While the field of usability has existed for decades, the number and quality of careers in the field have greatly improved in the last 10-15 years. The long-term prognosis for the industry is good: there are constant opportunities in almost every industry since new products and technology come out all the time, in usability as well as user-centered design, interaction design and user experience design.
#13613
Becoming a Usability Professional
To reach the goal of making technology truly suited for humans, the world will need about half a million new usability professionals over the next 20 years. The sooner their training begins, the better off we'll all be. People frequently ask me what it takes to become a usability professional and get a job in the field. The answer lies in characteristics that all great usability professionals share.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Careers>Usability
#13710
Building Blocks to a Body of Knowledge for User-Centered Design: To Certify or Not to Certify
For the past nine months the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) participated in a project to investigate the feasibility of certifying usability (or user-centered design) professionals. The project was kicked off in Salt Lake City last November when a group of people from many organizations, countries and associations met for three days. That meeting ended with a sense of enthusiasm for creating a certification program based on the international standard for a human-centered design process, ISO 13407. The group planned activities to survey professionals to determine the level of support for certification, and to understand the benefits and drawbacks seen by stakeholders.
Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Interface (2002). Careers>Certification>Usability>Body of Knowledge
#28495
The Career Path for Usability Professionals: A Review of the UPA DC June 7, 2006
Learn about the career path of usability professionals from three speakers who have extensive experience in the usability profession, including managers of usability departments and independent consultants.
Dick, David J. Usability Interface (2006). Careers>Usability
#29743
For many practitioners, technical communication can--and should--be the springboard for a different career. Many technical writers and editors have made transitions to related disciplines from which they can influence industry and academia. They now have titles such as marketing and web content writer, usability lab manager, product marketing manager, business operations strategist, and more. This paper summarizes the career evolutions of the author and several colleagues in technical communication, and provides advice to help readers broaden their career horizons.
Rosenbaum, Stephanie L. STC Proceedings (2004). Careers>TC>Usability>Marketing
#26538
Folks on the Interaction Design Discussionion mailing list posted some tips and Web sites helpful in conducting a job search.
IxDA Resource Library (2005). Careers>Usability>Mailing Lists>Interaction Design
#18357
Careers in Technical Communication: Usability 
This paper informs students, parents, and professionals within technical communication about the profession of usability. It starts with various research methods and sources of more information. Then the focus shifts to the profession of usability, discussing topics such as: user-centered design, the definition of usability, possible career tracks, educational opportunities, educational requirements, future trends in the profession of usability, and trends within the field of usability. The paper provides an overview of the profession and relevant issues surrounding it, as well as providing sources of additional information.
Berni, Kevin. Mercer University (2002). Careers>TC>Usability
#18157
Certification of Usability/User Centered Design Professionals: Proposed Competencies
The proposed competencies for a Usability Professional have been derived from ISO 13407, ISO TR 18529 and the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).
Bevan, Nigel. Usability Certification Working Group (2002). Careers>Certification>Usability
#11816
People unfamiliar with usability think that it's cosmetic and can be combined with other phases of development when time is available. It's often difficult to educate them, especially if they are more senior than you are and consider it a waste of time. They will not be convinced by statistics from anywhere other than outside the organization. What should you do next? You may be able to say something like 'It seems your only objection is [whatever], so if we can resolve this issue, do you have any other reasons why we shouldn't do usability testing?' This way, you have their agreement to do usability just as soon as you have resolved the issue.
Dick, David J. Usability Interface (1999). Careers>Usability>Management
#27812
Recognize the many paths to success and be prepared to forge your own if needed. You may find at the end of your 'wrong way' happy clients, satisfied users, and a successful and delivered system.
Bachmann, Karen L. Usability Interface (2006). Careers>Consulting>Usability
#11821
EPSS: What Does It Mean to You
Electronic Performance Support System(s), or EPSS, automates three types of traditional performance support for software users: training, documentation, and help desks. Integrating these support mechanisms into software--using wizards, clear and simple interfaces, and various forms of embedded user assistance--allows novice users to perform competently with minimal help from training, documentation or calls to help desks.
Marion, Craig. Usability Interface (1999). Careers>Usability>Help
#11804
Shared Medical Systems Corporation (SMS) recently combined its 66-person technical writing group and six-person performance-centered design team to form a new department called User Performance. With more and more clinicians—often novice users—interacting with SMS systems, SMS recognized the need to place an increased focus on usability.
Drake, Frederic and Frances L. Fleek. Usability Interface (2000). Careers>Usability
#30634
Getting Hired: What Employers Really Want
We began to work on an event to gather professionals and employers to help us figure out what UX employers really want.
