Everybody looking for further training in the UX field often finds the CPUX-F certificate. But is the certification really worth it?
The Certified Professional of Usability and User Experience (CPUX) certification was developed by practitioners. The basic training CPUX-F (Foundation Level) provides fundamental knowledge for UX professionals.
To receive the certificate, 40 multiple choice questions must be answered in 75 minutes. To pass, 28 points are required. But be careful: The questions contain some pitfalls and are not always easy to answer.
Here are four reasons that speak for the CPUX-F certification from my point of view.
1. Well-founded and compact UX Knowledge
The CPUX-F certificate teaches basic UX knowledge and is based on ISO 9241. It covers the human-centered design process from planning to evaluation of the design solution. It covers important topics such as context analysis, requirements specification, prototyping and usability testing.
Numerous definitions of technical terms must be learned for the exam. This requires some stamina, however the definitions provide a very precise understanding of each concept.
For beginners, the learning material provides core UX knowledge and a good start into the topic of UX. For experts it is a compact summary of the most important UX concepts. In a two-day course, the most important basic UX knowledge can thus be acquired within a very short time.
The knowledge is freely available under https://uxqb.org/de/dokumente/The main document is the 66-page Curriculum. In the exam only content from the Curriculum is relevant.
2. Acknowledged Certification
The CPUX certification was developed by the UX professional association German UPA. In the meantime, certification is being driven by the UXQB (International Usability and UX Qualification Board), which has been joined by other professional associations such as the User Experience Network of Switzerland or uxpa from the UK.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the CPUX certification has a high degree of recognition among UX professionals. The CPUX-F certificate is also being mentioned more and more frequently in job advertisements. The certificate certifies that "UX" is not just mentioned as a buzzword in a resume, but that there is sound knowledge of the human-centered design process.
3. Precondition for further upgrade levels
While the CPUX-F certificate tends to impart a broad basic knowledge, the advanced levels offer the opportunity to specialize in one (or more) subject areas. In contrast to CPUX-F, the focus in the advanced levels is more on the practical application of what has been learned. The CPUX-F certification is a precondition for obtaining the following advanced certificates:
- Usability Testing and Evaluation (CPUX-UT)
- User Requirements Engineering (CPUX-UR)
- Designing Solutions (CPUX-DS)
4. Flexible Exam Preparation
There are two options for exam preparation: Self-study or a course with a training provider. Currently, courses are offered remotely and the CPUX-F exam can also be taken remotely. The current dates of all certified training providers can be found here.
Both variants have advantages. Self-study does not incur any costs, but is rather more time-consuming. A course costs about 700 to 900 euros, but makes preparation easier. In any case, the exam fee of 300 euros (150 euros for students) is incurred. Since the questions in the exam have some pitfalls and in a course there are also always possible queries, I would personally recommend a preparation training.
If you have any questions you can write me at christiane@lovely-ux.de.
To get more information, you can visit the official website of the UXQB: https://uxqb.org/de/
