From Computer Engineering to UX, From Tehran to California

[ali_eslamifar]

Hi everyone!

Well, talking about my UX stroy may seem fun for someone, so I would share it here, so you can know me better and see why I became a UX designer.

I studied as a computer engineering student in Tehran, at Sharif University. To be honest, I couldn’t like my major, coding was not my thing, but I was really concerened about people’s interaction with computer products. I was always looking at a software with a critical view and my thought was all about thinking how I can make that software work better, what are the interactions that I don’t like.

One of the other things that happened during my college time was my deep interest in psychology and cognitive science topics. I was super fascinated about being aware of human though process. Whilst, I was always involved in a design project, since I like it from the time that I was a kid in elementary school, I actually made my first freelance job in high school, designing some print materials for a German company…

Anyway, long story short, looking at the combination of topics that I talked about in the last two paragraphs, you can see the only career path that I could choose was user experience design. So I finished my undergrad with a thesis that was about a virtual tool for testing designed posters that are being hang in highways and then had my startup with couple of my friends back in Tehran. Everyday I was becoming more and more interested to do something better in UX, so I decided to focus on user research and get a degree in Design, so that’s when I moved to Arizona. in a year and half I finished my Master of Science in Design degree from the Design School at ASU. My thesis was about an empathetic tool for UX design, which is literally some pieces of magnets that lets team talk over UX projects with any level of design knowledge and expertise.

… and now I’m here, in the middle of California, working as a Sr. UX Designer at Experts Exchange.

I believe UX is all about “Empathy”, and that’s the key to solve human problems. Empathizing with people is my biggest motivation to be in this market and my goal is to consider that in any piece that is being designed with me or my team.

[HAWK]

Great story (and it qualified you as a Gold Member!).

Was it a huge culture shock moving from Tehran to California? Did you move by yourself?

[ali_eslamifar]

I moved by myself, but it wasn’t a big shock for me. I’m a traveler and I was kind used to deal with different cultures. I’m absolutely happy of my decision, this growth that I had in my UX career path couldn’t happen there without the right education.

[dougcollins]

Wow, what a career path! One thing that doesn’t help guys like me who took the “non-traditional” route to this career (sports journalism => call center code monkey => UX Engineer) is the feeling that we have so little formal education in our chosen career compared to those who studied for it in college and university. I’m sure you’ve worked with at least a few of us who didn’t take the formal education route. Do you see any commonalities between the strengths and weaknesses of those who came to UX from other career fields?

[ali_eslamifar]

Thanks for you comment @dougcollins

Actually that’s a very good question. I found it absolutely valuable to have people from different backgrounds in UX teams, since to me UX is all about knowing people and care about them, so having people with different mental models and mindsets would improve the quality of the end products for sure.

[SteveCrow]

@dougcollins

…“non-traditional” route to this career (sports journalism => call center code monkey => UX Engineer)

Ha ha Doug - that’s nothing! There is a somewhat famous statistic from a few years back that said the average American will have seven CAREERS (not jobs) in their lifetime. This stat has since been disputed - however for me it rings true.

Check out my path (abbreviated somewhat):

• United States Air Force - Electronic Intelligence Operations Specialist
• Systems Engineer - not a degreed engineer but did stuff like requirements gathering and analysis, prototypes, presentations, testing,
• Actor - of the “struggling” variety
• Publicist - Entertainment
• Technical Writer/Web Designer - Technology
• Back to PR (tech PR this time) and Web stuff (Heuristics, consulting, light design)
• Web Producer
• Video Producer
• UX (more of a UX student right now)

How’s that for “non-traditional”?

[natalie_eustace]

Welcome welcome!

Thanks for sharing! I like the fact that someone else did computer science and psychology! I found they complemented each other quite nicely. I’m interested to learn more about you Empathetic tool thesis, sounds really really interesting! Do you have any links to it that you could share?

[ali_eslamifar]

Thanks for your comment @natalie_eustace1.

Of course, you can read my thesis document from my school’s library: https://repository.asu.edu/attachments/143300/content/Eslamifar_asu_0010N_14430.pdf

[dougcollins]

@SteveCrow Oh man, you and I would get along quite well. I abbreviated my path somewhat, and the full track would look like this:

• Sports Journalist
• Retail Sales
• Sales Management
• Operations Management
• Server
• 4 levels of Call Center Rep
• Corporate Trainer
• Corporate Communications
• Career Development (Read: Management Training)
• Software Engineer
• Digital Signage Developer
• Team Lead/Senior Digital Signage Developer
• Freelance Web Dev
• UX Engineer (finally)

I can’t speak for you, but for me I feel like I’ve finally found a home doing what I’m doing. A lot of my previous gigs were sorta placeholders between journalism and figuring out what my next big thing was going to be.

[SteveCrow]

I think a lot of our earlier experiences obviously apply to the UX field - funny I too considered a Digital Signage career, in fact at one time in LA I was approaching small retail outlets on the Westside with the idea of installing digital signage screens in their stores -

Also I strongly considered becoming a broadcast journalist but ended up going the PR route instead. A couple of years ago I talked to the news director of a local station here in Salinas about joining their organization but it wasn’t a great fit - they definitely were of the “if it bleeds, it leads” variety and I wanted nothing to do with that so I didn’t pursue it

I don’t know about you but when somebody asks me “so what do you do?” or worse yet “tell me about yourself” - I can only think “Dude, you have NO idea how large a conversation that is!” ha ha