Should You Get a Master’s Degree in HCI to Become a UX Researcher?

A few questions to ask yourself if you’re considering a post-secondary degree.

Image credit: MD Duran via Unsplash

Key Takeaways:

If you just want the highlights, here they are:

1. I graduated from the Master’s of Human-Computer Interaction & Design (MHCID) program from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in 2017. The MHCID program was significant time and financial investment, but it taught me the foundational knowledge I needed to know and provided me with several opportunities of real UX work experience.
2. You should truly want to learn in a structured, formal environment and not just see it as a mean’s to an end (i.e. a job). There are other ways to break into UX research. Don’t enroll in an MHCID program just to check a box if you truly don’t learn well in a traditional schooling environment or don’t value it.
3. You should value collaboration and learning from others. There is always a group project to do and you should be ready to give your best efforts to help out your teammates and vice versa.
4. One major benefit of a post-secondary degree is the organic connections you will make with your cohort and your faculty. Many programs also have mentorship programs and faculty who either also work in the industry or have many industry connections. Referrals are worth their weight in gold in this field.
5. Ultimately, my MHCID degree was worth the return on investment as the connections I made in the program helped me land my first UX research role and I’ve steadily moved up the ladder since then. I still talk to the friends and faculty I made in the program, and connect with new cohort members.

If you want the full spiel, I wrote down my long thoughts below:

“I am currently looking into applying for Masters Programs and I was interested in the MHCID program that UCI offers. I would love to have the opportunity to hear more about your experience with the MHCID program. I would appreciate it! Thank you.”

This is just one of the recent messages I received on LinkedIn from a prospective Master’s of HCI student. My inbox has received a number of messages in this same vein since I graduated in 2017 from the Master’s of Human-Computer Interaction & Design (MHCID) program from the University of California, Irvine (UCI). So, I decided I should write an article on my own experience to help answer these types of questions. I also see many conversations and debates about this topic in online forums.

To cut to the chase, people want to know if their time and money will be worth the Master’s degree. The field of user experience (UX) research has exploded in recent years, with more and more new job openings everyday. With that, becomes great interest in the field from either fresh college grads, PhD students, or individuals just looking to make a career change. I’ve observed many discussions in online forums with exasperated newcomers to the field who are frustrated with job rejections and do not know where to go to gain experience if they are not being hired. A post-secondary degree is a big financial investment and people want to ensure a return on investment.

So what is the secret sauce? Is a Master’s degree the silver bullet you need to give you a leg up in the UX research field? Will the significant financial and time investment worth the payoff?

Unfortunately there is no answer that suits everyone so I must re-iterate every researcher’s favorite phrase when posed with these types of questions: it depends.

This article details my personal experience, and of course, as a researcher, I implore you to triangulate your sources and hear from other people and find surveys from industry professionals.

Without further ado, here are a few questions you should ask yourself when deciding to apply to MHCID programs:

First off, why do you want a formal education in HCI or related field?

Ah, a UX researcher’s favorite word: “Why?” Why are you going to spend great deal of time, effort, and money embarking on a post-secondary education? Do you want a Master’s degree to gain a competitive advantage in the workforce? Perhaps you see job listings with requirements or preferences for a degree in HCI, human factors, psychology, computer science, or a related field.

To bring in the cold, hard data… about half of UX researchers have a Master’s degree according to the UXPA’s 2018 UX Professionals Salary Study. Recently, UXR Collective began collecting salary and demographic data on UX research professionals every year. The 2020 UX Research Salary Report shows 39% of respondents hold a Master’s degree, while a sizeable 14% of UXR professionals who responded hold a PhD. So, the UX research world is really split down the middle on holding a Masters’s degree or not. One analysis I hope UXR Collective conducts in the future is whether or not post-secondary degrees correlate with a higher salary for UX researchers. Yet for now, let us move on to more theoretical questions, such as:

Are you passionate about HCI and want to learn all you can?

