r/UXResearch

I got "quiet" fired from the start-up I was working for and the reasons were vague. Reason being the Iran war etc. Basically they put me on an unpaid leave for some months. So I know they are not calling me back.

I took some time to think about what I want to do next. Turns out I don't want to work for start-ups anymore. I've been working for start-ups for over 4 years now. I have been in the roles of a UX consultant and later pivoted to Product roles on request of the stakeholders. So, my CV is all over the place I've done user research, leading to designs on figma. I've done prototyping and in the past year I've made designs and prototypes on ChatGPT and Claude. I have skills in Framer and basically any no-code web builder.

All this under my belt I am sure that I want to work on something exciting that takes me to apply more of my critical thinking skills. I want to start in the freelance market now.

I want to take up small 2-3 week projects for product companies/start-ups/MSME and help them identify their users, any problems they want solved.

Now, I need some guidance to start out as a user research based product strategist. I basically don't have any meaningful connections to get me started.

Hi, I am transitioning into UX research and looking for someone who is also in the path. Please drop me a message if you are interested in getting in touch.

there's a specific dread walking into a stakeholder meeting knowing you read everything, but not being sure you'd catch it if you missed something. just because you did it alone, at the end of a long week, without anyone checking your read against a second pair of eyes. anyone else feel like that gap never fully closes no matter how thorough you try to be?

Has anyone transitioned from UXR role to any adjacent roles? What are the possible , sensible directions to move into? End of the day if leadership don't value, then they eliminate the roles, cut costs. We don't have time to educate the leadership. We have to be adaptable. So, what next?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently recruiting participants for a survey with UX practitioners, and I’m finding it harder than expected to reach enough eligible people.

I’ve already reached out to professional communities, posted on LinkedIn, and shared the study in some Slack groups, but I still need more participants.

For people who have run user studies or surveys with professional participants, where else would you recommend recruiting?

Any suggestions would be really appreciated. Thank you!

If you paste transcripts into chatgpt/claude or any other "chatbot", you have probably watched it turn one participant into "users" and state it with total confidence.

The thing that fixed it for me was refusing to accept a finding I could not trace. For every AI-assisted claim I keep the chain visible:

- raw data (the actual quote or clip)

- observation (what was said or done)

- interpretation (what I think it means)

- recommendation (what we should do)

If I can see all four for a claim, it is reviewable. If they collapse into one fluent paragraph, I have a nice artifact and no research. I also tag a confidence level and a data class on each, so consent and retention travel with the evidence.

Side effect: it stops the model leaping to a conclusion before the evidence is checked, because the prompt forces each layer out separately.

Curious how others keep synthesis honest once AI is in the loop.

Would love to hear about everyone's experiences using AI to perform qual customer interviews. Quite a few start ups are popping up now that do this - think Listen Labs is the biggest one. What are people's experiences?

Should I take this Ul/design course in 2026? I'm not sure if this is what I should pursue or not. I want to learn skills that will help me get a job and have high value in the

future, whatever that might be (except coding stuffs)

Any senior's please guide me with market conditions and tell me please that how can I do it?

(Currently, I am 12th passout with PCM. But don't know

what to do)

Hey,

I’m the type of person who needs clarity down to the details, and as a newcomer to UXR, this is really confusing the hell out of me, and all I find are abstract explanations. When it comes to UX research, I keep seeing broad statements like ‘analysis is breaking things down, synthesis is putting them back together.’ But I need a clear line here. Is analysis the stage where you code data and identify themes? Is synthesis where you take those themes and turn them into actual design insights or opportunities? Where does analysis stop and synthesis begin, and what exactly does each process produce? If you can give me a concrete example, I'll be very thankful!

Thank you for reading the post and for your answers in advance.

Hello, I have just completed an MSc clinical psychology and have a BSc in psychology. I have mainly worked in mental health with some limited research experience. Naturally, data analysis and some level of coding was part of both my BSc and MSc, but I am currently looking at courses and boot camps to get started on learning properly.

I have always had an interest in data analysis but also thought I was too stupid, but after completing my MSc and not feeling inspired by any of the career paths available, I thought now is the time to try.

So I am looking for advice from people who have made that switch, either from psychology or other humanities. I am aware that the job market is mental atm, but even if it takes a few years I think I’ll be much happier switching careers now rather than later.

