Preparing Future UX Professionals

Abstract

The field of user experience (UX) is growing and rapidly evolving. As instructors who teach in and help design UX programs for students in higher education, we are interested in developing compelling and relevant educational experiences for our students who aim to work as UX professionals. To gain a better understanding of the current expectations for working in the UX industry, we conducted 64 interviews with 71 senior UX industry professionals to learn about their current practices and their expectations of what skills new employees need to be successful working in UX. In this paper, we present a subset of findings from the study that focus on desired skills (both human and technical) and dispositions of UX employees. We discuss the implications of this research for teachers and students and a call for future work. CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing → Education; • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI); Empirical studies in HCI.

Tools, Potential, and Pitfalls of Social Media Screening: Social Profiling in the Era of AI-Assisted Recruiting

“…According to LinkedIn Talent Solutions (2019), soft skills in high demand in the workplace include creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, and time management. Soft skills , or human skills, are “demonstrable skills that involve engaging directly with others to achieve goals related to work” (Rose et al, 2020, p. 4). These skills are often transferable, enabling working professionals to move from one industry to another, as Huang et al (2021) found.…”

“…These skills are often transferable, enabling working professionals to move from one industry to another, as Huang et al (2021) found. Scholars have demonstrated the necessity and feasibility of teaching in-demand soft skills in TPC classrooms, helping students to recognize that acquiring soft skills “may be even more important than learning technical tools or new research methods” (Anthony & Garner, 2016; Rose et al, 2020, p. 7). To develop students’ soft skills, instructors can incorporate multiple assignments into their curricula, such as cases, scenarios, self-evaluation, and interviews, to cultivate students’ positive attitudes and work ethics and develop their teamwork, leadership, empathy, oral and written communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.…”