The UX Profession: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

• Dr. Rebecca Baker, PhD

  IMA | Institute of Management Accountants

  Author

Following a 71% drop in job listings between 2022 and 2023, the User Experience (UX) profession is undergoing a critical evolution driven by corporate over-hiring, AI integration, and systemic operational failures. Historically, companies struggled to integrate UX into agile workflows, treating it as a superficial afterthought, while a surge of bootcamp-trained designers lacked the business acumen, research literacy, and project management skills needed to deliver measurable ROI. Rather than signaling the death of the field, this market correction marks a shift away from routine interface design toward high-level strategy. To thrive, modern UX professionals must marry technical design with business strategy, rigorous data analysis, and cross-functional communication. Ultimately, the future of UX relies on durable human skills like deep listening, critical thinking, and contextual storytelling—areas driving a gradual market recovery for seasoned experts in complex sectors like healthcare, accessibility, and edtech.

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1. Dr. Rebecca Baker, PhD, IMA | Institute of Management Accountants

   
   Baker started her career as a research assistant at the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center at the University of Houston doing cool stuff with science. She moved into software design when she discovered physics didn’t have enough people-y bits. She has authored a book on UX and Agile, “Agile UX Storytelling: A Zombie Software Case Study” (available on Amazon; it makes an excellent gift), holds a patent for Information Encapsulation, and has spoken at a ridiculous number of conferences. A UX Jedi, excellent listener, 30-year veteran of the software design space, and dungeon master, Dr. Baker’s publications and talks span topics from technical writing to remote usability testing to agile UX processes and beyond. Her passion for research and helping people understand the “why” behind design, combined with the recent developments in large language model (LLM)-based artificial intelligence, led her to partner with the marvelous Dr. Rekart to publish her most recent book, “Designing for Human Intelligence in an Artificial Intelligence World: Understanding Human Cognition to Design for Humans.”