Headshot of Victor Yocco, PhD

Victor Yocco, PhD

UX research leader, speaker, and author of Design for the Mind and Designing Agentic AI Experiences · Staff UX Researcher, ServiceNow · Instructor, UXR Institute

Automating a task and preserving a person's ability to do that task are different design objectives, and most agentic systems treat them as the same problem.

About

Victor Yocco, PhD, is a user experience researcher, author, and speaker applying cognitive psychology to the immediate challenges of enterprise artificial intelligence. With a doctorate in Psychology and Communication from The Ohio State University, Dr. Yocco bridges the gap between how systems work and how human brains work. He currently focuses his research exclusively on agentic artificial intelligence and its impact on human reasoning and workforce resilience. He authored the book Design for the Mind published by Manning Publications, and has a book, Designing Agentic AI Experiences currently in press (CRC Press). He translates complex psychological principles into concrete pedagogical design patterns that protect human intelligence in an automated workplace. Victor frequently publishes with Smashing Magazine a site with a worldwide audience and millions of visits per month, as well as UX Matters, and many other relevant industry publications.

AI & UX Research Experience

  • ServiceNow,Staff UX Researcher
    • Studies how enterprise employees interact with autonomous agents in ServiceNow's Employee Relations products, focusing on where agentic workflows produce cognitive offloading and skill atrophy
    • Designs and tests pedagogical interface patterns aimed at preserving human reasoning capability inside agentic systems, not just maintaining the appearance of control
    • Presents strategic research findings on AI risk and workforce resilience to senior executives and global product teams, translating cognitive-psychological principles into actionable design direction
  • Allelo Design,Director, UX Research and Strategy
    • Led all stages of UX research as the firm's subject-matter expert, managing client engagements from discovery through delivery across a range of industries
  • EY Design Studios,UX Research Director
    • Grew and led UX research teams in Philadelphia and New York from a combined 2 researchers to 27, managing over $30M in client accounts across banking, insurance, healthcare, technology, and government
  • Intuitive Company,Senior UX Researcher
    • Served as lead researcher on client engagements, executing qualitative and quantitative methods including card sorting, contextual inquiry, usability testing, and survey design

How I think about UX research for AI products

When I study an enterprise AI system, I'm watching for two things at once: what the output does, and what the process does to the people who used to own it. A well-calibrated agent can return a great answer and still erode a worker's ability to know whether that answer is right. That's not a philosophical edge case: it's the design failure most agentic systems are heading toward.

Areas of expertise

Agentic AI and human reasoningCognitive psychology in UX designTrust and explainability in AI productsPersuasive design and behavior changeEnterprise UX research

Courses Victor teaches

Credentials & Education

  • PhD, Psychology and Communication
    The Ohio State University
  • MEd, Middle Childhood Education
    The Ohio State University
  • BS, Education
    The Ohio State University

Body of work

Connect

New to the Institute?

Start with UX Research for AI Products: Methods for a Moving Target.

Enroll in UX Research for AI Products
Created with