Customer Experience and User Experience Research Certificate (Online)

Certificate

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Curious to know what makes users tick? Montclair’s online Graduate Certificate in Customer Experience and User Experience (CX/UX) Research is designed to build your expertise in understanding the needs of customers and the users of technological devices, products and services.

This fully online, 13.5-credit program is made up of five courses and can be completed in just 10 months, offering an accelerated path to develop a highly specialized skill set.

In a short period of time you will gain the technical skills and software competencies needed to carry out customer surveys, focus groups and usability tests, while also building your portfolio through a real-world capstone project.

What you learn will help you stand out in fields with a high demand for trained professionals in the area of CX/UX Research. See the curriculum.

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What sets our program apart

This fully online certificate is one of a kind. Many for-profit companies offer fast, online training certificates in the business of customer experience, but we have yet to find another program that combines the value of both CX and UX Research skills to expand your versatility and resilience in the job market.

This program was first suggested by students in our Master’s in Social Research and Data Analysis program in 2019 — talk about a customer-driven solution!

You can earn this certificate from anywhere in the world.

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What are CX and UX Research?

CX Researchers are experts at understanding customers. They map the customer journey across all touchpoints with an organization, like their trips to the store, visits to a website or calls to customer service. They learn what piques our interests, what makes us happy, and also what can lead us to look somewhere else to find something we want. They share this information with their teams to improve their products and services.

UX Researchers do the same for users of all sorts of services and devices like the apps on our phones, the websites we visit, the cars we drive and even the electronic devices we use in stores, restaurants, train terminals, and everywhere else you can imagine. They use techniques like usability testing, card sorting and ethnographic field visits to understand things from the user’s perspective.

Both CX and UX Researchers provide crucial assistance to the User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Designers that actually create and program the latest technological devices, interfaces and services we enjoy.

Growing Demand

You can pursue this program with a wide variety of educational and professional backgrounds.
If you complete the program, you’ll be ready to make an impact in a rapidly growing field:

  • Local and National job postings for User Experience and Customer Experience have substantially increased since 2017, and employment is projected to grow faster than average for market research analysts and marketing specialists until at least 2030.
  • U.S. employment for Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists are expected to grow more than 21% between 2020 and 2030.
  • The national median earnings in 2022 for these job titles is $65,554.89, or $31.52 per hour. In New Jersey, the median is higher at $84,836.68 or $40.79 per hour.
  • Some of the top companies posting jobs in this field include Oracle, Verizon, Bristol-Myers Squibb and MarketingCrossing.

Source: lightcast.io

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Admission Requirements

  • Equivalent of a U.S. bachelor’s degree.
  • Applicants with non-U.S. degrees: Please visit the international applicants page to review U.S. degree equivalency information.
  • *Students seeking an F1/J1 visa are not eligible for this certificate program unless they are currently pursuing a master’s degree at Montclair State University and are able to simultaneously pursue both programs while maintaining their student visa requirements.

Application Checklist

  • Application Deadline: Rolling admission.
  • Online Application: Submit application and $60 non-refundable fee (or waiver if applicable).
  • Transcript: One from each college attended.
  • Statement of Purpose – Please write an integrated essay providing a response to each of the following questions:
  • What are your goals for graduate study and your future career?
  • In what ways do your academic background and your professional experiences provide evidence of your potential for success in the program you selected and in your eventual career? Please give specific examples of relevant coursework and/or experience.
  • Is there any further information we should consider in assessing your candidacy?
  • Letters of Recommendation (Optional): You may optionally submit up to two (2) letters of recommendation, from persons qualified to evaluate the applicant’s promise of academic achievement and potential for professional growth. However, we do encourage applicants with an undergraduate GPA below a 3.0 to consider submitting at least one recommendation letter.


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