Welcome aboard! It's always great to have people with deep technical expertise move into the UX space. I have coached a handful of folks in this transition who have found it very rewarding.
How easy or hard depends on you and your employer. For you, education is key, but 'formal' education is not necessarily required. Read books, attend local gatherings, go to conferences, take classes, find a good mentor, etc. A masters will certainly give you some instant credibility, but it shouldn't be required. Your personal growth is within your control. How much you are able to apply your newfound knowledge on the job depends on your employer. It really comes down to how much they support the change. One common place to look is to startups or small companies with no UX. The good thing is they will value your technical skills and you will have room to grow. The two biggest downsides are that you may likely spend more time coding than on UX related tasks and you may not have a solid mentor to help you along. Some large companies have very fixed roles and moving to new teams can be challenging, especially in these budget sensitive times, while others, because of their size, can accommodate and even encourage this kind of growth to keep you and your knowledge within the company. You could also look for an agile environment as that would also allow you to wear multiple hats. Ultimately, find a place that will support your growth and work like hell to learn everything you can. Good luck! Jeremy Kriegel www.methodsansmadness.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39914 ________________________________________________________________ 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
