THe STATE Of UX in kansas city 2017
section one REspondents The user experience market in Kansas City is gaining momentum, and opportunities for UX professionals abound. In our inaugural State of UX in Kansas City survey, Pointworks Academy and Useagility sought to gain detailed insights about the local user experience market. We hope this report will provide valuable data for existing and future practitioners as well as the companies that employ them. Included in this report are the survey responses, along with additional insights from our work and others in the market. More than 50 individuals responded to the survey, nearly half of whom were current UX practitioners. Which best describes your role within your company or organization? User Experience research and/or design 45% Executive 18% Project manager 16% technologists 12% marketing 6% other 4% 01
section one REspondents Respondents represented more than 30 companies from a variety of industries. Seventy-two percent of respondent companies have more than 10 employees and 26% have more than 500 employees. industries represented How many employees does your company have? Associations & Nonprofits Software & IT Consulting Research 25% 500+ Employees 23% 101-500 Employees 23% 10-100 Employees 6% <10 Employees Consumer Products Digital Agencies Health Care Government Agencies & Contractors Entertainment Financial Services 02
section one REspondents Eighty-four percent of respondent companies have UX practitioners as full-time employees or contractors. Teams range from 1 to 60 people. Nearly half of UX teams reside within technology departments, and UX teams are more likely to be centralized than to be embedded within product teams. Do you currently have a UX team or individuals functioning in a UX capacity at your company? How many full-time UX employees/contractors are in your organization? >25 11-25 Yes: 84% 6-10 0 4% 21% 19% 17% 13% 1 26% 2-5 03
section two the ux job market in kansas city Nearly half of companies represented by survey respondents plan to add net new UX staff in 2017, ranging from 1 to more than 10 positions per company. This translates to 50-70 net new UX-related jobs in 2017. approximately how many ux-related jobs is your company seeking to fill in 2017? none 24% area employers plan to create 50-70 New ux jobs in kansas city in 2017 1-3 35% 18% Not sure 2% 10+ 8% 3-5 04
section two the ux job market in kansas city The majority of positions will be filled with external candidates found mostly via personal referrals and recruiters, with others being found via LinkedIn and job listing sites such as Monster or Indeed. Qualified candidates are expected to have a combination of work experience and training. where will you look for external candidates? Personal referrals Recruiters 90% 69% 56% 47% Linkedin Job listing sites We look for individuals who have a user-centered nature and who show aptitude with critical thinking. Also, those who are willing to learn our design process and execute it. Candidates need a portfolio demonstrating understanding of UX concepts. We are willing to consider a combination of experience and training. 05
section two the ux job market in kansas city Several survey respondents expressed an interest in information about salaries for UX positions in the Kansas City area. Our partners at TEKsystems shared this data with us: User Experience Designer 5+ years/ux Director: $93,000-$138,500+ User Experience Designer 3-5 years: $76,000-$103,500 User Experience Designer 1-3 years: $52,250-$79,900 A salary search on Indeed.com for UX Designers in Kansas City yielded an average of $88,000 and a range from $67,000-$138,000. Kansas City-area salary ranges are in line with or greater than those in the Des Moines, St. Louis and Tulsa/OKC markets. TEKsystems is a subsidiary of Allegis Group, the largest private talent management firm in the world. Their longstanding history and industry-leading position speak to their success in providing the IT staffing solutions, IT services and talent management insight required for you to actualize ROI and sustain a truly competitive advantage in a fast-changing market. Find out how their IT staffing solutions help you secure and optimize the most strategic and variable component to success your people at TEKsystems.com. 06
section three ux roles & skills UX Roles User experience researchers focus on information gathering prior to design, including developing surveys and conducting stakeholder and user interviews to understand business goals and users needs. They also conduct usability testing with prototype designs. User experience strategists tackle complex problems with a big picture understanding of a product s context in the broader marketplace. They work with researchers to synthesize research findings to unlock insights that drive design innovations and deliver products that people enjoy using. Visual designers develop the look and feel to make the product or site visually pleasing with color, images, branding, typefaces and more. UI/front-end developers use the interactive wireframes and visual design to code the product or site using development languages such as HTML/CSS and Javascript. Content strategists and writers determine and write the content for the website or product to meet the needs of the business and the end user. Interaction designers are skilled at designing interactive products with wireframes and prototypes. By distilling workflows and analyzing user tasks, they define navigation, controls, workflow, features and functionality to develop information architectures and wireframes for paper and digital prototypes. 07
section three ux roles & skills UX ACTIVITIES & SKILLS What activities do current UX employees do? Interaction design UX strategy Visual/graphic/UI design User research and usability testing Front-end/UI development 0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0% Additional responses included service design, customer experience and process improvement. What types of skills are most needed in your organization in the future? Interaction design User experience strategy User research Visual/UI design Content strategy/writing 0.0% 20.0% 40.0% Great need 60.0% 80.0% 100.0% Some need 08
section three ux roles & skills Interaction design Interaction design and UX strategy are the top activities UX practitioners currently perform in respondent organizations, followed closely by visual design and user research. Skills most in demand for the future are interaction design and strategy, followed by user research and visual design, as indicated by respondents selecting great need. Notably, the skill in greatest future demand interaction design is also the most common activity current UXers perform, indicating a significant opportunity for interaction designers. 09
