Re: [IxDA Discuss] University / Colleges in NC

[J . Wilton Williams]

I am in the process of finishing up a MS in Technical Communication at
North Carolina State University and I am shooting for a career more
along the lines of a user experience generalist. NC State also offers
a Human Factors/Ergonomics concentration in the Department of
Psychology and there is also a Human Factors concentration in the
Department of Industrial Engineering.

I was working at the University's art museum several years back when
I decided to return to graduate school for a career as a full-time
UX/Usability professional. Uprooting my family, selling our home,
etc...to go to graduate school elsewhere was not an option for me,
but then again, why should I go anywhere else with the options here
in the Research Triangle area? 

I chose to pursue the Technical Communication degree, as it seemed to
afford a great deal of freedom in choosing a path informed by specific
interests. I also took it as a given that UX work has a communicative
component that is well-served an emphasis on strong fundamental
writing skills. It was, and still remains, the correct decision for
me.

I think it has worked out pretty well. I am currently doing a coop at
IBM as a UX Engineer as I finish my thesis this Spring. I had little
trouble getting bites when I started looking for a full time UX job
in September (as my department/program is respected in the area) and
I feel perfectly well-prepared for anything I have been asked to do
in my new role.

Yes, I would also recommend looking at UNC's programs referenced in
the first reply. However, I cannot recommend one school over the
other, but have a personal preference for NC State. Regardless, you
have the option of taking courses at NC State, UNC-CH and Duke as a
part of the inter-institutional registration cooperative. In other
words, you pay tuition at your home school and can then register for
courses at any of the other area Universities. I wish I could have
taken more advantage of this option, but couldn't for one reason or
another.

Good luck with your search for an answer. I hope this is helpful.

Cheers-John


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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best Practices for Mouseover Layers

[J . Wilton Williams]

Danny,
Visit http://www.netflix.com/

You may actually need to be logged in with a user account to see the
flyouts to which Jackson refers. 

However, at that point, you should receive a number of suggested
offerings (for instance). These are thumbnails of the movie box/CD
cover, etc...commonly associated with a film. Below that is a red
hyperlinked button that reads (Add)-this is for adding selections to
you queue. If you scroll over the aforementioned thumbnail and stop,
you will see a prominent flyout appear. This box contains general
summary information about the film, thus allowing you to scroll a
number of recommendations without having to leave this page to
navigate to another to obtain basic information about a film.

Here, the user is provided with the type of information that original
web paradigms would have required a declaration on the part of the
user in the form of a click with the mouse to deduce a request
for additional information. In this newish paradigm, simply
hovering over an object for a short amount of time is inferred as a
request (or declaration) for additional information.

I think tool tips (which are more omnipresent) serve as similar
examples.

I hope this helps.

John W. Williams


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