phd in ux research

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The School of Information is UC Berkeley’s newest professional school. Located in the center of campus, the I School is a graduate research and education community committed to expanding access to information and to improving its usability, reliability, and credibility while preserving security and privacy.

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The School of Information offers four degrees:

The Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS) program educates information professionals to provide leadership for an information-driven world.

The Master of Information and Data Science (MIDS) is an online degree preparing data science professionals to solve real-world problems. The 5th Year MIDS program is a streamlined path to a MIDS degree for Cal undergraduates.

The Master of Information and Cybersecurity (MICS) is an online degree preparing cybersecurity leaders for complex cybersecurity challenges.

Our Ph.D. in Information Science is a research program for next-generation scholars of the information age.

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The School of Information's courses bridge the disciplines of information and computer science, design, social sciences, management, law, and policy. We welcome interest in our graduate-level Information classes from current UC Berkeley graduate and undergraduate students and community members.  More information about signing up for classes.

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Research by faculty members and doctoral students keeps the I School on the vanguard of contemporary information needs and solutions.

The I School is also home to several active centers and labs, including the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC) , the Center for Technology, Society & Policy , and the BioSENSE Lab .

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On the March 27th episode of PBS’s documentary series Nova titled “A.I. Revolution,” correspondent Miles O’Brien...

A group of scholars from the School of Information are tackling the issue of illegal sand mining with the help of a...

When the Bancroft Library received over 100,000 Japanese-American internment “individual record” forms (WRA-26) from...

The Goldman School of Public Policy, the CITRIS Policy Lab, and the School of Information hosted the inaugural UC...

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Morgan Ames

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Recent publications.

Looking at Figure 1a, I say duck, you say rabbit, so let’s call the whole thing off, because it can’t be both. Looking at Figure 1b, though, I say two rows of three X’s, you say three columns of two X’s, so let’s not call the whole thing off, because our disagreement could be reconciled in the form of a mutually valuable insight into the commutative property of multiplication, where the two perceptual orientations are complementary construals of six X’s (ie, 2× 3= 3× 2). Abrahamson and Wilensky (2007) used this example to introduce an educational design framework–learning axes and bridging tools–centered on fostering conceptual insight through setting up students to experience then reconcile ambiguous perceptual constructions of instructional materials. Engaging with these materials, students are to experience different meanings that are each valid in their own right yet initially appear incompatible with each other. The learning goal requires finding a new way of thinking that would accommodate or resolve the conflict, whereby the alternative perceptions become complementary or dialectic rather than contradictory. The educational design principle of learning through reconciling competing perceptual constructions has been applied also to the case of ratio and proportion (eg, Abrahamson, Lee, Negrete & Gutiérrez, 2014). The objective of the current article is to investigate the application of the framework to geometry, in particular to designing activities where students engage in task-oriented embodied investigations into voluminous objects. The idea is that students build these objects themselves, moving from 2D images to 3D structures. 

For a small portion of U.S. schoolchildren and their teachers, going to school online was the norm even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a mass shift to remote learning.

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In an episode of  The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper , an AI-generated version of the news anchor, made by Professor Hany Farid and his undergrad intern Matyas Bohacek, was incorporated into the broadcast.

In response to recent calls for researchers to address ongoing environmental crises, School of Information Ph.D. student Yangyang Yang and Professor Kimiko Ryokai have created “Being The Creek,” a project that utilizes mobile augmented reality (MAR) to help people experience Berkeley’s natural environment and its history from the perspective of Strawberry Creek.

Dr. Jeremy Gordon (Ph.D. ’23) presented his UC Berkeley School of Information dissertation “Embodying the Future: Modeling Visually Guided Planning as Prospective Mental Simulation” on Thursday, November 9, 2023

University of California, Berkeley, School of Information professor Coye Cheshire, along with colleagues at the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare and UC San Francisco, recently won a $300K grant from the UC Noyce Initiative on computational precision health to study the extent of the problem, and what might be done to combat it. 

Hearst has begun explicitly studying the relationship between language — especially written text — and information visualization. She put various ideas together in a paper in the Communications of the ACM this October of 2023.

‘Tis the season for political pundits, patriotic advertisements, presidential debates…and deepfakes?!

In the recently published Speak, Memory: An Archaeology of Books Known to ChatGPT/GPT-4, I School Associate Professor David Bamman reveals much about what is known and remains to be known about the large language model (LLM) fueling ChatGPT. 

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Should UX professionals get a PhD?

UserTesting

There are a lot of opportunities for UX professionals to learn more about the field. There are various certifications, courses, and classes that can help you understand frameworks, trends, and strategies to use in the space.

But should UX professionals get PhDs? A PhD is obviously a large commitment, but it also allows you to go deep into research, exploring important tenets of UX that can strongly influence a UX career.

We recently tackled this topic in a discussion panel at  UXPA 2018  in sunny Puerto Rico. To address how a PhD truly impacts a career in user research,  Mike Ryan  (UX Researcher for Liberty Mutual) organized a panel of PhD-holding UX practitioners:

• Elizabeth Allen of Brazen
• Amy Bucher of Mad*Pow
• Jen Romano-Bergstrom of Bridgewater Associates (and president of UXPA)
• And me! Becca Kennedy of Kennason and Agrilyst

Photo by Bob Thomas

All four professionals have PhDs in psychology-related disciplines, and all attended universities in the United States. But a lot of the insights are consistent regardless of area of study and location.

Holding a PhD helps you stand out

According to the  2016 UXPA salary survey , only about 10% of respondents have earned a PhD level of education. 

Because it’s uncommon, having a PhD can help you stand apart from other job seekers. Many employers recognize the skills and passion that a PhD requires and are eager to bring experts on board.

If you run your own UX consultancy or work as a freelancer, a PhD can also help communicate your expertise and value to potential clients.  In a field where the definition of UX is hard to pinpoint and people come to the table with a bunch of qualifications, having a relevant advanced degree is a wonderful asset .

PhD skills are valuable

The skills learned in grad school nicely transfer to UX research and strategy work.  Those with PhDs are often problem solvers who are good at learning new things  — new terminology, new concepts, new software, new processes, or whatever is needed to get things done.

Grad school also cultivates specific skills that are useful in UX work, like writing, speaking, and justifying decisions. For many PhDs, most public speaking will feel easy compared to orally defending a dissertation to a PhD committee.

PhDs have also learned to be very efficient. As grad students, many did a lot of different things in parallel: they took graduate courses, did scientific research, taught classes or labs, spoke at conferences, wrote journal publications, and worked with student or professional organizations. They now get things done quickly because they've learned to juggle a lot in the past.

