CSC295.02 2013S, Class 05: Lorelei Kelly '08 Overview: Admin: * You need to be more aggressive in asking questions! (Of course, the humanities version of this course seems no better.) * I need more volunteers for Davis Hart (two weeks) and Peter Likarish (three weeks). * Don't forget to do everything Megan asked by Thursday! (And she should have some time for in-person visits.) * Things to read http://uxdesign.com/ux-defined An Explanation of What UX (User Experience Design) * Philosophical - Everything a user experiences when interacting with a particular device (cars, your bed, etc.) * In practice, if "UX is in your title", you're working with software Mobile Apps, etc. * (Although people talk about it in grand terms, the folks who do similar stuff in other industries tend to have other titles.) * Encompasses a group of different activities. What you do depends on company, domain. * If you read the article, you'd know more. * Six domains * User research * Interaction design * Information architecture * ... * User research - Going out and talking to people * Interaction design * Gets tricky: To some people, it's everything she's talking about, to others it's something more narrow. We'll focus on the more narrow issues. * Planning the details of how an interface will function - Where buttons go, how buttons function, what's on each screen, how to get from screen to screen, that kind of stuff. * Information architecture * Another fuzzy term - some people who call themselves information architects do the interaction design things we just talked about. * Typically seen in large, information-heavy Web sites. Planning the structure of the info - How it's broken up into pages (or chunks of pages), how you drill down into data, etc. * Usually "big Web sites" and not desktop apps. * Usability engineering * Start with an existing interface and seeing how people use * Contrast with user research * User research happens before you start building the interface. * Usability engineering is what happens whil * Content strategies * Did not encounter until she started going to professional events * Planning what content is * And how people interact with the content * E.g., with social media - What's static info and what is being sent say, through Twitter * "The writing side of things" * Visual design * Can be traditional graphic design * Can also incorporate UI design (e.g., graphic designer who specializes in UI) * Tends to work on "visual assets" * HCI * More general principles of how people interact with computers * HCI knowledge informs practice of design work * Cognitive science and ergonomics also get applied * Note that everything here involves communication with the programming and the development (at least in the ideal world) * Lorelei likes Interaction design and Interaction architecture * But some people like doing more analysis - User research and Usability Lorelei's Career * Where do you work? Are you at the company that develops the software or are you at an agency that consults. * She's one of 2 UX people at a company that has about 25 employees. Most are developers. * At an agency you end up working on lots of different projects. Can be an enjoyable range of things. * Likes to be able to say "I did this!" (and it wasn't really joint work) * But doesn't have the opportunity to learn from other people. (The other designer is really a front-end developer.) * Got to work on mobile apps from start to finish * An ongoing project with touchscreen * Some aspects are frusting - e.g., working with some clients * A hard issue: Convincing cients that what she wants to happen should happen * And helping clients understand that what they want to do may not be quite right. (E.g., adapting the design of one Web site to another area) * At larger companies, you may not get the constant change and variety, but you have ongoing relationships. * Design decisions are often made by project managers or marketing team. * Aren't likely to be making decisions based on a coherent design vision. * Likes talking directly to users; sometimes too far removed. * Has to do with the kinds of services they are selling to clients. Paths to these kids of careers * Interaction design and Information architecture are similar, except for background * IA tends to be from library science * Interaction design tends to be more from HCI or design school background * But, in the end, things vary a lot. * Assume that job listings are incorrect for this area. * Assume that jobs are likely to change in this area. * Very few of these will provide you with training. You need specialized experience or training. * Get a master's degree * Work on a related field and move from there - start out as Web designer or front end designer (less likely to need deep experience - HTML + JQuery + have built Web sites often qualifies you for a Web development job) * In any case, be prepared to adapt * UI design really expects graphic design experience * User research really expects you to have experience with human participants (undergrad Psych may not be enough) * But undergrad Psych is often expected for a master's degree * It most cases, you are not hired explicitly to do usability testings. Master's Programs * Master's degree was great. * But it's defiitely not the only way. * Master's degrees are the minority for people in the field. * Be caseful - Some programs teach just programs and skills lists * You need to have deeper conceptual stuff * Importance of internships. (Good degree program should give you that opportunity) * A question to ask: Is it focused on industry or academe or ...? * Her program was "Do this project, then this project, then this project." * Which was the best way for her to learn. Questions * If you can't do a full psych major, what should you take? * Cognitive psych and social psych * Research methods * Know what it means to do rigorous research * People with a psych background tend to critique the research done by folks without a psych background. (The criticisms are probably appropriate, but you may need less rigor for many studies.) * That said, it's good to think about how you separate yourself from your preconceptions and how to avoid bias in studies. * Tell us about a project that you're currently working on * Most are protected by non-disclosure agreement * They specialize in photography apps - Diptic app * She worked on various interface design issues for a new version of the app. * Another app: Layover (layer blending on iPhone) * There's a learning curve to produce good looking effects * Her challenge - to make sure that it makes sense * Do you do any programming? * Her job is mostly conceptual, but some folks are expected to do development or prototyping. * "I move boxes around on the screen and think really hard about them." * Creates wireframes of what the interface should look like * Visual, with lots of notes. * Can you tell us some war stories about interactions with other people. * Along with a design, there's often an estimate of what it costs to implement. And people will say "No, I don't want to pay that." * Making compromises feels wrong. * Sometimes hard to work with contacts/contracts who are far away - benefits to talking 1-1 face-to-face. * Something that's really important in your training - Presentations * Dealing with legacy code - There's code out there where someone said "I want to teach myself to program. Let me develop ___. And the company let them, and now they develop it." * How much negotiation is there with the developers * As someone who has done programming, I have a good sense of what's possible. (The Apple UI guidelines and Cocoa documentation are useful.) * Sometimes the legacy code prevents them from doing things they'd like. * May need to sell companies on the need to rewrite (or re-interface) to show long-term benefits. * Do you mostly do iPHone development? * It's hard to move between platforms * And they don't have good development platforms * Tell us about a really bad day you've had at work and a really good day you've had a work. * Extreme bad day: (Related to touch screens in cars.) Given really short notice for trip to Japan. Most of the meetings were from things done earlier in the project, when they had little documentation. Q: "Why is this this way?" A: "I was told to do this" or "I didn't know any better." * Typical bad day: She's been working on a project and sent out wireframes. Then suddenly they have a new request. And the request may not make sense. And the project manager can't really answer her questions. * Good day: When she can see things being used (and test and explore them) * How long does it take to complete a project? * It varies a lot. * In Layover - two weeks between first discussion of idea to something the programmer could look at. (And then three months until it could be developed.) About six weeks of development until it could be submitted * Note: Client work is immediately billable, the Apps come later * Web sites vary too * Sometimes they know everything: Content, categories, etc. All they want is page layout. That's likely to do a few days of wireframes and then a few days of negotiation. * What is it like working on different devices? * iOS is nice because there are a limited number of (known) screens * She's working on a spec for diptic on Android. Dealing with the huge variety is a big challenge. * Car project has three devices, so she has three interfaces to design * Fit the needs of the design to the constraints of the screen * For Android, focusing mostly on the phone rather than the tablet * "This can vary with the screen size; this has to be the same every time." * How are you using your psych degree? * Research methods stuff. Talking to users is a semi-structured interview. * Knows how to write interview questions. It's difficult to write non-leading questions. * Thinking about how people respond to social queues (e.g., in mobile apps) * Basic CogSci things - How big is working memory? * How did you arrive at your current job? * "I made a couple of mistakes at the end of my master's degree" * Left campus before finishing. Took six months to finish paper that was mostly finished when she left * Prioritized location over employability - In the short term, made her unhappy, but in the long-term it was a good idea. * Some good online postings in UX - AuthenticJob and CoraFlat (she'll send an email later) * She didn't network well - mostly talked to other unemplyed people * But networking with other unemployed people gave her some good longer-term connections. * She still recommends we do better networking * A portfolio is important; potential employers understand NDA issues. * Reports you've written if you do the research side of things can be included * How do you stay involved in your professional community? * Keep in touch with people on Twitter - Short conversations and such, shares links * Still goes to some meetups, but less than she used to * Goes to conferences - small conferences in Seattle area - "unconferences" * An attempt to make conferences accessible - financially and from a presentation standpoint * No schedule in advance. Whoever wants to talk, talks. * Professional/industry track at CHI, although there's tension there * Also Interactions, sponsored by Interaction design association * Midwest UX conference is small enough to feel manageable * Diptic has in-app purchases. Do you do usability work to help you get more in-app purchases? * Yes, it's something people do * But they don't do much there, maybe some uninteiontal ad-hoc stuff * What do you see yourself doing in five years? * Doing something in-house at a software company. * She really prefers to work on projects where she is on board with the overall goal of the project. (She can't turn down products that she thinks aren't useful.) * She wouldn't mind working on internal tools. (Not a "hot job", but really interesting to her in that she can see the impact on people.) * Maybe being lead designer, but found her one lead design experience very stressful. * Will you use more of psych in the next job (e.g., more user research)? * The part she really enjoys is making the stuff - making sure the details are right. * But she's willing to do the user research when it has to be done. * Do you have personal projects, or do working and life absorb all of your time? * Not a lot of free time * And likes time to do other stuff * Made wireframes for Grinnell Plans mobile * Maybe some independent contracting for her boyfriend's company [trying to limit it to ten hours a week] * What's your favorite part of your job? * Has a lot of freedom. * How should current students think about building portfolios? * Almost anything you do for the software design course. * Summer research that produces an interface. * Anything where you have a visual - people like visuals (screenshots, pretty pictures) * Things to develop your own skills (e.g., some Flash apps she developed) * Employers assume that you did not do much of group work unless you were a driving force. * Build a portfolio with HTML and CSS - the portfolio itself should be well designed