Interaction Designer (
examples)
UX Designer
(see details below)
Usability Engineer
Information Architect
User Research
You can get an undergrad in anything and go into one of these fields. A lot of designers get music or English majors. It helps if you go to grad school for psychology but it's not necessary.
"Systems analyst" is kind of the word n00b companies use for "interaction designer." It was rated the number 1 'Best Job' by CNN last year.
Edit: Or you could do what my
startup accelerator coach does and SEO affiliate links. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm trying it out myself for the first time with this post lol. I read dozens if not a few hundred books and sum it up in a few sentences of advice... and drive traffic to amazon based on my book recommendations. So here's to me making a few cents off a referral link maybe. Just wanted to give full disclosure for ethical reasons.
As long as I'm investing in this recommendation list, I'll give a quick introduction. I started Computer Science then decided I wanted to be a part of deciding what gets made and less about following through, sitting in front of a screen all day, and building it... I wanted to lead or at least feel important. I found out designers are the ones who actually make all these decisions along with marketing. Anyway, I taught myself much more on my own than in college. According to credible people, my startup's worth 500 to 750k at the moment... so I'm more
successful now than if I went the traditional programmer route. But I have to mention that starting your own company is EXTREMELY risky. There's a 3 to 5% chance I'll actually come out of this ahead.
But yeah, right now we're trying to sell about 10% of the company to investors so I can pay myself minimum wage, focus on this full time, and pay everyone else a decent salary. It's a lot of effort and risky, but I'm no longer a member of the proletariat and there's high prestige. Plus I spend all my time in a "flow" state which positive psychologists would define as happiness... in a job sense. Enough about me, here's how to get started as a UX Designer/Interaction Designer. You can work for a big company and make more money than your math/science/computer graduates, use creativity/empathy, make the world a better place, etc. etc... The field is still very new but Human Computer Interaction has been around since the 80s.
Starting Point
To get started in the UX field,
The Design of Everyday Things is seminal work. This guy basically coined the term
usability.
While you're at it, if you have 3 or 4 hours, read
Don't Make me Think! by Steven Krug. It's really entertaining, will probably change your life, and is like super short.
And finally, to get a really good idea of what design actually is,
Sketching User Experiences will give you concrete examples of what you're doing here. Interesting fact, the author was a music major in college and is the head design manager at Microsoft. He's traveled all over the world and worked with some of the most creative minds, such as hollywood movie directors, to give them creative advice. He also bikes a lot, which I like.
(Make sure you get the book and not the handbook)
Going further
If you're really hardcore, read The
Inmates are Running the Asylum. Everyone needs to read this book and the Design of Everyday Things (listed above).