However, PhD programs are time consuming and costly

One of the panelists took 8 years to complete their PhD in Human Factors. Other programs can be shorter, but you can count on turning over at least five years if you start from the level of a bachelor’s degree.

If you already have a good career going, it might not make sense to step away.

Grad school is very intensive with little time for outside activities . In traditional PhD programs, it isn’t feasible to work another job while enrolled in a program. Some programs actually prohibit outside jobs, especially if the department is funding you.

In short,  a PhD forces you to temporarily sacrifice a lot  — income, work opportunities and time with friends and family. This can lead to great outcomes eventually, but it can be slow and difficult process.

The panel agreed that they often tell people that a PhD is probably not the best avenue for them. None of them regret getting theirs, but there are so many other paths into UX that are more pleasant and direct.

How do you decide whether to pursue a PhD?

Our panelists shared many personal experiences and offered a lot of common advice on considerations about the PhD decision. Here are some things to think about:

• Passion:  Don’t go after this degree solely because you think it will lead to more money or prestige. It probably will, but you are unlikely to stick with it if you don’t truly love research for the sake of learning new things. Getting accepted into PhD programs can also be a challenge — you have to prove your passion to even have a shot.
• Type of program:  The panel discussion and this article specifically refer to PhD programs in social sciences, which are a wonderful segue into UX research. But there are other avenues to consider. Look at master’s programs and certificate programs to see if those will better give you the skills boost you want.
• Cost:  Even in the US, it is typical for PhD programs to fully fund students with a tuition waiver and stipend. This is great, but keep in mind that your grad school income is very low compared to full-time UX jobs and you might need student loans to supplement your income, depending on your financial situation.
• Location:  Are you willing or able to move? Are you looking to start a career in a new city or country? Or can you find a nontraditional online education that better suits your needs?
• Advisor:  As a PhD student, you work very closely with an advisor, meaning you need to be fully invested in whatever their research interests are. Make sure you apply to programs and advisors who will be a good fit and be certain that you and your potential advisor are compatible interpersonally and professionally.
• Culture:  PhD students also work closely with one another. Many programs are very small, with only a few students per cohort. Get to know existing students and get a feel for whether the culture is a good fit for you.
• Other personal factors:  For example, having a spouse or partner who can help cover bills and household duties can be very helpful. But do you have young children and not want to be busy all the time? Or do you have other commitments that you are unwilling or unable to give up during a PhD? A lot of personal factors can determine whether a PhD is right for you, and none are right or wrong.

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Doctoral Program FAQs

Candidates who do not have backgrounds in one of the School of Design's area of focus (Communication Design, Product Design, Interaction Design, UX design, Environments Design, Service Design, Design for Social Innovation, design research, design theory) would not be eligible for Teaching Fellowships. They may, however, be considered for the self-funded PhD option. Additional study, such as the School’s MA, MPS or MDes degree could make such candidates eligible for PhD Teaching Fellowships. Please contact us for advice on this matter.

Yes. Candidates with expertise on housing, interiors and smaller-scale architecture and an interest in Transition Design may apply and help the School build out its offerings in Environments Design.

No. The Human Computer Interaction Institute offers a PhD with pathways in Interaction Design. Consequently, applicants with research topics and approaches that demand significant amounts of coding or more cognitive science based research methods will be encouraged to apply to HCII.

In some cases, 3+ years of high-level professional design experience, demonstrated with a portfolio and a well-formulated research proposal may meet the application requirements.

In some cases, yes. Applicants with backgrounds in Business and Management, but with additional expertise and experience in Design, and who are interested in Transition Design, should apply to this program and will be encouraged to seek faculty advisers from other areas on campus. We would be particularly interested in candidates with business and management expertise related to Transition Design such as circular economies, sustainable design, and B corps.

Carnegie Mellon is a highly ranked research university and there are potential advisors from a wide range of disciplines on the campus. We also have a network of potential advisors who are based in other institutions.

No. The language requirements for application to the program cannot be waived. Please review these carefully.

No. Unfortunately we do not have the ability to review portfolio materials for each inquiry that we receive. To be considered for the program you will need to formally apply.

No. We do not currently offer an online option for our PhD degree. We hope to eventually offer a part time PhD degree but it is not an option at this time.

No. The only funding opportunity available is the Teaching Fellowship which requires students to teach 1-2 courses during the academic year.

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Phd program.

The PhD in Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington provides unparalleled depth and experience for students interested in studying the conception, design, implementation, evaluation, and effects of technologies.

The University is located on a beautiful campus in the heart of the city of Seattle. HCDE is housed in the  College of Engineering , and benefits from the research tradition of a leading R1 research institution.

The HCDE doctoral program prepares students for careers as scholars and researchers through relevant coursework, mentorship from faculty , and collaboration with peers. Early in the program, students may explore different topics and research areas through  Directed Research Groups  and other independent projects. PhD students choose their dissertation adviser within their first year and begin to focus on a research area for their dissertation .

HCDE PhD Information Sessions

Hosted by HCDE PhD Program Director Sean Munson and Academic Services Director Kathleen Rascon, this information session is for prospective PhD students looking to apply the Department. 

Students in the HCDE PhD program complete a minimum of 90 credits of coursework and research as they progress toward degree completion. The first two years are primarily focused on academic course work as the foundation for ensuing research. The remainder of the program is focused on extensive research and program milestones. 

Applicants to the HCDE PhD program are required to apply to both the HCDE department and the UW Graduate School. The application deadline for the 2024-2025 academic year is November 30, 2023. 

Costs & Financing

Students are obligated to pay the associated tuition for courses they are enrolled in, but the department strives to fund all of its PhD students through Teaching Assistantships (TAs) and Research Assistantships (RAs). 

Faculty & Research

HCDE's award-winning, interdisciplinary  faculty  focus on six areas of research and teaching: influencing awareness, thinking, and behavior; design for emergent collaborations and organizations; low resource and underserved populations; material and embodied technologies, and ubiquitous computing; data visualization and big data; and learning in professional and technical environments. 

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How to transition from academia to UX research

Borbála German

Leaving a profession is never an easy decision. Especially if you worked in academic research and you’ve gained a specific skill set. But there is a silver lining: you can find new and exciting fields, such as UX, where you will be considered a great candidate for a UX researcher position. You can start the transition into the world of UX with easy and affordable steps, and if you found it exciting you can invest more into your career change. Here's my journey and some recommendations to make the switch from Ph.D. to UX research.

My story from academia to UX research

I was always interested in human behaviour, why people act in a certain way, how they think about certain situations, what are their motivations, etc. This was why I started studying psychology. During my master’s, I chose cognitive psychology as a faculty.

