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Design UX Basics What is User Experience (UX)? The Backgrounds of Great UX Designers

Pontus Warnestal
Pontus Warnestal
10,910 Points

I'm surprised "Library Sciences" is mentioned before Cog Sci, HCI, etc.

Anyone else thinks this is a little strange overview of suitable UX backgrounds? I would expect to see Cognitive Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Anthropology, for example...

2 Answers

jam
jam
3,257 Points

Depends on your approach, I imagine. A lot of information architects came out of the library sciences, so I hear it mentioned quite frequently in the literature.

But, to me, IAs tend to be focused more on the overall structure and systems (how does the information fit together) while UX Designers focus most on users and Interaction Designers focus most on individual interactions within the interface. Not that these don't all overlap in a giant, happy venn diagram, but those are the distinctions I tend to see among my colleagues.

I'm very surprised backgrounds in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors and Interaction Design were not mentioned. If the job of a UX professional is to construct solutions in the human-centric and empathetic manner these seem like the foundational educational backgrounds to come from, at least in my opinion.