Life on a Job Board

There will be some of you out there who will never look for a job. That’s because you’ll either be so happy in your role that you’ll never want to leave your current company, or you will be fortunate enough to make useful industry connections and move from job to job in an organic way.

Then, there are those people who make tentative steps into job hunting as and when feels right for them. This might involve updating your CV and LinkedIn, connecting with recruiters, joining job boards and applying for advertised jobs.

For some people though, job hunting is a constant and ongoing process. There are those people who live their lives on the job boards, updating their details regularly (sometimes even daily) and very active about keeping their channels of contact open.

For contractors, who only commit themselves to companies for weeks or months at a time, having job board visibility can be a fantastic way to keep informed of upcoming projects. For designers in permanent roles, there is nothing wrong with keeping yourself abreast of the job opportunities which could be out there for you or your industry acquaintances.

As a recruiter I do sometimes wonder what it must be like to be in this position.

When I’m actively resourcing for a new role, one of the first places I will look is the job boards.

This is where I find people who are flagging themselves up as open to hearing about roles. I think, “Well, this role matches their location and expertise, why don’t I give them a call?” But then I think – if I’m looking to speak with this person about a new job – how many other recruiters are doing the same thing? How many calls to job board regulars get in an average week?

It must be hard to keep tabs on the names of recruiters who have called you, let alone which jobs they have sent you information about!

It would be great to hear from job board regulars about their experiences.

How can recruiters like me make it easier for you to find your next move?

Look forward to hearing from you. please email me.

Why You Need a Good Kick in the UX

Where Would Your Site Be Without Your User Experience Designer?

IC Creative is the industry leading recruitment consultancy for UX jobs. IC Creative asks: what is the point of a User Experience Designer?

So…what is UX? Isn’t it simply an effort to make a finished website look nice? Absolutely not! User experience should be viewed as equally important as any of the processes that go toward site construction. Too many companies believe that the UX designer provides a bit of “dressing-up” for the finished site, whereas they should be looking at user experience as a starting point.

According to Jared Spool, CEO of the world’s largest usability research company, User Interface Engineering (UIE), a lot of firms get it into their heads that “good experience design is an add-on, not a base requirement.”

The process of building a website should be about teamwork. Sharing an equal footing within that team should be the guy who writes the code, should be the copywriter creating the content and should be the UX designer.

It should be a consideration that the end user is a part of the team as well. UX is a constantly evolving process that has to be flexible. Learning what works best and then implementing it, constantly testing and experimenting; what works, what doesn’t, throw that away and move on?

UX isn’t a set discipline. What works for some sites will not be a good fit for others. It depends for what purpose your website is intended and what sort of audience you wish to attract and engage with. Always consider your demographic.

UX isn’t just about appearance; it’s also about interaction, accessibility, usability. It should be attractive, absorbing and fun. Look at it as a combination of logic and emotion: the user wishes to get a particular result from your site, wants to reach a particular page or item, so they want to follow a logical path; but let them enjoy getting there.

Where would a site be without UX? Probably nowhere. Users would be arriving there and not having enough to hold their attention would jump away to the next option. If they stayed because they believed they might find information they’re looking for, without a logical pathway and properly designed buttons, they may never find it. They could get lost in a maze and simply give up.

The problem is the average attention span is widely acknowledged to be dropping. This is especially true when visiting websites, with so much competition on the internet it is believed that the user spends less than one minute per site. It is the UX designer’s job to not only catch the users’ attention but to hold it. If you aren’t holding their attention, perhaps your competitor is.