The UX — Psychology pipeline is broken (if it ever existed in the first place).

Bradlyn Walker
Aug 22, 2017 · 5 min read

Even in 2017, it’s still safe to say that UX is a young field. We’re just now witnessing the first generation actually going to school to become specialists in some area of UX, rather than falling into the field through amalgams of experience in realms like visual design, industrial design, computer science, QA, what have you. When it comes to UX research (or any other discipline by extension really), having a background in Psychology has been invaluable. It took me some time to realize that though.

I entered Georgia Tech’s Human Computer Interaction program after almost two years in academic psychology research and a year stint doing R&D at a biomedical company. I felt pretty confident going into the first day of the research methods course that I’d know a decent amount of the topics they’d be covering; I already knew how to make surveys, do data analysis and I figured the ability to apply this knowledge in a computer-based setting would be the only thing I was missing. At some point during the lecture, the question was posed to name some of the research methods out there. I distinctly remember some of the ones named: ethnography, card sorting, task analysis, affinity diagramming and so on. I remember these because I had no clue what any of these were. Why had these never even been mentioned in my undergraduate? Part of that answer lies in the fact that my Psych degree gave me a really strong background in handling quantitative data. Qualitative data? Not so much.

I was at a mock interview towards the end of last year where a group of professionals in Atlanta’s UX scene came to Georgia Tech to give us feedback on what we brought to the table- I mean that both figuratively and literally, they looked over our resumés and portfolios. However I didn’t have a portfolio by this point, all it would have been at that point is a link to my research papers anyway. As I was thanking the last mentor looking over my resumé, he mentioned one more thing:

“Play up the Psychology angle, it’s important and interesting.”

The second part is a bit of a paraphrase, I was just excited to hear that I had a niche I could fill in relation to my peers who all seemed to have these incredible and professional portfolios to showcase like Mary Poppins’ magic bag.

Pictured here: that friend that majored in ID in undergrad with the portfolio project perfectly tailored to what the recuiter’s looking for.

That advice has served me pretty well so far, I landed a few interviews with some really great companies that often started their questioning with how my background shapes how I see UX research. I also feel that I have an extended toolbox of ways to tackle a problem space that I wouldn’t have if I didn’t major in Psychology back at Georgia State, work that I did in attention and memory gives me greater insight about how long a user is willing to engage with an interface. When I talked to others in my program who also came from a Psychology background, they voiced a similar sentiment; key research methods came from some concept in Psychology so they have a stronger feel for the applications and limits of each tool. Why is it then that UX wasn’t ever mentioned as a possible career path by my professors in undergrad?

Fast forwarding to current day, I’m fresh off a UX research internship at Amazon (disclaimer/reminder: not speaking as an official representative). I’ve spent twelve awesome weeks leveraging my background in Psychology to design smart and effective studies (really! one participant wrote in after a study to mention how much he enjoyed the experience, and I’ll have you know I was only giddy for 10 straight minutes, thank you very much) as well as use my lens, rooted in a lot of previous research, to pull out some powerful findings from the data. I count myself very fortunate to walk the path I am on now, but what choices would I havemade differently had I known about UX when I was back in my undergraduate program? More importantly, why is the pipeline between UX and Psychology in the condition that it is right now?

Possibility 1: Psychology programs aren’t doing enough to engage with UX/HCI.

Psychology has been one of the most popular degrees in the United States for several years now. The effect of this is that it’s uncommon to find a career in Psychology with a Bachelors degree. You often need at least a Masters for things like Social Work or Counseling. To be an actual “Psychologist” nearly necessitates a Ph.D. So now you have a surplus of well educated people who may be interested in staying in the field but, for one reason or another, choose not to pursue additional schooling. These are future UX’ers in waiting! The long term solution to this problem is review of Psychology curriculums and seeing where an HCI research methods course could fit, but this is expensive and requires a lot of people with rubber stamps to make possible. A short term solution would be for UX groups or HCI programs to take themselves to the Psychology programs which leads me to my next point.

Possibility 2: UX/HCI teams aren’t doing enough to engage with Psychology programs.

I’m early in my career as a UX Researcher, but I’ve met other kickass researchers with a lot of diverse backgrounds: Neurobiology, Quality Assurance, Anthropology, the list goes on. This is awesome, there’s no singular foundation for becoming a UX Researcher nor should there be. If the industry continues to look for people who can wear a variety of hats (i.e. an ethnographer, writer, data analyst, and scripter, lest the word “unicorn” be dropped), Psychology graduates often have foundation in most of these areas. If demand for UX Researchers rises in the next few years, companies who connect with Psychology departments in the way they do CS departments may find an untapped resource in students that can adapt pretty quickly to industry research.

Final Thoughts

Much of what I’ve talked about here can apply to other disciplines like Sociology or Anthropology. Also, not every person coming out of school with a Bachelors in Psychology will be interested in entering tech, nor should they be forced to. However, there’s room for Psych programs to start getting more acquainted with mentioning places in the tech industry as potential career paths. Likewise, companies hiring for UX positions, especially UX researchers, might benefit from seeking out soon-to-graduate Psychology majors for their next superstar team member. We promise not to read your thoughts.

What are your thoughts? Is there something missing? Leave applause and a response below!

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