The Making of a UX Designer: 7-Year Longitudinal Study

The Problem

"What do junior UX designers in-training think of their future, one year into their education? What matters to them, what challenges do they face, and where do they see themselves going?"

When I started studying UX Design, I was uncertain about what to prioritize, where to focus my energy, and what realistic career paths looked like. I wanted guidance from people slightly ahead of me in the journey, but that consolidated resource didn't exist.

So I created it.

Watch the Overview

Research Question

How do junior UX designers understand their field, their strengths, and their career paths after one year of education?

What changes as they move from education into professional practice?

Methodology

Participants: 11 volunteers from UX22 class (~30 students) at IT-högskolan, Gothenburg

Format: Structured video interviews in Swedish with English subtitles

Questions: 14 standardized questions covering background, understanding of UX, accomplishments, challenges, career aspirations

Longitudinal design: Follow-up interviews planned for 2026 (year 4) and 2029 (year 7) to track career development

Why This Matters

This project serves two audiences:

For incoming UX students: Realistic perspectives from people slightly ahead in the journey. Not expert advice, but peer insights about what to expect, what matters, and how people with diverse backgrounds approach the field.

For the participants (including myself): A documented record of where we started: our hopes, uncertainties, and understanding of UX at the beginning. Over time, we'll see how our careers evolve and how our thinking changes.

The longitudinal aspect is crucial. These aren't polished retrospectives from established professionals. These are honest, uncertain reflections from people at the start of their journey.

I asked each participant the same 14 questions to enable comparison across interviews. Some answers were edited for brevity, but the structure remained consistent.

Background & Understanding

• Who are you and what's your background?
• Describe UX Design to someone who doesn't know.
• What distinguishes a good UX Designer?
• What makes you a good UX designer?
• Why did you decide to study UX Design?
• What was appealing about it?
• Is it still appealing?
• Has your understanding of what UX Design is changed?

Experience & Aspirations

• Describe something you're proud of during your first year.
• What has been challenging in your first year?
• If you could advise yourself before you began studying, what would you say?
• What would you like to work with after graduation?
• Is there anything you'd rather not work with?
• Describe a typical workday in spring 2027 and how you will get there?

The final question was deliberately aspirational, asking participants to imagine their work life three years post-graduation and articulate how they'd get there.

What UX Means to Them

Despite varied backgrounds, participants shared core understanding:

• User-centered problem solving: Identifying problems people have and finding the best solution
• Research-based design: Not designing from personal preference, but grounding decisions in observation, interviews, testing
• Being the user's voice: Representing user needs within organizations
• Removing ego: "A good UX designer removes themselves a bit...it's not about what you want, but what the customer needs"

Shared Challenges

• Group work complexity: Teams of novice designers dividing tasks across competencies they don't yet have
• Foundational vs. advanced: Tension between interesting advanced topics and practical basic skills
• Screen-focused curriculum: More emphasis on mobile/web UI than broader service design

What They Value

• Variety: "I appreciate UX because it's so multifaceted...I don't always do the same thing"
• Understanding people: Interest in why people do what they do
• Tangible output: Making concrete things, not just abstract work
• Intellectual challenge: Problems that require systematic thinking

Career Aspirations

Interestingly, few sought "glamorous" work. Common themes:

• Government systems, B2B platforms, healthcare
• Work that's intellectually challenging but not necessarily high-profile
• Flexibility in location and project selection
• Ethical boundaries: declining work that conflicts with personal values (gambling, predatory design, etc.)

This project taught me as much about research methodology as it did about junior UX careers.

Structured Interviews Work

Using identical questions for all participants made comparison possible. I could identify patterns (shared challenges, common aspirations) and outliers (unique perspectives shaped by specific backgrounds).

Without that structure, each interview would have been interesting but incomparable.

Video Documentation Is Valuable (and Challenging)

Recording video interviews created a permanent, shareable record. But it also introduced complexity: technical setup, participant comfort on camera, editing for clarity vs. authenticity.

Trade-off: richer documentation, but higher barrier to participation.

Being Both Researcher and Participant Is Strange

I interviewed my peers, then interviewed myself answering the same questions. It's much easier to ask questions than answer them with the same honesty you expect from participants.

This dual role forced me to think about research ethics and power dynamics. How do you study a group you're part of? How does that insider position shape what people tell you?

Longitudinal Design Requires Commitment

Planning follow-ups in 2026 and 2029 means committing to this project for six years. Participants may move, change careers, or lose interest. Some videos may become unavailable. Life happens.

But that's also the point: documenting how careers actually unfold, not how we imagine them unfolding.

Summer of 2026 I'll conduct follow-up interviews with as many participants as possible. Three years after the initial interviews, they'll have:

• Graduated from the UX program
• Started professional roles (or not)
• Gained real-world experience beyond academic projects
• Faced the realities of working in the field

New questions will include:

• Where did you end up working, and how did you get there?
• How does actual UX work compare to what you expected?
• What from your education do you actually use?
• What do you wish you'd learned?
• How has your understanding of "good UX" changed?

The most interesting findings will come from comparing 2023 responses to 2026 responses:

• Did people end up where they expected?
• Which challenges from education persisted into professional work?
• How did career-changers' previous experiences prove useful (or not)?
• Who left the field, and why?

Phase 3 (2029): A final round at the seven-year mark will show longer-term career development – who became senior practitioners, who shifted to adjacent fields, who left entirely.

This extended timeline captures something missing from most UX career guidance: the messy, non-linear reality of how careers actually develop.