Christine Morino '20 combines her interests by working in the field of User Experience (UX) Research
Christine Morino ’20 is a Psychology major with a triple minor in Communications, Spanish and Studio Art. Christine is able to combine her interests by working in the field of User Experience (UX) Research. Learn more about her journey in her own words:
“I love psychology and working directly with people, but a few quarters into my psych major I realized that more traditional career paths like counseling or academia weren’t for me. Luckily, at the perfect time, Psych Club put on a panel called Psych in Tech, where I learned about UX Research. I connected with the panelists on LinkedIn, and I started researching all I could about the field. Once I realized it combined the skills I had learned from my Research Methods classes and from working in Professor Bhagwat’s cognitive development lab with my interest in design, I was sold. During the summer of 2019, I was hired as a User Research intern at SoundHound, Inc, a voice AI company. At SoundHound, I used a combination of both quantitative and qualitative research methods to understand the user’s experience with their products and inform product design decisions. I got to conduct usability tests, facilitate 1:1 interviews, create and analyze survey data, develop user personas, and much more. What I really liked about this position is that I worked with people in several different departments including design, development, product management, and marketing. This position ended at the beginning of September, but I was recently offered a contract position to continue doing UX data analysis during the school year. IT has been great to continue learning and working in the UX industry while I finish my college career. So many of the classes I’ve taken at SCU have informed the work that I’ve done this summer especially Social Psychology, I/O Psychology, Psychological Assessment, and Qualitative Research Methods from the COMM department. My advice to other students interested in UX is to focus on your research methods classes, join a research lab to get hands-on experience, and even take some design courses to help you stand out when applying for jobs.”