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Career Transition Guide

Your UX background is the starting point.
Not the destination.

HRI design takes what you already know and applies it to physical robots. The methods transfer. The tools, assumptions, and testing environments don't. This page shows you exactly what changes — and how to close the gap.

34 lessons4 certification levelsVerifiable credentials

Why now

Robots are being deployed in hospitals, factories, and public spaces right now — without enough designers who understand how humans respond to them physically. That gap is the opportunity.

Healthcare Robotics

Hospitals are using robots for delivery, rehab, and patient assistance. Designing these safely requires more than good UX — it requires understanding how patients respond to machines in vulnerable moments.

Industrial Cobots

Factory robots are moving out of caged areas and into shared workspaces with humans. Workers need to trust them instantly, without training manuals.

Public Space Robots

Robots in airports, retail stores, and campuses have to communicate clearly with people who've never seen them before and aren't paying attention.

The skill bridge

What transfers. What doesn't.

What you already know

What HRI adds

Designing screen flows
Designing how a robot moves through space
Defining interface states
Defining robot behavior states and physical signals
Error and recovery UX copy
Graceful failure design in physical environments
Lab-based usability testing
Field research in real environments with real constraints
Accessibility and inclusive design
Proxemics, safety, and multimodal communication

Your path

A clear transition into HRI.

  1. 1

    Where you start

    You understand users, interaction patterns, and how to design iteratively. That foundation is exactly what HRI needs.

  2. 2

    Foundation Track

    Learn the five core concepts: how humans respond to robots physically, what makes an approach feel safe, how robots communicate without screens, and what trust actually means in this context.

  3. 3

    Practitioner Track

    Apply real HRI methods — field research, physical prototyping, and validated usability testing — to actual deployment scenarios.

Start the Foundation Track.

Five lessons. $49. Everything you need to know to decide if HRI is where you're going.

Begin HRI Foundation Track — $49 →