Bryan you have no idea how reassuring this is to me. I've been designing, and then helping build, web and desktop and mobile applications for years now. Our IxDA community hasn't really embraced and encouraged hands-on craft enough for me to feel entirely comfortable. This helps.
I just finished a "Hollywood" UI prototype for a BlackBerry communications app yesterday. Wrote it myself, in Java. The developers will dismantle my prototype for layout parts, graphics, and other interface components. Our business folks are stopping in this morning to push buttons and critique the prototype loaded on a couple BlackBerrys. The upshot is that, if I wanted the UI to look and work great, I was going to have to build a lot of it myself. This came after a several week design cycle, with lots of wireframes, whiteboard work, meetings, and general arm-waving. The kind of thing that Interaction Designers do. When they're not building their designs. Thanks again for the vote of confidence. It's fun to make stuff. Michael Micheletti On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 7:49 AM, Bryan Minihan <bjmini...@gmail.com> wrote: > I agree with the "If you can execute, they will come" point. > > I live in the non-agency, FT product development and implementation side of > design - mostly big enterprise apps and small startup products, and > gravitate toward managing design and development teams. Design is in my > DNA, so all of my teams have to have a design component. That means I need > at least one person on my team to keep the usability factor ahead of the > geek factor. > > If you're new to the field, and looking for someone to shadow or for whom > to intern, the best I can say is: bring your strongest skillset to a job, > even if it's unrelated to IxD or design, and be passionate enough about > design to move into that role on your own. > > I led a usability research team for a large company awhile back, many of > whom were master or phd-level human factors folks. While they were all > absolutely brilliant researchers, by admission, most of them could not > execute their recommendations beyond Visio, PPT or Photoshop. To maintain > our relevance in the organization, I did most of the translation into > functional prototypes for the team. I learned many new research techniques > from them, and they didn't have to worry about the "geek stuff". Once I > left the company, however, the group eventually dissolved for lack of > tangible impact on their projects. > > I guess the point is: If I have budget for one designer, and a resume for > a genius researcher, a photoshop guru, or a front-end developer with a > passion for the previous two, I'll pick the third resume. Otherwise, I have > to do the front-end work, and I'm not getting as much for my budget. Bring > something to augment your desire for IxD experience, and you won't have a > problem going where you want...just be patient and expect to spend several > months to a year slowly moving into the role. > > > Bryan Minihan > Email: bjmini...@gmail.com > Cell: 919-428-4744 > Web: http://www.bryanminihan.com > LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanminihan > > > On Feb 25, 2010, at 10:16 AM, mark schraad wrote: > > > I hope this is not too much of a tangent... > > > > Over the last month I have probably looked at close to a hundred resumes. > > This is only partially specific to the Chicago area, but there is a ton > of > > talent out there. There are a lot of folks with excellent educational > > background, wonderful experience and great portfolios to show. What I > find > > myself more and more concerned with is the ability to partner with > product > > and technology folks to move great design forward and into the market. > > Frankly, it really does not matter if you are the worlds greatest uber > > designer... > > if you can't sell it, work collaboratively and push your passion through > the > > labyrinth of compromise. Not everyone needs to have these skills, but in > my > > world it will surely get you hired quicker and make you a more complete > > professional. > > > > This has been my call to the world of education (both under grad and > grad) > > for the last year or so. You have to do more than supply studio skills. > You > > have to teach students to think, to adapt, to explore and to work in > their > > future environment. > > > > Mark > > ________________________________________________________________ > > 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 > -- Michael Micheletti michael.michele...@gmail.com ________________________________________________________________ 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
