HCI Professions: Differences & Definitions

In this paper, we present findings from a pilot survey in which we investigated how industry practitioners who create interactive technologies discuss their work and include end users, (e.g. user research methods used). We also explored measures of empathy (a key concept for ‘walking in end-user’s shoes’) among HCI professionals. We found that there were distinct and significant differences among individuals who claimed user-centric job titles (e.g. usability engineer) from those who claimed design-centric job titles (e.g. interaction designer, developer). Differences included how job-title groups considered end-users in their work and their empathetic profiles. We used results from this pilot study to inform a more comprehensive study we are currently undertaking.