Personally, I had an introduction to the field previously, but I knew there was much more for me to learn… and you can bet there definitely was. You can teach yourself in other ways, but I learn better in structured environments with collaboration. A few people told me to check out bootcamps like General Assembly, but I decided if I wanted to commit to this field then I wanted to learn it deeply. I also wanted to signal to future employers that I am passionate about the field enough to go into post-secondary education for it. Education is not just a means to an end for me, which brings me to my next question for you:

Do you value formal education?

Much like a usability test, there is no right or wrong answer here. Some people prefer to learn on their own. Some people think degrees are just expensive pieces of paper and learning on the job is better. There is certainly a path in UX for you if this is your style. You will have to grind and you will need to work hard. You will need to take on your own personal projects to build up your portfolio. You will need to network your butt off and make organic connections with those who might be able to help you.

Valuing what you can gain from an education is important in deciding on a Master’s program. Don’t go to school just to do it and have a fancy degree listed on your resume if you truly do not enjoy it. My personal view of education is you should utilize it to expand your mind and help you cultivate your critical thinking skills. You must have a desire to lead and problem solve. You need to be passionate about learning in that type of setting. You must be ready to subvert what you might already know and push yourself to the limits.

I personally value education tremendously; I don’t view it only as a means to a job, although it can be that as well. I wish access to education was more equitable in the United States. I’ve been fortunate to attend some amazing institutions where the faculty truly wanted to foster my skills and watch me grow. I was about halfway through undergrad when I realized how much I loved learning and how thankful I was to attend a school which taught me so much about the world I didn’t know before. Going into the MHCID program, I knew I wanted to learn what I could about HCI and I did it at a top-notch institution, for which I am eternally grateful. If you’re a self-starter and can stay on pace with your own learning and finding your own side projects, then you are already doing better than me in that regard. Formal education is not for everyone, and that is okay.

Even if you value education, there is still another question you must ask yourself:

What do you hope to gain from attaining this education?

Is it better skills? Personally, I knew I was embarking on a whole new world and I wanted to learn as much as I could. If you’re hoping to learn prototyping tools and how to make pretty websites, then this Master’s degree isn’t going to get you there. This type of education should be more foundational and transformative; to open your eyes into thinking like problem-solver, which is what UX researchers and designers do for people. To teach you how to ask the hard questions. To equip you with the cognitive and soft skills you need to be a successful UX professional.

Within the first week of the MHCID program, there was a shift in my entire critical-thinking process. I now studied the design of every object I encountered. I started to think about how design affects our everyday life, from the positive to the negative, and so much more. I gained a new worldview and new skills to help me think more critically and creatively. My first courses set the foundations behind theories of design, empathizing with people to help solve their problems, and more. The following courses then started teaching UX design principles, research methods, and more.

Something else I unexpectedly gained from my experience was a built-in, organic network of amazing UX professionals; the keyword here being organic. The friendship and camaraderie I built with my fellow students cannot, and will never, be replaced in a working environment, a Meetup event, or an online forum. We worked together on projects throughout the entire program. We helped each other. We learned from one another. We constantly stayed up late doing working sessions together.

Most importantly, though, we became a support system. Sure, you can go to networking events, but how often do you become real friends who support one another with the people you meet there? The stark reality is connections matter in this field and catching your first break can be difficult. We are the first people who refer each other for jobs and we go the extra mile to help each other out, even still today. The camaraderie we built was worth the price of admission alone. I landed my first UX Researcher’s job out of school due to an amazing friend and extremely talented designer I made while in the program. A colleague I met at that first job is the one who referred me to my next job. My career just snowballed thanks to connections made in the program. The best part is that since we know each other so well, we know who is best suited to which companies. My friend knew I would fit in well with the culture at my former company so she encouraged me to keep an eye out for job listings so she could refer me. So I did keep an eye out and jumped on the first UX Researcher opportunity I saw, which ultimately got me to where I want to be in my career…

…which brings me to asking you the same question:

Where do you want to be in your career?