From that point, I’ve started to learn about research. After my master’s, I applied to a doctoral school and got a scholarship to start my research project. I worked on my Ph.D. for three and a half years before I decided to take, at last, a break, and started looking for other research-related possibilities outside of academia.

Although, I was overly excited when I started my Ph.D., during those years I realised that I would be more motivated if I could see the impact of my work on people’s everyday life. Therefore, after a year of being on passive status as a student, I decided not to finish my Ph.D. but work as a UX researcher.

How I got started with UX research

Before I actually started looking for a position, I had a lot of conversations with friends and other people. We talked about different positions, and how I could transfer my skills from academia. I remember when someone mentioned UX research for the first time and I read one description about a position. At that point, I realized that I don’t have to start my whole career path from zero. At the same time, I knew that I needed to start studying something new again.

After 20 years of studying, at that point, I had mixed feelings. On one hand, I was tired and kind of disappointed that after so many years, I still couldn’t stop studying. On the other hand, I was excited to find a new field that still makes me excited every day.

Ph.D. to UX research: useful skills you already have

If you’re coming from academic research, you will realize that you already have very good basic research skills. And these are a very good foundation for a UX researcher position. Here are the research skills that matter:

Planning and executing research

In academic research, you’ve learned everything about how to plan a research project. Moreover, you also learned about the different phases of research and how to schedule them. You also know how to formulate research questions, how to find the proper methods to investigate them, how to recruit participants, and how to conduct a study. You’ve also analyzed datasets, interpreted your results, and found the proper way to present or publish them. And to be honest, you will need all the above-listed skills to handle the responsibilities of a UX research position.

Good knowledge of research methods

It depends on what field you are coming from, but probably you worked with qualitative and quantitative methods as well. In UX research, it’s very important to know how to create a safe environment during an interview, how to form questions, and how to listen with attention. Likewise, experience with quantitative methods can be great as well. If you’ve created screeners or questionnaires, and you know how to analyze answers and associations, that also could be a great advantage for a UX researcher.

Data analysis

Working in research, you also gained experience analyzing different data sets. You’ve used a couple of programs to analyze these, and maybe you have some programming knowledge as well. This means that you know how to handle different datasets. Although, in UX research maybe you won’t use these skills every day, these can still be useful in certain projects.

Research interpretation and presentation

Knowing how to interpret your research results and present them to an audience is a great base for the continuous communication of your research results. Whether it’s with clients or stakeholders, how you present your results matters a lot. Moreover, these skills could help if you want to create a case studies or blog posts related to your day-to-day work.

How to start with UX research

If you feel you’re interested in the field of UX research and you would like to learn more, you can start with small steps – see below.

Read a lot about UX, especially about UX research

Maybe it sounds too simple, but you can learn a lot about UX by reading blog posts, published articles, and books about UX research. Every time I had an interview or got a challenge from a place I applied for, I started googling, and I read everything I could find about methods and UX. I made notes about key sentences, main ideas, and important details. From time to time, I also went through my notes just to remember these new pieces of information. Here, I need to add that my notes were mostly about the differences between academic and UX research. A lot of those were about new, unknown methods and how to use them. I also read a lot about how to plan research in the world of business, how to analyse and present data you collected, what to pay attention to, etc. For me, this was the most helpful, because I already knew research basics.

Image source: Unsplash

Listen to UX related podcasts

If you are not a reader, do not worry, because you can also find some podcasts related to the field of UX in general and about UX research . In this way you can learn about topics, challenges and solutions on your way as well. I’ve never been the ‘Let’s listen to a podcast episode at home’ kind of person. Still, during the pandemic, I got into the habit of going for a walk every evening. On my way, I had the time to listen to different episodes and learn about tricks and solutions from UX research leads working industry leading companies. Moreover, I became familiar with the language and terms we use in the field, which was a great point during my application processes.

Talk to people who work in UX

If you are interested in a new field, it is always a good decision to talk to friends or even strangers working in that field. This way, you get the opportunity to learn about their views, and their personal experiences.

You can also ask them questions you have in your mind, for example: How would you explain your work to someone? What do you do day by day? What’s the best thing about your job? What causes difficulties for you?

Just before my last interview for a UX research position, I met a girl who worked in UX at a company creating surfaces for warehousing systems. I thought most of that conversation was not useful at all. Moreover, she said that I was more prepared about the field than she was. But then I asked my questions, especially my favourite one: How would you explain your job to others?

On the next day, I had my final interview with UX studio. After the introduction part, the first question for me was: How would you explain your job to your grandmother? All of a sudden, I was nothing but grateful for the talk I had the day before the interview, and that I asked the questions I had in my mind.

After this experience, I realized that there is no useless meeting or coffee with people working in a field you’re interested in. You never know what information will be useful on an interview, or during a problem solving task to submit to the desired company. So I highly encourage you to reach out to others working in UX and talk to them.

Image source: Pexels

Apply, apply, apply

It sounds painful, I know, but you can learn a lot from the application process for different UX research positions as well. If you feel that you’re not a good candidate, or you could learn more, that’s ok! Learn more, but in the meantime, you should apply for positions. Let’s see why:

• You’ll attend interviews During these interviews, you will get used to the situation, and you will be able to collect questions recruiters have asked. Accordingly, you can be more prepared for the next time by working on your answers to make them more convincing.I still have a document with the questions I was asked by different companies. What I did is read them through before interviews and think about my answers.
• You will go through different recruitment processes You’ll apply to companies asking for CVs, so you will have your CV ready. At least in multiple versions. You’ll meet companies that ask you to fill out forms, so you’ll have important answers ready. But for sure, you’ll get tasks/challenges to complete.
• You’ll get exact tasks/challenges If you apply for UX positions, you’ll get exact tasks to complete and submit to proceed to the next stage. On the way to change my professional path, I received two types of assignments. There were the ones where I only needed to create a research plan. And there were the ones where besides the research plan, I needed to conduct and submit a usability test and a report about the results as well. My only advice here would be not to be afraid. When companies are asking for these assignments, they are interested (hopefully) in your thinking process. They want to see how you would execute these tests with the knowledge you have at that point, and how you underlie the process you followed. In some cases, they can also see whether you are aware of the weak points and strengths in what you executed. So don’t be afraid to collect this information in your mind and share what you would do differently next time.

Useful advice I got after rejections

Every time I applied for a job and got rejected, I asked for feedback and advice. I always wanted to know what I can do to become a better candidate for UX researcher positions in the future.

