User Experience (UX) Capacity-Building: A Conceptual Model and Research Agenda

Many User Experience (UX) practitioners face organizational barriers that limit their ability to influence product decisions. Unfortunately, there is little concrete knowledge about how to systematically overcome these barriers to optimize UX work and foster a stronger organizational UX culture. This paper introduces the concept of User Experience Capacity-Building (UXCB) to describe the process of building, strengthening, and sustaining effective UX practices throughout an organization. Through an integrated literature review of relevant HCI and capacity-building research, this paper defines UXCB and proposes a conceptual model that outlines the conditions, strategies, and outcomes that define a UXCB initiative. Five areas of future research are presented that aim to deepen our understanding of UXCB as both a practice and an area of scholarship.