Brand Story – Oregon Tech’s UX certificate programs offer big benefits for businesses, customers and professionals.
There are really only two kinds of experiences one can have when visiting a website, using an app on a smartphone or otherwise engaging with the digital world.
The first is ideal: easy on the eyes, simple to use, intuitive and productive. The second is just the opposite: cluttered, unclear, impossible to navigate and often downright ugly.
What’s the difference between the two? Thoughtful, well-intentioned user experience, otherwise known as UX.
“It’s the overall experience that people have when interacting with a user interface and how it makes them feel during that experience,” says Franny Howes, Professor and Chair of the Communication department and faculty member at Oregon Tech. “Were you able to use it successfully and did you have a good experience using it? Or were you constantly complaining about it and cursing the name of some software developer who made you use this thing. That’s UX.”
Looking to help businesses hone their UX and, as a result, land more customers and conversions while strengthening their brands, Oregon Tech offers two UX certificate programs for professionals. Offered online and asynchronously, Oregon Tech’s 18-credit UX Writing and UX Research & Design certificate programs are the first fully accredited UX programs in the state.
“We believe there is a significant need for people with this training,” Howes says. “I would say anybody who is a flexible professional who has all of these skills is going to be very valuable.”
Pandemic-powered
While there’s been a focus on UX for years, the COVID-19 pandemic really fueled the demand for improvements in the field. Everyone was working, learning and interacting from afar, putting UX to the test.
“The need for good UX really became more important for businesses to survive during that time,” says Amber Lancaster, Associate Professor and Program Director for Oregon Tech’s Professional Writing program. “Interfaces weren’t where they needed to be, the apps weren’t where they needed to be. Companies realized they needed people to help them make sure their products and services were representing them in a good light and creating positive experiences for either shopping online, engaging online or even just living online at that time.”
That demand fueled the need for more UX professionals, creating an opportunity for Oregon Tech to introduce its UX certificate programs. A $810,000 Workforce Ready grant from the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission also helped launch the programs.
Stack ’em up
While there is some slight overlap between the two Oregon Tech UX programs, and while both offer opportunities for students to learn from or even intern with real-world tech companies, each one covers unique ground. Both are designed to meet the needs of professionals who may already have some UX experience and those who see additional UX skills as a value-add for their careers.
The UX Writing certificate focuses on content, messaging and strategy to meet users’ needs. The UX Research & Design certificate is more about understanding UX research methods, product design and aesthetics, and UX industry technologies (including AI). It also emphasizes how to optimize functionality, organization and other components.
The UX Research & Design certificate can be stacked with the UX Writing certificate, meaning that a student can earn both certificates with just the addition of a few extra courses. Similarly, the UX Writing certificate can be stacked with Oregon Tech’s Technical & Medical Writing and Proposal & Grant Writing certificates.
Another component that sets Oregon Tech’s UX certificate programs apart is the fact that the Oregon Tech program is credentialed.
“It’s been vetted by professional UX folks in the field, where we went through a rigorous process of developing our curriculum and getting external reviewers to look at the curriculum before we launched it,” Lancaster says. “That way, we’re making sure that if companies are going to hire people from the certificate, those people will meet their expectations.”
The UX horizon
Demand for UX expertise in the workplace is only expected to grow in the near term. Accessibility has become very important—making digital content accessible for everyone is now required by many jurisdictions—and even though AI has entered the UX chat, it still takes skilled humans to understand how to make apps and software user-friendly. Businesses will always be on the hunt for ways to tap into the kinds of benefits that effective UX can produce, whether that’s more seamless customer experiences, higher sales, fewer complaints or stronger brand loyalty.
And on top of the skills and knowledge to be gained through the UX certificate programs, students will likely find bigger rewards for themselves along the way.
“People who go through these sorts of training programs tend to grow professionally in understanding others and just have a greater understanding of other people,” Lancaster says. “Whether it’s diversity in the workforce or empathy or just teaching them to think about how others experience things. I think all of that is important.” n
For more information, visit oit.edu/ux.
Brand stories are paid content articles that allow Oregon Business advertisers to share news about their organizations and engage with readers on business and public policy issues. The stories are produced in-house by the Oregon Business marketing department. For more information, contact Craig Peebles at [email protected].