From the answers I would highlight two important pieces of advice:

• Work on your own project: The other advice I got is, that every love project or pro-bono work could be beneficial in a way, that you could include the project you worked on into a portfolio . The thing is, if you can show something you worked on, recruiters and professionals can see your thinking process. With a project you can also demonstrate your hard and soft skills, which can be more powerful in this way. Moreover, it is a good opportunity to share the challenges you had during the project and how you would improve those parts in the future. Altogether, these things could end up in a nice professional conversation, which can make a bigger impression on others looking at your portfolio.

Final thoughts

As you can see, there is a lot you can do if you decide to change your career from Academia to UX research, but you can do it one-by-one day-by-day. You can start your transition with small steps, like reading about UX research, listening to podcasts on the topic, or having conversations with people working in UX. Later, if you’re still interested, you can make bigger investments, such as applying for jobs, completing a course, or working on your own project.

In addition, at this point, I would like to add that changing a career is not an easy or fast paced process. At least it wasn’t that way for me. I needed almost a year just to decide to leave academia to look for something else, and almost another year just to find a UX research position. But what I’ve learned on the way is that no matter how small a step you’re able to make for the change, it will add up in the end. And hopefully, you will be proud to do all the effort you were able to do to successfully change your career.

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How to Become a UX Researcher — No Experience Needed

If you have a knack for understanding people and figuring out what makes them tick, a career in user experience (UX) research might just be the right fit for you. In this article, we’ll show you how to become a UX researcher and give you a few insights into what career training opportunities and job prospects are available in the field. 

7 Qualifications and Skills Needed to Become a UX Researcher:

• UX/Design Thinking
• User-Centered Design Research
• Persona Creation
• User Testing
• Soft Skills

Interested in not only learning these skills, but also putting them into practice? Berkeley UX/UI Boot Camp offers the hands-on experience you need to take the next step in your career. 

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Why UX Researchers Are in High Demand

UX researchers give businesses, designers and developers valuable insights into user behaviors and psychology; these detective-techies tease apart the rationales that drive people to think, feel and act in specific ways when encountering a website or an app or even a piece of software. It’s an exciting gig for the right person — so if you think you might be a good fit, keep reading.

User experience research has become crucial to running a successful modern business. As designer Jacob Gube explains in an article for Smashing Magazine , “Websites and Web applications have become progressively more complex as our industry’s technologies and methodologies advance […] but regardless of how much has changed in the production process, a website’s success still hinges on just one thing: how users perceive it.”

UX describes how people feel when they interact with a system or service and encompasses several factors including usability, design, marketing, accessibility, performance, comfort and utility. A person’s experience when they visit a website can dramatically impact and even change their perception of a company or a service — for better, and for worse. 

Think of a banking website. Consumers expect their virtual financial experiences to be crisp, intuitive and as formal as any in-person interactions would be at a physical branch. How odd and off-putting would it be to expect that level of professionalism and instead find the casual  quirkiness of a gaming website? What works for one audience and intent certainly won’t work for all!

As UX guru Don Norman once shared in an interview , “Everything has a personality; everything sends an emotional signal. Even where this was not the intention of the designer, the people who view the website infer personalities and experience emotions. Bad websites have horrible personalities and instill horrid emotional states in their users, usually unwittingly. We need to design things — products, websites, services — to convey whatever personality and emotions are desired.” 

This isn’t just theory; it’s backed up by facts. When companies invest in UX research and design, they tend to see higher levels of customer acquisition and retention as well as reduced support costs because their products and services are more intuitive and easy to use. These companies also tend to enjoy a higher share of the market for their industry. In 2018, researchers for McKinsey’s report on the business case for good design found that companies that scored in the top quartiles of the research firm’s Design Index outperformed industry benchmarks by two-to-one. As the report’s authors write, “Top-quartile MDI scorers increased their revenues and total returns to shareholders (TRS) substantially faster than their industry counterparts did over a five-year period — 32 percentage points higher revenue growth and 56 percentage points higher TRS growth for the period as a whole.”

Let’s talk about how you can become a UX researcher and kickstart your career in this high-potential field. 

What Do UX Researchers Do?

It’s a no-brainer: all businesses want to appeal to their customers. Their survival depends on doing so — and given this, companies have long tried to craft an experience that their customers find pleasant. With the meteoric rise of e-commerce and consumers’ increasing interest in living more of their lives online, UX research has become a specialized profession in its own right. In 2017, a research initiative that sought to investigate the business benefits of user research found that 49 percent of surveyed executives believed that UX research made their company more efficient, while 56 percent believed that it improved the quality of their products or services. 

These benefits are the result of UX researchers’ work to gather insights and information about what customers need, what they prefer and how they react. UX researchers use both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine and improve the user experience. These research methods encompass everything from simple online surveys to full-scale prototype designs. 

For example, UX researchers might use observation to determine user behaviors and feelings or understand consumers’ mental models (i.e., what they believe about the website or software). They might send out impersonal surveys to user groups, run face-to-face interviews with users of a site or product or carry out hands-on usability tests to assess customer preferences. Then, after the information-gathering phase is complete, UX researchers can analyze the collected data to identify patterns and trends that will then guide design and development decisions for digital products, software or websites. 

Qualifications and Skills Needed to Become a UX Researcher (That Employers Look For)

If you want to know how to become a user experience researcher, there are certain skills, qualifications and experience levels that are essential to this field. While clients, products and research goals vary widely across roles, all UX professionals need to master the fundamentals. Below, we’ve listed a few of the most important qualifications and skills to develop when considering how to become a user experience researcher.

1. UX/Design Thinking

Design thinking might have been developed in 1969, but it hasn’t faded with the times. If anything, our growing reliance on digital experiences has made the organizational framework more critical. A design thinking approach helps designers handle complex problems and keep the user in mind at all times. It forces a UX researcher to step into their target users’ metaphorical shoes and, in doing so, empowers them to predict, define and solve the issues users may face. UX research skills are a significant part of design thinking and are invaluable in analyzing user response throughout the process.

2. User-Centered Design Research

User-centered design aims to put a product’s end user at the center of all design plans. Rather than attempting to cast a wide net, this design philosophy homes in on a target user and allows developers to create a project with that ideal user’s needs, goals and preferences in mind. 

UX research is, as you might expect, a crucial part of this process. Without it, this type of design becomes mostly guesswork. Eventually, it devolves into an exploration of what the project’s developers think they would want as users — a dangerous shift, given that what appeals to the site developers might not align with the target user’s needs and preferences. The application of UX research skills is thus essential to the success of user-centered design plans. 

3. Persona Creation

Basic descriptions are all well and good, but when a researcher needs to define an ideal user, understanding how to apply their UX research skills to develop and use a persona is critical. A persona describes an imagined ideal or typical user of a website or product and empowers UX researchers to make sense of the information gathered through user research. A persona reflects the needs and wants of broad user groups by collating the attitudes, skills, technical background, patterns and environment of typical users. UX researchers for a banking app, for example, might build a persona that incorporates their customers’ likely financial knowledge or probable tech-savviness. A UX researcher may even opt to include direct user information, such as specific quotes obtained through user research, into their persona.

