[IxDA Discuss] Need your help with survey research project
Hi all - I'm working on a project to help small companies more effectively do quick and dirty user research. Looking for volunteers to either: - share past surveys with me (send me the questions, feel free to anonymize specific details) OR - have a 5-10 minute conversation (via email, IM, or phone) about the types of decisions or learnings that your team makes based on survey research You'll have my gratitude and I'll share with you what I've learned in a couple weeks when this project wraps up. Thanks! Cindy -- The Experience is the Product - from the archives: Designing the Product vs. Designing the Whole Product Experience: http://www.cindyalvarez.com/design/how-the-blender-illustrates-designing-the-product-vs-designing-the-whole-product-experience Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Silicon Valley UX book club meeting tonight, 7:30, San Mateo
We'll be discussing _The Back of the Napkin_ by Dan Roam. I'll bring pens and paper so we can sketch out some concepts. But please come by even if you haven't read it! It's an important time to stay in touch with contacts and meet new ones. WHEN: TODAY, Weds Feb 4 at 7:30pm WHERE: Three Bees coffeeshop in San Mateo. It's at 224 E 3RD AVE SAN MATEO CA which is about two blocks from the Caltrain station. Hope to see some new faces there! Cindy Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Design Strategy: Archetypes vs. Analytics
Numbers are great. Most designers should embrace them more, and claw and scream for more metrics where there are none. BUT - they offer no starting point. You have to put something out there for people to react to in the first place. And it's more efficient to have a well-reasoned first guess based on personas and general good usability heuristics. If both A and B are mediocre, you're not going to convert them to awesome through incremental tweak-and-test sessions. Cindy -- The Experience is the Product - http://www.cindyalvarez.com On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 11:09 AM, Paul Bryan p...@usography.com wrote: Hi, A colleague of mine and I were having coffee recently. I was telling him about my user archetype (persona) development project. He snickered and said, ³My team is delivering an individualized design experience based on hard data. You¹re stuck in design yesteryear.² After this discussion I was wondering: Is the future of interactive design strategy in the hands of statisticians? What do you think? /pb Paul Bryan Director, User Research and Experience Design Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Paperback swamp?
Bookmooch.com supports non-US users. Anyone who signs up may choose whether to send only within their country or to anywhere. Requesting a book from another country costs twice as many credits and the sender receives twice as many credits, to compensate for the additional postage costs. Cindy -- The Experience is the Product - http://www.cindyalvarez.com On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 1:56 AM, Amanda Jahn ya...@yahnyinlondon.comwrote: Does anyone know if there is a non-US Paperbackswap website? Tried to sign up and the only clue that it was US only was a mandatory field for State which listed only US prefixes. I'd be keen to swap or share some of the UX books I own. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36419 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] UXbook club: the valley edition
Thanks Christina! I'm looking forward to the first meeting next week. I've created a Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40506506028 for people to join and figure out how to go from here. Cindy On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 7:05 PM, Christina Wodtke cwod...@eleganthack.comwrote: http://uxbookclub.org/doku.php?id=silicon_valley Come on lads and lasses, let's show them how it's done. Let's. talk. UX! Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] UI Team Marketing
ANSWER: - How has UI made the difference in the success of product adoption/closing sales/customer satisfaction? - How and when can UI work with stakeholders to produce better results? ASK: - What problems do you have that UI can potentially help you with? Short and simple. Don't tell people that there are more processes or standards they have to learn - they'll resist. (They will be conducive to learning via osmosis once they've seen results, though.) DO ask what they need help with - it'll give you insight into how to continue selling yourself and also what incorrect preconceived notions folks may have about UI. Cindy On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 8:30 AM, Jamie McAtee [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Our UI team is getting ready to start a marketing program. The purpose is to raise awareness of the existence of the team, educate people as to what we do, what UI is and some basic information about it. This will lead up to a training class on UI standards. The plan right now is a series of posters for the break room shared by the US RD department. We are planning on changing them every week or every other week depending on the topics we have to cover. Has anyone tried something like this before? Any advice, thoughts etc would be welcome. Thanks, Jamie McAtee UI Designer Manhattan Associates Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Recommendations for buying survey audiences
Have you used a vendor to purchase a survey audience? If so, who? Did they provide the incentive to the survey takers or did you? Were you satisfied with how much you could target your desired demographic? Please reply offline and I'll compile a list of results. The only company I'm familiar with is True Sample (offered through Zoomerang) but I'm sure there must be others. thanks! Cindy -- The Experience is the Product - http://www.cindyalvarez.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Seeking user experience copywriter (SF, contractor)
Hi all - I'm looking for someone who can come in and help me craft some concise, easy-to-read instructions and inline text for a registration workflow and some web-based administration pages. I'm pretty happy with our workflows, but writing great copy isn't my specialty. I'm not looking for marketing-ese -- my focus in on simple, usable, understandable, even if you don't read you'll still get it copy. My company is located in San Francisco, but it's not necessary for you to be on-site. Ideally I'd work with you like this: initial call or meeting to walk through what screens we have, then you go off and write great copy, with IM/email/phone followups as needed to answer your questions. Email me if you're interested, or feel free to forward on if you know someone who would be great. Please include your hourly rate, or some info on how you 'size' projects if you charge flat rate. Thanks, Cindy Alvarez Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Need Feedback: Need to increase conversion rates!
