Challenges and Insights for Fostering Academic-Industry Collaborations in UX

Research in technical communication and user-experience points to the value of building academic and industry collaborations and conversations [1-4]. However, academic research is not as accessible to industry practitioners as it should be, and more conversations are needed to foster successful and sustainable academic-industry partnerships [5-6]. Drawing on this work, this experience report is presented by academics who engage in collaborative projects with industry practitioners across institutional, disciplinary, and regional settings. We discuss our experiences as women in technology design, specifically focusing on how industry-academia collaborations face particular challenges when they are enacted by women and women of color.