Keeping that persona in mind, UX researchers and developers can build empathy with their users and better understand their expectations and needs. Personas allow researchers to go beyond vague imaginations of what users might and might not like and narrow in on a user’s actual experience. When applied, these personas respond to the specific context of a site or piece of software, reflecting the real users of that product and giving designers more accurate insights into what does and doesn’t work well. 

4. UX Mapping

What does a user do, and when? If a UX designer doesn’t have a clear understanding of how consumers progress through a given app or website, they won’t know how to optimize the user’s journey. Mapping is a critical skill for UX researchers, as it allows them to use their collected observations to create an annotated timeline of a user’s journey. A UX map provides an expansive overview of user touchpoints. It demonstrates how decisions made at these touchpoints can create diverging decision “branches” and lead to positive or — depending on the “branch” — negative experiences. Having a visual representation of the highs and lows of a user’s journey can help UX professionals identify and address the touchpoints and decisions that spark poor experiences. 

5. User Testing

Every UX researcher needs to know how to conduct usability testing . While it can be tempting for companies to avoid spending the time — and the money — that proper user testing requires, investing in the process can help project developers avoid severe pitfalls and tailor the end product to user preferences. 

Put simply, user testing tells developers whether they’ve hit or missed the mark. The testing process gauges whether users can successfully navigate the site or app, complete essential tasks and receive the information they need. It flags common user errors and notes any features that, while intuitive for developers, routinely mystify end users. As a UX researcher, you might even test competitor products alongside your own to find out how users’ experiences differ between the two. When initiated early during the development process and repeated regularly, this type of UX research can help designers and developers produce a successful, user-intuitive product.

6. InVision

As in any specialized field, aspiring UX professionals must know the tools of their trade. Of particular note, the popular prototyping, workflow and collaboration app called InVision is a must-know skill for UX researchers . Imagine being able to create a prototype of your incomplete app, and having the ability to conduct user tests as if your users were working with the real, fully functioning website or app. The prototypes allow instant feedback, commenting and other specialized features that feed into an overall UX analysis. This interactive platform enables researchers to test the interactive parts of a site, rather than relying on screenshots, images or PDFs that do not fully replicate the final experience. InVision isn’t just a collaboration tool; it also provides fully featured design software and integrates with other popular products in Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite.

7. Soft Skills

Software skills and research aptitude will only ever get you so far in the job market. Soft skills — those concerned with being a good team member and professional — are just as vital as any niche technical capability. Given that learning from and listening to users is at the heart of UX, developing your empathy and ability to communicate is a must. If you can’t communicate well or maintain an open mind, you’ll never manage to see beyond your own opinions and identify what matters to your user. As odd as it might sound, learning how to be an empathetic, thoughtful and perceptive person may serve you better as a UX researcher than any technical guide. 

How to Acquire the Skills to Become a UX Researcher

When it comes to education, aspiring UX researchers have options. You don’t need to have years of experience in tech. Those in the social sciences, for example, are well-suited to UX research because the core competencies in both sectors overlap — though they often need to step up their working pace and alter their research methods to suit the tech sector’s fast pace. Similarly, professionals in marketing and communications fields often already have the user response and interaction training necessary to segue into UX research. 

As researcher Nikki Anderson shared in an article for UX Collective , “One of the number one questions I get every week are people asking me how to break into the field of user research from another role or right after graduating. I speak with people from all different disciplines, some closer to user research, such as marketing, psychology or design, and others further away, such as accountants or writers […] Getting into user research was one of the least straight-forward paths I have taken, and that is often the case for most people breaking into this field.”

Regardless of whether you’re just starting out or want to change your professional path, expanding your knowledge and skill set is essential to kickstarting a new career in UX research. Let’s dive into a few options that may help you gain the knowledge and experience you need to become a UX researcher. Ultimately it’s up to you to decide which ones works best for you.

While career interest in UX has grown, there are still relatively few undergraduate degree programs explicitly dedicated to UX research. There are master’s programs for the profession — but even those rarely require any background training in the discipline . That said, if you want to become a UX researcher and are planning on enrolling in a four-year undergraduate program, there are a few majors that will prepare you for the field. These include standby options from computer science and information systems to design, psychology and even anthropology. 

Of course, this is a better option for people who have never received a four-year degree or who have the time and money to go back to school full-time. People who have already graduated and want to stay in the workforce may look for other, faster options to explore this exciting career path.

UX/UI Boot Camps

Boot camps are another option that can help you complete a successful career transition into UX research. These short programs are designed to provide an intensive educational experience and quick entry into tech hiring pools. They are well-suited to learners who have either already left university or don’t have the time to enroll in a four-year degree program. Because boot camps offer a variety of full-time, part-time and online options, they tend to also be more flexible for those who need to juggle working or family responsibilities during their academic journey. Such programs have seen a meteoric rise over the last several years; between 2018 and 2019 alone, Course Report found that boot camps grew an incredible 49 percent.  

While boot camps are most often associated with coding or software development, there are also specific programs for those interested in UX research. Explore your options to see if an intensive UX/UI boot camp could suit your situation and career interests. 

Self-Guided Resources

Who says that learning has to happen in person? If you’re ambitious and self-directed, you may want to use self-guided resources to structure your foray into UX research. An abundance of learning opportunities is available online, from tutorials and discussion forums to virtual courses . These offer price-conscious or time-constrained learners a chance to take their education into their own hands — and even once you enter your career, these sites can be an essential part of lifelong learning and job advancement.

Keep in mind, however, that free online self-guided resources often lack the support and structure that degree programs or boot camps provide. Do your research before you commit to an educational path.

How to Get Hired

Once you gain the education and skills you need, it’ll be time to look for a job in the UX field. Your boot camp or university may have a career assistance office that can help you land internships and interviews with leading technology companies, which can, in turn, evolve into valuable full-time career opportunities.

Do your research; make sure to check out job boards, especially the specialized ones provided by your boot camp or university career center. Networking, attending conferences and actively participating in the UX research community can all put you in good stead to find a great job. When you get the interview you want, prepare in advance to make the best impression possible, and show off your ability to communicate and listen effectively.

User experience research is a rapidly growing profession at the heart of today’s tech industry. With tremendous upward potential and opportunities for people with a wide range of skills and backgrounds, UX research can be an exciting and rewarding career. Will online learning, a  UX/UI boot camp or a university degree be the right option for you? Explore your training options and forge a path that will allow you to become a UX researcher according to your own timeline and educational preferences.

