[IxDA Discuss] "Design" in Interaction Design?

[Eva]

Bryan, with all due respect,  I think there is a big difference
between the 'ability to empathize with human behavior' and a
structured background in psychology, especially the cognitive side.
What has bothered me about the Nielsen thread is the patronizing
attitude that graphic designers have special magical skills that the
rest of us could never understand, while the user experience people
have the easy job of testing and maybe some understanding of pop
psychology that's quite commonsense to begin with.

I think that what we need to maintain our credibility as professionals
are solid arguments for why we do (or dare I say why we design) things
a certain way, and arguments like 'I can empathize with users' or 'I
have the magic touch' just don't cut it.

Lucy, to answer your question, in my experience, a pretty large
percentage of human factors professionals (many of whom do work as IAs
and interaction designers, as well as user researchers) have
psychology in their background.   It is probably one of the four most
common paths to the profession - the other being programming, graphic
design, and documentation.

-eva

-- 
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kaniasty