Also very interested in recommendations on courses, bootcamps and certs. I am currently doing the free modules on codeacademy, but have heard different things about the paid content, so I want to make sure I don’t waste too much money on unnecessary material.

Thanks in advance!

I need to explain UX to an audience of stakeholders with no understanding or prior experience with UX.

Do you know of any presentations that do this well? If so, can you please share with me?

Update, June 30: Thanks for the comments here. I’ve tightened the map to make the calibration boundary more explicit. I’m not arguing that synthetic users replace UX research. The question I’m tracking is: what, if anything, can automated/browser/model-based signals reliably detect before a human researcher or designer gets involved?

The latest version separates browser-agent/task-completion infrastructure from UX diagnosis, includes skeptical evidence like first-click misalignment and synthetic-participant critiques, and keeps human review/handoff as a first-class part of the landscape.

https://mphaxise.github.io/ai-agent-ux-research-platform/

Original Post:

AI agents are starting to build software faster than our ability to judge whether that software is actually worth shipping.

There is already a lot of infrastructure forming around browser QA, task completion, screenshots, test runs, and evals. My guess is that much of this becomes standard infrastructure.

But shipping is not the same as completing a task.

A product can pass a browser test and still confuse users, create mistrust, miss the real need, or solve the wrong problem.

I’ve been mapping the emerging AI agent UX research landscape: products, workflows, papers, benchmarks, and experimental approaches focused on how agents validate what they build.

The current map tracks:

- synthetic UX research and AI user testing

- browser-agent evaluation infrastructure

- human review and handoff patterns

- launch readiness and trust signals

- agent UX observability

- emerging papers and benchmarks

My working thesis:

Browser QA is becoming infrastructure. The next gap is calibrated UX diagnosis.

Agents need to know what failed, why it matters, how confident the system is, what should be fixed, and when human validation is required.

This is still early and messy, but I’m planning to keep updating the map monthly as the space evolves.

Curious what people here think:

- Are there tools, papers, or workflows I should add?

- Are “synthetic users” actually useful in your experience, or mostly noise?

- Where do you see the biggest gap between task completion and real usability?

Hi everyone,
I’m 26 and currently working as a Analytics engineer with 5 years of total experience , earning around 13.5 LPA. I come from a humble background, and when I started my career at Capgemini, I was making around 5 LPA. At that point in life, financial growth was my biggest priority, which is why I moved into analytics and worked hard to increase my compensation.
The thing is, over the years, I’ve realized that while analytics gave me financial stability, it doesn’t excite me. The parts of my job I’ve always enjoyed were designing dashboards, creating presentations, thinking about information hierarchy, and making things intuitive for users.

I recently started exploring UX and realized that a lot of what naturally interests me aligns with the field. I’ve even created a few dashboard designs, presentations, and a small UX project in my portfolio.
My biggest concern is the financial aspect of making this switch.

For people who transitioned into UX (especially from non-design backgrounds):

What kind of package can I realistically expect in India after breaking into UX?

Is it possible to reach or maintain a compensation close to 13.5 LPA within a reasonable timeframe?

How difficult is it to get your first UX role without taking a massive pay cut?

If you were in my position, would you make the switch?

I know money shouldn’t be the only factor in choosing a career, but coming from a background where financial stability matters a lot, I want to make this decision with my eyes open.

Would really appreciate honest advice and experiences from people in the industry.

Hi everyone,

I’m part of a student team doing a UC Berkeley customer discovery project about houseplant care.

We’re trying to recruit U.S.-based houseplant owners for short interviews, but we want to avoid spamming or breaking subreddit rules.

What are some ethical ways to recruit niche users on Reddit for customer discovery interviews?

Thank you!

I come from an adjacent research field where code review was standard among researchers. I want to recommend bringing a code review process into my current role, but just wondering if this is standard. Quant UXRs, do you all have a code review process? Is it realistic (given our timelines) to advocate for it?

Our startup wants to build a tool that is basically focused on a niche within a niche. We've done secondary research to validate the idea, but now need to find ways to interview users so we can start building the product.

The issue is, none of our existing customers or contacts really operate in the mentioned niche. So, I've been sending cold emails and trying to ask random people in online channels.

However, as we know, cold emails don't work that well, AND most of our users are on Reddit and Discord, so asking in these communities immediately gets flagged as spam/promo and deleted.

Can you recommend a way to contact relevant people for research? How do you usually do it?

Thanks for any help!