Hi Martin, I made this tranistion, and feel it is a very natural one to make. I don't know how much advice I can offer, but I can describe the path I took and you can see if there's anything worthwhile in that.
I started with a transition to business analyst from tech. pubs manager, which occurred because I was drafted in to research and write lots of specifications on a large web project my employer undertook. I was already sick of writing good documentation for badly designed software, and seeing the requirements process up close I could finally start to see why the software came out of the process in such poor shape. One day, we got a complaint from a customer about 'poor usability' so my boss sent me off to discover what this usability lark was all about. I read, a lot, went to a N/N Group conference and wrote a report on what I had learned. This got me a license to buy a portable usability testing lab and hire in some consultants, who I worked with closely. All of this was to little effect in that the poor software just kept coming - my employer needed culture change more than user testing. I left and went freelance, doing tech writing and a little bit of usability consulting. All of the noise I made in my last job got me a reputation as someone who knew about usability, though I must admit I was a very raw back then. After about a year freelance, I got a job user testing and designing assistive technologies at an organisation for blind people. I stayed with that for a year and a half, and got my first experience of design work as opposed to merely critiquing other people's efforts. I then moved to my current job, were I have been a consultant on interaction design and related matters for about four years. Reading through this, I'd say that making good contacts and being a self-directed learner were the keys to getting to where I wanted to be. I did start a course in cognitive psychology (which I did not complete) which provided useful background. I'm sure a course in IxD would be a good start, but I've interviewed job applicants from some of these courses and was not terribly impressed. In fact we are now resolved to hire self-directed learners with clear passion for the role, putting relevant experience and education second and third in priority. I'm not sure this was much help, Martin, best of luck. John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=25702 ________________________________________________________________ *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
