Is “research” the best word to describe what UX researchers do?
As a UX researcher, using a different lingo to describe what you do could be beneficial to promoting the craft
We tend to look through language and not realize how much power language has.
— Deborah Tannen , American author and professor of linguistics
Language matters for understanding humans.
If you are a UX researcher reading this article, you probably agree with this statement. As a UX researcher who’s passionate about languages, I took it one step further and wrote an article about why learning languages can help you become a better UX professional.
What we can easily agree on is that language can shape the way we think. It can bring all sorts of associations to mind, some of them are positive, and some are much less. That’s why we sometimes need to reframe a word or two to associate it with something a bit more positive.
Here’s why it matters to us, UX researchers, and to the development of our professional field. A few months ago I attended a virtual meetup with Louis Rosenfeld on his field of expertise — information architecture. It was fascinating and I’ve learned a lot in that session. I also had an “Aha!” moment at the end of…