This question is so important to understand. Visualize yourself a year from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now, and so forth and really think about where you want to be career-wise. I knew I wanted to make a career switch and knew I would have to start back from the ground-up, so-to-speak, and I saw the Master’s degree as a foundation for that. If you already have solid foundational knowledge about what design is and what problems it can solve on a more philosophical-level, and you’re regularly moving up in your career, how is a Master’s degree going to add value? If you need it to keep moving further up the ladder, then that’s certainly one motivation. However, if you are already on a pathway or even currently working in the field of UX and/or have some experience then I would consider whether or not it’s worth the investment of time and money of a Master’s degree.

And most importantly….

How can a Master’s degree help you get to where you want to be?

Think long and hard about this one. I came from a strong background in both social science and STEM research so UX research was thankfully an amalgamation of all of my interests and prior experience with design-thinking and UX-specific methods sprinkled on-top. However, I knew I had so much more to learn if I actually wanted to switch fields into UX specifically. I thought a Master’s degree would help me break into the field while teaching me all the foundational elements of it.

If you want to move up to a higher-level in your career and don’t think you can do so without the advanced degree, then you should consider it. The tech field is thankfully one where many types of positions do not require post-secondary degrees if you have experience. However, UX research positions are an exception in certain cases as some employers prefer post-secondary degrees to showcase you have deep understanding of the research process and methodologies. There are special circumstances and certain companies who require advanced degrees for some research positions.

In addition to teaching me foundational knowledge, the MHCID program also provided a lot of practical work experience and portfolio projects that I could take out into the real world, so-to-speak. I worked on a 6-month long capstone project with a real company. I was required to reach out to local non-profits and offer to do projects for them. The program required me to create a portfolio. I did resume and portfolio reviews with members of my cohort and the faculty regularly.

I absolutely credit the MHCID program with helping me get to where I want to be professionally, but that’s not to say I couldn’t get started in a UX career without it. I just don’t know exactly how long I would have spent trying to learn the foundational knowledge on my own, find my own projects to round out a portfolio, make organic connections, and work my way up if I didn’t do the program. As I mentioned before, all the knowledge I learned and connections I made throughout helped me get to where I want to be, but if you can be where you want without it, then consider if it’s right for it. Determination and connections are key.

If you’re passionate about solving problems with design, then you will find a way to get to where you want to be. A Master’s degree is not an end-all, be-all solution, but it can help. I truly cannot tell you which path is right for YOU, but I hope I’ve outlined some questions to ask yourself before embarking on this journey. The MHCID program was challenging, but I personally found it to be worth it in my circumstances. I hope if you do go the route of a Master’s program, then you will find it as personally and professionally rewarding as I did.

This all sounds great, but how can I afford it?

I will not lie, I was worried about the cost. I did research on salaries in the field of UX to understand the cost-benefit analysis. I eventually decided to not let fear stop me and enroll. I did take out federal loans to cover the bulk of the cost. I don’t know the exact number, but I do know several other students in my program used student loans to at least pay a portion of the cost.

As for the high-price tag: I’ll just say that the return on investment has been worth it. With the experience I gained in my program working with real companies and non-profits for capstone projects, I was immediately hired as a mid-level researcher after graduating and I have steadily climbed in my title. With every move up the ladder, I have substantially increased my salary. I will state the caveat that I graduated in 2017 when dedicated UX research roles were actually not too easy to come by where I live now in Los Angeles, California. The talent pool and interest in the field has definitely become more competitive so I caution against assuming you will have the same experience after graduating a Master’s program. After all, you should be a researcher (or studying to be one) who knows one data point (aka me) should never represent the average.

I also recognize my view on education has been shaped by a privileged background and sometimes people don’t have the financial means to go to college. Thanks to merit scholarships, I was fortunate to graduate with my B.S. degree with no student loan debt from undergrad. I recognize some people are already struggling with student loans from undergrad, so taking on significantly more debt is likely not appealing. Only you know your own financial situation. I can only share my particular situation. Don’t be discouraged, there are several other alternative paths.

So to sum it up, while there was sticker shock… a Master’s degree in HCI was definitely worth it for me in the end. If you cannot do a Master’s or other post-secondary degree for any reason, that doesn’t preclude you from a career in UX research. You just have to lay out the different paths and choose the right one for you, understanding that all of them will involve tenacity and hard work.