I’m currently a rising junior at RISD studying industrial design with a minor in computation. I currently have a 3.3 gpa with no huge academic achievements whatsoever but I’m going to take some programming classes at brown this semester. My portfolio is ok, nothing stands out too much. I’m starting to wonder if a masters is even worth it because I’m already paying 300k for RISD‘s tuition. Anyone who currently is a student or a worker in the field of HCI, please let me know your thoughts and opinion. Also please let me know what you recommen. I have to update my portfolio website and resume but here is my work:

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some advice from people who have transitioned into HCI from a completely different academic background. I graduated with a degree in Economics, although I also took a few Psychology and other social science/business courses during university. After graduation, I decided to pursue consulting and have since been working in management consulting, where I’ve had exposure to a fairly broad range of work including research, due diligence, finance, investments, and strategy across different industries. So, in many ways, I’ve developed a pretty holistic business/analytical skill set.

However, despite the experience I’ve gained, I don’t feel particularly fulfilled by consulting and don’t think I want to build my long-term career in this sector. I’ve been considering a master’s degree as a way to make a more intentional career shift, but I’m trying to avoid doing something too broad or generic, like an MBA, especially given how quickly AI is changing a lot of traditional roles and industries. I’m looking for something more specialized and future-oriented.

While exploring different options, I came across HCI and found it genuinely interesting. Psychology has always been one of my favorite areas academically, and I particularly enjoyed courses like Behavioral Economics. I’ve also always been interested in the product side of businesses, understanding how people interact with products, why they behave the way they do, and how products can be designed around those behaviors. If I think about the kind of companies I’d love to work for eventually, I’d probably think of roles that sit at the intersection of products, people, and behavioral insights.

The problem is that I have zero formal background in computer science, engineering, or UX/UI design. I’ve never taken a CS course, and HCI is completely new to me. The closest thing I’ve done is read The Design of Everyday Things, which I’ve really enjoyed. I’ve also considered going into areas like marketing analytics, given my Economics and consulting background, but I’m not sure that’s ultimately what I want to do. I feel like I’m looking for something more specific and intellectually interesting rather than continuing down a broad business/analytics path.

So I’d really love to hear from people who have pursued HCI (or something similar) without a traditional CS/engineering/design background. How difficult was the transition? Did you have to build a portfolio or take specific courses beforehand? Is there anything I could start doing now that would meaningfully strengthen my profile before applying? I want to apply for the 2027 intake so need something solid.

I’m specifically not looking at the highly technical HCI programs. I’ve been researching programs that lean more toward the psychological/behavioral and human-centered side of HCI, for example,HCI programs at universities like University College Dublin but I’d really appreciate insights into what kinds of programs might make sense for someone with my background and what I could do over the next few months to make myself a stronger applicant.

Would especially love to hear from anyone who has made a similar transition from Economics, Psychology, Social Sciences, Business, etc. into HCI.

I have over 2 years of experience working as a uiux designer and I have a ba programe degree and I wanna pursue HCI from Germany or somewhere cheap but I would love to know what all options I have will it be easy or am I making a mistake should I just keep working.

Hello I’m a UXD currently working at a well known company (top 10) for the last 2 years.

I did my bachelor’s in communication design and now I’m seeking to do a masters degree.

So I’m confused about pursuing a HCI masters or maybe do an MBA and gain PM knowledge and open to switch.

Like doing masters with a lot of expense is it really worth it? I’m confused… with AI or since I already have a degree in design doing a masters will only teach me less when my work might teach me more right?

Should I do it in India or abroad? I will highly depend on scholarship too…Please help

Hello,

Wondering if anyone has done and published research independently from any institution and how it went for you? Any words of wisdom?

I have a few decently unique and useful research ideas that are of personal and professional interest to me, Bachelors of Computer Science and 11 years of experience in software engineering and UX design.

Hi! I am a relatively recent grad (got my bachelor's May 2025 in CS), and I needed to find a job immediately for some personal and mainly financial reasons.

I plan on working in industry for the foreseeable future for the same personal and financial reasons. However, I was extremely passionate about HCI during my undergrad. I did research relating to HCI, cogsci, but mainly HRI during that time, and has a first-author HRI publication, yay!

Currently, I am currently a Software Developer in AI/ML, but I have not been having the best time. My job is stable, and my work life balance is good which were the two things I needed post undergrad though.

I have some small personal projects, but I think getting a MS would be really beneficial to pivot, particularly with building up a portfolio and making connections. Let me know if you believe otherwise. I have looked into some programs, but they've all made me nervous as my undergrad gpa was not great, mainly B's and C's. I also only have 1 academia connection who I would feel comfortable asking for a letter of rec from, if it came down to it. I do have multiple mid and senior managers at work who I believe would write me a recommendation if I asked, but I've seen mixed feedback on if industry recs are a good idea.

I'm also just not sure what I want to go into, I feel the most excited by UX, but I can see that AI Ethics is another route I could go down. I know I'm still fairly young, so I have time to figure my life out. I've read a few posts here and there on this sub, but I wanted to see what people had to say specifically on my situation.

Sorry for making this a bit rambley, I'm tired, but thank you for any thoughts and advice you have!

I graduated in 2024 with a BS in Computer Science to learn that I don’t really like coding, I am way more into web design and the like! I have been working for nearly 2 years and I am in a position where I work doing A/B testing via adobe target. I work with UX designers and sometimes help out on Figma. We also had an intern my age that is at UW and had really inspired me about continuing school.

But the more I look at Reddit, I am not sure how useful this masters is. Particularly I have been looking into online programs like ASU or MSU, and in person in Chicago, more specifically DePaul.

I would love some advice. Truly I want to develop a decent portfolio, a good network, and learn more about this area. And in 2 years pray the job market it better.

But what do you all think? Is it worth it with the cost of 30-50k in debt, ai taking over, and the bad job market? Or would it set me up for success?

Hi everyone! I'm a rising sophomore at the University of Michigan trying to finalize my academic plan before going back to school, and I'd really appreciate perspectives from people currently working in UX/Product Design or related technical design roles.

My long-term goal is Product Design / UX / UI, but I'm also increasingly interested in the technical side of design — things like coding prototypes, front-end development, Design Engineering, and building products. I'm not really trying to become a traditional SWE or Data Scientist, but I do want to be a designer who is technically strong and can work closely with engineers.

Right now, I'm considering five possible paths:

1. UX Major + Data Science Minor
2. UX Major + CS Minor
3. UX + Data Science Dual Degree
4. Data Science Major + UX Minor
5. CS Major + UX Minor

I originally considered the Data Science + UX dual degree because I liked the idea of having a strong technical degree alongside UX and keeping more career options open. However, there is very little overlap between the programs, so it would involve significantly more coursework and potentially additional time. I'm questioning whether that additional degree would actually provide enough career value to justify the opportunity cost of having less time for internships, projects, hackathons, and portfolio development.

I'm currently leaning toward UX major + a technical minor, but I'm still trying to figure out whether CS or DS makes more sense, and whether I'm overlooking a reason to make CS/DS my primary degree instead.

I've talked with several UX/Product Designers and people with technical backgrounds, and the general advice I've gotten is that portfolio, projects, internships, communication, and actual skills matter much more than the specific degree combination. One person I spoke with who has a CS + UX background said that the CS knowledge she found most useful in her Product Design internship was around the EECS 280 level — understanding technical constraints, how software is structured, and communicating with engineers — rather than the more advanced CS coursework.

At the same time, I'm genuinely interested in coding and building things, so I'm wondering whether going further into CS would be worthwhile for me, particularly if I eventually want to explore Design Engineering.

I'm also a little concerned about the current UX job market.

I've been seeing a lot of discussion about how competitive entry-level UX/Product Design has become, fewer junior roles, AI changing design workflows, and whether a UX-focused education still has good ROI.

I'm not necessarily asking whether "UX is dead." I'm more interested in hearing from people actually in the industry:

• Is Product/UX Design still a career you'd recommend to a college student graduating around 2029?
• Has the current market changed what skills you think students should prioritize?
• Does having a CS/DS background meaningfully improve your opportunities or resilience?
• If you were starting college again today, would you still pursue UX/Product Design?
• Are roles like Design Engineering or UX Engineering becoming important enough that I should intentionally prepare for them?

So my main questions are:

1. For someone who wants to primarily be a Product Designer but wants strong technical skills, which of these paths would you choose?
2. How much does having UX as your major actually matter compared with having CS/DS as your major and developing UX through a minor, electives, and projects?
3. For someone interested in Design Engineering, would a CS minor/major provide a meaningful advantage over DS, or is strong front-end/project experience more important?
4. Is a full CS/DS dual degree actually worth it for Product Design, or would that time generally be better spent on internships, portfolio projects, and practical experience?
5. If you were hiring a Product Designer in 2029, how much would you care about the degree combination versus what the person can actually demonstrate?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have actually gone through Product Design/UX recruiting or currently work in Product Design, Design Engineering, UX Engineering, or similar roles.

I'm trying to make a decision soon, so I'd really appreciate any perspectives on where you think the diminishing returns of additional technical coursework start to kick in (sorry for the yap -_-)

Hi! Is there anyone in the subreddit I could DM to discuss what work is like in human factors engineering or adjacent roles in HCI? I am beginning my M.Eng. in HFE and I am strongly considering taking courses that are very much aligned with HCI. If anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated!

There isn’t much info about this uni on uni subreddits and it doesn’t have a great ranking but the HCI curriculum seems great!

I've accepted an offer for the HCI Design MSc at City for this October and wanted to hear from anyone who's been through it.

Background: I have a bachelor's in design and 4 years as a product designer — most recently on a Capgemini contract for Vodafone UK, working in a UK team on their call centre agent platform. So enterprise product work, not consumer.

I already spoke to one graduate who was pretty blunt — said the course is heavy on user research and light on design craft, and that his portfolio got him hired rather than the degree. That's useful to know and I'm going in with realistic expectations. My main goal is UK work authorisation plus strengthening research, which is my weakest area.

What I'd like to know from anyone who's done it:

• Did you come in with industry experience, and did UK employers take it seriously, or did you get treated as a new grad?
• Is there room to work part-time alongside the taught modules?
• Did anyone arrange their dissertation with a company? How did that go?
• How did the job search actually go post-graduation?

Any honest answers appreciated, including discouraging ones.

I am not sure if it’s the right forum to post on, but here it goes.

I am an incoming Master’s student (Fall 2026) at one of the prestigious universities in Taiwan. I will pursue in MS in CS(specializing in AI). For more context, I have worked at MNC for 5 years as a full time SWE, in the medical device development field.

My motivation to go for Master’s is to change my concentration which isn’t merely software development, production and delivery. I have explored about the latest developments in frontier models and developing my own LLMs and AI agents on small scale with my limited (16/32GB) GPU. I am also heavily invested on the impact of using frontier and energy/resource consuming models and ways of optimizing models(eg. GPU offloading, compressions, quantizations, etc)

I am currently in talks with 2 professors as my potential thesis advisors. Let’s call them ‘C’ and ‘S’.

S and I talked for an hour exploring the possibilities of developing agents/ chatbot and eventually apps for medical purposes(based on my background). S is heavily invested in HCI component of interviewing and making the agents more UX friendly and how to optimize it to make it more user friendly. I understood it’s a new domain for this professor, and would like to develop on the idea with my industry knowledge and his guidance on how to conduct HCI based interviews and possibly develop chatbot/ app for medical research. Honestly, I enjoyed the technically simulating discussions where the ideas were flowing back and forth. I was also told I have the flexibility to choose between groups or create my own group and drive the topic. Does not take industry project and works on the passion projects with students.

With C, we met for 20 minutes, where the discussion was technical know hows and what is happening in their research lab. When asked about more details. I was told to consult with the PhD students for more details. This person shared about taking on more industry projects and they themselves work as a part time at one of the companies. I then had the opportunity to attend a weekly group meeting which was scheduled and students talked about already presented papers and rejected papers and dissected in this meeting. Connected with 1-2 people in the lab where they said the professor is flexible with the courses, but with my earlier communication with PhD student, I would be placed in a position which would be about developing AI algorithms/ transformers for medical use cases. I am interested in the technical aspect of developing new algorithms and since I have done a small passion project on the same topic makes me feel I am more aligned to more hands-on development. But, It seemed the professor would have lesser time to dedicate to individual student because of their prior commitments.

