[IxDA Discuss] Disillusioned Junior Designers

[Chris Dame]

Great points brought up by everyone so far on this. These are valid issues
for most people entering the workforce, but especially so in our field in
the current climate. The field has changed a lot since I entered it nearly
a decade ago, growing and solidifying into something more established and
defined. However, I think this is a bit of an indicator about the current
state of the field as a whole. I have established IxD groups in several
different companies now, and as such i have seen a lot of the different
expectations about what companies have for "User Experience" and
Designers. Also, this thread intrigued me enough that I spoke to a few
recent grads, specifically from the SCAD IxD program.

It feels like IxD is in a state of transition right now, and is
experiencing growing pains. The field is quickly becoming well-known and
desired, and the practitioners in the field are happy to join in the fray.
Almost everyone I have met in the field has been very enthusiastic and
excited about the work they do, and very eager to spread the word and make
the world a better and more usable place. This is true with students
especially, and we have a great community to share resources and
enthusiasm here, which adds to the fire.

However, it feels like we haven't reached critical mass yet. Business
magazines and other left-brain organizations are realizing and publishing
articles that the user experience is extremely important, and the space is
opening within companies for our field to come in. There seems to be a lot
of "Okay, add user experience to this, but make it quick. I don't want a
high-risk ROI", which leads to a lot of frustration and feeling
undervalued on the side of the IxD. This isn't exactly a conducive
environment to establishing proper procedures for IxD through research and
iteration, which requires time and patience. Drastically changing existing
procedures to accommodate yourself isn't something people like to do when
first joining a company, especially fresh out of college.

Now, this certainly isn't the case everywhere, and there are definitely
examples where it has been done right. Unfortunately, the odds of a recent
graduate finding these places are pretty slim, as they focus on getting
more experienced people through networking, not scouting colleges for
fresh young faces. So the promising young people go to the places they see
available, and are thrown into an existing project with no real hope of
changing the environment to allow them to do their job, much less giving
them enough room to learn and practice.

In all, I think we are on the right track. We have people who are excited
and enthusiastic. We have learning institutions set up that give people a
solid education on how to do their job. Now we just need to get our best
practices out there and known by the greater community. Once the people in
companies recognize that IxD isn't something you can hire a head on and
call it done, but instead requires several iterations of research and user
testing, then implementation of new findings from these tests, we will
have the context available for students to be able to easily apply their
skills and focus on more important things than the evangelizing we've
become so accustomed to.

-Chris Dame
http://theusabilityofthings.com


--- "Jon Kolko [SCAD]" <jkolko at scad.edu> wrote:

I want to share with the list an email I just
received from one of my
students.
...

I'm curious how other educators handle this.
...

I'm also interested to find out how the rest of this
list feels ...