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The Stateof UX in the Enterprise

THE UX INSIGHTS COMPANY

The State of UX in the Enterprise 2019

2THE UX INSIGHTS COMPANY

Lee Duddell UX Director at UserZoom

While there have been surveys over the past few years that have looked at the state of UX as a whole, and at UX design in particular, we here at UserZoom have noticed that the state of UX in the enterprise hasn’t been analyzed in-depth or tracked longitudinally. Particularly when it comes to understanding how enterprise companies are conducting UX research.

That’s why in 2018 we conducted a survey with hundreds of experience professionals at some of the largest organizations on the planet to better understand the culture of research and state of UX in the enterprise, and have done so again in 2019.

In this report we will share the results of our survey as well as offer a synopsis on the trends we’ve seen in the last year, as well as the overall state of UX research in the enterprise in 2019.

INTRODUCTION



EXECUTIVESUMMARYThe overall state of enterprise UX is strong and growing stronger; however, many organizations are still facing common challenges. The good news is that there are lots of opportunities for companies and leadership to grow and push UX in the enterprise into the next stage.

In this report, we’ve divided up the survey results into the following four themes: Challenges & Trends, UX in the C-Suite, UX in the Organization, and Methodologies & Tools.



Challenges and TrendsIn 2018, securing resources and budget was the top challenge facing UX teams. In 2019, including research within the product development process is now the #1 challenge (up from #2 in 2018), followed by sourcing participants, securing budget and getting executive buy-in.

A good trend we’re seeing is that some of these challenges are decreasing – for example, “Securing resources or budget” was an issue 60% of respondents reported in 2018 while it is down to 49% in 2019.

Unfortunately we’re also seeing a bit of stagnation with getting executive buy-in (48% in 2018 to 49% 2019) and sourcing the right participants (45% in 2018 to 50% in 2019).

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Last year we predicted that as enterprises hire more designers and researchers, dedicated staff that are fully integrated within product lines will continue to grow instead of the shared services model. This is exactly what we’re seeing in 2019.

41% reported being part of a central and/or shared services team that are supportingmultiple product lines, which is down from 45% in 2018. Similarly, we’ve seen an uptick from 26% in 2018 to 30% in 2019 for people who are embedded in a product line or business unit.


UX in the C-SuiteA little over half (52%) of the respondents in our 2018 survey said that their CEO mentions User Experience as a key differentiator during analyst calls, company all hands and other forums. In 2019 this number has risen to 70% which is a promising increase.

Also promising is that 29% of enterprises now have a VP of Design or Chief Experience Officer in 2019, up from 21% in 2018. So not only are CEOs and the C-Suite aware of the benefits that investing in UX can bring to the organization but are also taking actions to put their money where their mouths are.

That said there is still a massive opportunity for the 71% of enterprises out there without a VP of Design or Chief Experience Officer to take the next step.

UX in the Organization



Methodologies and ToolsWe’re seeing an increase in in-lab, moderated UX research as the most performed method for enterprise teams, and this seems to be at the expense of remote unmoderated. 61% of enterprises reported conducting research in-lab in 2019, which is up from 54% last year. While those conducting remote unmoderated dropped from 49% of respondents to 41% in 2019.

UX Benchmarking has seen a dramatic increase in adoption over the last 12 months, as it gains traction for those who wish to measure the effectiveness of user research. In 2018, 21% reported conducting benchmarking, while in 2019 this has jumped to 35%.




THE OPPORTUNITIES



For UX Leaders, and other digital professionals who care about UX and already “get” its value, the overall trends we saw in the previous section are positive. For example, securing budget (last year’s top challenge) is now trending downwards from 60% in 2018 to 49% in 2019. That’s good news for the industry! However, 64% of our respondents ranked implementing UX research and testing in the product life cycle as their new main challenge.

Simplistically, we could conclude that with budgets rising there is now a need to “make UX happen.” This used to be straightforward. It reminds me of when Waterfall was the predominant way that software was developed – the shift to Agile brought with it new challenges and opportunities and, as a result, we saw a movement towards embedded services rather than shared services. Agile means UX Leaders must adapt their approach to research so that it a) delivers within design Sprints, b) can scale to satisfy demand and c) supports self-serve testing by non-researchers working within autonomous teams.

Without adapting the research approach to operate within Agile teams and culture, inclusion in the product life cycle will continue to be a significant challenge. That’s why we consider this to be one of the top opportunities for companies heading into 2020.



