The State of UX Design Education Part 2: Graduate Degrees & Certificate Programs

Originally published to UXmatters on June 7, 2021

Welcome to Part 2 of this three-part series on the state of design education. In Part 1, I discussed the role of undergraduate education in user experience, including a comparison of design vs liberal arts and sciences programs and an examination of bachelor’s degree vs associate’s degree programs. In this Part 2, I will examine graduate degree and certificate programs and how they may help or hinder a career in User Experience. Watch out for Part 3 next month in which I will look at the future of UX and what hard and soft skills will be in demand next.

Needing vs Wanting: Not the Same Thing

Before we dive into the question of whether or not UX practitioners need a graduate degree, let’s answer the question, does one ever really need a graduate degree? It’s true that some professions do require a master’s degree or equivalent. If you want to be a doctor, lawyer, or librarian, you should plan to go to grad school for your MD, JD, or MS respectively. If you want to climb the corporate ladder in business or finance or want to translate generalized business skills to a new industry, you likely need an MBA. Bear in mind, these are still edge cases. Most people working in the arts and humanities and many of the sciences have productive, successful careers without graduate degrees. I’m reminded of a well-educated friend with a BS, MS, PhD, and MBA who said to me about his formal schooling, “I went to business school to learn that I didn’t need to go to business school.” Having a graduate degree helped me land jobs early in my career. But once I was about three years in to my work experience, my master’s degree mattered not at all. Later in my career, my graduate degrees have allowed me to teach. If that’s an aspiration of yours, then go for it. But when it comes to User Experience, no one really needs a graduate degree. However, there are situations in which you may want to achieve this credential.

If you are a working professional and want to change careers to become a user experience practitioner, graduate school may help. The Master of Science in User-Centered Design at Brandeis University is for working professionals with little previous experience in UX to learn the basics of user experienced design and research. This program can be completed full-time or part-time and completely online. (Full disclosure, I was the primary instructor for the introduction to user centered design course at Brandeis for two years.) Courses like these can help jump start a career in UX or help you understand which skills you have already that translate to a career in UX. You can use these programs to build a portfolio of work while continuing to work at your current job. The downside of part-time and online programs is that you will not build the kind of network that you would in a full-time program. And changing careers—like most things in life—is more about who you know than what you know. In online programs in particular, you never meet your fellow students face-to-face nor your faculty. It’s tough to make lasting connections solely through discussion boards.

If you are a UX designer or researcher and think you need a master’s degree to get a promotion or some other acknowledgement at work, I suggest you really explore your motivation. Graduate programs cost time and money. Even a part-time or online program will require tuition and fees that you may not make back. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that designers with master’s degrees make on average 19% more than their colleagues without graduate degrees. These numbers are dated, but even if you round up or look at web developers (the next closest job category tracked by the BLS) who make 23% more with a master’s degree, you still need to do the math. Will you make more than you spend on graduate school over the lifetime of your career? Maybe, if you convince your boss to give you a raise or find a job that pays better than the job you’re in.

I had at least one student at Brandeis who enrolled in the graduate program to prove she could do a job she was already doing. If this sounds like you, double check that you’re not suffering from imposter syndrome or reporting to a boss who doesn’t understand your role or working for an organization that doesn’t value user experience. Sometimes the best remedy for feeling undervalued is a move to a new company.

PhD vs Master’s Degree Programs

If you love school and have the luxury of delaying your career, if you want to conduct research in an academic setting, or if you want to teach, graduate school is right for you. You’ll have to choose between a master’s degree program or a PhD program. And you’ll have to scrutinize your career goals and expectations in order to make this decision. Here are some thoughts to guide you. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programs are full time and take on average four–six years and sometimes as many as eight years to complete, depending on the program. Most PhD candidates teach while attending classes, conducting research, and writing a thesis. This leaves little time for work, either full or part-time. On the plus side, you’ll have teaching experience and a research portfolio. This should leave you well-positioned to teach at an accredited college or university or to practice user experience research or design.

