Session SurveyWhat do American Studies, Neuroscience, and European Cultural Studies have in common? They were all majors of current UX designers and researchers at some of Boston’s top companies.
If you’re a current student or someone trying to break into the field of UX, having a diverse educational background can be an asset as a UX practitioner. Many of the tenants of a Liberal Arts education, such as critical thinking, cross-disciplinary inquiry, and effective communication, are just the ingredients that often make UX practitioners so effective within organizations. In this session, you’ll learn how to leverage your unique background to make yourself an unforgettable candidate at your next UX job interview.
This panel will cover:
● Positioning Liberal Arts experiences as preparation for UX roles
● Identifying strengths and areas for improvement for UX roles, and what educational resources (formal or otherwise) can be leveraged in order to land a first job in UX
● Non-traditional career paths that eventually led to UX
Who will benefit:
● Students and graduates from Liberal Arts programs who are interested in breaking into the UX field
● Individuals from other humanities-related industries who are looking to transition into a UX role
Panel Biographies:
Grace Phang is a user researcher at Liberty Mutual with a passion for inclusive design, mixed methods, and leading diversity initiatives. Prior to Liberty, she worked for the Tufts spatial cognition lab, examining origami and paper engineering. With her sister, Grace co-founded a successful fashion company called Fab Hatters that specializes in unconventional designs. She studied anthropology and neuroscience at Dartmouth College and completed a Masters in Human Factors in Information Design from Bentley University.
Katie Langerman is a Senior UI/UX Engineer at CarGurus and a co-organizer of Ladies that UX Boston, a group that empowers women who work in design and technology. With a background in Graphic Design, she both designs and develops products that are performant and user friendly. She’s passionate about connecting engineering to design through the magic of CSS. Currently, she's nerding out over style guides and reusable styled components.
Libby Mauer builds customer experience teams for SaaS products. Today she leads HubSpot’s UX practice with a vision for driving user-centered design with data. She’s also helped lead the team's diversity and inclusion efforts. Her background includes design research, service design, content strategy, and brand strategy. She studied Journalism and French at the University of Wisconsin, and credits liberal arts education for the diverse worldview she applies to her work. She has a masters in Human Factors from Bentley University.
Morgyne Weaver moved from Oklahoma City to attend Wellesley College. After graduating, she began working at a software company in Dallas as a UX Designer. Currently, she is an Interaction Designer at Bose working in voice.