On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 9:31 AM, Victor Solanoy [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The product name already has a negative element for most people. Products people purchase are a reflection of either their immediate needs, wants or who they desire to be (among other things). The greater the association that the product will fulfill a need, want or desire, the higher the likelihood that someone will purchase. The SITE has a negative association, but this PRODUCT isn't necessarily beyond the reach of this aspirational positioning, though. Boot Camp-style fitness programs and CrossFit (www.crossfit.com) are two related workout philosophies with pretty strong cult followings, and they're not aspirational in a traditional way (CrossFit has a mascot called Pukey, if that gives you any idea). But they focus more on the concepts (strength, pushing yourself farther than you thought possible) than the imagery (combat boots, latrines, etc.) A Boot Camp fitness site with a bunch of pictures of actual grunt military life would not be very appealing. Robert wrote: And I'm betting many people don't want to associate themselves with inmates—at least not so directly. They don't want to have the image of tattooed bare-chested convicts pop into their heads while working out. I don't want to associate myself with the inmates on that page! But think of: - Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 - Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption - Brad Pitt in Fight Club (not prison, but...) - Demi Moore in G.I. Jane (also not prison, but...) - that guy in the Prison Break TV show - The Count of Monte Cristo - upcoming Jason Statham movie Death Race The whole concept of the innocent wronged person who has to fight to stay alive is pretty noble and aspirational. The thugs are not. Cindy -- The Experience is the Product - http://www.cindyalvarez.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Help on quick survey
Hi list - I'm doing a very quick survey for a Facebook application I'm working on. I don't need a lot of responses, but it would be great to have responses quickly and from some people who are not like me. If you can *forward *the survey to ONE person you know who is *NOT a techie/software industry person* and ask them to complete it today, that would be a huge help (and I'd be happy to return the favor for you any time in the future.) They don't necessarily have to be an existing Facebook user but probably shouldn't be the kind of person who has never heard of Facebook. It's an 8-question survey and all participants who complete the survey will be entered in a drawing to win one of two $15 Amazon.com gift certificates. * Here's the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=u_2fWXhmHBX4GJSRKTPDhBmw_3d_3d* Thanks! Cindy Alvarez The Experience is the Product - http://www.cindyalvarez.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Customer Conversations White Label Products
I've worked on a white-labeled product for a few years now, and here's what we do: - Perform user testing on your product AT the customer site - recruit consumers who use Company X and test Company X's product (be honest that you are not testing on behalf of Company X, maybe say you represent a potential competitor). This is pretty easy if Company X is a fairly big/mainstream brand; if not, it's hard to find consumers and you risk alienating them). - BETTER: Maintain a generic/your-company branded version of the product and research based on that (beta site, usability testing, surveys, etc.) It's not the SAME experience but it's a good way to assess basic usability and get factual user research (do you own X? what behaviors do you perform?). Big areas where it differs: consumers trust your customer's brand-image and you don't have one; hard to pick the same representative consumer types. - BEST: Provide turnkey user testing tools to your customer. You built the product - you know what you want to research. They probably want to do user testing anyways, and are short on resources. You write a test script and build a prototype and hand it over to them to have their user research department to do the actual testing. They'll probably modify your script somewhat, but in most cases I've seen, they are so overworked that they're happy to use what you give them.Depending on size of customer/state of relationship, you may even be able to sell this as a value-added solution. We also ask for their voice of the customer input and results of any user surveys our customers do, but to be honest: a) they're often reluctant to hand those over, and b) it's often skewed by a vocal minority. That's why it's so critical that we do testing on our generic version and help shape the user testing our customers do. It enables us to say yes, we see that 20 people wrote in to ask for crazy power-user feature X, but in our testing, not a single consumer subject expressed any interest in power-user feature X. Instead, a majority of them expressed strong interest in usability enhancement Y, which suggests that the 'voice of the customer' input may not be coming from your core audience. Cindy The Experience is the Product - http://www.cindyalvarez.com On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 11:42 AM, Dan Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Modern