Additional data from original research and workshop added to original on UX Skills and Competency Framework

1. UX Competency – Full Data Set
John Knight
25-02-2010

2. 2
Job Postings on BCS Usability News
Presentation to insert name here 2
UX Industry - current risks/opportunities
Low barriers to entry - anyone can call themselves a UX practitioner
Fast moving industry in constant flux requiring new skills and competencies
Diverse discipline covering widely different skills - e.g. design and research
Lack of UX education and gap between practitioners and educators
Lack of defined roles and even job titles
Lack of clear skill sets and career paths
Accreditation and standards have failed in this area
Practitioners often have (and need) multidisciplinary backgrounds - no single fix
Clients and employers may not be familiar with the discipline and know what to ask for
Risk - low quality will compromise the sustainability of the discipline.
New industry with big impact and low barriers to entry

3. Presentation to insert name here 7
Some Observations - Current Job Market
• Rise of portfolios vs. CV or wireframe examples
• Method of deliverables is changing - skills relating to one option is a risk e.g. wireframing
• Medium – emphasis on Web which is overdetermined
• Client/employer capability - knowing what is good UX is maturing
• Research seems to be more tightly defined than design
• Learning on the job/intern increasing

4. 4
Job Postings on BCS Usability News
User Experience Consultant
Senior User Experience Professional
User Research /Tester /IA
Web Usability Practitioner
Senior UX /IA
Director, UX and Site Optimization
User Experience Designers
Lead User Experience Architect
User Experience Architect /Manager
Head of Design, Digital Media
Graduate User Experience Consultant
Junior User Experience Consultant
Manager /Lead Information Architect
Android Mobile User Experience Designer

5. 5
Full Job Title Analysis
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
0.14
0.16
0.18
0.2
Titles

6. 6
Some Key UX Roles
1. Accessibility Engineer
2. Design Manager
3. Information Architect
4. Interaction Designer
5. Localisation Engineer
6. Requirements Engineer
7. Service Architect
8. Specification Manager
9. UCD Researcher
10. UX Champion
11. UX Creative
12. UX Project Manager
13. UX Prototyper
14. Visual Designer

7. 7
Full Role Analysis
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Areas of work
Accessibility
Requirements
Evangelise
Specification
Prototyping
QA
Interaction
User analyst

8. 8
Full Skills and Deliverables Analysis
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
Generalist Design Library Best practice Coding Experiment
Skills + Deliverables
Series1

9. 9
Full Job Focus Analysis
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
1
Job Focus
Developer
Manager
Design
Concept
Lead
Expert

10. 10
Full Deliverables Analysis
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Deliverables

11. 11
Some General UX Competencies
1. Ability to see the big picture and also work at very detailed level
2. Ability to apply knowledge and evaluate solutions on the fly - pragmatism
3. Insights into impact of design/research decisions
4. Understanding and commitment to design for all and usability – user advocate
5. Good knowledge of the domain – best practice
6. Ability to communicate UX ideas to stakeholders

12. 12Presentation to insert name here 5
The UXCF Dimensions
• Practice – e.g. underlying discipline – IA, user research etc
• Competency focus – e.g. abstracted skills relevant to practice - analysis
• Role – e.g. type of work done – manager, designer etc
• Externalisation – e.g. what is produced - reporting to wireframes
• Competence - novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, expert
• Progression – e.g. level in organisation/career - Junior to senior

13. 13Presentation to insert name here 2
UXCF 2010 - Insights into UX Jobs
Practice orientation
Split between more tradition UCD roles and the newer UX ones
UCD roles are more research based while UX ones focus on design and best practice
Competency orientation
Roles evenly split over four orientations - Technical, Generalist, Interaction & Best Practice
Role orientation
Four way spit between - Manage, Lead, Design and Expert orientations
Attitudinal orientation
Four way spit between - Passionate, Analytical, Creative and Detailed
Analysis of 40 UX role descriptions

14. 14
UXCF Dimensions Applied
UCD UX
30 70
UCD UX
30 70
Manage
Design
Lead
Expert
10
30
3525
Manage
Design
Lead
Expert
10
30
3525
Practice orientation
Competency orientationRole orientation
Attitudinal orientation
Technical
Interaction
Generalist
Best practice
25
25
25
25
Technical
Interaction
Generalist
Best practice
25
25
25
25
Passionate
Creative
Analytical
Detailed
25
25
25
25
Passionate
Creative
Analytical
Detailed
25
25
25
25
Rationale for role
Usable
World class
Quality
20
40 40
Usable
World class
Quality
20
40 40

15. 15
Rationale for Workshop (2010) – Current situation
Strengths
• Strong demand from industry for UX
• Weaknesses
• Lack of clearly defined career paths, roles and quality metrics
Threats
• Low barriers to entry
• Low quality could compromise further success
• Roles and definitions could be imposed from outside the profession – main driver

