Dear Senior UXer, how might an anthropology major transition into UX research?
Hello, I am a senior undergraduate Anthropology major. A few months ago I found out about UX research field from my ethnography class. I wonder if you have any advice or some info for a complete beginner like me?
– Sang, Texas
Hey Sang,
I believe the main thing to focus on is addressing the gap between traditional academic research, and applied research in the digital business space.
For full disclosure, I am not a traditionally trained researcher, and I do not have an academic background in this area… I learned it all on the job.
While the basis of both business and academic research is similar; posing questions, developing hypotheses, gathering/analyzing data, and forming insights. The timelines, approaches, and outcomes often differ, which can be a challenge for some academic researchers entering the workforce.
When I think about the UX professionals I’ve seen make the transition from academic research to applied UX research two primary areas stand out that may be worth focusing on.
- Adjusting their research methods/approach to serve business needs and communicate with project stakeholders.
- Learning the “language” of user experience, and becoming familiar with the process of designing products. Or in simpler terms, the basic principles of UX.
For the first one, adjusting your research approach, you need to appreciate that industry research often happens on much shorter timelines, and maybe much less rigorous than academic settings allow. Whereas an academic paper may take months or years to put together, and rely on things like double-blind study or outside peer review, UX studies may only last a few weeks, and rely on you to do your validation on the data.
I think Erika Hall’s Just Enough Research does an excellent job of outlining applied research processes in an industry setting while speaking to the core basics of running a UX research study. Erika’s book was invaluable to me in setting my expectation of what UX research looks like in the real world while taking much of the intimidation factor of researching for a paycheque within the constraints of a business deadline.
For the second point, UX basic principles, you’ll need to learn to communicate your findings to stakeholders in the workplace in the same terms they use every day. Folks like product managers, developers, UX designers will expect to hear terms like affinity maps, user journeys, personas, and usability testing when talking to their researchers.
There’s a ton of resources online for learning the basics of UX, with groups such as LinkedIn Learning (Lynda) and Nielsen Norman Group both offering a mix of paid/free resources. Or just a google search on UX Basic Principles yields many results, whatever path you choose it’s about understanding the basics of the process/tools/language used by the folks in the workplace who will be requesting and collaborating with you on research.
Got a question you’d like answered by a Senior User Experience professional? Hit me up on LinkedIn and submit your questions there.
