History and scholarship
UX grows from ergonomics and cognitive psychology: Fitts's law (1954) and Hick's law (1952). Herbert Simon (1969) defined design as changing situations into preferred ones; Card, Moran and Newell (1983) founded HCI as cognitive science; Norman (1986; 1988) popularised user-centred design and affordances; Nielsen (1993) set out usability engineering. ISO 9241-210 standardises human-centred design.
What the job involves
User interviews, personas, journey maps, information architecture, wireframes, prototypes, usability tests and developer collaboration. Scope and required skills vary by company and industry; check actual job postings and NCS job descriptions.
Hiring and careers
A process-focused portfolio matters most; GTQ is supporting evidence.
FAQ
- UX vs UI?
- UI focuses on screens; UX on the whole experience.
- Need a design degree?
- Backgrounds vary.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Fitts, P. M. (1954). The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 47(6), 381–391.
- Hick, W. E. (1952). On the rate of gain of information. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 4(1), 11–26.
- Simon, H. A. (1969). The Sciences of the Artificial. MIT Press.
- Card, S. K., Moran, T. P., & Newell, A. (1983). The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Norman, D. A., & Draper, S. W. (Eds.). (1986). User Centered System Design. Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Norman, D. A. (1988). The Psychology of Everyday Things. Basic Books.
- Nielsen, J. (1993). Usability Engineering. Academic Press.
- International Organization for Standardization. (2019). ISO 9241-210:2019 Human-centred design for interactive systems. ISO.
- 국가직무능력표준(NCS). https://www.ncs.go.kr
- 고용24 직업정보(고용노동부·한국고용정보원). https://www.work24.go.kr