What is a UX Researcher? The Ultimate Guide for 2024

The role of the user experience (UX) researcher is becoming more prominent, more specialized, and more in demand.

Uncovering user behaviors, needs, and motivations in order to design products and services that provide value is the crux of user experience research. When performed correctly, these methods have a huge impact on business.

So what is a UX researcher?

In this guide, we’ll take a look at what a UX researcher does and the UX research career path.

Although there is no singular path, there are four main steps to move a UX researcher forward: expanding knowledge of the user research field ; obtaining foundational skills ; crafting a portfolio; and building a network of industry peers.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What is a user experience researcher?
• What does a user experience researcher do?
• What skills are required for a career in UX research?
• How to expand your knowledge of the UX research industry
• How to obtain the necessary foundational skills
• How to craft a convincing portfolio
• How to build a solid network of industry peers
• Final thoughts

1. What is a user experience researcher?

A user experience researcher has their hand on the pulse of user needs and goals. They are the empathetic, organized, critical thinker whose day-to-day is about the first stage of the design thinking process : empathize .

This isn’t to say that UX researchers’ work is totally separate from the rest of the process, but their work has arguably the most humanizing effect on the process. Here’s why— UX researchers know how to:

• Understand the problem or challenge at hand
• Apply a variety of methods and approaches to finding out how their users tick in the context of this problem or challenge
• Listen, observe, and ask the right kinds of questions to gather insights that can be turned into actionable ideas
• Synthesize their findings and communicate them to the rest of the team and to key stakeholders in clear, actionable, and even engaging ways

2. What does a user experience researcher do?

The purpose of the UX researcher (also referred to as “user researcher” or “design researcher”) is to unearth human insights in order to guide the application of design.

According to a recent job posting by IBM, as a design researcher, you will “help provide actionable and meaningful data-driven insights that represent the voice of multiple users. You will collaborate across development, design, and marketing teams to evaluate current and upcoming user research needs that help to improve product definition and drive business goals.”

Some typical tasks and responsibilities of the UX researcher include:

Research Planning and Recruitment

• Develop a well-crafted research plan with clear research objectives.
• Write usability research screeners and discussion guides.
• Recruit targeted end-users for specific research studies.

Data Collection

• Moderate one-on-one basic usability sessions.
• Help develop and implement quantitative surveys.
• Conduct stakeholder and client interviews .

Data Analysis

• Extract insights about user behaviors from web instrumentation tools.
• Translate user insights into actionable recommendations for the product team.

Presentation of Insights

• Craft personas and other “information radiators” (e.g. journey maps) to communicate insights across the design and development teams.
• Present design research findings to the larger team in a clear and organized fashion.
• Work closely with the product team to identify research objectives.
• Establish and implement an overall research strategy.

These are just a handful of tasks that belong to UX research. Ultimately, your job as a UX researcher is to build up a picture of your target users based on their needs, wants, motivations, and pain points. These insights enable the wider design team to create user-friendly products based on real user feedback—not just your assumptions.

As with most UX design roles, the UX researcher means different things to different companies.

To learn more about what might be expected of you as a UX researcher, browse various job sites and see how different companies advertise and describe the role. Here are some useful job portals to help you get started:

• UX Jobs Board
• Just UX Jobs
• User Experience Professionals Association
• AIGA Design Jobs

3. What skills are required for a career in UX research?

Now we’re familiar with some of the key tasks and responsibilities, let’s consider what skills are required for a career in UX research.

As such, being a UX researcher typically requires knowledge or experience in a relevant field that studies human behavior, such as cognitive science, behavioral economics, anthropology, sociology, or psychology. Ultimately, it’s important to be adept at reading people and empathizing with the user, and equally at home handling data and analytics.

Ideal candidates are typically “passionate, curious, and self-driven team players” who have experience working in fast-paced environments while applying both generative and evaluative research methods to build a larger understanding of users.

It’s also important to have a solid understanding of the design thinking process, as well as a passion and know-how for influencing design strategy.

Obtaining these skills can be done through identifying research opportunities with a current employer, volunteering for a design project with an external organization (e.g. VolunteerMatch), or completing research for a personal project of your own.

Overall, practice makes perfect, and refining these skills as often as you can prepare you for your future role. You can even get a design thinking certification by taking a course or program in the discipline, to show potential employers and clients that you truly know your stuff.

4. How to expand your user research knowledge

As already mentioned, there are four key steps to forging a career in UX research:

• Expand your user research knowledge.
• Obtain the foundational skills.
• Craft a portfolio of experience.
• Build a network of peers.

Let’s start with that first step: Expanding your knowledge of the UX research field. In addition to browsing job descriptions, there are plenty of things you can do to learn more about the industry — but where to begin?

Start with the basics and learn all about UX design in this comprehensive guide , and understand the critical role UX research plays in UX design in this article.

From there, learn about the difference between qualitative , quantitative , attitudinal, and behavioral research. Next, you can familiarize yourself with some common UX research methods, such as card sorting, usability testing, and user interviews.

You’ll find an introduction to some of the most important UX research methods on the CareerFoundry YouTube channel (and be sure to take a look at these free UX research tutorials ).

Be sure to watch the video below, in which CareerFoundry graduate and professional UX designer Maureen Herben explains the different techniques and tools used in qualitative user research:

As part of your own research into the UX research field, you’ll also want to consider things such as salary and career options. Sites like Glassdoor and Payscale provide up-to-date salary reports for a range of different locations.

If you can, reach out to people who are already donning the UX researcher job title. Do they tend to work remote or in-house? What kinds of companies employ UX researchers? Again, job sites can help you out here if you don’t have any contacts in the industry (yet!).

Before you commit to the UX researcher route, it’s important to learn as much as you can about the industry and what the role entails.

5. How to obtain the foundational skills necessary for a career as a UX researcher

If you’re keen to forge a career in UX research, you’ll need to start learning some of the key skills. As with any profession, it’s important to build a solid foundation of knowledge before jumping into real-world problem-solving.

Assuming that you already have some knowledge in a related area (cognitive science, sociology, psychology, etc.), there are plenty of ways to learn the fundamentals of user research. Let’s consider those now.

• Human-Computer Interaction: An Empirical Perspective : learn about the foundational topics about one of the precursors to UX design. As well as being a neat introduction to HCI , this book includes historical context, the human factor, interaction elements, and the fundamentals of science and research.
• User Research: A Practical Guide to Designing Better Products and Services : learn about all the key research methods including face-to-face user testing, card sorting, surveys, and A/B testing.

