Choosing a UX School

Greg Walsh
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read
Don’t be fooled into something shiny and hip (like this Peek email messenger). Choose your education on fundamentals. (Photo: Greg Walsh)

As the program director for the MS in Interaction Design and Information Architecture and the User Experience (UX) Design Certificate, I often get asked why a person should choose UBalt over another school, particularly a non-University like General Assembly or Betamore. My answer is the same for each person: It depends…maybe that other program is right for you.

I respect GA and have guest lectured there, but, it is certainly not for everyone. The model of 8-hour a day classes for 6 weeks is really hard for someone to do unless they are unemployed. Sure, they work on lots of projects (sometimes with actual clients) and learn how to do UX but I don’t know if they get the opportunity to learn why they learn the things they do. GA seems like a good choice if you have some experience in the field (especially through self-learning or some on-the-job experience) and you want a boost forward. It’s essentially a trade school for the 21st Century. I’m sure that you’ll have the skills you need for your first UX job but that’s where it ends. I’ve talked with employers who are reticent to higher someone who has gone through these kinds of programs because they weren’t sure if they knew prototyping beyond Axure or Invision. Did they know why we prototype? Did they understand user research? Experiment design?

The University philosophy is to help you with the skills for all your jobs, especially those later in your career. In our program, we don’t just teach you how to prototype, we teach why you prototype and why you use paper and how to talk to people and how to lead and a bunch of other things that go beyond skills and become more like qualities. Writing is a huge part of design (all kinds) and we cover and reinforce it. Our MS and certificate require a class called Humans, Computers, and Cognition where we cover cognitive psych as it applies to our field. That’s 40 hours of class on just that!

Our program, like any good one, takes a holistic portfolio approach to the classes. Each of our traditional classes has some kind of project that would make a fantastic portfolio piece for prospective clients. Most of them are with actual clients with real problems. By the end of our program, you’ll have worked on four or more team projects that tackle real problems to include in your portfolio. To be clear, we also cover “now” skills like software for prototyping, running research, and mobile design. Some of our class are online and we think that’s good for everyone. In fact, employers have told us our team projects that require students to communicate outside of class with people in remote locations is one important skill for the modern workplace.

Then again, the MS might not be for everyone. I’m a stickler for the GRE which has been a great indicator if you’ll finish the program. Some people don’t want to take that test. Doing the program part-time takes three years to complete which might be longer than you want to take. And, it costs money to attend — 36 credits x per credit tuition and fees. It’s an amazing value per dollar (compare us to schools like MICA) but, if you’re paying for it yourself, it is still something to consider. We tried to address these with our Certificate which takes one year and only 12 credits.

People who are shopping for a UX degree/training have a lot of options. My first recommendation would be for a masters (preferably ours), then a university-granted certificate (again, ours), followed by a non-profit (Betamore), and finally, a for-profit training school.

You can contact me at gwalsh@ubalt.edu to discuss these suggestions.

The Digital Whimsy Lab

Stories about UX + Design from the University of Baltimore Digital Whimsy Lab

Greg Walsh

Written by

Associate Prof @ the University of Baltimore. Researcher of: Participatory Design,Children's Tech, Design Thinking, UX

The Digital Whimsy Lab

Stories about UX + Design from the University of Baltimore Digital Whimsy Lab

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade