UX Design Graduate School: Personal Statement

Introduction

UX design helps designers develop technical solutions that enhance the lives of the users. One of Professor Francis' Human-Computer Interaction research motivated me to pursue the UX field. For example, Professor Francis designed a keyboard for paralyzed people to enable them to type with ease. Based on his research, I realized that UX can significantly improve user ability, ease of use and usefulness of various products thereby improving user experiences. During my undergraduate course in psychology, I learned that the human learning process and how the process can be modified or enhanced to improve human learning, motivation, and perception. The undergraduate course in psychology therefore provided by with a firm background on user experiences which will help me thrive in the UX program in graduate school. On reaching senior classes, I was privileged to be part of the audience of Professor Bernie Roth's speech about user-centered design. He showed how designs can be used to improve the experiences of children awaiting MRI and CT scan by developing an aquarium-themed wanting room and simulator. The MRI helped soothe the children and reduced the children's fear of the MRI. I also learned that using creativity, solutions can be created to meet the human need and this is what inspired me most to pursue the course in UX design. I have developed more interest in learning the principles of UX design to help me in analyzing behaviors and designs products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to them.

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After I graduate from this program, I want to work in the UX industry by shadowing an experienced UX designer first to develop my problem-solving skills. I believe working as a team in the company will help me understand diverse cultural background. The United States is one of the most culturally diverse communities. I believe that the key to this field is to clearly understand what an individual need most first then understanding the cultural background that informs their needs, and desires. Going into the UX industry will make me understand basic human needs and expose me to the research environment. I want to make a physical product that people can use easily. I also have a penchant to research, so I would like to do research on individual need and business' needs to find out what they exactly want, then develop innovative solutions.

After I got an interest in UX career, one of my assignments in the Collaboration Leader: Interpersonal class was to interview an expert in the field for whom I would like to work. I chose to interview Nick Leonard the UX designer for a company-Fuzzy Math in Chicago. I contacted other UX designers in Chicago and he was the only available for the interview. This interview took us one hour and in that one hour, I acquired a wealth of information. For example, I learned that in the UX industry, people work as a team. I also learned how the players communicated with their customers and most important components as a UX designer. This research helped me to understand the field well.

UX design requires a lot of creativity and insight. When I was young, my desk was full of brushes and paint. My family is composed of math and science people, but I liked to create images by drawing. I always made things by myself at home and was fond of drawing which was also my hobby as I grew up. At first, my family did not praise me or support me in this but I liked it. When I went to Southern Utah University, I took an art drawing class. It was not a requirement, but I wanted to learn about art and truly enjoyed it. I did well in the class, and I got a recommendation from my teacher, Professor Brown. I also got an art recommendation letter from my high school teacher. The most interesting part of this class was to look at an object and use my own creativity to add value to it in my drawing. The result of the drawing will be not just an object itself, but it was an abstract drawing creatively designed to improve aesthetics. I believed that the apart from the fun of creative part in art, the class had the potential to help me with learning the UX principles.

I began to think more deeply about different human behaviors and motivation when I was in high school. I realized through direct experience of how motivation affects my behavior. I went to high school in Canada for about 10 months and their education system in Canada was very different from the way of education in Korea. Their education systems motivated my interest in studying. For example, teachers in Canada focused on students who cannot follow their subjects well or speak English well. They taught me how to study systematically. After developing my interests in studying, I maintained a score of 90 to 100 in math, art. My scores in other subjects also greatly improved. I realized how human motivation is strong and has the potential of affecting human behavior. This experience made me study more in Psychology about human behavior and motivation.

Conclusion

From my experiences with mitigation and behaviors, I developed an interest in understanding the relationship between user experiences and behaviors change based on the Transtheoretical Model. I decided to pursue my studies in the U.S.A. In the process of obtaining my bachelor's degree in Psychology and a minor in Sociology, I was exposed to the research field. I worked as a research assistant at Yonsei University in South Korea and I enjoyed this position. I even conducted an experiment and learned the whole research process. It is from the experience that I decided to look for a research assistant position when I return to Purdue University. I initially contacted Professor Francis and worked as a research assistant for 1 year during which we investigated the visual percepts for the moon. Since this was a natural experiment, we could not control many variables. Our research was unique since it was not in the laboratory but it was outside the experiment. Thus, I had to run the experiment early in the morning, middle of the day, and later in the night. I ran the experiments and found an appropriate location for the experiment successfully. Right now we are in the final stages of preparing our research report to be published in a reputable journal. I managed many participants and this led me to learn important value of leadership and responsibility. Working with lab partner helped me develop my teamwork skills. I learned the best practices of research experiments and these experiences motivated me to look for a graduate school like yours to study more.