Sanchez-Howard, Olga. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Careers>Usability>User Experience
#21123
Ground Floor Perspective on the Usability Job Hunt
This is a guest written article by Berna Tural, a recent college graduate from Carleton University in Ottawa. She is looking for a job in the usability field. I asked her to tell me more about her experiences so that WebWord readers would understand what it is like to be on the ground floor in usability. Similarly, I wanted people to see the other side of the hunt.
Tural, Burna. WebWord (2001). Careers>Usability>Regional>Canada
#29254
How to Deliver Bad News to Customers
In order to be effective in the usability business, you have to face the fact that you'll have to deliver bad news. You have to talk about what's not working. You might have to bruise egos and make your client uncomfortable.
Rhodes, John S. Apogee. Careers>Consulting>Usability>Collaboration
#27384
How to Find Your Executive Usability Champion
Discusses making usability routine throughout your organization.
Weinschenk, Susan and Jerome Nadel. Human Factors International (2006). Careers>Usability>Collaboration>Workplace
#10579
How Usability-Focused Companies Think
In our consulting work, we’ve noticed that some companies build usable products through the heroic efforts of one or two individuals. Although the end result is desirable, the products suffer when those individuals leave the company. Other clients have established strict processes that are supposed to promote usability. However, because the company has imposed these processes on developers, individuals follow them in letter but not in spirit — they just don’t buy into them.
#10543
#27259
This site is a consolidation of publicly available and privately submitted job postings in HCI, Usability, User Experience, Interaction Design, Information Architecture and Ergonomics.
OK-Cancel. Careers>Job Listings>Information Design>Usability
#20647
Living with Terror: Empowering Ourselves in a Time of Stress
Advice about managing stress in the workplace.
Ziff, Joel D. Usability Professionals Association (2002). Careers>Workplace>Usability
#21253
The Making of a Discipline: The Making of a Title
Many people who work within the design field have had a hard time assimilating the full scope of Experience Design—and a harder time accepting their niches within it. The reasons for this resistance uncover much about the state of design as well as the state of identity.
Shedroff, Nathan. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Careers>Usability>User Centered Design
#21097
Member Profile and Salary Survey
The goal of the 2000 Usability Professionals' Association (UPA) Member Profile and Salary Survey was to gather information that would enable the association to understand the make-up of the membership in order to ensure their needs are being met.
Usability Professionals Association (2000). Careers>Salaries>Usability
#27390
Mentoring for Mainstream Usability
What mentoring is, and how it is different from consulting, training, or educating.
Schaffer, Eric M. and Susan Weinschenk. Human Factors International (2006). Careers>Mentoring>Usability
#26921
Notes for Job Seekers in UI Design
Looking for jobs is tough. I remember when I looked for my first industry job about ten years ago, how frustrating a process it was. I had everything to prove, and every desire to prove it, but few opportunities to do so. And worse, by the time I graduated in May of 94', all of my friends were gone: they moved away in response to job offers. Many of them had jobs lined up before the spring semester even started. Meanwhile I struggled to find good interviews, and maintain the work needed to graduate on time. I think most people, especially students, underestimate how much energy job searching requires, and there really isn’t that much honest guidance on how to be smart in going about it. This essay is an attempt to offer some good advice - the kind I wish I had back in 94'. If you find it useful, please pass it on to other job seekers you know, or if you’re in school, to professors and other students. If you have other suggestions to add, please let me know.
Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2003). Careers>Usability>Interviewing
#20586
Professional Title and Association du Jour
There's been a lot of chatter recently on one of the Yahoo Groups I belong to revolving around the issue of 'we get no respect.' A few people seem to have spent so much time commiserating about their lack of respect, you'd have to wonder just how they get any actual work done. The discussions on this not-so-new theme topic began as a response to Bruce Tognazzini's recent article entitled 'It's Time We Got Respect.' For those of you who are not so flush with unbillable hours to have had time to participate in this lively debate, I'll provide you some background and then get to the heart of the issue I think we, as usability professionals, need to further examine.
Usability Professionals Association (2003). Careers>Usability>Professionalism
#13715
Pulse of the Usability SIG: Signs of Spring?
The mood on the usability e-lists is somber. At the WinWriters conference in February, every hand in the audience went up when we were asked if we knew someone who was out of work. Successive rounds of budget cuts and layoffs mean that even those who are still employed are on tenterhooks, or working even harder to fill the gaps. On list recently, posts were predicting even harder times ahead and worrying about whether it was time for usability practitioners to look for alternate careers.
Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Interface (2002). Careers>Usability
