What I meant by a “good starting point”

As a person who has been in your shoes, I’ve also been in a situation (when I started to get myself in UX) where the tech field seems like it only existed for engineers or designers. I still remember myself being afraid of the words, terminologies and the acronyms that I didn’t even understand.

To be honest though, there’s no magic to understanding all this and you shouldn’t. What you should know is that UX is currently in a high demand all across the industries across the world.

Why? Well in short, in order for industries to generate revenue, maintain their infrastructure and all that, what do they need? Yes, they need to have users or customers that use their products. User Experience (UX) is all about understanding the behaviors (ex. pain points) that the users have and approach them if necessary to help design a better experience for them so that ultimately at the end of the day, they will come back to use the products again.

“Which jobs to go for? UX Research, UX Design, UX Engineers… and so on. There are so many”

So, what kind of roles do UX professionals take? I bet when you heard about the various kinds of jobs out there, most of the UX jobs were posted from software or information technology (IT) companies. Yes, majority of jobs related to UX are from those industries. However, there are plenty of other types of industries that look for talents in UX also. For example, some of the job postings that I came across were from automobile industries, gaming industries, consulting, business and even retail. It seems like, as long as there are users, there are always work needed for the UX professionals.

So, let’s get back to the point of why I said you, as a psychologist have a good starting point. Like I said, UX is all about understanding people. By learning about psychology, you are at a point where you already have some familiarity about people in general and the reasonings behind their actions. The theories that you learned, loads of reading that you had finished reading with Red Bull in your hands and being able to empathize with people are some of the knowledge that will help you approach the field of UX.

“Wouldn’t companies want a more technical person for the job? I don’t know a single thing about design or code”

I’ve seen many people asking this question. In my own point of view, I’d say “it depends.” The tools, skills and knowledge really depends on what kind of professional role you wish to take on in your career. You just have to follow your passion and interest and as you are digging through it, the door will open for you with opportunities that you find interesting.

As a person who has a better understanding of people, the way in which you can bring your knowledge to the table could potentially come in many different ways. Depending on your expertise and your interest, you may find research more interesting. Or you may find designing more interesting. If you are like me who feels passionate about designing, develop your skills and knowledge more towards UI/UX Design with the basis of understanding people and their needs. If you are more interested in doing more of research rather than design, like understanding people’s behaviors towards the products through conducting interviews, testings and analyzing the results, take a more UX Research focused direction. However, depending on the company size, the culture and your job title, the roles and responsibilities you have will be different from time to time.