User experience encompasses every aspect of the user's interaction with a product, service or company that make up the user's perceptions of the whole. As a discipline it is concerned with all the elements that together make up that interface, including layout, visual design, text, brand, sound, and interaction. User experience works to coordinate these elements to allow for the best possible interaction by users.
This content is specific to programs that are online
The Master of Science in user experience (UX) is your ticket to an advanced degree in an exciting, emerging field.
The UX Master's degree at Kent State University is designed to prepare user experience professionals to work in agencies and within organizations and to immerse students in the following major components of the field: information architecture, usability, organization of information and user research. All courses are offered conveniently online.
As one of the newest faculty members in the iSchool, Professor Dong Whi Yoo is encouraging students to see the potential of interdisciplinary research.
Professor Yoo is an assistant professor in the iSchool, teaching courses such as Introduction to UX Design and UX in Practice.
Yoo has researched the interaction between artificial intelligence and mental health, as well as human-computer interaction. More specifically, he analyzed the relationship between mental health and college students during his doctorate at Georgia Tech.
Kelsey Pytlik serves as an adjunct professor for the Kent State University School of Information, teaching courses in UX, UX principles and concepts, principles of interaction and more.
Pytlik completed her UX master’s degree in 2011 but returned to the iSchool four years later to teach. She was inspired to do so after attending a UX conference and running into a familiar face.
“I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do,” Pytlik said. “I ran into one of my professors and they invited me to become an adjunct professor and here I am.”
Felesia McDonald, '14 is an adjunct instructor in the iSchool, teaching courses in User Experience (UX). McDonald is also the Sr Manager UX Design at Optum, a branch of UnitedHealth Group.
McDonald worked as a page designer at the Plain Dealer but went back to school to get a diploma in web design from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. This introduced her to the field of UX.
“I enjoyed the strategy behind building a website more than designing, which led me to UX” McDonald said.
The UX master's degree program at Kent State University helped McDonald refine skills such as client and stakeholder interaction and presenting.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects increasing demand for user experience-related careers through 2032.
Graduates from the School of Information's User Experience program go on to interesting careers where they make a difference every day in the lives of users – in ways large and small.
Currently working as User Experience Researcher for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, alumna Mackenzie Husmann, BS ‘18, MS ‘19, demonstrates how widespread user experience (UX) work is and how universal the need is.
At the Cleveland Federal Reserve, Mackenzie puts her user experience research skills to work along with some UX design. Her responsibilities touch on multiple internal and external applications, but one of her previous projects included updating of the Bank’s public facing website. She also helped brainstorm how the Money Museum at the Federal Reserve could enhance their interactions visitors would have within the exhibits.
Stephanie is the Principal Product Manager at ServiceNow, a company focused on developing automated solutions for organizations to help streamline their processes. Prior to that, she was a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft where she oversaw the Azure.com A/B testing program. “I was given ownership over the program after a re-org, and interestingly enough, I was told that I would be good for it on the basis of having my UXD degree,” Stephanie says.
As a Senior Program Manager, she was in charge of managing the backlog of experiments and seeing them through from ideation to execution. Throughout this process, she interacted frequently with designers, engineers and analysis to ensure experiments were created according to specifications. Her team’s goals were to optimize the user experience of Azure.com and make it easier for users to get started with utilizing Azure.
Brian is a UX Designer at Sony PlayStation where he primarily focuses on accounts and accessibility. He is in charge conceptualizing and creating new accessibility features for games, supporting hardware and software design for Access Controller and designing accessible components for the PS ecosystem of user research studies across the PlayStation environment, including the console, mobile app, and website.
As an advocate for accessibility and inclusive design, he works to educate people about accessibility. He created a Global Accessibility Awareness Day event for PlayStation’s San Francisco office.
