Preparing for a UX job interview

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple"

Preparing for an interview, especially a UX job interview, is quite tricky. It’s not always the skills you have or bring to the table, but more the personality fit and your opinions etc.

I was lucky enough to spend some time with an ex-footballer who’s now a Match of the Day pundit earlier this week, we got talking about his job and how it came about, the interview process etc. I work in recruitment I couldn’t help it!!  Funnily enough he wasn’t too interested in hearing about the life of a User Experience Recruitment consultant from Grazeley. His loss.

What he told me was quite interesting, through his playing career and then into his punditry career he has always been, and will always be, direct. Just answer the question asked of him, be concise and to the point. The rest is a matter of opinion, and you can’t rehearse or mess up your opinion. I appreciate it’s different in other interviews and jobs, your opinion needs credibility which this particular individual does have so he gets away with it, but essentially people miss the point of actually answering the question asked of them. When gathering feedback from clients, we find that candidates will use the interview to talk about everything and anything, but not answer what is asked of them.

'Waffled'.. 'Undersold'.. 'Talked around the subject'.. 'Went on'.. 'Missed the point'..  These are the terms we hear.

Going back to the really interesting conversation I had this week, it sounds so simple….. but….. answering the question that’s asked of you seems to go a long way.

Here’s a good article that I came across which is a good read for those of you on your way to an interview.

SUKHI KANG

SPECIALIST USER EXPERIENCE RECRUITER

What Type of Conference Personality Do You Have?

There are numerous UX-related conferences and meet-ups coming in 2014 - which type of conference personality do you have?

Of course, this doesn’t just apply to User Experience events!

The Ambler – Drifts from stall to discussion, soaking up the atmosphere and taking in as much as possible.

The Instigator – Often seen in the middle of a group discussion, with others hanging off their every word. Up to date on industry topics and has an opinion on everything (not in a bad way!)

The Promoter – Hands out business cards, badges, leaflets to do with their product or start-up. Great at selling themselves and their product!

The Social Media Butterfly – Recognises faces and names from LinkedIn, Twitter and G+ and turns those online acquaintances into real life contacts.

The Dutch Courage –Makes use of the free wine to overcome the hurdle of introducing themselves to strangers! 

Have I missed any? Which category do you fall into?

 

Please do email me and let me know.

We Are Going Social! Are you?

At the moment we’re on a huge ‘Going Social’ drive here at IC Creative. No, that doesn’t mean popping down the local for after-work drinks every other night (although, if you’re ever in our part of the world you should visit: The Swan at Three Mile Cross, Reading http://www.theswan-3mx.co.uk. What we’re doing is getting our voices and our faces (sorry in advance) out there, in the hope of connecting, communicating and ultimately promoting discourse around the subject of User Experience.

LinkedIn is of course the business networking tool to use, and like most we are riding the Twitter bandwagon. But we’re currently on a mission to open our eyes to the numerous sites and tools aimed at enabling interactions - many of which have been designed by you!

Putting the question out there to you guys – which are the social media and networking sites you’re using at the moment? Are there any up-and-comers which we should know about? Have you had a hand in designing anything like this, which you’d like to showcase here?

I have very recently started toying with About.me - appealing because of its’ simplicity and aesthetic appeal. If anyone fancies ‘Complimenting Me,’ that would be great because so far I’ve only received the default About.me compliment and am feeling unloved! http://www.about.me/samanthaemmett  

Looking forward to hearing back from some of you with some interesting social sites for creative/ UX people!  

As always, you can email me. 

IC Creative – We’re looking for a new UX Recruiter to join our team!

Join Us! IC Creative are looking to expand our team of User Experience recruiters. Headquartered in Reading, we are accessible for those based in the Thames Valley area or those looking to relocate outside of the city.

We are looking for someone to focus on the lively contracts market - someone with similar sector experience, ideally with a knowledge of User Experience, User Interface, Interaction Design and Usability recruitment. Those with experience in a similar field - Digital Design, Web Design/ Development, Creative markets - could also be really interesting for us.

This role would suit you if you have 1-3 years within UX / Digital recruitment and are looking for something new. Perhaps you have held a resourcer role and are looking for a step up. Perhaps you are just looking for a change of scene.

We have an excellent client base, traditionally across the UK and Europe but increasingly across Asia and the US as well. We work with a number of large technology firms, e-commerce companies, design and UX agencies, and big names in mobile communication and design. We also benefit from operating as one arm of the very established IC Group - technical and electronics recruitment specialists. So, we have access to numerous clients you may not expect!

