UX Career Paths by Karen Donoghue, HumanLogic - presented on 9/19/2020 at the Women in Tech @ Tufts Conference
On September 19, 2020, Tufts Dept of Computer Science alum Karen Donoghue gave a presentation about User Experience (UX) Career Paths at the fourth annual Women in Tech 2020 Conference at Tufts University.
WIT 2020 was Tufts fourth annual conference celebrating women and non-binary individuals in technology and the audience was primarily students in Computer Science and Engineering. The conference was held virtually.
Karen Donoghue's talk covered her work in advanced device design, IoT UX and platform design. She also spoke about combining a design career with entrepreneurship, covering the launch of Local Haze, a global air quality monitoring application that she has released for the iPhone.
Karen’s talk also covered disciplines related to the current practice of UX, including Product Management and Engineering. She covered answers to questions including:
- What is UX in the real world?
- What is the relationship of UX to Product Management and Engineering?
- How are the blurring lines between the disciplines of UX, PM and Engineering impacting practitioners’ roles and responsibilities?
After completing her talk, Karen answered questions from the audience about preparing for careers in UX design and product development.
For more information please visit https://humanlogic.com/
Photos are used by permission.
Good Stuff Happens in 1:1 Meetings: Why you need them and how to do them well
UX Career Paths by Karen Donoghue, Principal, HumanLogic
1. TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
Host:
Karen Donoghue, Principal, HumanLogic
UXCAREERPATHS
2. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-Tufts Computer Science alum, taught in CS dept
-MIT Media Lab alum
-I run my own user experience design practice HumanLogic
-Design and release my own mobile products
-Long career in technology in UX including Software
Engineering & Product
-Published author
HI,I’MKAREN
3. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-Envisioning products from the point of view of the end user
-User-Centered Design (UCD)
-Designing new products or improving existing ones
WHATISUSEREXPERIENCE(“UX”)?
4. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
SHIPI DESIGN, BUILD & SHIP PRODUCTS
5. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
6. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
7. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
8. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
Personal
CorporatePersonal Corporate
9. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
10. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
UNIQSTMP
-Investigation of gesture interaction
-Content customization
11. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-Crowdsourced air quality data
-Sensors located worldwide
-Confidence ratings for accuracy
LOCALHAZE
12. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
MYCAREERPATH
UISOFTWARE
ENGINEERING
BS in CS Master of Science
UXPRACTICE&
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
13. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
WHATISUXINTHEREALWORLD?
14. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
BALANCEBETWEEN INTERESTS
15. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
BUSINESS USERS
TECH
16. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
BUSINESS
TECH
USERS
UXISHERE
17. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-User Experience (UX) Practice
-Product Management (PM)
-Engineering
UXCAREERS
18. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-User Experience Design
-Interaction Design
-User Experience Research
(UXR)
-Visual Design
-Product Design
UXPRACTICE
-Motion Design
-UX Engineer - e.g. front end
development (Prototyper)
-Branding
-Content Strategy
-“Growth” UX Designer (new)
19. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-Phones
-Laptops & Tablets
-Phablets
-Robots
-Pens
-Glasses
-Watches and other worn devices
MANYFORMFACTORSINUX
20. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-Requirements
-Understand the “Who”, “What” and “Why” for a product
-Communicate the vision to the design and engineering
teams
-Prioritize features, releases, ship product, etc.
PRODUCTMANAGEMENT
21. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-Front end developer
-UI Engineer
-Hardware Engineer
-Quality Engineer
-DevOps Engineer
-DesignOps (“Design Operations”)
ENGINEERING
22. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
PM UX
ENG
23. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
UXISHERE
PM UX
ENG
24. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-Good listening & observational skills
-Knowing how to ask good questions
-Awareness of biases
-Understanding metrics
CORESKILLSTHATUXPROFESSIONALSNEED?
CHAUNCEY WILSON
UX Consultant/UX Architect
WilDesign Consulting
25. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-Managing ethical concerns that will face UX researchers and
designers
-Understanding the relationship of UX to Product Management
and Engineering
-Navigating blurring lines between the disciplines of UX, PM
and Engineering - impacting practitioners’ roles and
responsibilities
-Remote collaboration with teams and users
THEFUTUREOFUX
26. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-“Up until recently those of us in the tech industry have viewed
the disciplines of UX, engineering, etc as separate functions,
where one hands off to the next…”
-“As digital and physical merge, it's important for UX designers
to think about the seamless integration while enabling a
natural interaction to take place (via touch, gesture, voice,
etc).”
OBSERVATIONS
JOHN BARTUCCI, Vice President Connected Products, The Master Lock Company
27. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-“I see UX increasingly as synonymous with Product Design,
and see Product Management and Product Design under one
Product Experience umbrella.”
OBSERVATIONS
BOB GOODMAN, SVP of PRODUCT, VIRGIN PULSE
28. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-Spend time with end users
-Observe how they use the product
-Identify problems and propose solutions
UXRESEARCH(UXR)
29. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
Photo: Robert McCarthy
30. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
Photo: Robert McCarthy
31. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
-Many areas of UX discipline including industry and research
-Lots of demand for UX
-Flexibility to move to other areas of business
-It’s a practice - the more you practice UX the more you improve
your skills!
UXCAREERS
32. KAREN DONOGHUE | HUMANLOGIC.COM TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020
Karen Donoghue, Principal, HumanLogic
karen@humanlogic.com
@karendonoghue
QUESTIONS?
TUFTS UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN TECH CONFERENCE 2020