Quote Originally Posted by channlluv View Post
That sounds brilliant. I'd love to hear more about it sometime. Seriously. I'm working on an idea for a book for kids about unusual careers. What did you have to study/work at before to get to what position?

Roxy
I actually didn't study anything related to my current field. I was in a dual degree program for music and biology. I just kind of tripped into my field based on personal interest and happening upon a job ad looking for someone with web production skills about a billion years ago--ok, not a billion, more like 14. Working at a tech startup in the late 90s meant doing a lot of different jobs and learning them quickly. Through that, I found what I loved in a field that was only just starting to be named.

Many people who started doing this back then came from either a human factors/cognitive psych background or the library sciences. There's not a consistent pattern for the rest of the long-time practitioners--some grew out of development backgrounds, some from creative/design, some even from marketing. In the last five or six years, there have been more applicable formal areas of study really gaining ground: human computer interaction (HCI) and information management programs have pretty high representation. Psychology (human factors) and journalism folks (content strategy is a big deal for us now) have also found welcoming arms from UX practitioners, as well.

If you have other questions, I'm always happy to talk about what I do and why I firmly believe it can make life better for people and change the world. Feel free to PM any time!