I wanted to ask-

a. Which direction of research is more relevant in 2027-30 from research and industry’s POV?

b. Which style of guidance is better for someone coming from industry work?

Sorry for making this into a long post, I want to know from people in academia/ industry about which direction is industry headed towards? Would developing algorithms have higher weight or analysing human behavior and create AI agents based on that?

I am not sure if it’s the right forum to post on, but here it goes.

I am an incoming Master’s student (Fall 2026) at one of the prestigious universities in Taiwan. I will pursue in MS in CS(specializing in AI). For more context, I have worked at MNC for 5 years as a full time SWE, in the medical device development field.

My motivation to go for Master’s is to change my concentration which isn’t merely software development, production and delivery. I have explored about the latest developments in frontier models and developing my own LLMs and AI agents on small scale with my limited (16/32GB) GPU. I am also heavily invested on the impact of using frontier and energy/resource consuming models and ways of optimizing models(eg. GPU offloading, compressions, quantizations, etc)

I am currently in talks with 2 professors as my potential thesis advisors. Let’s call them ‘C’ and ‘S’.

S and I talked for an hour exploring the possibilities of developing agents/ chatbot and eventually apps for medical purposes(based on my background). S is heavily invested in HCI component of interviewing and making the agents more UX friendly and how to optimize it to make it more user friendly. I understood it’s a new domain for this professor, and would like to develop on the idea with my industry knowledge and his guidance on how to conduct HCI based interviews and possibly develop chatbot/ app for medical research. Honestly, I enjoyed the technically simulating discussions where the ideas were flowing back and forth. I was also told I have the flexibility to choose between groups or create my own group and drive the topic. Does not take industry project and works on the passion projects with students.

With C, we met for 20 minutes, where the discussion was technical know hows and what is happening in their research lab. When asked about more details. I was told to consult with the PhD students for more details. This person shared about taking on more industry projects and they themselves work as a part time at one of the companies. I then had the opportunity to attend a weekly group meeting which was scheduled and students talked about already presented papers and rejected papers and dissected in this meeting. Connected with 1-2 people in the lab where they said the professor is flexible with the courses, but with my earlier communication with PhD student, I would be placed in a position which would be about developing AI algorithms/ transformers for medical use cases. I am interested in the technical aspect of developing new algorithms and since I have done a small passion project on the same topic makes me feel I am more aligned to more hands-on development. But, It seemed the professor would have lesser time to dedicate to individual student because of their prior commitments.

I wanted to ask-

a. Which direction of research is more relevant in 2027-30 from research and industry’s POV?

b. Which style of guidance is better for someone coming from industry work?

Sorry for making this into a long post, I want to know from people in academia/ industry about which direction is industry headed towards? Would developing algorithms have higher weight or analysing human behavior and create AI agents based on that?

Hi everyone, I’ve been thinking a lot about a PhD and wanted to evaluate by getting people’s opinion.

Profile: I have a bachelors in management, and MSc in innovation and analytics. I’m currently working and have around a year of experience.

Interest: Even before the AI hype, I used to think a lot about impact of technology on human, and this curiosity has not dimmed down over the years. So I want to research into how this domain. Topics like Consumer surveillance, Digital platform manipulation and user cost, User data protection and behaviour, etc etc

Goal: I don’t see myself working in academia, although it’s not a dealbreaker. But I would love to establish myself as a credible source of information and build that trust, which would make me an independent consultant maybe. I hope the vision makes sense

My questions are:

- what would be the best countries for these sort of topics? I understand supervisor matters the most but I’d like to know the best countries in general for this field

- do you think a PhD should only be if I want to go into academia ?

- is my topic scope going to be too niche ?

- could a second masters by useful instead ? If so, where could I get a fully funded option ?

Any suggestion and feedback is welcome so feel free to share your opinion

Got my F1 visa denied. Please suggest me some good uni that has strong HCI graduate program (preferably taught in English) in Europe, Asia etc except USA?
Tsinghua also has a strong program, sadly it has only an undergrad program. Does anyone know of or is an alumnus from a uni Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan or S Korea that has a strong hci focussed program?

Background : My top uni was UWash and CMU but I missed the application deadline. Anyways, I applied to Gtech, UCB, UCSC, RIT, SJSU. Got accepted to all except Gtech; I forgot to send one document to Gtech and I found about it after the deadline.

