While I agree that the degree mills are ripping people off and creating a market of hacks, HCI is a subset of Human factors which is a subset of IO psychology. As a UX professional, if one does not have any grounding in psychology then they do not even have the qualifications to offer advice on the proper education for UX design, many of these schools offer UX design as a tools lab and do not broach the deeper psychological aspects of HCI. Humans use machines in predictable behavioral patterns just as they do tools. Understanding the thought processes that take place allow a designer to understand why a user will opt for a certain path based on reward mechanisms, propensity of choice and other human factors.
I love the nuevo UX movement armed with OmniGraffle, Silverback and arrogance handing out bad advice like candy. The fact of the matter is a reputable university is in fact the best place to learn about the human mind, because it does not change that much over a large period of time and UX design is all about how humans interact with machine and has very little to do with boxes on a screen. Watering UX design down to wireframes, A/B testing and some user prototyping is disingenuous to both the practitioner and the users. The degree mills do it, and self proclaimed UX professional do it.
I have never seen a field so devoid of professional practitioners in my life. Worse yet a field that is nieve to the fact that there is a broader scientific field of study that has proven data and techniques based on scientific method. If you ask 99% of practitioner how IO psychology relates to usability, you will get a blank stare, in any other field the lack of such basic understanding would be viewed as gross negligence. But some how, in UX design a batch of tools, some photoshop skills, and trial and error makes everyone a professional ready to dispence advice.
I tell this to everyone I talk to on the subject, if they do not have a background in HCI, Human Factors and IO psychology they are not a UX designer they are a hack using trial and error to come up with passable work patterns. I don't believe that someone has to posses a degree in psychology to be a UX professional but if they are not studied in the body of work, they are most assuredly a hack. One just can't understand the core workings of the mind without that grounding and without that base of knowledge to draw upon, they are just flinging crap onto the wall and seing what sticks.
I love the nuevo UX movement armed with OmniGraffle, Silverback and arrogance handing out bad advice like candy. The fact of the matter is a reputable university is in fact the best place to learn about the human mind, because it does not change that much over a large period of time and UX design is all about how humans interact with machine and has very little to do with boxes on a screen. Watering UX design down to wireframes, A/B testing and some user prototyping is disingenuous to both the practitioner and the users. The degree mills do it, and self proclaimed UX professional do it.
I have never seen a field so devoid of professional practitioners in my life. Worse yet a field that is nieve to the fact that there is a broader scientific field of study that has proven data and techniques based on scientific method. If you ask 99% of practitioner how IO psychology relates to usability, you will get a blank stare, in any other field the lack of such basic understanding would be viewed as gross negligence. But some how, in UX design a batch of tools, some photoshop skills, and trial and error makes everyone a professional ready to dispence advice.
I tell this to everyone I talk to on the subject, if they do not have a background in HCI, Human Factors and IO psychology they are not a UX designer they are a hack using trial and error to come up with passable work patterns. I don't believe that someone has to posses a degree in psychology to be a UX professional but if they are not studied in the body of work, they are most assuredly a hack. One just can't understand the core workings of the mind without that grounding and without that base of knowledge to draw upon, they are just flinging crap onto the wall and seing what sticks.