How to enter experience design work?

Question

My main area of interest in the world of programming is enhancing the user experience. I’m currently enrolled in a Information Science and Technology degree program and intend to tackle the Human-Computer Interaction focus my university offers through this major.

So to expand and actually ask a question; as a UX designer what programming skills should I focus on developing the most? What tools are used in the trade? What languages would be practical for a designer to know deeply? What is expected of me to both help users and programmers?

I appreciate any advice greatly.

Answer 1

As a student, you can get lots of Microsoft software for free through their Bizspark program. You may want to checkout Expression Blend which is Microsoft's product for creating rich user interfaces in Silverlight.

Answer 2

Since more and more programs is developed for the web. (Html/css) The next generation can be Rich internet application (Silverlight) But if you want a broad experience a would say c#/java is a great start

Silverligt/C# tools can you download from http://www.microsoft.com/Express/