Abstract
User experience (UX) design is becoming increasingly crucial for developing successful software today. It can determine whether or not users stay engaged with a product or service. It is, therefore, important that organizations have their users in mind when developing software and that there is a maturity for UX work. However, there are still organizations which do not value UX highly and where UX maturity is low. This paper reported the results of a survey of 75 practitioners working in software-development environments in Saudi Arabia. The survey was conducted in July 2020 and aimed to explore practitioners' perceptions of UX maturity, UX significance, and the challenges that face UX process in software development environments. The results show a higher than expected perception of organizational UX maturity amongst the practitioners surveyed, with the majority considering their organizations to be at an "Integrated phase". The degree of awareness of UX value was also found higher than anticipated. Furthermore, the study reveals important information about the most used UX methods as task analysis, prototyping, and heuristic evaluation. It also shows that UX assessment and user involvement being considered during different stages of product development, particularly in the prototyping phase. The major challenges that face UX process were found to be the need to improve UX consistency and the ability of teams and departments to collaborate.