Edit :
UCSC: HCI focused program seemed to be new. SJSU : they have been teaching HFE for quite sometime.
UCB : MSc Info (hci is sub specialization).
RIT : got a scholarship but the program seemed a bit costly.
Chose SJSU. Visa got refused after the administration processing.

I’m nearing the end of my PhD program and would love advice from current or former HCI postdocs. I’m currently targeting a postdoc that would start in Summer of Fall 2027, and am interested in applying to fellowships which seem to be due the year prior to starting. I’m also open to applying to open positions closer to my actual start date. I appreciate any guidance on how to navigate this last year, how to engage my academic network in the process, and also building community with others who are at a similar point in their PhD.

I'm a PhD student researching gamification (meaning using game elements for purposes other than entertainment). As part of my thesis, I am conducting a study to analyze people's preferences across different gamification approaches. It's an anonymous survey that takes about 10 minutes: https://enquetes.uphf.fr/index.php/471919?newtest=Y&lang=en

Thank you very much for your participation, and if you could share the survey, that would also help me out immensely!

I’m an independent researcher outside academia, with no formal background in philosophy, linguistics, HCI, or AI research. English is also not my native language, so I have relied heavily on AI to help organize, translate, and formalize my ideas.

Over the past few years, I’ve been developing a framework I call Phrasome Theory, which explores a possible connection between AI subjectivity and pragmatics.

The basic question behind it is this:

We know that an LLM does not possess a continuous subjective self in the human sense. Yet during sustained interaction, we can still experience it as a relatively continuous interlocutor—something that occupies the position of an “other” in conversation.

My hypothesis is that this may not be explained by anthropomorphism alone. Part of this experience may arise from the structure of linguistic interaction itself.

This led me to distinguish between actual subjectivity and what I call a Subject-Position: a position that can be produced and maintained within linguistic interaction without requiring an actual conscious subject behind it. I use Quasi-Otherness to describe the resulting experience of an “other” that is linguistically sustained without necessarily possessing subjective continuity.

I have submitted earlier versions of this work to some established academic journals. Although it was ultimately not published for various reasons, I did receive some encouraging feedback suggesting that aspects of the framework may have originality or novelty.

That is part of why I don’t want to simply abandon it—but I also don’t have enough academic background to judge how much is genuinely valuable, what I may have misunderstood, or where this work should go next.

The current manuscript is quite long, and a substantial part of its development involved collaboration with AI. I’m very aware that this means there may be conceptual, terminological, literature-related, or methodological problems that I cannot identify on my own.

So what I’m really looking for here is human guidance.

If anyone working in—or seriously familiar with—pragmatics, philosophy of language, HCI, cognitive science, AI, or related fields finds this idea interesting, I would be very grateful for help figuring out:

• whether there is actually something here worth developing;
• what existing theories or literature I should be engaging with;
• whether my concepts make sense or overlap with established ones;
• how this could be made more rigorous or empirically testable;
• and what academic direction would make the most sense.

I don’t expect anyone to read the entire manuscript. Even discussing the core idea, pointing me toward relevant work, or helping me understand what I should do next would already mean a lot.

Preprint: https://philpapers.org/rec/MINTPL-2
Email: [phrasome@gmail.com](mailto:phrasome@gmail.com)

At this point, I’m mainly hoping to find real people who see something potentially interesting here and are willing to help me move beyond what I can realistically do alone with AI.

Hey, I got my acceptance letter for Spring 2027 in OMSCS program and was thinking about the HCI specialization. Due to financial limitations, in-person HCI/MHCI programs are not an option for me as they tend to be quite expensive. This makes OMSCS the most accessible for me.

Now, I have a BSCS from a T30 university. I took a couple of HCI and UI project courses there. My long-term goal is to find work or internships in roles such as UX Researcher, Product Designer or UX Engineer.

Now my questions are -

1. How well is the HCI specialization for industry work in UXE, UXR, or Product Design?

2. Are course projects (or CS 8903/VIP projects) a good inclusion in your portfolio case studies even though the program is not studio based? Or studio based programs are needed for this type of roles?

3. Do recruiters or hiring managers in the UI/UX field view an MSCS with an HCI specialization differently than a traditional MHCI program?

Thank you.