Will and others make some very good points. One small point that you
might consider as your are starting is to keep a good historical
timeline of your projects including sketches on napkins, rough
diagrams, flow charts, etc.. I've interviewed a few candidates who did
this and could express the evolution of their design thinking and
found it quite impressive as well as showing that they were well
organized and open to new ideas. The portfolios I have seen are more
feasible in paper and digital photo format. A simple thing you can do
is to simply to annotate screen shots with both positive and negative
issues (I think that Will mentioned that below). Before and after
shots with notes about the design principles you applied (say Gestalt
principles or HF principles, etc.) would be good. I like to see
storyboards (which are much discussed in UX and usability and IA
areas, but not quite as common as I would expect).
I think that the advice about locating or using the experience of
others on forums like this is an excellent one. It used to be that
companies would hire good people form college and teams would mentor
them. I had John Whiteside, Tom Spine, Michael Good, and Dennis Wixon
(all superb usability and design colleagues as mentors) and learned a
lot from them. Unfortunately, the design world seems to move at such
a pace now that even want-to- be-mentors seldom have enough time for
mentees.
Chauncey
On 10/30/07, W Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Steven, Jason, and others looking:
> 1. Fresh out of school, an agency is just not the place to work. Not only
> would I recommend trying for an inside position - I would try for one in
> something like a company's marketing department; then as you gain
> experience, you can begin to insidiously practice good IA/IxD or whatever
> path you really want to follow within that role as you learn to evangelize
> your process to those around you. The pace, deliverables, and client-facing
> facts about agency work cannot be understated, and even "junior" people in
> Agencies tend to have at least 3 years experience.
> 2. I agree with Dan that besides the hygiene issue (some normative
> baseline), I want to be wow'ed. Take a existing Fortune 500 site, rip it
> apart, and tell me all the things wrong with it, and then offer some ideas
> about how you would: restructure the navigation, re-label the taxonomy, and
> then do it. You could even be just a bit iconoclastic -- for instance take a
> guru in our field, and there are many, that can talk the talk, but their
> sites are pretty bad by most objective UX standards. Help them out -
> redesign a gurus site and explain why yours is better. Email me and I will
> point you to some :-)
> 3. The language of your portfolio must be perfect, and professional.
> Caroline's article is a little harsh - but I agree. I have tossed resumes in
> the trash for a misspelling ("I am a very detial oriented person," was
> written on one resume")
> 4. A key part of our field is understanding the audience, understanding the
> user. When you design your portfolio - it is not for your friends. Look at
> the types of places you really want to work - and mimic the tone, design,
> language. Create your portfolio for the place you want to work. I once
> really wanted a job as an IxD for a company in town. I redesigned their
> entire site, with critique, and sent it with my resume and a cover letter
> describing what I had done, and why I wanted to work with them.
> 5. The proof is in the pudding. The thing about our field is that there are
> a lot of tangible deliverables. Even if it's just a hobby site of yours -
> create a complete site (or application), with wireframes, sitemaps,
> navigation structure, task flows and narratives. This really doesn't take as
> long as it sounds.
>
> Feel free to email me if you need ideas.
>
>
> --
> ~ will
>
> "Where you innovate, how you innovate,
> and what you innovate are design problems"
> -------------------------------------------------------
> will evans
> user experience architect
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -------------------------------------------------------
> ________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________
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