16. 16
Organisations involved

17. 17
Workshop structure
9.30 -
11.00
Plenary: First session begins with some of the workshop
organisers who will provide an initial scope of the field, identifying
existing definitions for UX-related skills and roles, and to identify
gaps.
This will consist of presentations including:
•A summary of points common to a number of position papers
•review of existing competency frameworks related to UX
•A history of past activities to define and professionalise usability
Followed by position papers
•Rob Mettler and colleagues, PA Consulting Group
•David Travis, User Focus Ltd
•Jose-Rodrigo Cordoba , Royal Holloway, Univ of London
•Stephen Chambers, RedGate
•Scott Dodgson, SKOPOS
11.15 -
12.30
Break out into two groups to discuss papers and work on the
following objectives:
•A “bottom up” definition of UX: A collection of low-level
underpinning skills/knowledge relevant to UX (in particular
identifying if these component skills are not listed in existing
frameworks
•A “top down” definition of UX: A Venn diagram or alternative
way of representing where UX roles sit compared to other roles
in an organisation, for example: IT, business, marketing,
ergonomics, design roles. In particular can we identify roles that
are not mentioned in existing frameworks
1. 30 -2.45 Plenary: Second session –
A survey (By UPA UK) of existing UX occupations and salaries
followed by papers that help us identify the learning that both
people and organisations must go through to create
professionalism in UX
•William Hudson, Syntagm
•Susan Turner & Phil Turner, Edinburgh Napier University
•Phil Day & colleagues, NCR Corporation
•Mitja Koštomaj, Thames Valley University
•Alison Black, Alison Black Researching & Consultancy
3.00-4.00 Break out groups – firstly to revisit the morning’s definitions in the
light of what they have just heard, and then to make progress on
the following
•Bottom up: A shared sense of what personal learning is required
both to enter the UX profession and to allow the UX practitioner
to make progress in their career. Identify model qualifications,
training courses, professional bodies and existing (or possible)
accreditation. Identify career structures for individuals
•Top down: what are the levels of UX capability maturity that an
organisation must achieve to offer an effective UX service to
clients, and how can these be developed. Aim to produce some
model collaborative activities and workflows/processes, and
model organisational structures.

18. 18
Some conclusions
Bad/difficult
• Growing diversity of roles – not just usability testing
• Experience valued over qualifications
• Design (vs. HCI) introduces a fundamentally different perspective
• Fast moving industry which defies static definitions
• Disconnection between skills frameworks and employment practice
• Potential gap between education provision and industry skill needs
• Progress requires multiplicity of stakeholders – not all represented or known
Good/easy
• Potential agreement on some basic definitions/roles etc
• Accreditation is unlikely for the foreseeable future – lessons from the past
• Appetite to get this sorted – across organisations – for the 1st time?

19. 19
Discussion points
• Can one person do everything?
• Should barriers to entry be raised?
• Is accreditation a brake on innovation?
• Should the market work its ‘magic’ or is that a risk?
• Should there be prescribed qualifications and career paths?
• Which is more relevant - Portfolio or Degree?

20. 20
Discussion points
• Can one person do everything?
• Should barriers to entry be raised?
• Is accreditation a brake on innovation?
• Should the market work its ‘magic’ or is that a risk?
• Should there be prescribed qualifications and career paths?
• Which is more relevant - Portfolio or Degree?

21. 21Presentation to insert name here 7
Appendix - UXCF 2010 Poster

22. 22
User requirements
Concept, Service design
Ideation
Prototyping
Interface design
Wireframing
Usability testing Implementation
Functional
requirements
Visual design
IA
Business
Analysis
Marketing
User researcher
UI Developer
UX DesignerUX Architect
Accessibility
Usability tester
UX Jobs UX Activities
Web analytics
Core UX/UCD ac,vi,es and associated professions
Output from UXCF2010 by Nigel Bevan

23. 23
UX Architect
Persuasion/influence
Communication
Analytical
Skills
Concept/Design
Innovation
Exploration
Direction
Vision
Implementation User research
Evaluation
Proto/sketch
Info.vis
Pragmatism
Flexibility
Evaluation
Att’n to detail
Tech knowl.
Usability exp
Objectivity
Research
Training

24. 24
Attitude
Opinionated
Be creative
Learn to learn
new things
Say what you
cannot do
Articulate
Responds well
to feedback
Works in
teams (co-
pilot)
UX PRO
Make it
personal
Be the glue
between depts/
teams
Go out of
comfort zone
and engage
Value to
process
Analytical skills
See the big
picture
Simultaneous
bird’s eye and
detail Understand
process &
methodology
Knowledge of
[tech] industry
Tools & their
uses
Know a
number of
tools
Knowledge of
the process
Active listening
Know when to
use method
Craft

25. 25
Learn to learn
new
methodologies
Work in teams
Be analytical
Communication
Collaboration
and facilitation
Flexible
Analytical skills
-
understanding
Collaborate
Active listening
Be able and
willing to
articulate user
and business
needs
Know another
methodology
Know a
methodology

26. 26
Knowledge
Personal
qualities
Skills
UX
Research
Design
Process
Evaluation
Creative
Problem
solving
Multidimensional
Pragmatism
FlexibilityReceptiveness
Appreciate
other views
Presentation/communication
Visual
Oral
Written

27. 27
Pragmatism
Standard usability techniquesKnowledge
Presentation skills
Knowledge of “design process”Knowledge
User research techniquesKnowledge
Best practice/standardsKnowledge
Visual
Oral
Written
Qualitative
Quantitative
Prototyping
tools –
however
simple
Not being
defensive
Appreciation of
others views
Flexibility