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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for UX Tester

💰 $60,000 - $110,000

UXQuality AssuranceProductResearch

🎯 Role Definition

A UX Tester (User Experience Tester) is a specialist who designs, conducts, and analyzes usability and user research activities to validate product designs, surface usability issues, and provide actionable recommendations for designers, product managers, and engineers. The UX Tester combines quantitative metrics (task success, time-on-task, conversion funnels) with qualitative insights (user quotes, behaviors, pain points) to prioritize improvements, ensure accessibility and inclusivity (WCAG 2.1), and help the product team ship delightful, effective experiences. This role requires strong research literacy, familiarity with testing platforms and analytics tools, and the ability to translate user findings into clear, prioritized design changes.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior QA / Manual QA Engineer transitioning to usability focus
  • Junior UX Researcher or User Research Intern
  • Product or Design Intern focused on user testing and analytics

Advancement To:

  • Senior UX Tester / Senior UX Researcher
  • UX Research Lead / Research Manager
  • Product Designer / UX Lead
  • Director of User Research / Head of UX

Lateral Moves:

  • Interaction Designer / Product Designer
  • UX Writer
  • Front-end Developer with UX specialization

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design, plan, and execute moderated usability test sessions (in-person and remote) that include recruiting participants, developing task scenarios, writing screener surveys, conducting pilot tests, and moderating interviews to evaluate prototype and production experiences.
  • Create detailed test plans and structured test scripts for both formative and summative studies; define test objectives, success criteria, key performance indicators (KPIs), and target user segments aligned with product outcomes.
  • Run unmoderated remote usability tests using platforms like UserTesting, Lookback, or Optimal Workshop, analyze session recordings, and extract behavioral clips and highlight reels to communicate findings to stakeholders.
  • Perform accessibility testing against WCAG 2.1 guidelines, conduct screen reader walkthroughs, keyboard-only navigation audits, and document remediation steps with severity and recommended fixes for engineering.
  • Conduct A/B and multivariate experiment analyses in partnership with product and data science teams to validate design hypotheses, set up experiment instrumentation, and measure impact on conversion, retention, and key UX metrics.
  • Define and measure usability metrics (task success rate, time-on-task, error rate, System Usability Scale (SUS), Net Promoter Score (NPS) and satisfaction ratings), build dashboards, and report trends that inform roadmap prioritization.
  • Prototype test across fidelity levels (sketches, wireframes, high-fidelity prototypes) using tools like Figma, Sketch, InVision, or Axure to validate user flows and interaction patterns before development.
  • Synthesize qualitative and quantitative data into clear, digestible deliverables — research reports, personas, user journey maps, prioritized issue logs, and presentation decks with actionable recommendations for designers and engineers.
  • Partner with product managers to translate user findings into prioritized product requirements, acceptance criteria, and user stories; help scope usability fixes and feature experiments.
  • Collaborate closely with design and engineering teams to reproduce, triage, and verify usability bugs during development and post-release, ensuring fixes resolve the underlying user issues.
  • Recruit and screen participants using targeted criteria, maintain a participant panel when possible, manage incentives, and ensure ethical practices including consent and data privacy during research.
  • Conduct heuristic evaluations and expert reviews to rapidly identify usability problems against established UX heuristics and best practices, producing prioritized remediation lists.
  • Use session replay and behavioral analytics tools (Hotjar, FullStory, Glassbox) to investigate real-user behavior, identify friction points in funnels, and correlate qualitative insights with quantitative drop-offs.
  • Run card sorting and tree testing to validate information architecture, navigation labels, and findability across multi-device experiences, then synthesize results into IA recommendations.
  • Facilitate remote and in-person usability labs, including setting up recording equipment, running test sessions, and ensuring high-quality audio/video capture for analysis and stakeholder viewing.
  • Create and maintain a repository of test artifacts—test cases, task scripts, recordings, annotated clips, and research findings—to enable repeatable testing and knowledge sharing across product teams.
  • Execute cross-platform testing strategies to ensure consistent UX across iOS, Android, web, and responsive breakpoints; account for device-specific interactions, gestures, and performance constraints.
  • Validate localization and internationalization assumptions by conducting testing across language variants, cultural contexts, and right-to-left (RTL) layouts, capturing regional usability issues.
  • Support release readiness by running regression usability checks on major launches and provide quick-turn usability validation for hotfixes or last-minute design changes.
  • Mentor designers, PMs, and QA engineers in best practices for writing testable designs, creating acceptance criteria that reflect user outcomes, and embedding usability testing early in the development lifecycle.
  • Prepare executive summaries and stakeholder-facing presentations that connect UX issues to business metrics (conversion, retention, CSAT), advocate for user-centered decisions, and secure resource buy-in.
  • Maintain data integrity and research ethics: anonymize participant data, manage consent forms, and ensure compliance with privacy policies and legal/regulatory requirements where applicable.
  • Create reproducible test environments, device labs, and remote device pools (BrowserStack, Sauce Labs) to mirror real-world conditions and ensure validity of test results.
  • Coordinate cross-functional usability sweepstakes and design critiques, incorporate feedback loops, and maintain traceability from user insight to shipped feature and measured outcome.