web marketing and design strategies suggest that online products should be highly responsive to customer feedback. Sites like GetSatisfaction.com further escalate and highlight conversations about products, encouraging companies to actively participate in them. Ultimately, the point is to narrow the communications gap between a company and its customers. Here, then, is a logistical question: what if your product is white-label*. How can I, as a company that makes a particular product, participate in such a conversation when the product doesn't bear my name? Obviously, the feedback could be filtered through the white label customer, but that strikes me as a bit old school (and not in the good sense of that phrase). In other words, the conversation would happen between the consumer and the company supplying the product, but that seems to defeat the purpose of narrowing the communications gap. Thoughts? -- Dan * White label products are those that are created and customized on behalf of another company. If Starbucks were white label, my customers would drink their coffee but it would bear the name Brown's Overcooked Roast. They might also sell their coffee to my competitor or a roaster in another market, which would bear the name of that company. -- Dan Brown, Principal • (301) 801-4850 EightShapes, LLC • eightshapes.com Also at: communicatingdesign.com • greenonions.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Expense and income tracking apps?
Mint is definitely free. They use my company (Yodlee)'s technology but they've built a much better skin on top. Cindy On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 11:46 AM, Jeff Gimzek [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: sorry, i thought mint was free... where is this $30 request ? On May 30, 2008, at 10:17 AM, Robert Hoekman Jr wrote: You can also use www.mint.com, it is one of the best money management tool around in terms of interface/simplicity and works with iPhone as well. $30 just to sign up and find out if it's worth using. Talk about a signup barrier! Can you plug in current balances so they auto-adjust based on your expenses? -r- Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Ubiquitous computing -- Pulse livescribe smart pen
I talked to someone at LiveScribe and the pens are shipping now. :) Hopefully the wait won't be much longer! Cindy -- The Experience is the Product - http://www.cindyalvarez.com On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 9:14 AM, Chauncey Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I ordered one of these pens a few weeks ago. Will do a review when I get it. Chauncey On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 8:45 PM, Rob Tannen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've been following this product for months since pre-launch. and wrote about its promising application to a number of user research methods: http://www.designingforhumans.com/idsa/2007/12/lightscribe---p.html Unfortunately the customer service behind the product has not been altogether impressive with multiple launch dates (January, March), but no products shipped. I'm supposed to get my pre-launch order (from six weeks ago) sometime this week. I still believe it's a valuable product,especially because it provides binaural microphones for realistic audio recording - but am losing my patience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=28968 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Fighting trolls
On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 8:22 AM, Calvin Park 박상빈 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I question the initial premise of this post; is Trolling a problem on this list, (specifically individuals Trolling, with no malice - #3)? For some cases, it can be a problem. For example, I enjoy going to howardforums.com which is a cellphone hacking community. That forum suffers greatly from new members asking HOW DO I ADD FREE RINGTONES TO MY NEW RAZR THX every.single.day. I'm not even joking about the caps and the tone of the voice either. Again, this can be done through integration with the posting process. If more than 50% of the post content is in all caps, stop and make them rewrite (and at the same time, show the user matching similar posts to divert them). There are undoubtedly other patterns that are associated with noise - but the burden should be on the technology, not the user. Cindy Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Fighting trolls
Cindy, In your case, we would use pattern recognition, and in my case, we would simply assume that all posts are potential source of noise. That is exactly the important difference - assuming that all posts are potentially noise. How disrespectful to the user! The thing is, no one thinks their post is noise, and most of them are correct. You should only be interfering when you have some real evidence that their post is noise. It's a subtle difference but the feel of any community is mostly governed by subtle interactions. So far, my model is to 1. upon posting, ask for the title first 2. search the title and present the results 3. if the poster isn't interested in the results, let him/her post 4. if the post body is recognized as noise(too many caps, etc), reject the post I think this is great (you could move #1 to between #3 and #4 potentially as well) 5. the post isn't publicized until the poster comes back in a few hours and reconfirms it I think you'll lose 90% of posts this way. When you ask the user to come back, a lot won't bother - just human nature. 6. other users can flag the posts as redundant or rude so that moderators can act upon it rude, yes. redundant, I think that's rude if it's public. But it would be really useful to flag as redundant IF you used that as a guideline to what FAQs to create next! 7. create a wiki and FAQ Definitely good. Cindy Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Skip or not