From a methodology perspective the trend is a very positive one because there is an overall increase in adoption of all methodologies (unmoderated and moderated). The most interesting methodology trend is the speed with which remote moderation is catching up with in person moderation, something we expect to accelerate over the coming years.

Of particular note is the rise in UX Benchmarking, a strong indication (coupled with the rise in CEOs mentioning UX as a competitive differentiator) that UX is maturing in some organizations. Benchmarks are commonly used to raise the profile of UX and report on its impact using metrics that the C-Suite can understand. Often to help secure budget.

We expect this upward trend to continue as UX Leaders seek to use empirical measures to evidence the impact of UX, and therefore, is another fantastic opportunity for companies seeking to grow their UX maturity.

Let’s consider for a moment how economics may come to impact UX trends over the coming years. With widespread talk of economic downturns across many markets, it is worth considering how the value and role of UX should adapt if negative economic forecasts come to fruition. In a downturn, where margins are squeezed and budgets are tighter, UX should be positioned to support efficiency and save money (as much as, if not more than, enabling customer centricity).

Should an economic downturn become a reality, we forecast UX Leaders will need to demonstrate how UX research can reduce developer cost by reducing re-work and to closely tie UX results with improving margins (reduced calls to call centers, e.g.).

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SURVEY


Sample SizeStarting in early 2019 we reached out to experience professionals at organizations with more than one thousand employees to participate in this survey. Our final sample size for this report is 222 participants from global, enterprise-level companies representing a range of major industries.

For more data on our survey respondents, including location, industry, job role and level, please see the Appendix on page 44.




CHALLENGES AND TRENDS

‘Inclusion within product development’ is now the number one challenge faced by UX teams

In 2018, securing resources and budget was the top challenge facing UX teams. In 2019, inclusion within the product development process is now the #1 challenge (up from #2 in 2018), followed by securing budget, executive buy-in and sourcing participants.

What key challenges doesUX research face at enterprise companies?



What phase is the most challenging part of your UX team’s research process?

Participant recruiting dropped down from being the most challenging part of the process in 2018 to being the second on the list this year. Replacing it at the top was getting executive support with 55% (up from just 41% last year).



How frequently didorganizations conduct UX research in the last 12 months?

Overall, the state of enterprise UX research is still fairly regular – which is good! Only a very small percentage selected annually or semi-annually. There is some vagueness as to how often “as-needed” is, however. This might be once or twice a day, once a month, twice a quarter, or on a blue moon every 5 years.

Regardless, the fact that 34% of enterprises polled are conducting research on a weekly basis and 61% on a monthly basis is fantastic news about the state of UX in the enterprise.



How has the demand for UX research changed in the last 12 months?

The numbers are holding more or less steady here since 2018, with a small uptick in Significant Increase (up to 34% from 30% in 2018) and a small drop-off in respondents saying Slight Decrease (31% in 2019 versus 35% in 2018).



How have UX research budgets changed in the last 12 months?

While demand for UX research within organizations has gone up in 2019 (34% report a significant increase in their research), many budgets have mostly remained the same with 32% reporting flat Year-over-Year budgets. At the same time, 32% are reporting either a ‘slight’ or ‘significant’ budget increase, while a further 29% are ‘unsure’.

Of those who have reported increased budgets, 48% report that this increase is in the region of 1-25%.



In which of the following channels did companies perform UXresearch in the last 12 months?

Very little has changed in the past 12 months when it comes to channels in which companies perform UX research. Websites are still the top favored choice (66%) however mobile apps have overtaken mobile websites in popularity. Research on apps has risen 11% from last year, while mobile web testing has remained constant.



For what devices do companies develop the majority of their products?

The devices on which companies develop their products for have remained almost the same since last year (websites 91% and mobile 73% in 2019), however the popularity of tablet development has waned from 50% to 37%.





What are the most important trends affecting user experience in the next 5 years?

Artificial intelligence has accelerated past voice interfaces since 2018, when they were both almost neck and neck (66% and 67% respectively), to dominate expected trends in the next half decade. What has led to this 13% growth? It may be down to the practical, everyday advances in ‘deep learning’ - such as the accuracy of automatic text generation, or even the mainstream use of facial recognition. Either way, AI has rushed to become top of mind for future-looking UXers.



UX IN THE C-SUITE

18% more CEOs see UX or CX as a competitive differentiator than last year

As we expected to see, the number of CEOs proclaiming ‘user or customer experience as a key differentiator’ grow... and grow it has! Up to 70% in 2019 from only 52% last year.

