Jeff Siarto, the Interim Director of MSU’s Master of Science in User Experience (UXMS) program shares his excitement of shaping a new program and its culture, focusing on student support through a service-minded leadership style. He discusses the program’s growth phase, the unique challenges of leading an online program, and the importance of being a well-rounded UX designer–emphasizing the importance of understanding both design and development.
Q: Can you share a little about your background and what led you to this role as Interim Director of the UXMS Online program?
A: I completed my undergrad and graduate work in the Department of Media and Information (formerly the Department of Telecommunication) at MSU with a focus on HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). During my graduate studies, I co-authored a book titled Head First Web Design. This was a new series by the popular tech publisher O’Reilly—with the concepts, visual style, and characters developed by the amazing programmer and educator Kathy Sierra. The process of writing this book was a vast user experience exercise and a project that cemented my interest in creating well-designed user interfaces and teaching others to do the same.
My early career was spent in Chicago where I worked as a freelance designer for early-stage startups. I was also involved in the co-working scene as a core member of Jelly Chicago, a co-working group that met weekly at a north-end coffee shop. In 2010, I co-founded Loudpixel—a small social media research agency that worked with consumer product brands in the Chicagoland area. We developed software to support a human-first research method we used to help brands monitor and respond to social media activity. During this time, I also began teaching some of the first asynchronous classes for the Department of Media and Information here at MSU.
After Loudpixel, I went on to work as the User Experience Director for Element 84, a specialty software firm with a geospatial focus. Here, I joined old colleagues from O’Reilly to lead a design team at NASA, developing systems to help scientists around the globe get access to vital geospatial data. We spent years talking with scientists, engineers, and educators who helped us develop the next generation of Earth science tools for NASA.
After a decade at Element 84 and NASA, an opportunity came up for my wife and I to take over an MSU Education Abroad program in Rome, Italy. This coincided with an increased interest in my classes from the department, and in 2023 I found myself in a mostly full-time role here at MSU. Not too long after that, I was approached by the Chair of the Department of Media and Information and the former director of the UXMS program to see if I’d be interested in leading the program. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to expand and improve my teaching and work on providing students with the same opportunities and enthusiasm I was shown as a student in this department.
Q: What excites you most about leading the MSU UXMS program during its beginning years?
A: There are not many opportunities to get in on the ground floor of a new program at MSU. I love being able to make an impact on the culture of the program early on and help build the initial group of graduates that will go on to lead in industry and (hopefully) support our alumni network in the future. This is also the time in the program where relationship-building and networking are important—I’ve enjoyed being able to meet new people working in and around UX in Michigan and coming up with new ways for the community to be involved with UX at Michigan State.
Q: What would you say is your leadership philosophy, and how do you plan to apply it in this role?
A: I have a service-minded leadership style. The role of a leader at all levels of business and higher education is to be an advocate for your people—full stop. My job is to support students on their journey. That could come in the form of extra help in class, career advice and mentorship, recognizing and being supportive of mental health issues, filing a form, writing a letter, or just being there to talk to. UX is a human-focused endeavor—one of the first things you learn is to look beyond yourself and develop empathy and connection with the people you’re designing for.
I also believe strongly in practicing what you preach. Not only do I teach in the program myself, but I am an active and practicing software developer and designer in real life. I’ve walked the path I’m leading my students down and 100% of my focus at MSU is on teaching and building up great UX designers.
Q: How would you describe the current state of the UXMS program? What do you think is its greatest strength?
A: The program is strong, but we’re in a growth phase. We’re beginning to spin the flywheel by building partnerships with industry for class and capstone projects and making sure our courses are meeting learning objectives and student expectations. Our greatest strength right now is the structure of the program, and its student-focused policies and vision. I don’t think there is a better program available that offers the flexibility, breadth of topics, and instructor access you get with the MSU UXMS.
Q: What are some of the unique challenges in leading an online program, and how do you address them?
A: Positioning the program can be tricky. There isn’t a shared definition for what an “online program” is (or should be), and most early conversations with prospective students revolve around describing MSU’s brand of online, asynchronous education. I personally think that the way we do things—weekly asynchronous content with due dates following MSU’s in-person semester—is a great approach, but it’s different from other online methodologies students may have been exposed to (bootcamps, Zoom classrooms, etc.).
You also must be proactive with students in online programs. Because of everyone’s individual life situations, it’s easy to fall behind or feel stuck. Online students have the potential to feel like they’re out on an island with less of a support network than our in-person grad students. This couldn’t be further from the truth, but we must go the extra mile to show our UXMS students that they have the same resources and access as their on-campus counterparts.
Q: In your view, what are the most important skills or areas of knowledge that today’s students need to develop to be successful in user experience design?
A: I think being a generalist is the best approach. UX designers have fuzzy borders in most organizations. In large multinationals, a UX designer might only be responsible for qualitative research. In a small company, they may have to do all the design and front-end development work on the company website. To be flexible in your job and within the industry, you must be able to flex your skills to the borders of UX. In my opinion, that means programming skills are as important as research skills. Visual design and aesthetics are on equal footing with usability and accessibility. I want my students to be able to take an idea from concept through development and testing.
Fully understanding the medium in which you are designing and problem-solving is the goal for the generalist UX practitioner. I didn’t become a great geospatial designer until I really learned the ins-and-outs of the remote sensing field—their lingo, their data, their workflows, and their culture. Only then could I design effective solutions to their problems.
A metaphor I often use with students is the fashion designer who can’t sew. Can you be a good fashion designer without understanding how a garment goes together? Maybe. But the designer who can sketch a concept, pick the best fabric, and sew a prototype has a better holistic understanding of the space they’re working in and will produce better results.
I want students to understand how to build what they design.
Read Jeff Siarto’s full bio here.
The Master of Science in User Experience (UXMS) program at Michigan State University is an asynchronous, 100% online professional degree designed to help graduates become leaders in UX. Taught by world-class faculty, the program and its courses emphasize a “user-first” perspective, integrating knowledge of human-computer interaction with industry-relevant methods and social responsibility.Learn More / Apply