of tools have their place and purpose in getting the job done efficiently and effectively. In UX research, both qualitative and quantitative methods are needed to fully address the complexities of human behavior. Mastery of both ensures that we deliver holistic insights that drive action.
Professional development focus:
Hone your ability to follow research processes meticulously, from planning to execution to analysis.Emphasize transparency in your methods, documenting them well enough that someone else could replicate the study.Prioritize ethical considerations in every project, ensuring that user data is treated with respect and that you maintain an unbiased perspective in your analysis.
If you treat research as a loose, artsy process, you’re contributing to the perception that UX is all style and no substance. UX research should be approached with the same rigor and discipline as any other form of scientific inquiry.
3. Profession: UX research as a strategic career path
It’s time to talk about the third, and perhaps most overlooked pillar: profession. UX research is not just a craft that lives in a vacuum — it’s a career, one that should have strategic value in your organization. Too many researchers are stuck at the “output” level, churning out reports that no one reads or recommendations that get ignored. If your work isn’t driving decisions or influencing the product roadmap, you’re not being treated as a professional — you’re being treated as a checkbox.
Key elements of the profession pillar:
Alignment with business goals: UX research must be tied back to strategic business objectives, ensuring that insights directly impact decision-making and drive organizational value.Communicating impact: It’s not enough to deliver data — UX researchers must present insights in a way that resonates with decision-makers. Clear, actionable recommendations that influence the product roadmap are essential.Advocacy for research: Beyond delivering insights, UX researchers need to advocate for the value of research, ensuring it is integrated into broader decision-making processes and demonstrating its tangible impact on the organization.
If you’re content just doing the research and handing over a report, you’re missing the point of your job. UX research is about driving change. If your recommendations don’t lead to action, then they’re not worth the effort that went into creating them.
Judd Antin highlights in The UX Research Reckoning is Here that researchers need to demonstrate how their work drives strategic impact.
“We need to move beyond just delivering reports; we must focus on ensuring our insights lead to tangible outcomes that drive the business forward.”
Furthermore, Julie Zhuo highlights,
“A good researcher knows that their job isn’t just to surface problems. It’s to partner with the team to find solutions and show how solving them benefits the business.”
This aligns with the profession’s need to impact the organization and influence decision-making.
In addition to driving strategic impact, UX researchers must prioritize eminence and visibility to build credibility both within and outside their organizations. This means sharing research insights in public forums, participating in conferences, and writing for industry publications. Becoming a recognized thought leader enhances the value of the entire research team and elevates the profession as a whole.
Visibility helps build a network that can be called upon when the unfortunate occurance of a layoff happens. However, something has to be invested into the community before it should be expected to take something from the community. This is where sharing best practices and unique perspectives comes into play.
Building influence and visibility within an organization is also crucial to ensuring that UX research is seen as a strategic function rather than just operational support. This involves aligning your work with key business goals and communicating research insights in ways that resonate with decision-makers. Researchers must advocate for the adoption of their recommendations and demonstrate how their insights can drive product and business success.
Professional development focus:
Develop strong business acumen — understand the goals of your company, your product, and your stakeholders.Learn to present your findings in ways that resonate with decision-makers. Less data, more decisions.Build influence within your organization by aligning your work with strategic goals and communicating your insights in terms that matter to your stakeholders.Increase your professional eminence by sharing your research and insights with a broader audience through conferences, publications, and public forums.
The success of your UX research should be measured not by the quality of your reports or the cleverness of your insights, but by the number of your recommendations that get implemented. If your work isn’t impacting the product, you’re just doing busywork.
Conclusion: Rigor and strategic focus as keys to long-term success
Developing expertise across all three pillars — Science, Discipline, and Profession — enables UX researchers to deliver impactful, actionable research while advancing their careers. The Science pillar ensures research is grounded in data-driven, evidence-based rigor; the Discipline pillar ensures that research is structured and ethical; and the Profession pillar empowers researchers to align their work with organizational strategy and drive change.
Whether you come from an academic background, a design field, or industry, there are multiple paths to becoming an expert UX researcher. What matters is that we all adhere to the same high standards of science, discipline, and professionalism. By taking these pillars seriously, UX researchers can position themselves as indispensable members of their organizations and ensure the long-term success of the profession.
References
Antin, Judd. (2023). “The UX Research Reckoning is Here.” Medium.
Available at: https://medium.com/the-ux-research-reckoningLiu, Chris. (2022). “What does ‘rigorous’ research really mean?” UX Collective.
Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/what-does-rigorous-research-really-meanWard, Janelle. (2022). “Do we need rigor in UX research?” Outlier.
Available at: https://medium.com/@janellewardZhuo, Julie. (2019). The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You. New York: Portfolio.
Available at: https://a.co/d/0f6S5ga
Strengthening UX research amid uncertainty was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