Secondary Functions

  • Triage and document usability bugs in bug tracking tools (Jira, Asana) with clear steps to reproduce, severity, screenshots and recommended UX fixes; follow up through verification and closure.
  • Support ad-hoc product questions by providing rapid UX validation and producing quick, data-backed recommendations during sprint cycles.
  • Contribute content to the organization's UX playbook and testing templates to improve consistency of research methods across teams.
  • Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, and agile ceremonies to ensure research and testing activities are prioritized and scoped appropriately.
  • Collaborate with data analysts to instrument analytics for future usability measurement and ensure events are tracked to support UX hypotheses.
  • Provide training sessions or brown-bag workshops on usability testing tools, remote moderation techniques, and interpreting UX metrics for non-research stakeholders.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Usability testing (moderated and unmoderated) — planning, moderating, recording, and analysis.
  • Prototyping and design tools: Figma, Sketch, InVision, Axure or equivalent for rapid prototype testing.
  • UX research methods: user interviews, contextual inquiry, card sorting, tree testing, diary studies.
  • Accessibility testing and remediation knowledge: WCAG 2.0/2.1, screen readers (NVDA, VoiceOver), keyboard navigation.
  • Analytics and experiment tools: Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Optimizely, VWO for A/B testing analysis.
  • Session recording and heatmapping tools: Hotjar, FullStory, Glassbox, Crazy Egg.
  • Test platforms: UserTesting, Lookback, UserZoom, Validately, Optimal Workshop for recruiting and hosting tests.
  • Test case & bug tracking: Jira, TestRail, Zephyr, GitHub Issues — creating reproducible tickets and verifying fixes.
  • Quantitative and qualitative analysis: calculating task success, SUS, time-on-task, error rate, coding qualitative data, affinity mapping.
  • Basic front-end literacy: HTML/CSS and familiarity with common browser devtools to reproduce UI issues and communicate technical tradeoffs.
  • Cross-platform testing: mobile (iOS, Android), responsive web testing, and familiarity with remote device labs (BrowserStack, Sauce Labs).
  • Reporting and visualization: creating clear research reports and dashboards using Google Sheets, Excel, Looker, or BI tools.
  • Participant recruitment & screener creation: designing effective screeners and managing panels or recruitment vendors.

Soft Skills

  • Strong written and verbal communication — ability to distill complex research into concise, actionable recommendations for executives and engineering teams.
  • Empathy for users and stakeholders; skilled at asking clarifying questions and probing to uncover root causes.
  • Facilitation and moderation — comfortable leading test sessions, workshops, and stakeholder reviews.
  • Critical thinking and problem solving — translating ambiguous inputs into structured research plans.
  • Stakeholder management and influencing — persuading cross-functional teams to prioritize usability work based on evidence.
  • Attention to detail and strong organizational skills to manage multiple studies and test artifacts concurrently.
  • Time management and ability to deliver fast-turnaround research in agile environments.
  • Curiosity and continuous learning — staying current with UX trends, accessibility standards, and testing tools.
  • Confidentiality and ethical judgment when handling participant data.
  • Adaptability to shifting priorities and the pragmatism to balance rigor with speed.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Psychology, Human Factors, Cognitive Science, Interaction Design, Information Systems, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in HCI, Human Factors, Cognitive Psychology, or equivalent advanced coursework in UX research and usability testing.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
  • Cognitive Psychology / Behavioral Science
  • Human Factors / Ergonomics
  • Interaction Design / Visual Design
  • Information Science / Data Analytics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 1–5 years in UX testing, usability research, or a related UX/QA role for mid-level positions. Entry-level roles may start at 0–2 years with strong internships or project experience.

Preferred:

  • 3+ years running independent usability studies and cross-functional experiments, with demonstrable outcomes that led to product improvements. Prior experience with accessibility testing, A/B experimentation, and using at least two major usability testing platforms is highly desirable.
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