Irene Au

Irene Au can be considered one of the pioneers in developing User Experience (UX) design into a distinct field of study and professional career choice. While studying for her master’s degree in Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana, she actually created her own program within Industrial Engineering called, “Human-Computer Interaction.” She was immediately drawn to studying the intersection of human psychology and computer science and developed a passion for how to make the human experience of working with computers as pleasurable and efficient as possible. In describing the importance of effective UX design she incorporates the language of her other great passion, teaching yoga, by identifying “mindfulness” and “empathy” as key requirements for consumers of great design. She emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of interaction design, incorporating technology, psychology, art, and ethics.

Au’s resume reads like a virtual who’s who of the biggest names in the early history of web browser design. After graduating from UI, she went started as an interaction designer at Netscape, working on the design of the first commercially successful web browser. She then moved on to lead the User Interaction and Design teams at Yahoo! (1998–2006), Google (2006–2012), and Udacity (2012–2014). She currently employs her vast experience and deep passion as an operating partner at the venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures, where she coaches tech startup entrepreneurs on the importance of coherence and user experience as the foundations of product design. In this role she emphasizes the signal importance of design in developing successful products and that you must have a well-balanced team of developers. For example, she points out that confusing or ineffective user interfaces can be traced back to the dysfunctions of the design team; a cluttered web page can be traced back to the dysfunctions of the team.

Despite a very successful career, Au is deeply aware of the challenges facing women trying to enter and maintain careers in technology. She wrote an article on medium.com, “Hiring and Retaining Women in Tech” to call attention to the challenges faced by women in tech. The four main points she focuses on are:

1. Be aware of hidden biases when searching for qualified candidates which tend to more heavily identify and value male candidates.
2. Invest in educating women in technology as a means to enlarging the qualified pool of candidates.
3. Help retain woman by not forcing them to make the choice between career and family
4. Recognize talent by avoiding behavioral characterizations that devaluing qualities in woman seen as virtues in men.

Au also raises the importance of workforce diversity in an interview with Paula Macedo on uxdesign.cc. Here she says,

“Embrace diversity, not necessarily by filling quotas, but by really seeing the qualities that each individual can bring to the table and build teams comprised of complementary skills. Embrace diversity, not just in race and gender, but in socio-economic background, life experience, education, geography, and skill set. Diverse teams build better products and better companies because they are more empathetic and creative.”

Work Cited

Irene Au’s Linkedin

Wilson, Mark. “Why VC Firms Are Snapping Up Designers.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 9 July 2018, www.fastcompany.com/3029639/why-vc-firms-are-snapping-up-designers. 

Macedo, Paula. “Women’s Day: Interview with Irene Au.” Medium, UX Collective, 6 Mar. 2018, uxdesign.cc/womens-day-interview-with-irene-au-99e9426dec66. 

Au, Irene. “Hiring and Retaining Women in Tech.” Medium, Medium, 27 Mar. 2014, medium.com/@ireneau/hiring-and-retaining-women-in-tech-1bdd0ea910.