We would appeal to anyone looking for a friendly, supportive environment. Whilst we do have targets and goals, we believe in positive mentorship rather than strict KPI driven work processes. We would rather see you hit your targets because you're happy to come into work and want to excel yourself on a daily basis than because you spent fifty hours on the phone last week. You will see what we mean when you come in for an interview.

We really are lovely folk, definitely not your typical recruiter types - although we can put on suits and venture into London to wine and dine clients when we need to!

Your role will revolve around:

• Liaising with clients, ascertaining their business needs
• Business development activities
• Resourcing for established roles
• Managing the full recruitment cycle from send out to offer accept and aftercare
• Attending meetings, conferences, etc
• Contracts focus - previous experience on this side of things will be preferred

Alongside your basic salary you can expect a very generous commission structure, flexible benefits, free parking, free fruit, drinks and snacks, and lovely surroundings (like seriously, we have Shetland ponies out the front). Salary £20-30k plus commission.

To apply, please send your CV and covering email to Sam Emmett

IC Creative to sponsor Cambridge Wireless Event

Cambridge Wireless is a leading industry forum and vibrant technology community with a specific interest in the mobile / wireless sector. One of its many Special Interest Groups (SIGs) is the User Experience SIG, which will be meeting in Cambridge on the 23rd May to discuss ‘Context Awareness as the Digital Sixth Sense: The User Experience Challenge’.

IC Creative, the UK’s leading UX recruitment company, is pleased to announce that it will sponsor this event alongside the host, Philips. Part of the remit is to sponsor the drinks reception, so we’ll be at the forefront of people’s minds (unless they have a few too many glasses, in which case we’ll be completely forgotten).

There is an "open presentation" for anyone who wants to bring along examples of great User Experience. The more the merrier, so bring along your best stuff and share it with a group of UX aficionados.

IC Creative has UX jobs throughout Europe for experienced UX professionals.

UX Designers Quest for Clickability

The IC Creative Guide to Creating Buttons for Enhanced User Experience

IC Creative is the leading recruitment partner for the most recognisable names in the UX industry; they boast some of the most knowledgeable and experienced UX recruitment consultants available.

In the world of designing for user experience, one of the most important aspects and most easily overlooked is the design of buttons. It might seem obvious, but getting the button design right is a vital piece of the usability jigsaw.

What you will find below is not an exhaustive list, nor is it a technical manual; it is simply a few tips to keep in mind when designing buttons for a website. Apologies if some of what follows seems a bit obvious, but the best advice sometimes is.

Appearance is the key. Give the button a 3D appearance so it looks like it is an actual physical button that you could reach out and touch. Importantly, make sure the button has a hover state and an active state, using subtle changes in hue and shadow, to enhance its presence and make it seem more physical.  Here’s some advice on how to create a Slick CSS3 Button with box-shadow and rgba.
Giving it rounded corners helps differentiate it from a label. The rounded corners aspect has become a standard image and what the users expect to see.

The use of colour to make it stand out and get it noticed can be helpful, what’s the point of a white button on a white background? Consider, also, what the colour suggests to the user, for instance Red = warning, Black = uniformity, Pink = for girls (?) The use of colour and variations in size can give buttons importance; making them stand out more and making the user want to click them.

Wide, thin buttons are popular, with one to three words of text describing what the button does or where the user can expect to be taken upon clicking it. The shape is a lot less important than the appearance of clickability and what it represents.

Some sort of icon can be used with the text: an arrow to show that the user is heading for the next step or page; a magnifying glass for a search function etc. Just make sure that the icons are recognisable to avoid confusing the user.

The most important advice is: keep it consistent. The user doesn’t want to have to work out what is a button and what isn’t. Don’t go mad with button design, make it obvious what the function of each button is, and make sure they fit in flawlessly with the rest of the page design. They’ll be more attractive and won’t spoil the overall appearance of the site; which is, after all, the whole point of UX. 

Visit IC Creative for User Experience, UX jobs and recruitment services.

UX Final Showdown

Simplicity v Complexity in a Bitter Fight to the Finish

UX Design Professionals know that IC Creative is the best place to start in your search for your dream job in User Experience; IC Creative is renowned as the most experienced recruitment consultancy for UX jobs.

It is a UX design professional’s job to decide how simple or complex their creation is going to be for the end user. Make it too complex and not only can you put off many users, it will seem intimidating and it could be criticised for a lack of aesthetic beauty; UX designers very often tend to lean towards the simple, cleaner appearance. Yet is that always the best path to take?