Online resources

Industry blogs are a great way to start learning the ins and outs of the field. Some useful (and trustworthy!) sources include:

• Nielsen Norman Group
• UX Collective
• Inside Design

Conferences and meetups

If possible, consider attending a UX research conference or a local meetup. You’ll find a list of the top UX research conferences to attend in 2019 here , and can search for local UX research groups on meetup.com .

In addition to the examples above, finding an apprenticeship or a more senior researcher who is willing to let you shadow their process is a great way to immerse yourself in the context of a UX researcher while learning “on the job.”

6. How to craft a convincing UX research portfolio

As with any design role, a compelling portfolio is key to proving you’ve got the right skills for the job. So how do you go about creating a convincing UX research portfolio ?

As you practice refining your skills, keep a record of your work to present to future employers. Crafting an online portfolio is a great supplement to a resume or CV when highlighting case studies that show hiring managers what you can do. According to Senior UX Recruiter Tom Cotterill:

“Your portfolio should show cultural suitability for the company where you are applying. Don’t be afraid to add a touch of character or your own style to your portfolio. It’s your chance to wow the hiring manager and demonstrate that you stand out from the crowd. A good portfolio indicates, in short, that this person has taken time to represent themselves in the best possible light, and they’re clued up enough to showcase their most relevant work in an aesthetic and logical way.”

Ultimately, your portfolio should include the following sections:

• The problem or design challenge your research aimed to solve.
• The team you collaborated with.
• The research process (how did you go about solving the problem?).
• The tools you used to recruit, collect and analyze data, and present insights.
• The final outcome and the handoff of the design for development .

For more insight on how to refine a great UX research portfolio, check out How to Wow Me With Your UX Research Portfolio and How to Create a Powerful Case Study for Your UX Portfolio . Another great resource for inspiration is  Bestfolios , the largest curation of best UX research and designer portfolios, resumes, case studies , and design resources.

7. How to build a network within the UX research industry

You’re in the process of mastering the right skills and crafting your portfolio. Now it’s time to network! Networking is one of the best ways to meet people in the UX field and potentially land a new job.

Let’s consider some of the best opportunities for making industry connections.

Current Co-Workers

If you are currently employed, look to see if there are any user experience researchers in your organization, and ask them what it’s like! Also request to shadow them during a research session and take notes.

Future Employers

Informational interviews are also a great way to get candid feedback with people working at great companies, such as IBM, Google, or Amazon. Using LinkedIn or Twitter to find and invite UX researchers for coffee is a solid way to get an idea of what it may be like to work for your company of interest, and also how to get in the door.

Online UX Communities

Actively participate in online UX communities (e.g. Facebook groups) relevant to your professional interests and learning goals. Here are a few to start with:

• Useful Usability
• The UX School

UX Research Organizations

Lastly, join 1-2 user experience research organizations, such as the User Experience Research Professionals Association or the Design Research Society to see if there are any upcoming events you can attend.

8. Final thoughts

UX is a growing field, and the role of the user experience researcher is becoming more and more pivotal. Equipping yourself with the necessary skills and knowledge, and learning to conduct UX research like a professional , while surrounding yourself with peers in the field who you can learn from are essential to becoming a UX researcher yourself.

Overall, the value of understanding the needs of the customer cannot be ignored, and user experience researchers will have an increasingly valuable role to play in the future of design.

If you’d like to learn more about UX research, check out the following guides:

• What is the UX research salary?
• A 5-Point Roadmap For Any UX Research Project
• How to conduct a UX audit
• Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid in Your UX Research Portfolio
• Interview Toolkit: Top 5 UX Research Questions to Prepare For

• Vitaly Friedman
• May 7, 2024

How To Run UX Research Without Access To Users

• UX Research , User Experience , Design
• Share on Twitter ,  LinkedIn

About The Author

Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing, he’s most probably running front-end & UX … More about Vitaly ↬

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UX research without users isn’t research . We can shape design ideas with bias, assumptions, guesstimates, and even synthetic users , but it’s anything but UX research. Yet some of us might find ourselves in situations where we literally don’t have access to users — because of legal constraints, high costs, or perhaps users just don’t exist yet. What do we do then?

Luckily, there are some workarounds that help us better understand pain points and issues that users might have when using our products. This holds true even when stakeholders can’t give us time or resources to run actual research, or strict NDAs or privacy regulations prevent us from speaking to users.

Let’s explore how we can make UX research work when there is no or only limited access to users — and what we can do to make a strong case for UX research .

This article is part of our ongoing series on design patterns . It’s also an upcoming part of the 10h-video library on Smart Interface Design Patterns  🍣 and the upcoming live UX training as well. Use code BIRDIE to save 15% off.

Find Colleagues Who Are The Closest To Your Customers

When you don’t have access to users, I always try to establish a connection with colleagues who are the closest to our customers . Connect with people in the organization who speak with customers regularly, especially people in sales, customer success , support, and QA. Ultimately, you could convey your questions indirectly via them.

As Paul Adams noted , there has never been more overlap between designers and salespeople than today. Since many products are subscription-based, sales teams need to maintain relationships with customers over time. This requires a profound understanding of user needs — and meeting these needs well over time to keep retention and increase loyalty.

That’s where research comes in — and that’s exactly where the overlap between UX and sales comes in. In fact, it’s not surprising to find UX researchers sitting within marketing teams under the disguise of Customer Success teams, so whenever you can befriend colleagues from sales and Customer Success teams.

Gaining Insights Without Direct Access To Users

If you can’t get users to come to you, perhaps you could go where they are. You could ask to silently observe and shadow them at their workplace. You could listen in to customer calls and interview call center staff to uncover pain points that users have when interacting with your product. Analytics , CRM reports, and call center logs are also a great opportunity to gain valuable insights, and Google Trends can help you find product-related search queries .

To learn more about potential issues and user frustrations, also turn to search logs, Jira backlogs, and support tickets. Study reviews, discussions, and comments for your or your competitor’s product, and take a look at TrustPilot and app stores to map key themes and user sentiment. Or get active yourself and recruit users via tools like UserTesting, Maze, or UserInterviews.

These techniques won’t always work, but they can help you get off the ground. Beware of drawing big conclusions from very little research, though. You need multiple sources to reduce the impact of assumptions and biases — at a very minimum, you need five users to discover patterns .

Making A Strong Case For UX Research

Ironically, as H Locke noted , the stakeholders who can’t give you time or resources to talk to users often are the first to demand evidence to support your design work. Tap into it and explain what you need. Research doesn’t have to be time-consuming or expensive; ask for a small but steady commitment to gather evidence. Explain that you don’t need much to get started: 5 users × 30 minutes once a month might already be enough to make a positive change.