The good news is that the benefits of UX is becoming more ubiquitous for the C-Suite, which can make the challenge of getting executive buy-in slightly less onerous as they themselves are knowledgeable about the reasons why they should invest in UX.

Have CEOs mentioned user or customer experience as acompetitive differentiator in the last 12 months?



What is the perceived value of UX within companies?

Based on their executive team’s actions in the last 12 months, there is some good news when it comes to the perceived value of UX within our respondents’ organizations. We’re seeing a jump in the High Value category - last year it was only 23%.

Again, we see this as part of the overall opportunity to educate the C-suite on the benefits of investing in UX. Our tip? Find out which KPIs or business metrics a key executive cares about and run a study in which your design choices affect those metrics.



There is still a large opportunity for the enterprise to hire high level design officers and experience officers. However the trend is a positive one, with the number of people saying they do have a VP of Design and/or Chief Experience Officer rising from 21% in 2018 to 29% in 2019.


Do enterprise organizations have a VP of Design or a Chief Experience Officer?


How frequently your executive team updated with insights from your UX research in the last 12 months?

Over half of the enterprises polled in this survey are at least updating their executiveteam on a regularly scheduled basis, with a quarter doing so on a monthly basis.



What level of management do most senior UX or design leaders report into?

Despite the positive trends shown in the previous data, it should be noted that the majority of UX practitioners are still reporting to mid to upper-middle management, with only a small uptick in UXers who are reporting to VPs and above since 2018. Perhaps 2020 will be the year that UX finds its seat at the executive table.





UX IN THE ORGANIZATION



Centralized UX teams are decreasing as more UXers are embedded throughout the product line

Last year we predicted that as enterprises hire more designers and researchers, dedicated staff that are fully integrated within product lines will continue to grow instead of the shared services model. This is exactly what we’re seeing in 2019.

41% reported being part of a central and/or shared services team that are supportingmultiple product lines, which is down from 45% in 2018. Similarly, we’ve seen an uptick from 26% in 2018 to 30% in 2019 for people who are embedded in a product line or business unit.

How are UX teams aligned within organizations?

What teams get the most value from UX research?

User Experience and Design teams aside (as the value is apparent and embedded), the positive trend we’re seeing is the uptick in value for Product Management – in 2018 it was only 51% but has since jumped up to 63%. Customer Experience, Engineering and Marketing are hovering around similar percentages from last year.



What organizations/functions within enterprise organizations conduct some form ofUX research today?

Last year we predicted that Design, Product Management, Marketing and Customer Experience would see continued growth and we were mostly correct. Marketing and CX have remained stable from 2018. However, we did see a small uptick in both Design (it was 54% in 2018 and is now 58%) and Product Management (from 39% to 45% in 2019).



Is UX research infused into your company’s development process?

Small headway has been made in the ‘Yes’ row – we’re now up to 43% in 2019 from 38% in 2018. There is still opportunity for growth here in the enterprise.



Number of UX designers hired by enterprise companies?

In 2018 only 34% of companies had 20+ UX designers, this has since jumped up to 45%, showing a huge investment in design and how it’s becoming embedded in product lines.



The two most promising stats we see here are the drop in companies who reported having no researchers (down from 16% in 2018 to 11% in 2019) and the increase in companies that have hired twenty or more researchers (19% in 2019 versus 13% in 2018).

More researchers and designers overall bodes well for the trends we’re seeing (and hope to see) for UX in the enterprise now and in the future.


Number of UX researchers hired by enterprise companies?


How many product lines do UX teams support?

The bulk of the UX teams are still centralized, while the next largest chunk support several products or units.



How many teams/groups include UX practitioners?

The good trend we’re seeing here is that the siloization of UX is diminishing slowly but surely as UX spreads across organizations.

For example, the amount of people who said only 1-5 teams have UXers has dropped from 56% in 2018 to 41% in 2019. Likewise, we’re seeing an increase on the opposite end of the spectrum – 28% are saying 20+ teams have UXers on them in 2019 versus just 15% in 2018.



How our respondents describe their organizations’ level of UX maturity?

27% of enterprises are self-reporting ‘Stage 6’ UX maturity in 2019, versus just 18% in 2018. Last year, ‘Stage 5’ maturity was by far the biggest single self-reported category at 31% of respondents, but ‘Stage 5’ and ‘Stage 6’ are now tied in 2019.