Many people love the appearance of complexity; they believe it gives them an air of sophistication. Take, for example, the BMW M5: for performance it has few if any rivals in its class, a luxury sports saloon. It boasts phenomenal acceleration: 0-60 miles per hour quicker than you say “0-60 miles per hour,” yet to achieve the optimal performance you need to change so many settings, pressing buttons and turning knobs and making the correct selections and confirming those selections, that to get from 0-60 takes about 10 minutes; whereas a family saloon in which you get in, turn the key and drive away will get you to 60mph a lot quicker in real time. It’s the old “hare and tortoise” story. The BMW owner wants those complicated controls though because it’s part of the “ultimate driving machine.”

On the other hand, UX designers know that simplicity is something that users crave. How many older people have trouble with the remote controls for their television or DVD player? They want to push the ‘on‘ button and let it get on with its job, while the younger generation see more value in having more control over functions. Quite often it comes down to demographics; it is about knowing your target audience and giving them what they want.

Two examples of doing the same job but from different perspectives are Google and Yahoo. Google is a search engine, its homepage is clean and simple, its main component is the search box; this simplicity can mean more complexity because you are making your own way through to your end goal. Yahoo is a web directory, on its homepage there is a lot more clutter, more options, therefore more complexity; yet Yahoo’s complexity means more simplicity because the options for the user are laid out in front of them and they can choose what route they would like to follow.

These are two examples that demonstrate the difference between what Edward Tufte described as Adjacent in Space and Stacked in Time, two ways to present the visual layer of interface.

Think of Adjacent in Space as being like an aircraft cockpit: everything the pilot needs is laid out in front of them, making their job easier. This to the casual observer is an overwhelming amount of visual information, most of which is meaningless.

Stacked in Time on the other hand is splitting functionality into layers, functions and information are only presented when needed. This can present its own problems if the route to the users goal is overly long or complex, they could lose their way.

The UX designer should find a middle ground; enough information and simple functionality so the user can navigate successfully and complete their tasks quickly and easily, but without too much needless information and complexity immediately causing sensory overload. Designing for one’s audience is key.

UX, User Experience professionals - visit IC Creative for the very latest positions in this fascinating industry sector.

User Experience Jobs: Design for the End User

User Experience Jobs at IC Creative

User Experience Jobs are available at IC Creative. The primary recruitment partner for some of the most important names in the industry, IC Creative is looking to recruit the best UX professionals.

User Experience, or UX as its practitioners refer to it, is one of the newest disciplines in the world of website design, but it is growing at a startling rate as more online businesses realise its importance. No matter what business it is, online competition in this digital age is going to be fierce, and business owners know that they need an edge, they need visitors to their site to stick around and not give up and go to their competitors’ sites because theirs is more user-friendly and easier to navigate. UX professionals can make that difference.

Traditionally (a strange word to use to describe technology as young as the internet), the website usability decisions have been made by graphic designers who look at the site in terms of its aesthetics, or engineers whose goal is efficiency. What was needed was someone to take up the middle ground between these two extremes. What was needed was someone who understood what the user wanted because they had looked at it from the end-users perspective; what would the user want in terms of functionality? The best way to find out is to ask them and test out ideas.

Some of the biggest players on the internet, such as Google for example, employ hundreds of user experience researchers worldwide, setting up laboratories to test website usability. Sitting users in front of monitors and asking them why they chose button ‘A’ over button ‘B’ or what would the user like to see. What would make their experience better? These researchers are looking for patterns in site visitors’ behaviour; they are also looking for new ideas: a suggestion made by one user might become a preference for many. From the data gathered UX designers can optimise the usability of their site. It can be complex like a revamp of the whole homepage or a different list of menu options; sometimes it is as simple as adding some explanatory text or changing the appearance of buttons.

Much of the art/science of user experience can trace its origins to the work of the academic Donald Norman in the 90s. Norman wrote “The Design of Everyday Things” which looked at the psychology of good and bad design. He advocated user-centred design (UCD), which argues that the primary goal of the designer should be to meet user needs; other things like aesthetics should be a secondary consideration. The role of the designer should be one of simplifying tasks and making things visible; the User Experience professional’s job is to build the site around how users can, want, or need to use the site, rather than making the users change their behaviour to accommodate how the site is set up.

IC Creative would be pleased to hear from you at any time. For an informal and confidential chat about any recruitment issue you wish to discuss, please contact one of their experienced recruitment consultants now.