On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 7:58 AM, Lin Min [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am working on a setup wizard for a consumer product. Somewhere toward the end of the wizard we have a two-screen guided tutorial to help users understand the main functions of the remove device (a component of the product). My manager believes it is beneficial to force users go through the tutorial and I am arguing to have a Skip button available. My experiences are primarily with web applications, so take with a grain of salt. That said, I've seen a lot of frustration when we have forced consumers to learn. Response in user testing has been to click through those screens as quickly as possible and display very strained body/facial expressions, almost like ha! I'll show you and refuse to learn anything! :) Is there any point in the setup process where the consumer must sit and wait while something happens in the background? Where you could play a very short Flash movie or animated gif with instructions? That is a good opportunity to provide education without making it feel forced. A couple of our customers have done things like that with either instructional copy or cross-sell advertisements and consumers have been receptive. My other suggestion would be, instead of a Skip button, to have the skip option automatically email the instructions to the consumer. That way, the information is available to them on their own terms. (Actually, putting on my electronics consumer 'hat', I would prefer that!) Since most users are not familiar with the remote, the tutorial certainly becomes very useful to teach the person who set up the product. My user testing has shown that the functions are understandable and learnable in a reasonable brief time without any form of instruction. The issue is users may forget the existence of certain functions on the remote because it is difference from what they are used to. She is afraid that the Skip button will encourage users to skip the *important* step. I think we should provide users with control (one extreme case is that if an intended button doesn't work during the tutorial, users will become trapped). There are about 20 steps in the process and I think it is better to make all optional steps clear to users. A demo should NEVER be the important step. If a demo is truly necessary to start operating a simple consumer tool, then the design of the tool is not a success. If the demo has information on advanced features, then it should be treated as optional, but readily available when the consumer is ready for it (emailed to the consumer, also easy to find on your product's website). Cindy What does our pool of wisdom think? Is there any data on the clicking rate of the Skip button if there is one? Min Lin Usability Engineer Hillcrest Laboratories, Inc. Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Fighting trolls
On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 3:33 PM, Calvin Park 박상빈 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: For #3... How do we force new users to search for answers before creating a duplicate thread on issues that has been addressed already? Devil's advocate: Why? Isn't this another example of forcing users to adapt to the technology? This is operating under the assumption that new users who will be useful to the community will have the patience to deal with the extra steps, Why is the assumption that users have to be useful to the community instead of the community serving the needs of the users? Now, obviously this is heavily dependent on the topic - but many times the old answers may not be relevant!For subjective questions, users will feel like their situation is unique (even if it really isn't); restaurants, travel, and technology go out of date. For situations where the old answers don't age (i.e. how do I do X in HTML?), I wouldn't put the burden on the users - that's doomed to failure - but why not incorporate it into the posting process automatically? - On the post page, put a Do you want to search and see if someone's already answered your question? -- but off to the side - Let people write their question out and click Continue - Show the post preview AND automatically return the search results for answers that may answer their questions - If user clicks on one of the old answers, it should probably open in-page using AJAX or in a separate window - If user goes ahead and posts anyways, fine. I'd prototype something like that quickly and test it out - could be way off-base, but I think it has about as much teeth as you'd want to put into the process without annoying potential community contributors. It also continues to police older members as well. Cindy Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Where are all the designers?
