At last year’s SXSW BiT House, I was struck by the lack of talk about non-computer science careers in technology. Therefore, this article is meant to be an introduction to User Experience (UX) Research and Design as a profession. Like I’ve mentioned before, this field is broad and there are many potential routes into and through it, so I’ll focus this piece on my path. Your mileage may vary.
I have a doctorate from Rice University in something called Industrial/Organizational Psychology with a concentration in Human Factors.
What is I-O?
Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychology is the scientific study of the workplace. Rigor and methods of psychology are applied to issues of critical relevance to business, including talent management, coaching, assessment, selection, training, organizational development, performance, and work-life balance.
From <http://www.siop.org/studentdefault.aspx>
What is Human Factors?
Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data, and other methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.
From <https://www.hfes.org//Web/AboutHFES/about.html>
Basically, that qualifies me as an expert in the study of the intersection of people and technology and also, depending on whom I’m working for at the time, qualifies me to either design or recommend how to design technical systems to be more suitable for humans to use. I then have to socialize my ideas into action within a corporation.
…and I love it. Why? Here’re my top 5 reasons this week.
1. Every day, I try to make magic
As Arthur C. Clarke once said, “technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.” That statement sums up my job’s mission statement quite nicely. I’m one of the elves that are working tirelessly to make technology feel like magic.
Don’t know what I mean? Think of the movie Minority Report. Would the initial scenes have been nearly as compelling if Tom Cruise had to wait 5 minutes for his team of technicians to download the Pre-Cogs “inputs” from their secure network into a database that allowed data manipulation, translate it into something the computer could work with, then clean the data, compress it, and finally transfer it to the smart board for visualization? Nope. That would neither be compelling, nor inspirational.
If we’re ever going to get to super interactions like this, it’s the responsibility of folks like me (UX Professionals) to map out an intuitive workflow and work tirelessly to perfect it. To that end, it’s my job to research end user (and administrator) capabilities, their current workflows, and conceptualize solutions that capitalize on both. After research and design, I collaborate with engineers and other designers to refine and deliver magical solutions. Ok, they’re not always magical, but each time we get a little closer…
This process was put well by a manager in a Computerworld article a few months ago: ”I want you to be a wizard of understanding the mental model of the user and translating that into the behavior of the application. You have to always think about making the user comfortable, about not creating any friction between what the user expects to happen and what the application expects from the user.”
2. I am an influencer
Since I spend so much time researching human behavior and competitive experiences, I am an advisor. I am consulted by Product, Marketing, Development, and Design professionals for my expert opinion.
Consequently, in my current job as a UX Researcher, continuous learning is EXPECTED of me. I keep up with trends in my academic field, attend conferences, try out new research methods and bring that knowledge into any organization I work for. (Previously, when I was an Interaction Designer, the continuous learning is expected to come less from academic sources and more from trade talks and industry publications.)
Another side of this influence, is the potential impact I have on my field in general. Despite the amazing work of Human Factors scientists going back for decades, User Experience is a new field that has to change and adapt to an ever changing business landscape. As such, I get to mentor less experienced peers, I’m requested to “teach” research skills to product managers, and (this varies by employer) I participate in professional conferences to exchange knowledge with peers in other industries.
3. I get to see people change
In a lot of ways, a UX Researcher is like your club Historian. In addition to finding out how to mold technology to be more suitable to humans, I get to watch it change and document how that affects user performance, expectations, and perception.
Remember when IT Managers always said “no”? I was there when they started saying “yes” to end user “wants.” It was a slow change, but when it started to happen, there were quite a few doubters on my team. It was my job to collect actionable evidence to change doubters into believers and evangelists.
To that end, when my expert opinion isn’t enough, I get to DO SCIENCE. Ok, most of the time user researchers do pretty simple stuff that wouldn’t pass for science in many circles (e.g. usability testing, user interviews, simple observational studies and basic surveys), but I still conduct human subjects research — real people in a lab doing tasks or in the field responding to stimuli. I then use these data points (and lots of quotes and video) to influence organizational change and impact design.
4. I get to make technology work for people
Think about that for a second. As a UX professional, I have a huge responsibility that’s hugely rewarding. While I don’t often invent things, program them, or fabricate them, I get to make sure all that work gets used and fits into people’s home or work lives.
I am the apprentice that takes magical technologies and strives to make it accessible to more people — from payments systems that anyone can use to encryption consoles that don’t require special training. Put another way, a major part of my job is to stop excluding people from technological systems because they are intimidating or unusable.
My job is to focus on people, since most of the other people involved with creating a product are focused on making the technology work.
Astronauts are users too. Researching people at work can be quite rewarding… and really cool. (Danielle and Shannon Lucid, 2006)
This is the most important, and sometimes most difficult, part of UX work. Determining who the user is can be tricky, their needs are elusive, it can be difficult to predict what they will value, and (especially if your user group is non-traditional) it can be difficult to convince your team to take a more difficult technical design route that results in a simple user experience. Given all this uncertainty, fighting for the user can be difficult, but see #3. In these cases, I get to bring data to the party and spend a lot of time making presentations, working relationships, and helping my team visualize a solution (e.g. prototyping).
5. They pay me for this
Sometimes, of course, I feel like I don’t get paid enough, but mostly I’m astonished that I get paid to have so much fun. Salary ranges for UX professionals are well over the national average and are comparable, in some cases, to computer science-based careers. So, as you consider a career in technology, don’t count out options on the “softer side” for fear of reduced cash flow.
Median salaries and 95% confidence intervals by job type and year (from Jeff Sauro’s great quantitative usability blog: http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/ux-job-salary.php)
Another point that shouldn’t be lost, is that my background and training provide me with a degree of professional flexibility. I can change domains pretty easily – some of the fields I’ve worked in include space, healthcare, computer hardware, security software, and ecommerce. I can also change job types if the market (or my preferences) require. Further, I fit the job requirements for user research, information architect, usability engineer, market researcher, business analyst, and even product management. So, even when I’m not loving my job at that moment, I’m comforted by the possibilities offered by the path that I’ve chosen within technology.
What does a User Experience Researcher do? We fight for the user with a few tools: a drive for delight and simplicity, systematic research, documentation, and lots of presentations.
Do you have to have a PhD to get a UX job? Of course not, that was my path. I’ve picked up quite a few interesting skills (and stories) along the way, so it was the right way for me to get here. Like I mentioned, your mileage (and your vehicle) may vary.
Think your profession is cooler than mine? Any questions about the things I brought up or left out? Tell me about it in the comments.
