Discover Emerging UX Research Trends & Must-Read Literature

Discover Emerging UX Research Trends & Must-Read Literature

Exclusive UX360 Speaker Interview with Sabrina Rose

As a Principal User Experience Lead, she advises Fortune 500 executives on optimizing digital experiences, enhancing operational efficiency, and delivering scalable solutions that drive both user and business value. With over 20 years of hands-on customer experience and a decade in AI UX research innovation, I specialize in driving AI adoption at an enterprise scale. I lead teams in developing quantitative and qualitative UX workstreams, ensuring seamless integration of AI technologies. My approach emphasizes measurable business impact, incorporating data-driven insights, success metrics, and value realization to align user experience with strategic objectives.

Sabrina was a valued speaker at our previous UX360 Virtual Conference on February 18–19, where she shared her expertise and insights with the UX community. We sincerely appreciate her contribution! Now, as we gear up for UX360 Berlin, we’re bringing you exclusive insights from Sabrina on the latest in UX research.

UX360: What motivated you to join the UX360 conference?

Sabrina: Being part of the UX360 conference is an opportunity to immerse myself in a community of experts who are shaping the future of UX. Engaging with fellow researchers, designers, and strategists allows for meaningful knowledge exchange, inspiration, and collaboration. UX is a constantly evolving field, and these discussions help refine approaches, challenge assumptions, and push innovation forward. I look forward to sharing insights, learning from others’ experiences, and collectively advancing best practices in UX and AI integration.

UX360: What has impacted your own work and your organization?

Sabrina: My role as a UX leader is to bridge the gap between user needs and business objectives, ensuring that technology is not only intuitive and accessible but also aligned with strategic goals.

By advocating for the end user, I help organizations navigate the complexities of AI and digital transformation, ensuring that adoption is seamless and value-driven. This means designing experiences that empower users, reduce friction, and drive workforce efficiency, leading to faster adoption and meaningful engagement.

This approach influences enterprise-wide implementation strategies, and enables my organization to deploy scalable solutions that deliver measurable impact, ensuring technology investments translate into real, sustainable value for our internal consumers and the business.

UX360: What are the UX research trends that have dominated 2024, and what will 2025 bring?

Sabrina: In 2024, the emphasis was on AI automation as a catalyst for streamlining UX practices, freeing up researchers to focus on deeper insights and strategic decision-making.

Looking ahead to 2025, we will see a rapid acceleration in AI-driven UX support, with AI enhancing more complex tasks such as behavioral analytics, persona development, and correlation research. The role of UX professionals will shift towards orchestrating AI-driven insights, ensuring human oversight, and hopefully, refining methodologies with ethical consideration.

UX360: Where do you find learning, inspiration, and information? Can you share some of your favorite resources?

Sabrina: As a pragmatic mixed-methods researcher, I draw inspiration from multidisciplinary approaches, combining empirical evidence with qualitative insights. My research philosophy is built on adaptability, creativity, and responsiveness, ensuring that methods are tailored to the problem rather than forcing a problem into a rigid methodology.

Some of my favorite resources include:

• Creswell, J. W. – Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (SAGE Publications)
• Few, S. – Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis
• Weinschenk, S. – Designing for How People Think: Using Brain Science to Build Better Products
• Furr, N. – Innovation Capital: How to Compete—and Win—Like the World’s Most Innovative Leaders
• Gothelf, J., & Seiden, J. – Lean UX: Designing Great Products with Agile Teams
• Doerr, J. – Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs
• Day, G. S., Schoemaker, P. J. H., & Gunther, R. E. – Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals That Will Make or Break Your Company

These resources offer insights into research methodologies, data visualization, design thinking, innovation, and business impact measurement—all essential for driving effective UX strategies.

UX360: Thank you so much, Sabrina!