Stage 1 Hostile Towards Usability – Developers simply don’t want to hear about users or their needs

Stage 2 Developer-Centered User Experience – Design teams rely on their own intuition on what will be best for users

Stage 3 Skunkworks User Experience – Small UX efforts to recruit a hand full of users for simple tests

Stage 4 Dedicated UX Budget – UX is thought of as something that spruces up a user interface

Stage 5 Managed Usability – There’s an official UX group being led by a UX manager who “owns” UX

Stage 6 Systematic User-Centered-Design (UCD) Process – Company recognizes the need for a UCD process with multiple activities and milestones

Stage 7 Integrated UCD - Every development lifecycle step is infused with user data

Stage 8 User-Driven Corporation – User needs determines what types of projects the company runs





METHODOLOGIES AND TOOLS

In-lab research increases while remote unmoderated drops in popularity

In 2019 we’re seeing an increase in in-lab, moderated UX research as the most performed method within enterprise organizations. 61% of enterprises reported conducting research this way (up from 54% in 2018), while those conducting remote unmoderated dropped from 49% of respondents in 2018 to 41% in 2019.

Which of the following UX research methods were performed the most in the last 12 months?

Very little has changed in the past 12 months when it comes to channels in which companies perform UX research. Websites are still the top favored choice (66%) however mobile apps have overtaken mobile websites in popularity. Research on apps has risen 11% from last year, while mobile web testing has remained constant.

The devices on which companies develop their products for have remained almost the same since last year (websites 91% and mobile 73% in 2019), however the popularity of tablet development has waned from 50% to 37%.



Which of the following UX research methods were used the mostfrequently in the last 12 months?

The top five categories from 2018 are still holding strong in 2019. One of the biggest differences we see with the data is in UX Benchmarking – in 2018 21% reported conducting UX benchmarking which jumped up to 35% in 2019. Remote moderated has also increased in usage, going from 27% in 2018 to 34% in 2019.

Despite the increase in popularity of UX benchmarking, it’s interesting to note that the inclusion of competitor’s experience in research has remained similar year-on-year (54%), so perhaps some researchers are yet to unlock the advantages of competitive benchmarking.



Which of the following UX research methods would respondents like to use more in the next 12 months?

In-person Interview/Moderated jumped from second place in 2018 with 49% to first this year with 51%. A/B testing dropped down to second place with Field Studies jumping from 5th place last year with 40% to third place in 2019 with 47%.



Where do UX teams find participants for research?

Even more companies are reporting that they do their own recruiting (up to 63% this year from 58% in 2018) while outside recruiting agencies dropped down to third this year, going from 44% in 2018 to 38% this year.

As our earlier data around UX challenges pointed out, sourcing participants is the second biggest hurdle UX teams have to overcome, so no wonder this is the case if the majority of enterprises are self-recruiting.



What usability testing and research tools are you using?

The most common answers given in the ‘Other’ category were “nothing” and “SurveyMonkey.” Which is possibly a testament to both the lack of buy-in (and therefore budget) for user research in enterprise companies, and potentially the resourcefulness of researchers with limited funds.

In terms of designing User Interfaces, Sketch is the most popular tool (71%) beating out the less affordable Adobe (53%), with any other competitors barely figuring in the ranking. Invision however beats Sketch (63% vs 59%) in the prototyping stakes.

As for collaboration tools, you may be surprised to learn that Slack is only the second most popular method (55%) of bringing together remote teams, with Jira edging out its rival (57%).

When it comes to reporting KPIs/metrics to business leaders, the frontrunning platform is Tableau (29%) with Power BI close behind (23%). However it should be noted that 22% of our respondents said “none” - which means that more than a fifth of enterprise executive teams are in the dark about the value of user research.



What sources are used to improve UX knowledge?

Books are still the most sought after way to improve knowledge but blogs, online courses and videos have jumped up the list and beat out conferences, which was the second most popular method in 2018.





APPENDIXHere’s the data on our survey respondents, including location, industry, job role and level:

Country



Industry



Role

We reached out to experience professionals at large, with a majority of our responses coming from UX researchers and designers. The most common roles we saw in “Other” related to customer experience.



Level

We reached out to experience professionals at large, with a majority of our responses coming from UX researchers and designers. The most common roles we saw in “Other” related to customer experience.





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The State of UX in the Enterprise - UserZoominfo.userzoom.com/rs/293-RDJ-600/images/The-State... · Of particular note is the rise in UX Benchmarking, a strong indication (coupled