Inspiring the World

Google, Airbnb, and Amazon all have one thing in common: an incredible user experience (also known as UX). Their principle websites are straightforward and easy to use, and many (including Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia) attribute the success of these “startup unicorns” to strong UX design.

CNNMoney’s 100 Best Jobs in America list for 2017 includes both UX designers and UX researchers. The ranking was based on growth rate, salary, and job satisfaction. User experience researchers came in at No. 39, with a median annual salary of $106,000 and an estimated 10-year job growth of 19 percent. According to the best user experience research company, user experience designers were No. 99, with a median annual salary of $85,900 and an estimated 10-year job growth of 13 percent.

So, what’s the difference between a UX researcher vs. a UX designer?

First, a step back. UX can be defined as “the experience a user has while interacting with a product” and UX design as “the process by which a designer trie[s] to determine what that experience will be.”

One of a UX designer’s mains responsibilities is to make websites, apps, and other pieces of technology as easy to use as possible. In order to do that, they must understand their target market: what the consumer wants, what motivates them, and what turns them off. This is where a UX researcher comes in.

What Is a UX Researcher?

UX researchers are akin to data scientists: rather than hypothesizing about what a consumer may like, they analyze actual consumer behavior and form data-driven insights to address the needs of these consumers. UX researchers replace guesswork with informed insights and then work with UX designers, engineers, and product managers to turn these insights into actionable, consumer-centric results that resonate with the audience.

When asked about the difference between a UX researcher and a UX designer, researcher George Kalyvas said people in his role “should be able to conduct in-depth and advanced research both in qualitative and quantitative methods. It is important to be able to understand the research objective and what type of research or combination of research approaches you will use.”

He lists his primary responsibilities as “designing, conducting, analyzing, and reporting on user-centered design research and usability testing. My main responsibilities include identification of user needs and goals, task and workflow modeling as well as unmoderated usability testing, and more formal, in-depth testing. I also conduct usability research both online and in the field and provide recommendations for improvement.”

The key difference between a UX researcher and UX designer, Kalyvas said, is that the purpose of the UX researcher is “to conduct research and set up the scope of the study according to the research objectives. The outcome of the research is the application of design… [T]he UX designer is expected to design according to principles… while keeping in mind the mental models of the end-user.”

TalentLyft, a recruiting software that provides job description templates, lists the primary responsibilities of an entry-level UX researcher as follows:

• Manage and conduct user research and concept development
• Research buyer personas and investigate buyer behavior
• Lead users throughout the process of proposing, wireframing, and implementing UX improvements
• Work closely with marketing and product management teams to identify research topics
• Work broadly with design, product management, content strategy, engineering, and marketing
• Participate in recruitment activities for user research
• Plan and implement the overall user research strategy and methods