How to Become an Usability Analyst
As an usability analyst, your job will be to survey consumers to determine whether your company's product provides the desired service or effect. To become an usability analyst, you must combine the proper education with experience in various aspects of your chosen industry, from product design to marketing. Read on to learn more.
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Instructions
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Use Education and Experience to Become an Usability Analyst
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Use your undergraduate years to explore course work in graphic design, psychology and other topics related to marketing and product design. These courses will serve you well when applying for a job as an usability analyst, as they will give you additional ways to approach branding and marketability.
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Complete a master's degree in human factors or cognitive psychology on your road to becoming an usability analyst. The focus of this degree is to see how humans act upon the objects they use in normal life.
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Become familiar with the legal aspects of your chosen field by learning about the Americans with Disabilities Act and other similar laws regarding accessibility and usability in other countries. Depending on your industry, you may be required to shape product tests around their use by individuals with disabilities.
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Plan to have at least 3 or more years experience in graphic design on your CV before you set out to become an usability analyst. Since designing testing procedures utilizing a graphic user interface and developing graphically interesting result reports will be a part of your daily work, skills in graphic design are essential for this career.
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Gain experience in user profiling by participating in an internship program with a product design and marketing team. You will need to be able to quickly and concisely define the area of the market your company's products will most likely appeal.
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Build on your experience by working with a marketing research firm in the design of user interview and field testing strategies. This is a skill essential to your work as an usability analyst, as you will be called upon to design and implement these kinds of tests.
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Make sure you have the computer chops to cut it in the usability analyst field. You should be comfortable with standard platforms such as Windows as well as more advanced computer technology such as HTML and Java.
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Tips & Warnings
You should expect to provide your prospective employer with survey and testing samples as part of the interview process when applying for a new job as an usability analyst.
