Formação de pesquisadores de experiência do usuário (UX): recomendações para a consolidação de competências e práticas profissionais

Abstract

In the last five years, with the advancement of information technology and the growth of the digital product market, there has been an increase in demand for user experience (UX) professionals. Accompanying this growth, various roles have emerged, among which the UX researcher stands out. As this is a recent role, there is no standard regarding the foundational education of these professionals, both in Brazil and in an international context. The professional training of these researchers occurs in a non-critical manner, through books, non-academic articles, short-term courses, bootcamps, workshops, or directly through professional practice. Considering that professional competencies can be developed through formal education, continuing education, social experience, and professional experience, this thesis aimed to answer the following research question: how should the training and consolidation of the UX researcher be? Through field research based on the Brazilian context, this study aimed to develop recommendations for the training of UX researchers. To compose the theoretical foundation, five systematic literature reviews (SLR) were conducted in different databases – selected journals, Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, national conferences, Scopus, and ACM Digital Library – complemented by an unsystematic literature survey. To extract the necessary competencies for the work of UX researchers, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 Brazilian UX researchers – including conference speakers and authors of UX books – and with eight instructors of free UX research courses in Brazil – selected from a search in the Google database. Additionally, to identify the project phases in which UX research occurs and where these professionals are allocated, documentary analyses of the portfolios of ten UX researchers among those interviewed were conducted. Finally, to describe workload, teaching modalities, and identify the knowledge offered, documentary analyses of curricula available on the internet from three types of courses were conducted: 25 Brazilian courses in UX research, 23 lato sensu postgraduate courses in UX design in Brazil, and one undergraduate course in User Experience Research in the United States. As a result, recommendations for the training of UX researchers were developed, organized into three categories: formal education, necessary knowledge, and profiles of UX researchers. Through the research, it was possible to conclude that the current training of UX researchers leaves some gaps in relation to the expectations and demands of the companies that hire them, including: (i) a deficit of competencies related to research data analysis, such as interpretation and cross-referencing of data, and subsequent synthesis; (ii) a lack of different profiles of UX researchers, especially regarding the nature of research – qualitative or quantitative; and (iii) a deficit of business knowledge and the competency related to the execution of UX strategy.