WOW. I missed Dave's original comment and all I can say is, wow. I'm certainly glad that my early jobs didn't seek to protect me from learning a lot, and quickly. There are certainly some things I wouldn't throw at junior staff. High-pressure client-facing meetings is one of them. ...Actually, I can't think of a lot more. I've been very happy with the ability that the smart people I've hired have shown to turn problems into design solutions, and if that means reading a bunch of books or learning a new software tool or skill to have the framework to come up with that solution, that's what they do. Cindy dave malouf wrote: the cold water approach is just mean IMHO and as human centered empathetic people, you'd think we would want to treat all aspects of our human capital with the same respect we give to our end-users, no? On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 10:05 AM, Andrei Herasimchuk [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Is that right for everyone? No. Could I take a different approach if Involution weren't in Silicon Valley? Probably. But at the same time, I'm only asking people to work how I work, and to get up to speed as fast as humanly possible. But to make some wild implications I'm some ogre is way over the line. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Portfolios
On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 11:15 AM, Jack Moffett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Feb 22, 2008, at 2:07 PM, Cindy Alvarez wrote: When people put their work in an online format, it's their responsibility to figure out what can I show? how can I explain why what I did was valuable? how can I explain my thought process? That's the same type of critical problem-solving that I expect them to be able to apply to a software design challenge. And why isn't it their responsibility to do the same for a print- based portfolio? It is, but I have yet to see someone do this well. There's a temptation to hand over pieces of paper and wait for me to ask questions, and that just doesn't impress me. I'm willing to believe there are folks who can do this well, but I haven't seen them yet (and I've interviewed plenty of folks). Cindy Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Portfolios
I'd agree with that. Lots of products don't make it to market for reasons well beyond the designer's control - and lots of products have a finished state that was nothing like the designer's intent because of exec ex machina. HOW you worked - researched, prioritized, sketched, tested - given whatever your particular constraints were, is what I need to know. Come to think of it, that may explain partially why I get inferior feedback from people presenting paper portfolios in-person -- many people seem reluctant to talk about their constraints (perhaps feeling that it will sound like making excuses?). All design projects have constraints - and sometimes those are HUGE, impassable constraints - but at least you can talk about what you had a chance to do, what workarounds you achieved, and what you would've done under better circumstances. Cindy PS - I'd rather see an online (or offline) portfolio with minimal visuals/deliverables but great ANALYSIS, than to have you bring in deliverables that I suspect you shouldn't be showing me since I'm not under NDA. (All rights reserved - For internal distribution only in the footer = bad idea to show that you don't respect your former employers' IP.) On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 1:42 PM, Dmitry Nekrasovski [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have to disagree with this. While it is great to show that you've been able to drive a design to completion/release (especially if applying for a position that demands a certain level of experience), a list of finished products does nothing to show a prospective employer your process, deliverables, or particular contribution to a project. Also, a list of finished products is the easiest thing to fake, and thus the least reliable indication of one's skill and experience. Dmitry On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 11:13 AM, Weixi Yen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It's all about finished products. If you do nothing else, it's best to list the finished products of what you participated in. Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Do you change who you are for participants?
On Nov 6, 2007 10:37 AM, Katie Albers [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This is the part that surprises me...why are you telling the users who you are at all? It helps to have your first name, to increase their comfort, but beyond that, you're just someone doing research to figure out whether the application being developed is any good -- and I phrase it just like that. Because users tend to assume that the person testing is the designer? At least in my experience. I've moderated tests and in some cases sat in (where the user could see me) while someone else moderated, and in both situations it's pretty common for users to ask if the moderator designed the product, or if the moderator works for our company, what they do, etc.We do mostly quick and dirty in-house testing in our company office, but I have also heard users ask this of moderators when at offsite professional testing facilities. I prefer to state clearly that I didn't design this, so feel free to provide any and all comments or feedback, positive or negative. There is always room for improvement and every bit of feedback from you and other testers helps to improve the product. Not worth the risk that someone is secretly afraid they'll offend me or the moderator and holds back. Cindy -- http://www.cindyalvarez.com *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Interview Questions - For interviewing a team lead/mgr
I'm curious from those that have been through this as to good questions to ask to get a good indication of what that person will be like to work with, as well as possibly work for. As a manager/lead, have you ever inherited a team that you were then responsible for? What were some of the challenges in working with them? What other departments have you worked closely with? What have you found difficult or what do you wish they would do differently in their collaboration with you? By focusing on OTHER people - not YOUR hires, not YOUR team - both of these questions give the candidate an opportunity to bad-mouth or blame other people - I want to know if, given the opening, they will do so. Obviously your inherited team might have been terrible! But a good manager will be able to talk about how they tried to resolve a situation and ultimately how they made changes (training, more managing, firing) instead of just ranting. Cindy -- http://www.cindyalvarez.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
