Why psychology is a great background to be a UX Designer
The mission of the UX Designer is to design the user experience. Behind this obvious name, a lot of things are hidden. The UX Designer has to come up with an intuitive, relevant and consistent experience for a product; based on the user’s needs and characteristics. Our work is to make the use of a product smooth and easy, to increase the user’s satisfaction, from the simple interface to the full journey.
This job is quite trendy nowadays, but one doesn’t become a UX expert just like that. Several backgrounds exist to build strong knowledge to use in this field. From my point of view, one of the bests is psychology; I’m not unbiased since it’s mine. People are often surprised by my psychologist status to work in new technologies, but I will explain why it is fully relevant, with the most objective arguments as possible.
To design for humans, you must know humans
Well, it is self-evident...
Studying psychology is the best way to know humans, and through different prisms:
- Clinical and psychopathology: mental disorders and illnesses, and how to treat them. The most well-known psychology.
- Development: how humans grow, from womb to tomb, and the different specificities of each age.
- Social: how humans are influenced by others, and dynamics in groups.
- Cognitive: mental processes, how humans perceive their world, learn, memorize, think, use languages, solve problems and feel emotions.
With this knowledge, you can adapt your product to humans, and every type of users target: from children to elderlies, from novices to experts in a field, with or without disabilities, etc. You can understand their particular needs and motivations.
To become a UX Designer, I highly recommend a specialization in Cognitive Psychology, Usability or both. A lot of universities now offer this kind of master’s degree. If you choose another one, you will have a lot to catch up with Human-Machine Interfaces before being operational.
To design for humans, you must know how to study them
Analyzing humans is hard, but you will need specific knowledge about them considering your product. You must be able to both conduct research into your target beforehand, and assess your product with users, with the least biases possible.
Psychology is a science, it relies on compulsory and strict methodologies to make quantitative or qualitative researches. This skill is also needed to be able to choose the right methodology to set up objective user tests, and to properly interpret their results; taking biases into account and limiting them as much as possible since you can’t completely avoid them.
To design for humans, should you know how to design graphical assets?
One of the other regular backgrounds to become a UX designer is graphic design. Indeed, as a cognitive psychologist I can’t design my own graphical assets or pixel perfect interfaces.
As far as I’m concerned, it isn’t an issue. This kind of work belongs to the graphic or UI designer. Aesthetics is really important for the user experience, an ugly product won’t be perceived as user-friendly even if its mechanisms are. Art direction is a job in its own right. You can’t do everything…
Or yes you could… But it won’t be the same quality as with an expert in each field. I understand that not every company can afford hiring both a UX and a UI designer. Depending on your product goal, a single UI/UX designer can be enough for a while, but you won’t have the same set of skills as with 2 dedicated persons. Hire experts as soon as possible, that’s worth it!
Then, what does the UX Designer really design?
We don’t design graphic charter but we do design:
- Interactions: how the user can interact with the product, and how the interface gives signs and feedback to guide the user with this interactions.
- Userflows: different paths the user will follow by using the product.
- Mockups and wireframes: how information and UI elements are organized.
- Usability charter: guidelines to respect in the product, like the minimum contrast for readability or the look difference for actionable and non-actionable elements.
Psychology studies are a great basis, but aren’t enough…
To design for humans, you must be aware of design
Psychology knowledge is a relevant background for UX Design but then, you need to keep you inform on technologies and Human-Machine Interfaces. The communication with your peers or mentor is really important, it will help you to be aware in a constantly evolving field.
Attend meetups, follow inspiring people on social networks, read articles, try products, the world is full of UX resources!
But remember: you need the right education and/or experience to put the information you get into perspective and to use them correctly.
To design for humans, you must know the product you design
Knowing your product is obviously mandatory: its history, goals, current users and their habits, user targets, competitors, etc. Your aim is to design the user experience for this product, in its context. You must analyze your product business, work closely with marketing.
Final thoughts
I’m not saying that the only way to become a great UX Designer is to be a psychologist. A lot of talented and famous UX Designers aren’t, every background has its pros and cons.
What I’m saying is that psychology is an excellent opening to this complex activity. Moreover, it is really a plus for human-like and immersive technologies.
For example, knowing about emotions and communication really helped me, especially in Humanoid Robotics.
In Virtual and Mixed Reality, senses are misled, we perceive things that don’t exist. Cognitive psychology is a huge advantage to design comfortable and consistent experiences. Social psychology is also applicable to structure interactions inside those virtual new worlds.
On top of that, I noticed that psychologists are quite wanted profiles for this job. If you love both psychology and new technologies like me, don’t hesitate!
Finally, beware, whatever your background is, a few days training is tempting but isn’t enough to pretend to a UX Designer position. If it’s really your dream job, make the needed efforts, don’t take the easy shortcut.
I am really happy with the choice I made years ago. UX Design is trendy and exciting, but it doesn’t have a conventional schooling. I hope this article will help people interested in this job.
Thank you for reading, please 👏 👏 👏 if you enjoyed it and feel free to give me your feedback, whatever your background is!
If you want to know more about what a UX Designer position can be, I invite you to read my other articles:
