The HCI professions
Thousands of new job titles have been created to accommodate the skills that have been created associated with computers and the essential roles they play in modern business. Rapid technological change is modifying the skill requirements for most jobs. HCI is responsible for some of this technological change. As the computer has come to dominate modern business, the role of the products and services that support humans' use of computers has also skyrocketed, which has to lead to the shift in roles and job titles that are filling modern businesses.
According to the US News Report (2018) on "100 Best Jobs", a software developer is the #1 job role, with a median salary of $101,000 and a projected 255,000 openings in the US alone. The best software developers are well-versed in HCI skills and use them to work with teams that focus on users as they build great software. Whether you are coming to HCI from the computer science space or the human design space, there are a plethora of job roles that have not even been invented yet that will be ripe for humans with HCI skills to fill.
HCI is birthed from the academic landscape where computer science departments had to rapidly grow to meet the demand for the jobs and skills required as computers multiplied their influence on our world. A large number of people who worked with HCI and computers or built software were not formally trained in HCI. Take Steve Jobs, for example; he was an enthusiast who saw the potential of a personal computer and knew he could put smart people around him who also believed in the human-centred opportunity to allow the computer to blossom. HCI has a formal place in academia, but also if you were to study all the fields that make up the discipline over the four years of school (or six years with a Master's degree), you would still probably not touch on all these fields.
For example, I have an HCI-adjacent degree with a Master's in Fine Arts (MFA) in Media Design from the Art Center College of Design. The overlap here is between design thinking, human-centred research, and interaction design. The reality is the fields of HCI are broad and deep for a reason. HCI practitioners in the "real world" work in teams. No one team member can be an expert in all the HCI fields. This is a good thing, as great technology and software are a by-product of the diverse thinking possessed by a team.
Another reason HCI covers such a wide field of disciplines is that they have all been impacted by the computer themselves. The computer is a fantastic feedback loop operating on the ideas we are considering. The ability to combine knowledge from computer science into psychology and then carry that over to user experience is how we allow the computer to reinforce our understanding. The knowledge shared between a team that all have sufficient understanding of their fellow team members' skills can create a catalyst for better human-centred solutions. The field of HCI is made up of many growing professions:
These professions include the following:
- Computer science professions
- Information architecture professions
- Computer engineering professions=
- Ergonomics professions
- Design/branding professions
- Ethnography professions
- User interface professions
- Sociology professions
- Language/semiotic professions
- Human factor professions
- Psychology professions
- User experience professions
In the business landscape, this results in job titles that span a super wide range of job opportunities. From user experience designer to systems architect, to frontend/backend engineer, the reality is that HCI skills have never been in higher demand than they are today. Every company from Ford to Fage Greek Yogurt has software systems, web pages, business practices, and customers who interface with their products or services through a computer.
The concepts, skills, discussions, and activities explored in this book will grow your skills in HCI. It is an electric field, and we will cover what we can. However, it will not cover every topic in great depth (otherwise the book would be thousands of pages and frankly unusable), therefore we are going to take a journey through HCI that gives you an in-depth overview with some critical skills to dive into and identify areas where you can continue to grow.
As you continue reading, it will be essential to maintain some questions in mind. Let's look at those now.
Challenge 4 – Self-guided questions
Setup:
- Create a Google doc/Word doc.
Part 1: Write down your answers:
- Write down short answers to the following questions:
- Why do you love computers?
- Where have you already started digging into your HCI sandbox?
- Where do you want to start digging next?
- Why do you want to grow your HCI skills?
- What do you want to get out of joining the HCI community?
- Where are you in your HCI journey? (initial growth, expanding growth, or maintaining sustained growth?)
Part 2: Review your HCI questions:
- Keep these questions handy and return to and review the answers as the book covers them.