Business: UX Skills

As usability and user experience continue to become priorities for companies developing products and experiences, the demand for UX professionals is growing. However, those who lack a traditional design, usability, or human-computer interaction background face significant obstacles in making a successful transition into the field of User Experience, as Jon Walter noted in his recent article on UXmatters, “Breaking into the Field of User Experience.”

But it can be done! Amy originally planned to become a university professor. Ruben wanted to be a doctor. A LinkedIn connection put us in touch. Although our backgrounds are quite different, we both have a deep passion for User Experience and had some surprisingly similar experiences on our path into the field. Even though we’ve never met in person, the timing of our connecting with one another created a serendipitous opportunity for this virtual collaboration in sharing our UX stories. Read More

In this special sesquicentennial (150th) edition of Ask UXmatters, our expert panel ponders the future of UX design. Our panelists discuss the sustainability of the discipline of User Experience, specialization in the UX professions, required skills for UX designers, the value of T-Shaped people; merging the best practices of Product Management, User Experience, and Engineering; sharing the ownership of User Experience, the growing importance of design as strategy, user experiences of future technologies—including interacting with our environments—and how all of this can help us create a better world.

I want to thank the many UX experts who have contributed to Ask UXmatters since its first edition, “Choosing the Language for a User Interface,” in November 2008. We have covered a wide variety of UX topics since then, including strategy, user research, design validation, working with stakeholders, agile and Lean methodologies, systems engineering and interrelated systems, and artificial intelligence. We’ve seen tremendous growth in the field of User Experience since 2008. This column would not be a success without the time and efforts of our more than 100 expert-panel members, from six of the world’s seven continents. Thanks to the many readers of Ask UXmatters as well. I sincerely hope that this column helps you to advance and grow in our field. Read More

In this edition of Ask UXmatters, our experts discuss what skills are essential and desirable for a UX Designer.

Each month in Ask UXmatters, our panel of UX experts answers our readers’ questions about a broad range of user experience matters. To get answers to your own questions about UX strategy, design, user research, or any other topic of interest to UX professionals in an upcoming edition of Ask UXmatters, please send your question to us at: [email protected].

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