If this checks all your boxes, be sure to find the right-fit program for you. As with undergraduate degree programs, graduate programs can be tough to suss out. Berkeley offers a PhD in Information Management and Systems while the University of Washington offers a PhD in Human Centered Design and Engineering to name just two examples of PhD programs in UX.

If you are interested in a master’s degree program, you’ll have a lot more options and flexibility too. However, as with the undergraduate programs, you’ll have to decide what degree is right for you. A Master of Fine Arts is the terminal degree in the arts—which means you can apply for teaching positions sooner or later in your career. (You can get a PhD in art or design but it’s not necessary to teach. Like science and humanities PhDs, these programs take time to complete however they may not yield you a higher salary than an MFA if you are a working designer.) Many great colleges and universities including School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Vermont College of Fine Arts offer low-residency MFA programs designed for working artists and professionals.

Similarly, if you want to complete a master’s degree in human-computer interaction or user experience design, many programs offer part-time or online options. You can complete a Masters in Human Factors in Information Design at Bentley University full time, part time, or online from the campus in Waltham, Massachusetts or in San Francisco, California. In addition, Bentley’s User Experience Center offers consulting services to local and global clients. Graduate students at Bentley assist with these projects, learn alongside the experts, expand their networks, and list these projects on their resumes. Northwestern University offers a Master’s in Information Design and Strategy with optional online courses. And California College of the Arts offers a two-year, low-residency MBA in Design Strategy (that sounds like my next must-have, totally unnecessary degree).

Other Educational Options

Grad school may not be right for you for a variety of reasons. But if you still feel like you need an education in UX, consider these options. Organizations like General Assembly and Springboard offer bootcamp-style, immersive courses for career-changers. These programs are cheaper than graduate programs from accredited colleges. And they claim to offer career support and mentoring. This non-traditional route could save you time and money. And you could make valuable network connections. You’ll have instant and curated access to likeminded mentors and colleagues who can be hard to find in an unstructured world. However, I recommend approaching their sales pitches with a healthy dose of skepticism and remembering that their success stories are just that—there’s no room on their websites for the students who didn’t land dreamy sounding job titles with six-figure salaries.

The Nielsen Norman Group offers conferences, courses, and certifications in design and research alongside their weekly newsletters and extensive library of articles and videos. Jared Spool’s UIE group has a vast collection of recorded seminars available via subscription. Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning) claims to offer hundreds of courses and thousands of videos tagged in “User Experience.” I recommend exploring every option before committing. Ask if your current employer will pay for some conferences or courses. And find out if your company has a subscription to one or more of these services already. Make friends with someone in your organization who may be doing the job you want. Ask that person out for coffee and mentoring.

Conclusion

So, can you afford to forego graduate school? Yes. Can you afford to go? That depends. First figure out how to pay for it. If someone else is paying, just say yes. If you’re paying out of pocket or considering taking loans, you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. If you’re already a practitioner, don’t assume you need a degree—graduate or otherwise. If you’re doing the job without the title or denied a promotion because you don’t have a degree, don’t assume that’s a you problem. Start searching for an organization that values your contributions and doesn’t get caught up in hoop jumping. Don’t pay for an expensive graduate program just to get a bigger paycheck. Your boss may not give you a raise the second you get your degree. You may still have to leave your current position to realize the bump in salary.

Education is important. I believe it’s the great leveler. I’m a lifelong learner myself. I wouldn’t bother teaching if I didn’t think I was contributing to something worthwhile. But there’s no substitute for professional experience, according to a survey of employers. The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce found “most employers confess that master’s degrees are nice, but they’d simply prefer to hire a candidate with a larger overall professional background than one that is deeper in educational pursuits.”

Changing careers requires changing the way you think about yourself and your previous experience. It may be a question of repacking yourself rather than engaging in expensive reeducation.