Education
Kent State University
Why a UX degree? First, design thinking. In the last five years there’s been an explosion of interest in design thinking across industries, and there’s no better place to learn the model, and how to apply it, than from UX practitioners.
Second, product. It’s the most forgotten of marketing’s 4 P’s. For as long as I’ve been a business professional, so-called “marketers” have focused almost entirely on promotion. Product development, whether it’s a new product or an improved one, relies on design thinking and UX principles to make sure the right product gets made the right way. Then savvy marketers can confirm it’s viable by researching the market opportunity. Marketers left alone can’t reliably create products that people really need.
Third, journeys. For a decade I’ve watched bad marketers try to use UX tools and language without really understanding them. I’ve been guilty of it too. To create customer journeys and personas that work, you have to put in the legwork: research the audience and understand their needs and habits, not just their demographics and user flows.
UX principles make me a better marketer.
Photo: a research session, whiteboard, or UX project in progress
Landscape, about 1600 px wide
And finally, CX. The marketing world has caught on that customer experience is the new hot buzzword, and more than likely the same people who botched customer journeys and personas will try to tackle CX too. I didn’t want to be one of those marketers. A foundation in UX design taught me:
• The kinds of research available, and the tools to assess user needs and success at every stage of the product lifecycle
• The basics of cognitive psychology: how and why people think and act the way they do
• The balance between visual design that looks good and usable design that helps people find things
• Why thoughtful information architecture matters for making content accessible, scalable, and portable
Why Kent State? A couple of colleagues had gone through Kent State, both on campus and online, and had good things to say about the school and its online UX master’s program.
The program is robust, as you can see from the course list below. It covers everything someone working on the edges of UX needs to know to be an effective UXer: design thinking, design principles, research, interaction design, usability, information architecture, UX leadership, and more. For me, that was far more valuable than a boot camp or certificate.
It’s also fully online, with no set meeting times. As a busy parent with a full-time job, being able to study and finish work on my own schedule was critical.
Photo: graduation, or a piece from your UX portfolio
Landscape, about 1600 px wide
Courses I took