The 750 word personal statement should address:
·Aspects of your academic background, professional experience (e.g., work, volunteer positions, internships, etc.), and extracurricular activities that have prepared you to be successful in the program.
I am struggling to come up with a good intro and close and stay within the 750 word count. I'm already at 650 words. Any suggestions welcome!
Throughout my career, I have enjoyed not only developing powerful products for users but also ensuring that the users have an enjoyable experience using those products.
In my current role as a partner at a test preparation company, CompanyName, I review the performance of our website and online learning platforms and have used user experience (UX) principles to improve the experience of our customers and even grow the business. Our company also an online learning platform with thousands of multiple choice questions for various standardized multiple choice tests. The earlier version of our online portal had a significant drop off rate with few students completing the half-hour long tests. After speaking to various students, I was able to identify several features, including the ability to save progress, which dramatically increased the completion rates of our online tests. Since most of our customers now access our content from a handheld mobile device and are very active on social media, we reformatted our online products to be more mobile friendly and added a functionality that allows students to easily share their progress on various social media platforms. Many students now share their progress across various social media platforms which in turn has attracted a lot of new customers to our website and helped grow the business.
Thus, I have witnessed how investing in user experience not only results in a better experience for the customer but can substantially grow a business and this is why I would like to pursue a career as a UX practitioner. In transitioning to a career focusing mainly on UX, I feel I my undergraduate degree in computer science and graduate studies in business administration will be helpful in providing me with familiarity with technology, programming, and business. However, a formal degree in User Experience Design (UXD) will develop my skill set further by equipping me with the tools necessary to develop wireframes, personas, and prototypes for any given product. I am attracted to the Master of Information (MI) program at the University of XYZ because of the interesting specializations it offers, the ample opportunity to work with businesses during internships and co-ops and the diverse academic backgrounds of the student body.
Within the MI program, the User Experience Design (UXD) and Information Systems and Design (IS&D) concentrations appeal to me the most. The user experience design specialization will allow me to further develop my skill set of studying user behavior, defining interaction patterns and incorporating both business and user needs effectively into the design. Since technology plays a growing role in how users interact with businesses, I feel a secondary concentration in IS&D will provide a familiarity with technology implementation that will inform my work as a UX designer.
While pursuing my degree, I would like to study how a designer can render a product that is intuitive to not just a literate, tech-savvy millennial but to a broader range of demographics. In my native CountryName, the majority of the country remains illiterate and the GDP per capita hovers around $1600 a year. Yet, easy to use applications like WhatsApp and YouTube are now used more frequently than regular telephones and televisions. In order to appeal to a broader demographic, financial services giants and hotel chains alike are striving to create mobile applications that rely less on text and more on icons and intuitive layouts. Thus I would like to study how design can be truly inclusive.
Upon graduation, I would like to help companies design products that provide a great experience for the user, more profits for the company and greater benefit to society as a whole. In CountryName, and across the developing world, a substantial portion of the population does not participate in the formal banking system or the e-commerce industry due to an inability to read and language barriers. I would like to help financial service firms and other businesses create applications that are intuitive and usable for the entire population and not just a privileged few.
·Aspects of your academic background, professional experience (e.g., work, volunteer positions, internships, etc.), and extracurricular activities that have prepared you to be successful in the program.
I am struggling to come up with a good intro and close and stay within the 750 word count. I'm already at 650 words. Any suggestions welcome!
Throughout my career, I have enjoyed not only developing powerful products for users but also ensuring that the users have an enjoyable experience using those products.
In my current role as a partner at a test preparation company, CompanyName, I review the performance of our website and online learning platforms and have used user experience (UX) principles to improve the experience of our customers and even grow the business. Our company also an online learning platform with thousands of multiple choice questions for various standardized multiple choice tests. The earlier version of our online portal had a significant drop off rate with few students completing the half-hour long tests. After speaking to various students, I was able to identify several features, including the ability to save progress, which dramatically increased the completion rates of our online tests. Since most of our customers now access our content from a handheld mobile device and are very active on social media, we reformatted our online products to be more mobile friendly and added a functionality that allows students to easily share their progress on various social media platforms. Many students now share their progress across various social media platforms which in turn has attracted a lot of new customers to our website and helped grow the business.
Thus, I have witnessed how investing in user experience not only results in a better experience for the customer but can substantially grow a business and this is why I would like to pursue a career as a UX practitioner. In transitioning to a career focusing mainly on UX, I feel I my undergraduate degree in computer science and graduate studies in business administration will be helpful in providing me with familiarity with technology, programming, and business. However, a formal degree in User Experience Design (UXD) will develop my skill set further by equipping me with the tools necessary to develop wireframes, personas, and prototypes for any given product. I am attracted to the Master of Information (MI) program at the University of XYZ because of the interesting specializations it offers, the ample opportunity to work with businesses during internships and co-ops and the diverse academic backgrounds of the student body.
Within the MI program, the User Experience Design (UXD) and Information Systems and Design (IS&D) concentrations appeal to me the most. The user experience design specialization will allow me to further develop my skill set of studying user behavior, defining interaction patterns and incorporating both business and user needs effectively into the design. Since technology plays a growing role in how users interact with businesses, I feel a secondary concentration in IS&D will provide a familiarity with technology implementation that will inform my work as a UX designer.
While pursuing my degree, I would like to study how a designer can render a product that is intuitive to not just a literate, tech-savvy millennial but to a broader range of demographics. In my native CountryName, the majority of the country remains illiterate and the GDP per capita hovers around $1600 a year. Yet, easy to use applications like WhatsApp and YouTube are now used more frequently than regular telephones and televisions. In order to appeal to a broader demographic, financial services giants and hotel chains alike are striving to create mobile applications that rely less on text and more on icons and intuitive layouts. Thus I would like to study how design can be truly inclusive.
Upon graduation, I would like to help companies design products that provide a great experience for the user, more profits for the company and greater benefit to society as a whole. In CountryName, and across the developing world, a substantial portion of the population does not participate in the formal banking system or the e-commerce industry due to an inability to read and language barriers. I would like to help financial service firms and other businesses create applications that are intuitive and usable for the entire population and not just a privileged few.
