People who build technology want you to have the most simple—and emotionally satisfying—experience possible. That’s why more and more students are studying UX, or user experience, design. There are many subtleties in how understanding how users interact with technology and how to create user-friendly products. The field of UX design is often described as how and why things work. And Chicago is becoming a hotbed for studying it.
“After noticing all the ‘learn to program’ boot camps popping up in the nation … no one was genuinely focused on teaching the other crucial technical skill—design,” said Kevin Yun, founder of The Designation, a 10-week UX design program in Chicago.
“Everyone’s trying to learn how to program, but the most innovative and fastest-growing tech companies are design-driven,” he said, citing Instagram, Pinterest, Airbnb, and Path as examples.
There are a number of similar programs emerging in Chicago, where people pay approximately $2,000 – $4,500 to learn the basics of UX design. A number of other such programs are emerging nationwide. This video tells the stories of two Chicago design schools.