Don Norman coined the term “user experience” while working at Apple Computer in the mid-nineties. Norman, co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, a leader in the user experience field, explains in this short video that user experience research, commonly known as UX and UXR, “encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services and its products.”
A recent LinkedIn study places UXR in the top ten “Jobs on the Rise” and Boise State’s User Experience Research Certificate program prepares students to understand the needs of existing and potential users of their products and services. Boise State’s fully online program differs from a massively open online course in its academic, ethical and experiential approach.
In 2017 the College of Innovation and Design launched the fully online User Experience Research certificate as part of the initiative to provide Boise State students with opportunities to develop skills with professional relevance. In the summer of 2022, the program graduated from the College of Innovation and Design and formally joined the College of Arts and Sciences.
In their article titled “UX Research Graduates from CI+D to COAS” John Ziker, chair of the Department of Anthropology and director of the UX Research Certificate program, and Kendall House, clinical assistant professor of anthropology and faculty lead for the program, write, “The graduation of the program from CI+D embodies the successful collaboration between CI+D and COAS.”
College of Innovation and Design Dean Shawn Benner reflected on the collaboration, “UXR was one of the founding programs for the College of Innovation and Design, and it has been exciting to watch its growth into the program it is today. We are excited about its future in the College of Arts and Sciences.” Leslie Durham, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences stated, “I am delighted that UXR is graduating from CID to become a COAS program. The learning outcomes and ethos of the program align beautifully with our college strategic plan and the culture of the college.”
“One of the core goals of the UX research program has been to develop professionally relevant skills across a wide variety of disciplines, particularly in the liberal arts and sciences,” write House and Ziker. Boise State’s UX Research Certificate program, grounded in anthropological methods, centers on a toolkit of techniques including field visits, contextual interviews and direct observations. Students graduate from the certificate program with the tools and practical experience to produce high-quality user experience research as defined by the Nielsen Norman Group, “In order to achieve high-quality user experience in a company’s offerings there must be a seamless merging of the services of multiple disciplines, including engineering, marketing, graphical and industrial design, and interface design.” Graduates of the program have both continued their studies at a graduate level and gone to work professionally.
Graduates like Tara Bingham, a recent alumnus of the program, conducted a user experience research project on zoning code revisions while interning with the City of Boise in 2022 as described in a recent edition of the Idaho Matters podcast.
The UXR program immerses students in this transdisciplinary space by nature of its home in the College of Arts and Sciences. Ziker and House write about how they approached managing both programmatic and student diversity in a section titled “Pragmatic Lessons.” The article also examines the role, position and value of an academic user experience research program, “The liberal arts and sciences develop important soft skills that have general applicability, as well as in-depth disciplinary knowledge. In the long run, it is soft skills that win out in terms of making a living, and finding value in a well-lived life.” Students will not experience this in courses that do not provide interaction with other students and professionals or a “boot camp”-style UX training course.
The UX Research Certificate at Boise State consists of ten courses designed to teach students how to leverage user experience research methodologies in order to design and implement high-quality user experiences for their teams and organizations. The certificate consists of nine one-credit, seven-week courses, followed by the culminating three-credit capstone course. Students can complete the certificate as undergraduates alongside a traditional bachelor’s degree, as graduate students seeking advanced training in user research or as working professionals looking to expand their professional toolkit.
Learn more about the User Experience Research Certificate programs at Boise State.
Read “UX Research Graduates from CI+D to COAS” to learn more about how the College of Innovation and Design and the College of Arts and Sciences worked to develop the UXR program and about the pragmatic and existential lessons learned—from embracing programmatic and student diversity to defining the role of the Boise State User Experience Research Certificate in graduating the next generation of high-quality user experience researchers.