Sometimes, the reason why companies are reluctant to grant access to users is simply the lack of trust . They don’t want to disturb relationships with big clients, which are carefully maintained by the customer success team. They might feel that research is merely a technical detail that clients shouldn’t be bothered with.

Typically, if you work in B2B or enterprise, you won’t have direct access to users. This might be due to strict NDAs or privacy regulations , or perhaps the user group is very difficult to recruit (e.g., lawyers or doctors).

Show that you care about that relationship. Show the value that your work brings. Explain that design without research is merely guesswork and that designing without enough research is inherently flawed.

Once your impact becomes visible, it will be so much easier to gain access to users that seemed almost impossible initially.

Key Takeaways

• Ask for reasons for no access to users: there might be none.
• Find colleagues who are the closest to your customers.
• Make friends with sales , customer success, support, QA.
• Convey your questions indirectly via your colleagues.
• If you can’t get users to come to you, go where they are.
• Ask to observe or shadow customers at their workplace.
• Listen in to customer calls and interview call center staff .
• Gather insights from search logs, Jira backlog, and support tickets .
• Map key themes and user sentiment on TrustPilot, AppStore, etc.
• Recruit users via UserTesting, Maze, UserInterviews , etc.
• Ask for small but steady commitments: 5 users × 30 mins, 1× month .
• Avoid ad-hoc research: set up regular check-ins and timelines .

Useful Resources

• The End Of Navel Gazing , by Paul Adams
• UX Research Cheat Sheet , by Susan Farrell
• Overcoming Limited Access To Users in UX Research , by Debbie Levitt
• What Can You Do When You Have No Access To Users? , by H Locke
• UX Research When You Can’t Talk To Users , by Chris Myhill
• How To Conduct UX Research Without Users , by Mariia Kasym
• User Research When You Can’t Talk to Your Users , by Jon Peterson

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Doctoral students at Booth have access to the resources of several high-powered research centers that offer funding for student work, host workshops and conferences, and foster a strong research community.

Becker Friedman Institute for Economics Bringing together researchers from the entire Chicago economics community, the Becker Friedman Institute fosters novel insights on the world’s most difficult economic problems.

George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State Dedicated to examining issues at the intersection of politics and the economy, the Stigler Center supports research by Doctoral students and others who are interested in the political, economic, and cultural obstacles to better working markets.

Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation Committed to making the world more equitable and sustainable, the Rustandy Center works to solve complex social and environmental problems. The center’s student support includes fellowships, research funding, and networking opportunities.

Fama-Miller Center for Research in Finance Tasked with pushing the boundaries of research in finance, the Fama-Miller Center provides institutional structure and support for researchers in the field.

Center for Research in Security Prices CRSP maintains one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive stock market databases. Since 1963, it has been a valued resource for businesses, government, and scholars.

The Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets Enhancing the understanding of business and financial market globalization, the Clark Center for Global Markets positions Chicago Booth as a thought leader in the understanding of ever-changing markets and improves financial and economic decision-making around the world.

Scholarly Publications

Chicago Booth is home to some of the most prestigious academic journals in economics.

The Journal of Labor Economics presents international research on the relationship between labor and the economy.

The Journal of Law and Economics has published some of the most influential and widely cited articles on a broad range of economic topics.

The Journal of Political Economy , one of the oldest economics journals in the world, focuses on the relationship between government and the economy.

Spotlight on Research

Our faculty and PhD students continually produce high-level research. The Chicago Booth Review frequently highlights their contributions in economics.

To Keep Students Focused, Try Paying Their Parents

A study of subsidized training programs and incentives. Research from Hamna Ahmed (Lahore School of Economics), Zunia Tirmazee (Lahore), Rebecca Wu (UChicago PhD), and Emma Zhang (Chicago Booth PhD), suggest that including parents in decision-making may be most effective.

How Demolishing Public Housing Increased Inequity

A study by Chicago Booth's Milena Almagro, Eric Chyn (University of Texas), and Bryan A. Stuart (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) investigate what happened to Chicago's public housing system and find that demolishing public housing increased inequality.

Why Medical Tourism Could Be Good Policy

Rather than investing in putting more medical facilities in remote areas, it could be more effective to pay for patients to visit healthcare facilities, according to research by Chicago Booth's Johnathan Dingel, Joshua D. Gottlieb (UChicago Harris School), Maya Lozinski (Harris PhD) and Booth PhD, Pauline Mourot.

NBER Dissertation Fellowship in Consumer Financial Management

The National Bureau of Economics (NBER) awarded PhD Student, Benedict Guttman-Kenney, a dissertation fellowship to support his research in the economics of credit information.

Inside the Booth PhD Experience

Nick Tsivanidis, PhD ’18, talks about the culture of interdisciplinary study he found at Booth.

Video Transcript

Nick Tsivanidis, ’18: 00:03 My PhD thesis was about how commute costs shape economic organization in cities. Billions of people over the next 50, 100 years, they're going to be moving into mostly developing cities. Governments are going to spend huge amounts of money on providing new infrastructure to try and accommodate them. My project had both macro and applied micro elements. One of the benefits of Booth is that you have access to people from a wide range of areas who are very happy to encourage you to work on interdisciplinary topics.

Nick Tsivanidis, ’18: 00:38 I've always been interested in development and in particular how cities and countries can use evidence-based policy to try and improve welfare of their citizens. I've decided that pursuing a PhD would allow me to research and help translate that research into policy. What attracted me to the PhD program here at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business was this culture of interdisciplinary study. People at Chicago certainly aren't scared or will shy away from trying to think at the intersection of different areas. This is where a lot of very fruitful and productive new research actually takes place, which is at the border of frontiers. That really attracted me to come here.

Current Economics Students

From the effects of government regulation on economies to the impact of urban transit infrastructures, our PhD students examine a wide range of economic issues. When they graduate, they go on to positions at some of the top universities and companies in the world.

Current Students

Olivia Bordeu

Franco Calle

William Cockriel

Emily Crawford Arshia Hashemi

Paulo Henrique de Alcantara Ramos

Camille Hillion

Benedict Guttman-Kenney

Tyler Jacobson

Nidhaanjit Jain

Pauline Mourot

Lucy Msall Jeffrey Ohl

Fern Ramoutar

Pengyu Ren Gabriele Romano

Lillian Rusk

Christoph Schlom

Karthik Srinivasan

Jorge Tello Garza

Emily (Emma) Zhang

Program Expectations and Requirements

The Stevens Doctoral Program at Chicago Booth is a full-time program. Students generally complete the majority of coursework and examination requirements within the first two years of studies and begin work on their dissertation during the third year. For details, see General Examination Requirements by Area in the Stevens Program Guidebook below.

Download the 2023-2024 Guidebook!