Our February 2025 essay is “Help or Hubris: Certifications in UX and Human-Centered Design,” by Clemens Lutsch. Prof. Lutsch addresses the current state of certification in UX and HCD, including who offers certificates, who needs certifications, and how certification should enrich our professional field.
This issue also includes two research papers: one on the mystery calling research method, and another on the development and use of a streamlined version of a standardized questionnaire for the assessment of the UX of mobile apps.
The first article is “Who’s There? Mystery Calling for UX Research,” by Michael J. Madson, Yoshita Gade, and Unnati Srivastava. The authors describe the mystery calling method, discuss its pros and cons (including probable effects of AI on the method), and recommend best practices.
The second article is “Streamlining the SUPR-Qm: The SUPR-Qm V2,” by James R. Lewis and Jeff Sauro. Following up on the publication of the first version of the SUPR-Qm in 2017, the authors replicated the original model, identified redundant items to arrive at a 5-item version, demonstrated the stability of the original and streamlined versions, and developed interpretive norms (including curved grading scales).
