Many people first learned about Apple’s Macintosh computers from a television commercial during the 1984 American football Super Bowl game.
But the commercial didn’t feature computers at all. A woman throwing a hammer was shown on a large screen. On the screen was a man giving a speech. The screen exploded and the announcer announced, “Apple Computer Introduces the Macintosh.” …and you can see why 1984 doesn’t sound like “1984.”
1984 is a book by George Orwell about authoritarian governments. And he wanted to tell people that Apple’s new computers would be different. It will be easy to use.
Many computers of the time could only do one or two things. And users had to enter complex commands to start the program.
Created for humans
Jacob O. Wobrock is a professor of information at the University of Washington. He wrote about the Apple commercial for The Conversation.
Apple “sold products for human use,” Wobrock wrote. After this commercial, Apple became known for its design and the world began to embrace the concept of user experience or human-computer interaction.
“The Macintosh was one of the first products to truly put user experience at the forefront, with a focus on making something easy to use, easy to understand, easy to learn, and even thinkable. So people don’t have to read the manual all the time to learn how to use it. “
Four decades after the PC revolution, Apple’s Mac is more powerful than ever, and thanks to AI computing, it could reach new heights or fall back. (Photo by Loren Elliott / AFP)
Mackenzie Bristow is a former language teacher and researcher who now works in user experience in Atlanta, Georgia. She believes the Macintosh was one of the first products to put the user at the center. I said that there is.
“What role does the person play? What role does the user play?” she asked. She explained that the rule in design is to “understand the person first” before thinking about what the product is and what it can do.
It’s been 40 years since the introduction of the Macintosh computer, and you can see computer screens everywhere: restaurants, airports, and even cars. All of these devices are designed by user experience experts.
MINT Plus “Soft Skills”
Many universities now offer courses in the field of user experience.
Although he is part of the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field, Wobrock said students from a variety of fields of study, such as psychology and communications, could be successful. Ta.
“The types of students who succeed in user experience are those who, above all else, have a genuine curiosity about how people interact with technology. You can definitely do well in the experience.”
One of these students is Kartik Sundaram from India. He studied computer science at the University of Michigan and chose user experience in graduate school. He graduated last year and currently he is teaching the subject.
“I never felt like I had a personal desire to pursue [computer science],” he said. He called the work “very isolating.” For fun, he took a photography class. While in the class, he met someone who was studying in the User Experience Research and Design program.
“He told me about how, you know, it’s like this blend of design and people and technology, and that kind of lit a fire in my heart to say ok, this seems a lot more interesting, … ‘let’s jump right in, let’s learn more about it and let’s apply to that school.”
Sundaram said user experience is good for people who are “personable and good at making connections.” Some of those are called ‘soft skills,’ he said. And “the soft skills really matter.”
While he grew up speaking English, Sundaram said the world of user experience is more and more open to people who are learning English or who may speak with an accent.
“I don’t think it’s an expectation that your English is flawless,” he said.
Bristow said the ability to speak more than one language “is kind of a super power in user experience,” because those people are comfortable interacting with many different kinds of people. “That’s really something to be celebrated,” she said.
Future of UX and job outlook
Sundaram is teaching but also looking for work in the field. Wobbrock is a professor and Bristow works on training programs for a large company.
They each spoke about the need for user experience professionals to work in the expanding field of artificial intelligence, or AI.
Sundaram said “We’re not going to be restricted to a text box in ChatGPT for much longer. There are going to be other ways to interact with it.”
Bristow said the ability to understand language is important. AI programs will need experts who understand how language changes based on where people live, their level of education and their age.
Wobbrock said user experience professionals are starting to work on projects called human-AI interaction. “There will be a great need for user experience professionals to help understand how people and AI can interact and work together in profitable ways,” he added.
But Sundaram warned that user experience study programs, also known as UX, are becoming very popular. He said some students see UX as a field to make a lot of money with few certification requirements. And several companies are letting go of people with experience in the field.