I concur with Dan and Eva, although I think it depends largely on the type of work you're doing. My doctoral work in HCI definitely transferred to my applied work in the wireless industry, particularly with call analytics, usability testing, and field research. I'm also better able to defend my recommendations and designs against power hungry PMs using statistics and proper research methods. Knowledge of human factors guidelines, seminal research, and methods in human factors (many being "rediscovered" by practitioners in the field) such as KLM, for predicting the impact of business critical designs, has been helpful. Of course, I don't carry them out to the same detail as I may have while doing research in school.
Someone brought up the MBA -- I'm also pursuing one of those part-time, and it's been helpful to the extent that it provides context (i.e., business language and awareness) in which to make my recommendations to the business, particularly with analytics work, since I don't have an undergraduate business degree. Nothing that couldn't be learned on my own for sure, but it is definitely speeding up the process. Finally, as Dan alluded to, my design (grad and undergrad) coursework also gave me an arena in which to explore things I simply have not been able to at my job. Academia is a great place to work on one of those "wouldn't it be cool if?" things that we don't have time for in the real-world.. like the Google search engine. http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html Phil ----- Original Message ---- From: Dan Saffer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: IxDA Discuss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 1:01:38 PM Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] US News thinks we have potential! On Dec 28, 2007, at 7:41 AM, Eva wrote: > I found that what I got from my Master's degree was quite different > than > what I've gotten from work experience. It gave me a theoretical > framework > to base my decisions on, and to better persuade others. And yes, it > helps > with job choice and salary. Other than that, I would say that a huge > benefit of the Master's was networking, and making a lot of > connections in > the field. I agree with Eva. I had quite a few years work experience when I got my M.Des. and it was the theory and training I wouldn't--couldn't-- have gotten elsewhere that made the whole experience worthwhile. Yes, there was some, "Well, duh," moments, but it certainly wasn't all overlapping. Dan Dan Saffer, M.Des., IDSA Experience Design Director, Adaptive Path http://www.adaptivepath.com http://www.odannyboy.com ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
