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Saturday 4th February 2012

Seeing IT Through a Different Lens: User Experience

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Seeing IT Through a Different Lens: User Experience

Posted by Guest Blogger 23 August 2010 Careers |  Guest blogger |  Technology |  Women in IT Written by Lis Hubert.

I started my career as a programmer, a job that is rooted in technology. During this time, there was no doubt that I was a member of the IT/techie world. This membership is important to me because I’m passionate about technology and how it helps us to live our lives better. Nowadays, working as a user experience designer, that membership has been questioned. It’s been questioned both by the industry and by myself. Am I still part of the IT world if my role is not somehow tied directly to the system (either by way of coding, architecting, reviewing, hardware, etc.)? After some thought I’ve realised that yes, I am still very much a part of the technology realm. What I do has a huge influence on a product or website development. By interviewing users, researching competition, reviewing current sites and products for greatness, as well as flaws, and then taking that information and turning it into designs that are easy for people to use and that our development teams can build to; I’m an important step in bringing better technologies to life.

Now the goal of this post is not to explain to you my thoughts and feelings around whether or not I can call myself a part of one group or another. My goal is to point out that being a part of IT is not always about coding, architecting or whatever. IT is a vast and varied field. There is still a home for that girl who is a technology lover but does not want to code, architect, manage projects, analyse business teams or be in hardware. IT is about knowing both information AND technology. Being a part of it, for the most part, is about how you can influence the development of new and updated ideas by doing whatever it is you do. For me, I haven’t written a line of code in years, but I have helped design and been a part of a good deal of websites. This is great for me because I love technology but I always love the emotional and psychology side of people and this was not something I was able to express through coding.

Thus, my point is this - you don’t not have to be a certain type of person to be a techie. You can also be, and many of us are (even the coders and architects), creative and artistic and emotions driven. You will still be around the technology that you love, but don’t have to lose yourself to be in it. Consider looking outside the traditional technology titles to find places where people interact with both people and systems. Think about who you are, what you are passionate about and then you’ll be able to find your place in IT. You can do it ladies!


Lis Hubert is an independent user experience design consultant working New York City. Visit her website at www.elisabethhubert.com and you can follow Lis on Twitter @likehow22.
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