section three ux roles & skills UX Strategy Product managers and executive leadership alike are seeking candidates with UX strategy experience. This need for critical thinking and business-minded design thinking aligns with the work on curriculum design by Jo Elliott (Elliott, 2017). Technology and UX design leaders expressed these themes regarding the specific skillsets and behaviors they desire: Ability to deconstruct a project or issue into essential parts, identifying problems and developing solutions based on data collected Positive approach to understanding and dealing with constraints or dependencies Client- and business-oriented mindset Critical thinking to understand the underlying meaning of the results of user testing as they relate to business objectives and project-specific goals Ability to tailor designs to the requirements of different types of users Leadership skills to effectively navigate and address organizational pushback 10
section three ux roles & skills Communication skills Communications skills are critical to the success of UX practitioners, particularly in articulating the value of user-centered design internally and when working with clients. Key skills include: Empathy toward stakeholders, users and developers Flexibility to adjust messages for different audiences Congeniality and the ability to develop rapport and collaborate with users and colleagues Savviness to sell the UX process and findings within an organization Emotional intelligence to read situations during user interviews and keep them on track Elliott, L. J. (2017). Keeping the HF/UX curriculum current with the critical decision method. In J. I. Kantola, T. Barath, S. Nazir, & T. Andre (Eds.), Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education. (pp. 15-21). Springer International Publishing. doi:978-3-319-42070-7. ISBN 978-3-319-42069-1. 11
section three ux roles & skills Software Expertise There are a multitude of tools available to help UX practitioners with their work. While successful UX practitioners have experience with a variety of tools, employers generally say that experience with at least one tool within a category sketching, wireframing, prototyping or development is more important than the specific software. What tools are used to create ux deliverables in your company Adobe Creative Suite Axure HTML/CSS InVision Sketch Balsamiq Other UX Pin 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% Other tools mentioned include Angular, CodePen, Confluence, Flinto, git, Jira, LucidChart, Mural, Omnigraffle, Optimal Workshop, Trello and Visual Studio. 12
section four organizational challenges and opportunities Respondents were asked what needs and opportunities they saw within their organizations, particularly with regard to product design and UX and technology innovation, as well as what else they are interested in knowing about the state of UX in Kansas City. We noted several themes in these responses: Greater Understanding and Buy-in of ux Additional Expertise Increased Collaboration and Leadership Service Design as a Growth Area 13
section four organizational challenges and opportunities Greater Understanding and Buy-In of ux Several respondents expressed a need for a better understanding of UX and UX resources within organizations, along with getting buy-in for and proving the value of UX processes. Being able to measure the qualitative/ quantitative benefits to getting UX engaged sooner in the project development process or, frankly, getting them engaged at all. Get more buy-in that UX research is critical we can sit in a room to discuss and guess what is the right decision for clients or we can let them tell us. More enterprise education and buy-in on iterative design, minimum viable product and the value of UX. 14
section four organizational challenges and opportunities Increased Collaboration and Leadership UX practitioners believe that a user-centered approach is in the best interest of the company s bottom line and see user-centered design as an opportunity to improve products, increase revenue and efficiency and reduce costs. Increased collaboration between UX and other departments, specifically integration between UX and product development and representation at the leadership level, will allow companies to capitalize on this opportunity. Persuade product owners and executives to let go of design decisions and give user-centered design a seat at the table. Design thinking informed by solid user research is needed at the top executive and VP levels to set a better company-wide vision. Our biggest opportunity lies in more up-front planning and visioning as it relates to the user experience and long-term product design. Injecting user-centered thinking at the overall product strategy level. 15
section four organizational challenges and opportunities Additional Expertise Many UX practitioners expressed the need for additional expertise in their companies, ranging from research and testing to communicating with clients and integrating UX into Agile development. We need more research and testing. Possibly a dedicated role in our team. We need project managers who know how to place UX into Agile development, and developers who know the difference between wireframes and final graphics. Expertise in client communications/justifications. Prototyping skills. Knowing how to take a project from concept to execution and having the tools to make that happen. 16
section four organizational challenges and opportunities Service Design as a Growth Area Service design appears to be emerging as an opportunity within several companies. Mobile app and in-store customer-facing tech is an opportunity for us. While we are constantly looking for ways to innovate with technology, we have aspirations to apply UX in areas others than software, including services and office space. I believe we can add a lot more value by doing true service design and experience design. This includes customer experiences, client experiences, employee experiences, etc. 17
appendix about this report The inaugural State of UX in Kansas City survey was conducted jointly by Pointworks Academy and Useagility. Salary information was provided by TEK Systems. Pointworks Academy is the first accelerated technology training program of its kind in the Midwest, preparing students for user experience careers. We help bridge the design skills gap and are growing the pool of technologists, researchers and designers that today's tech teams so desperately need. Accelerate your success with our public and corporate UX training programs. Learn more at PointworksAcademy.com. Useagility is a full-service user experience consultancy, skilled at transforming complex business processes into effective digital products through user-centered design. Since 2008, Useagility has been supporting large enterprises and new product innovators with the strategic UX research and design services they need for successful digital innovation. The firm has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in Kansas City and one of the best small businesses in Kansas City. Let us help your company design more user-friendly products and services. Find out more at Useagility.com. 18