In this video I rant about how UX Design is not rocket science and I talk about how you don’t need a degree in Human Factors or Human Computer Interaction (HCI) to e a good UX Designer.
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I love you Mike! Couldn’t agree more, what you said is truth. I’m currently at my second year of university studying “interactive design” and my god, it’s full of crap. To be honest, I could live my dream without going uni at all. I often get the lowest marks compared to all the other “design” students just because I don’t know the terminology and “principles” of graphic design. But whenever we have projects on designing our own websites/logos/apps, my one always looks the best, everyone’s websites literally look like crap because they never practice. It’s so annoying too because I genuinely love the people at uni, I really have fun hanging out with them and they’re really cool people, but they’ve all been conditioned to believe that you’re a crap designer unless you have a degree. Argh! BTW, check out some of my work Mike! https://moonstudio4.wordpress.com/
im so glad you spoke on this. some of the job descriptions make you feel you need to be a brain surgeon for this. i did a small free course online in the HCI. it was some nice to know things but i dont feel i need to go back to school and get a degree in it.
@Mika – Glad you resonate with what I’m saying. Yes, its taken me a while to realize it. Years and years of working with people (with degrees, expertise in HCI, yada yada yada) and not one thing they do that we (anyone) couldn’t learn naturally. Its all common sense. Yes, UX Design has a process, which anyone can learn within a week or two, but that’s just a process of doing things. Its all based on common sense. I feel your pain, I’ve been there in different situations in the work place. You have great work. Remember, any education/training is good. So if only for that, it helps. But at the end of the day, its not anything you couldn’t earn through trial/error and practice. ;)
@Faith – Yes, HCI are things that’s nice to know. I have a friend who’s super smart in so many non essential things in life. I always tell him “you have a bunch of useless knowledge”…lol. The problem with HCI professionals is that they try to analyze things too deeply when there are so many exceptions. That’s where common sense comes in. I worked with a guy (older guy) who had some HCI experience. He would always tell me that white text on a black background is a no no. True, white text (on black background) is harder on the eyes than the opposite. But in context this rule can be broken. For example, this Nike Ad demonstrates this. Its all in context. You have to observe and see how things work in the real world. School can’t teach you this.