Spurring UX innovation in academia through lean research and teaching

Abstract

User experience (UX) is emerging as a cross-functional field bridging professions as diverse as marketing, graphic design, web development, and technical communication. To build better user experiences, many industry-based organizations are creating teams across departments to spur innovation and collaborative problem-solving. At the same time, academia has been slow to offer courses and programs devoted specifically to training job-ready UX designers. With its focus on relationship-building with industry stakeholders, the field of Technical and Professional Communication is uniquely positioned to lead the way when it comes to UX innovation in academia. In order to encourage UX research and teaching, below we present heuristics for spurring UX innovation across both these fronts.