Last couple of months I spent significant portion of my spare time reading books about User Experience and Interaction Design, learning about the user-centered design principles – affordances, visibility, feedback and constraints. About the UX design process, research, prototyping and testing.
I learnt lots of useful stuff, but still wasn’t sure, what knowledge and skills should I possess to become good interaction designer. Finally I got couple of very useful answers on London IA forum.
Here is the list of some great articles concerning getting into the UX / Interaction Design industry I read.
Getting Started in User Experience Design is nicely describing, what should we do in order to became good UX designer. You’ll find some good advice on what books to read, about the importance of getting in touch with the industry experts on conferences, networks and Twitter and finally why getting a mentor is a great idea.
In Starting a Career in User Experience Design, Nick Finck describes, how important role education plays – again giving advice on books and getting mentor and explains why good CV and portfolio can be crucial.
Nine Essential Characteristics of Good UX Designers is rather practical article, listing and explaining what skills and knowledge should good UX designer possess – from human psychology and research methods to technology awareness, good communication skills, creativity and passion.
Complete Beginner’s Guide to Interaction Design is very informative article and nice introduction to the world of Interaction Design. Article explains, what is Interaction Design, why is user research important for determining interface constraints, what is the holy grail of UI and what role plays usability, affordances and learnability.
In his article Q&A: getting into user experience, Cennydd Bowles brings answer on some interesting questions from HCI Masters students at UCL.
So you wanna be a user experience designer — Step 1: Resources is fantastic list of resources and further reading – I guess it will take long time to go through all of them, but I think I’ll not regret it 
UPDATED: just found great thread on UXExchange.com What 5 things must I do to become a well-rounded, progressive UX Designer in my career?
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