FAQ that describes user experience as a profession. Also lists professional resources in the NY, NJ, and PA area for User Experience Professionals. Prepared for my talk at "interface 2012", at Rutgers on 2012-11-15. (Dick Herring)
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User Experience Info Sheet - interface 2012 - Rutgers
1. WHAT IS USER EXPERIENCE?
It is designing and managing “usability” … plus other
things that affect product or service desirability. Peter
Morville extended the UX horizon in 2004
(http://semanticstudios.com/)
Also, see S. Psomas for a discussion of what
specialties people hire for:
http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2007/11/the-
five-competencies-of-user-experience-
design.php
And see W. Hess; for list of what is “NOT”
http://mashable.com/2009/01/09/user-
experience-design/
How good are the career opportunities?
Generally pretty good, especially if you become “good”, because UX helps to create
revenue or to save costs through efficiency. It is flogged as a highly desirable and growing
profession.
USA Today;
http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2007/12/19/usabilityuser-
experience-specialist-executive-summary
Salary and opportunities: http://www.onwardsearch.com/careers/user-experience-
careers-guide/
What things do User Experience Professionals do?
A variety of interesting things, because there is often a need to understand users and
goals and then do analysis and design. Agile methods also are becoming “flavors” of UX.
See Usability process and best practices: http://usability.gov/guidelines/
See UX Magazine: http://uxmag.com/most-popular
See Dick Herring’s unedited links on Delicious: http://delicious.com/rdherring5/ux
General articles on usability at Jakob Nielsen’s site: http://www.useit.com/
interface - Rutgers - 2012 Richard D. Herring rdherring5@yahoo.com
2. page 2
What professional communities will support me?
UX professionals have both local and international org’s to help.
Usability Professionals Association: http://www.upassoc.org/chapters/index.html
Usability NJ (the local UXPA Chapter): http://www.usabilitynj.org/
Philly Chi (Philadelphia chapter of ACM): http://phillychi.acm.org/
Society for Technical Communication: http://www.stc.org/
New York City UPA: http://www.nycupa.org/
Delaware Valley UPA: http://upadelawarevalley.org/
What steps should I take next?
Explore the links listed on this handout.
Join UXPANJ at a local meeting or event. http://www.usabilitynj.org/about
Join UXPANJ (and other UX interest groups) us at Yahoo! Groups, LinkedIn.com or
Twitter (@upa_nj).
Reach out to a UPA Officer or Member for advice. They’ll help!
interface - Rutgers - Fall 2012 Richard D. Herring rdherring5@yahoo.com