Is there a job for newly graduate people in this field? [closed]

Question

Update a little bit more information about me:

I try to look for job in Sweden since HCI is not very big in my home country. Maybe there is someone from sweden can enlighten me. But all the advices are welcome. Another thing I think I should mention is I can speak fluently English but my swedish is still growing =(

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I studied Computer science at university then worked for around 5 years in software development and testing field. After these I went to sweden and took a HCI master program. During the master program, except study theories, we worked with some swedish companies for some projects. Most of them is usability evaluation, usability test conducting and design. A few project were about Visualization, user centered design and interaction design. I am mainly interested in everything about usability and interaction design. After I graduated, there were a few companies contacted with me for interview but they rejected me later for reasons like I don't have real work experience or my portfolio is not "professional" enough.

I admit that I am not very good at Photoshop or other tools for making things very pretty. In fact, sometimes with I look at job requirement, they all look like people look for web site visual designer but they write the job title wrong.

I really need some advice about what kind job I should look for? I don't see any entrance job for HCI people or should I tried to become a web designer before I can work with some thing really about UX?

ps: I know CSS and HTML and several other web languages, but of course I am not as good as people who really work with web design. and the portfolio collects prototypes ( paper or wireframe) or some conceptual design (which are not very pretty).

Answer 1

It's easy that an employee that was hired as an interaction designer or usability expert tends to become more integrated into the development or graphical parts of the project. Often because these are areas that on many workplaces are considered to take more time than to "doodle up an interface and perform some tests". This of course is incorrect, something that the majority on this forum can probably agree on.

The interface design and interaction design of a product is a continuous process, where previously evaluated areas has to be revisited because of new requirements etc.. It's important that the manager of the project is aware of this, and values the work of the designer and believes in their work without having to see code being written or icons being drawn. Therefore it really depends on which mindset the manager has and what she expects from you, and you being totally transparent with which tasks you expect to get in your work routine.

This can be hard to distinguish in some work ads, although it has become somewhat easier now since descriptions like "Interaction designer" or "Usability expert" are usually something that an employer knows what it entails. However you do learn most by meeting with them. What I usually do during an interview is to ask if I'm expected to do any coding, resource development (icons, styling, graphical resource development etc..) or if those tasks are exclusive to other employees of the project. People that I'm expected to interact with and work alongside with to be able to execute my work as a designer, but never however to extend into actually developing my own design.

If it sounds something like this in the interview then you're probably looking at the type of position that you seek.

Answer 2

Yes there certainly are jobs for graduates and with your development background you'll be well suited to working in an environment / company where great experiences can develop as your ability to discuss the detail required of the interactions that define the experiences you'd be designing.

I agree that a lot of 'UX' job descriptions are, as Alexej notes really UI design roles with a bit of UX knowledge - this is because UI design is one part of many that make up UX as a whole. In agencies (most any ways - there are exceptions to this rule) UX is something that is very difficult to define in the mind of clients who see UX as a set of wireframes and maybe a site map (IA) and therefore bill time against for the research required to define whats to become part of those wireframes and IA.

Those agencies that do excel at UX, HCI, Interaction design are sort out by clients who understand the need for a considered research based UX and encourage the agency to become one with their organisation so that they can start often very difficult conversations and act as the facilitator to drive organisational change - this is something most 'design lead' or 'technical lead' agencies rarely get the chance to do or are very reluctant to take on as its hard and takes a lot of time, unfortunately it's really a prerequisite for designing great User Experiences.

An alternative way into the industry might be via product management, working in-house to define a product or service from all angles not just digital. This shows both sides of the practice, defining and delivering the UX design process internally through to buying (outside) agency services to deliver specialist aspects of the research, design or planning of a product.