Preamble
Recently, a student at Oregon State University reached out to me on LinkedIn.
This student has taken a bit of interest in Human-Computer Interaction through a professor that they're working with and asked me some very good questions about my experience in the field thus far.
It was my pleasure to take the opportunity and answer some questions, this also prompted me to introspect upon my experience and reconnect with my alma mater. Our interaction also touched briefly on opportunities at OSU, some suggestions of which I collected from some of the fine folks at StartOut (not included in this post).
(The conversation below has been slightly altered for brevity)
HCI Experience
"[Could you] share some of your experiences working in this focus area [HCI] of yours?"
I would love to share a little bit about my experience.
My first steps in coding were over half a lifetime ago back in 2012. I was in middle school, and not unlike many others my age I got really into Minecraft! That led me into writing mods in Java. I cite this premier moment as the thing that eventually guided me into HCI - I really like to create and share experiences, though I didn't know what to call it yet.
Over the years I wandered towards frontend development, only ever being self-taught until I decided to go back to school for Comp Sci and formalize this thing that I'd been passionately pursuing since middle school.
Getting to work with others like me (not a lot of coders growing up in my little town in Alaska) and get the streamlined education at OSU turned that wandering, aimless passion into a finely honed skillset. Combining the human factors and hard skills I earned at OSU with the deep-seeded motivations that stay with me from those early expressions of creativity through code has resulted in some pretty rad projects!
I became fascinated with the different avenues which can benefit [from] an HCI mind. In my many group projects at OSU, I fell into leadership and "DevOps" (to the extent 10-week projects [could] take advantage of it) roles; bridging HCI and these opportunities brought me into the DevEx mindset and prompted my creating todoon. And of course, frontend remains an important part of HCI so I regularly do usability reviews with a team that's developing a collaborative platform in React and use universal design heuristics as often as I can.
The biggest takeaway for me so far has been the valence of "UI > UX > HCI" that I see. The disciplines themselves started as UI, being conscious not to make unpleasant interfaces; an invaluable part of the process! But what really excites me is when you start layering intention around that, UX being the first step thereof: the interface shouldn't just be pleasant, it should be usable.
And finally, HCI. Bringing the word "human" to the front, literally. HCI can bring a soul into any system, not just an interface. Consciously considering the human that will use your system is a radical and rewarding experience. Whether you ever see the results of the effort or not, empathizing makes writing code (one of my favorite things to do) a SOCIAL act, something that we as humans are hardwired to be.
DevOps and Oregon State University
"You mentioned OSU group projects that allowed you to gain leadership and DevOps experience. Were those obtained through clubs or other forms of collaboration?"
The initial stages of my DevOps experience came from group assignments in classes concerning web/cloud dev, classes like WebDev II, Cloud Applications, my capstone, and Software Engineering (if a class project is concerned) but they swiftly blossomed into more extracurricular activities.
I recruited some fellow peers to collaborate and support each other on side projects, and this is where my DevOps experience really started to reach some new heights (without the time constraint of a class and supported by other passionate and equally motivated peers).
For me, the single most effective opportunity-generator was to invite my peers to work on projects and ideas outside of the classroom! I personally never took part in any clubs, but they are an awesome resource.
My path was to create my own spaces to collaborate, but if your style is closer to the "reliable support" role than the "fearless front-liner" then seek out those who would like collaborators! OSU is a really special school in that it promotes collaboration and hands-on experience incredibly well, this is something I've heard from many interviewers and leaders in the field. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT!
Every project should be a GitHub repo, and they should be public as often as possible! Having a strong portfolio takes a lot of time, make every line count!
"What's the key difference between DevOps and DevEx?"
DevOps and DevEx are more dissimilar than they are similar, but I'm glad you asked that because it's actually the similarities that thrill me.
DevOps (Development + Operations) bridges the two (traditionally siloed and strictly separated) disciplines of developers and the folks who provide those devs with platforms upon which to deploy their code.
DevEx, on the other hand, is a special branch of UI/UX/HCI which is solely concerned with the developer; developers are superusers of so many different technologies, so the field for improving their experience is immense!
What really excites me there is the support for developers. In both disciplines, practitioners are giants providing shoulders upon which new devs can stand and reach greater heights. Loyalty is really important to me, so I always strive to make any process that I ask of my team not just painless—but fun.
Conclusion
It made my day to hear from a student at my alma mater and to have an opportunity to pass along anything about my experience. I hope that this student found some use from my rambling!