Usability/User Experience Specialist

FutureWork

Usability specialists make sure that products, especially technical ones, are easy and pleasurable to use.

How? First, they observe and interview potential users to identify their needs and preferences.

After a prototype is developed, they watch and interview potential users again and suggest revisions.

Not surprisingly, the job outlook for usability specialists is strong. The number of new, complex products is proliferating, and many of them demand a usability specialist.

Some specialize in conducting usability tests or other user research while others practice usability as part of other responsibilities in designing products, services, software applications or web sites.

The training and professional background of usability professionals is equally broad. Many have qualifications in closely related fields like human-computer interaction (HCI), information

The activities of a usability professional - or the time spent on usability activities for those with other primary responsibilities - are all part of an approach to design called user-centered design.

They span the entire product life-cycle from user research during planning and early visioning to the final rollout or release of a product.

There is an international standard, ISO 13407 that is the basis for many user-centered design approaches.

Broadly speaking, usability activities can be divided into:

• Research - learning about the people who will use a product and the context in which it will be used.
• Evaluation - observing (and learning from) users as they work with a product before, during and after the design and development process.
• Design - whether it is called interface, interaction, information or experience design.

A potential downside of this career is that shortsighted companies believe they can make products without a specifically trained usability expert, so you may have to spend considerable time justifying your service’s value. Another drawback is that you may need to make efforts to avoid being typecast as someone who can help design only one kind of product.

Those concerns are usually dwarfed by the good feeling of continually creating products that are a pleasure to use.

In keeping with the diversity of usability professionals, there is a wide range of titles. The most common titles include:

User Experience Practitioner
Interface Designer
Usability Practitioner
User-Centered Design Practitioner
Information Architect
Usability Manager

National Median Pay

$98,800.
(Data provided by PayScale.com)

Training

People can enter this field with a wide range of backgrounds. They may have degrees in fields such as computer science, cognitive psychology, anthropology, human factors, library science, or marketing. They may have practical experience in customer service, quality assurance, marketing, and product development.

User experience professionals are highly educated. Over half of those surveyed had an advanced degree (a Masters or PhD)
Over 90% hold a Bachelors’ degree or higher.

Many of our survey respondents hold degrees in Human Factor Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, or Computer Science. Other educational backgrounds include Business Administration or Management, Technical Communications, Fine Arts and other social sciences.

A master’s degree in usability can enhance your ability to get hired, but more important may be the ability to think rigorously and relentless curiosity about how to make products more user-friendly. Key to getting hired is practical experience. A listing of usability graduate degree programs in found at http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/degrees.asp

Other Resources

• Usability Professional Association http://www.upassoc.org
• Computer Human Interaction http://www.sigchi.org : a special-interest group of the Association for Computing Machinery

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By Marty Nemko
December 19, 2007
US News and World Report
http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/best-careers/2007/12/19/usabilityuser-experience-specialist-executive-summary.html

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