HCI is the academic domain of the most exciting field in tech companies - Product. Alums of Reichman University's MA in HCI program work in product teams at early-stage startups, unicorn companies, and tech giants, as product managers, product designers, UX researchers, UX writers, product analysts, and engineers.
Yael Gabriel, a recent alum who studied architecture before joining the MA in HCI, works as a Product Designer at Yotpo, a unicorn startup: "my experience as a student at the MA in HCI program was absolutely amazing, the quality and diversity of my fellow students, the professional level of the faculty, the depth of the academic learning, and the industry experience I got through my internship, led me to where I am today, at a promising career in a fast-paced product team in a growing startup".
Asaf Barzilay is an adjunct faculty member at the MA in HCI program, an industry expert with 20+ years of experience, currently the Director of Products at Waze (Google): "Teaching product design and product management at Reichman University's MA in HCI is a great pleasure for me, as I assist students in understanding the power of data and analytical thinking, empowering them to design and test products at all levels of the product life cycle. Every year, the MA in HCI students impress me with their curiosity, perseverance, and motivation to make an impact on the world through digital products".
Product teams in tech companies are responsible for discovering problems worth solving, and creating delightful user experiences that solve these problems. Every tech company, from early-stage startups to industry leaders, have product teams that collaborate in fast-paced environments to create products that make an impact. In the current era of AI tools, product teams get a dramatic boost in performance and abilities by leveraging AI tools for research, prototyping, design, and testing. The field of HCI, Human-Computer Interaction, has a long history of success in creating technologies that made digital technologies more accessible, useful, delightful, and valuable. A classic historical example is the computer mouse, created during the 1960s by Doug Engelbart's research group in the silicon valley. Without the computer mouse, computers would not have become accessible and intuitive to use. Today the tech industry may be facing a similar revolution, with conversational interfaces that are empowered by AI - would all digital products become voice enabled and people will stop using mouse and keyboards? or maybe we will enter a hybrid era with interfaces that merge several interaction modalities?
This is exactly the advantage in studying an MA in HCI rather than a professional course in product management or ux Design - getting a deep understanding of theory but also gaining highly practical tools for industry roles in tech companies, from product management to product design and UX research.
The MA in HCI at Reichman University is a leading graduate program at the heart of Israel's flourishing tech ecosystem. Reichman University alums started 22 unicorns (including Monday.com, AppsFlyer, SimilarWeb, IronSource), and over 600 startups.
The MA in HCI is taught in Israel, in English, in 12-16 months, with human-centered design as the program's core methodology, and with special focus on AI, UX, Robotics, VR/AR, Psychology, Design, Neuroscience and Physiology.
This article was written in a cooperation with Reichman University