The World Cup of User Experience

Football is often viewed as the great social unifier.

If you’re in an awkward situation, just bring out the football talk. During the World Cup in particular, almost everyone has an opinion.

So, it may come as a surprise to you that the writer of this blog despises the beautiful game!

In an attempt to endear myself more towards this event where grown men run up and down a field in silly uniforms, I decided to do a little research into the applications out there and see which ones are dominating the market in terms of great UX, usability and graphics.

1.)    Best All-rounder  - World Cup Brazil 2014 
2.)    Best Betting-related app – Oddschecker
3.)    Best for Managing your Sweepstake – Shuffl.com
4.)    Best Football Manager - Football Manager Handheld 2014 SEGA
5.)    Best for Fantasy Football – Fantasy iTeam

Let me know which ones you’re obsessed with!

Which UI’s do you really like?  Which ones do you think could use some improvements?

Please let me know what you think by emailing me.

What Is The Best UX Portfolio Format?

This week I wanted to ask the hiring managers out there – which portfolio format do you prefer to see?

The formats we regularly see are:

• Personal website
• Dropbox (or other) link to PDF
• Portfolio sites such as Cargocollective or Behance
• Dribbble – snapshots of work
• Folder of individual files
• Links to live works throughout CV

I know which ones appeal the most to us – but I wanted to get your take on this too.

Please do email me.

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.

Does the interview process begin before you’re even there?

Whilst spending an afternoon to’ing and fro’ing between two parties to book in a first stage interview, I had a little think about the implications of this part of the process, and whether a bumpy ride at this stage can foreshadow how the process plays out later on.

The conversation in question went a little like this:

“9am on the 15^th!”

“9am on the 16^th!”

“How about 10am on the 16^th?”

“No, I have a meeting then. OK scrap that, next week? When are they free?”

“They’re free Monday and Tuesday.”

“How about Monday at 5pm?”

“Oh they can’t make Monday now…”

…And so on. It was a bit like a game of schedule tennis.

This got me asking - does the interview process begin before you’re even there? Is what you do at this stage important?

Interview etiquette would dictate that the interviewee, the jobseeker,  should do what they can to accommodate a meeting of minds. That is to say, they are the ones on the back foot when it comes to ‘moving things around’ or cancelling prior engagements. If a company wants to see you on Friday afternoon but that would interfere with your timely commute back home for the weekend, as inconvenient as it is, you go and meet them and take a later train.

It is, after all, within your interests to get in front of them as soon as possible – protracting the process allows the momentum to trickle away and allows other candidates to get into the frame. It is also beneficial for your candidature to be accommodating and flexible.  Understand your interviewer is a busy person and accept there may only half an hour a week when they can take time to interview.

After all, they are only pushed for time because they are down a pair of hands in their team - and that is where you come in! If you can accept this fact and do what you can to make the magic happen sooner rather than later, then it really will be to your benefit.

Similarly, gracefully accepting last minute cancellations will win you brownie points - you will be perceived as flexible and understanding, whereas making a stand against the fact you’ve had to book half a day off work for nothing other than a route-to-work trial run – will potentially stick in your would-be employers throat.

I’m not saying that things should be this one-sided, but they often are. That is not to say that within the UX industry things are as black and white as I’ve made out. Our clients are often flexible when it comes to providing meeting times and understanding candidates issues with scheduling and ‘flying under the radar’, however I have noticed through working within the wider recruitment industry that it’s often a case of “now or never”.

My advice would be – even though that meeting may be less than convenient now – think of the longer term benefit involved in taking that step towards a new career!

 

Let me know what you think.

How do you negotiate NDA’s?

On a few occasions recently, I have guided candidates through an interview process only for the issue of an NDA to – well, become an issue.

The Non-Disclosure Agreement – signed by many designers across industries and disciplines – states that work contributing to a design solution cannot be shared or shown until the product becomes public. In some cases due to the sensitive nature of the work, it can never be shown at all.

On some interview occasions, it has been implied that it is mandatory for a candidate to breach an NDA and show work – else to the detriment of their application.

I wonder how you would approach this issue if it happened to you?

Would you rather flick through hard copies of protected work to satiate your potential future-employer, or stick to your guns and keep your work top secret to respect your current employer?

I don’t have a personal opinion on this, as it’s often a very delicate issue to negotiate. I’m not sure if there is a one size fits all right or wrong.

If anyone has been in this situation, or has advice – do let me know. I’m never sure how to advise people in these situations so if anyone can help that would be much appreciated.

 

As always, I would love to hear from you - please email me.

The Myth of the UX Unicorn

The fashionable and rather endearing term for a do-it-all designer  - ‘UX Unicorn’ – always makes me chuckle.

But… is it just me, or is a Unicorn just a horse with a horn stuck to its head?

Surely a better comparison to draw would be to mythological Sphinx, with the body of a lion, wings of a bird and head of a man? Also I think there are some scales on there, somewhere. Anyway. My point is that a true UX all-rounder is an amalgamation of many things in equal measure. They are not just a UI Designer with some Axure experience. They are not a UX Designer who knows a bit of HTML/CSS.  They are not just a horse with a horn.

I know what you will say - the point of the analogy is that the Unicorn, like a multi-disciplinary designer, is hard to find.  It’s elusive nature means it camps out in the woods and only appears to those who know what they’re looking for.

But, from my experience, these Unicorns (or Sphinxes) are rearing their heads more and more frequently as designers are up-skilling and taking on more responsibility on projects. I have personally noted an increase in this type of profile over the last year or so.

Would you identify with the Unicorn, or the Sphinx? Which UX creature are you?

 

Please contact me and let me know!

UX Designers - How Do You Start Your Mornings?

As I’m sure you will agree, coming into work after a four day Bank Holiday weekend is universally seen as ‘The Worst Thing Ever’. As I sort through the weekend’s enquiries and attempt to cast my mind back to where it was on Thursday afternoon, I’ve started to query how our minds gear up for work on a daily basis. In particular, I want to look into how the creative designer brain may differ from someone in a less creative profession.

One school of thought is that you should tackle the heavy-duty, brain power consuming tasks head on, first thing in the morning. This is when your mind is at its most focussed, and able to take a fresh stance on a hard problem which may have been troubling you for a couple of days.

For me, I like to get the easiest possible emails out of the way first, as a sort of ‘warm up’. So if you are waiting on a ‘Thank You’ or a ‘Great, I will talk to you then’ from me, you are likely to receive this at 7:30 in the morning! Plus, a clearer inbox makes a clearer mind for the day ahead.

I wonder how this works for UX Designers? What kind of tasks do you feel inclined to approach first thing in the morning? Do you feel particularly creative, or do you need to warm up with some admin? Do you feel like you need to spend some time organising your thoughts and to-do list, or can you jump straight in to the hands-on work?

Do you prefer to get your head down and keep yourself to yourself (and your sketchbook) or do you find this time is best spent talking with users or other designers?

As I’ve been musing on the topic, I thought I would throw it out there to you. It would be really interesting for me to understand how the creative mind approaches a day of work, and whether there is any difference in inclination from someone like me who works in a recruitment environment.

 

As always, I would love to hear from you.  Please do email me.