Melissa Meingast, Pieter Kruithof, Danae Holmes, Christy Harper, Michael Bartha and Timothy Ballew

The discipline of user research seems to be drifting towards becoming a skill set within the UX Design role, with careers in UX continuing to grow at rates that far surpass those in research. Does this trend come at a cost, or is it a natural step where research is treated as a design skill rather than as a separate discipline? In this panel we will explore the reasons for this trend and how it has been reflected in our own careers from a range of perspectives, ranging from research practices that incorporate both disciplines as critical aspects of the design process to those where user research processes underlie the approach to UX, to those that trade scientific rigor in favor of democratization of the discipline. We will discuss the implications of this convergence, and the impact on product development.