Our August 2025 essay is “How You Can Help the Next Generation of UX’ers,” by John C. Dozier and Catherine D. Gaddy. In the essay, the authors discuss how, during the current downtrend in UX jobs, experienced UX researchers and practitioners can provide perspectives and advice to help newcomers to the field.
This issue also includes two research papers.
The first paper is “Leveraging AI Toward the Development of Vector Personas for UX Research,” by Claire Lauer, Danielle Storey, and Romit Soley. The authors introduce the concept of vector personas, which combines AI and traditional qualitative methods to develop personas with enhanced efficiency while retaining the depth of understanding provided by user-driven research.
The second paper is “Enhancing a Car Change Through Emotion: A Mixed Methods Approach,” by Mareike Grund, Ingo Totzke, and Arnd Engeln. Of all the designed artifacts in modern society, some people develop strong emotional connections to their cars. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, the authors describe research conducted to design digital interventions that impact the emotional consequences of changing cars.
