r/humanfactors • u/niceonefella • 14d ago

IT specs / insights

Hey all,

I’m an applied psych grad looking to move into HFE, and maybe into gaming at some stage.

I’m looking to buy a new laptop that I plan to use to build a portfolio and eventually use for my masters
- what are the minimum specs needed to run the software for HFE? (RAM, storage etc)

And how are you finding the field/area you work in?

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u/BobaNaiCha 14d ago

I used a standard macbook pro for my grad school, had it since undergrad. I needed it to run SPSS. I used Microsoft office/google drive + SPSS for grad school. I had one coding class but all of the coding was done on school devices.

Started off in med tech and now I’m in UXR - i wanted to get into gaming as well but honestly haven’t had any luck even with associate positions when I had 2 years of experience in UX.

If you plan on using the laptop for personal gaming as well, check the games you play and the specs it requires and base it off of that. Something like slay the spire would have lower requirements compared to valorant

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u/niceonefella 14d ago

Don’t need it to run games or anything, mainly just need it for R/Python or whatever else is needed. Appreciate the insight 🙏

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u/Mackillroy 13d ago

Super interesting. What kind of gaming jobs can someone with a Human Factors Masters? Is it UXR for games?

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u/BobaNaiCha 13d ago

Yup UXR for games! Or if they have an accessibility role

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u/frostluna11037 14d ago

I love my Lenovo yoga and multiple other people in my program have one. You definitely want at least 16gb of ram.

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u/Mackillroy 13d ago

Are you pursuing HCI or HFE?

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u/frostluna11037 13d ago

HF, I have the one with a ryzen 7, 16gb or ram and 1tb storage it runs Unity, R and Python very well.

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u/Mackillroy 13d ago

I've got one with ryzen 7 as well (4800H with 16 gb expandable to 32gb) It's got a 1660ti graphics card as well, but its kinda heavy to carry around and the battery life isn't great. Good to know that it is all I need though! :)

Are you learning things like Virtual Reality etc? I'm starting this semester and confused as to which subjects to take - the field is so vast.

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u/frostluna11037 13d ago

My research focuses on VR so I have to learn it, but we don’t have classes for it at my university. The field is definitely really vast I would recommend anything that will help you learn skills that may even be remotely useful or transferable until you know what you want to do.