Had the opportunity yesterday to watch a local, informal version of a ‘Shark Tank’ – where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their start-up business plans to a panel of business-people (presumably who have launched successful start-ups – I missed the intros). The panel provides them with advice both on how to improve their pitch to investors/mentors and improve or address gaps in their business plans. Some observations on the user-experience (UX) of the judge-panelists: Continue reading
A debate in the design/UX world has been, not raging, jostling? about in regards to whether design folks should learn to code. I’m pretty much of the mind that companies get more value from developers who can code well and designers who can design well vs trying to hire a person who does one thing well and the other well enough to get by. Continue reading
Thinking about how necessary it is for user experience (UX) professionals to be infused with empathy as part of their interactions in day-to-day life, and not just when on the job. A thoughtful post by another UX blogger talks about empathy too.
Which led to thinking of tea infusions –
which seemed kind of a weak image (think tea vs. coffee, weak vs. strong). That led to thinking of distilled spirit infusions (all the rage in SoCal lately) and how that image conveys energy, a willingness to experiment, a joie de vivre (most likely due to the excited media coverage of this new foodie enthusiasm).
Which led to thinking, wait a minute, how many empires have been architected, built, plotted against, destroyed – in boardrooms, palaces, cottages and yurts all while participants sipped tea? Sure, we read about memorable events fueled by alcohol, but perhaps tea as a contributor to historic events has had a much greater influence (some of which recorded here). So too, perhaps for empathy. It doesn’t get the make a dent in the universe rock star status in the design world like other skills, but could its influence be greater?
So I’m trying to figure out whether the profession of ‘designer’ or the label of ‘creative’ draws people of a certain temperament or the job itself draws out innate tendencies and amplifies them. Perhaps it has nothing to do with temperament or tendencies and is an evolving survival response to an economic environment where ‘at-will’ employment means competent people are let go from jobs as a matter of course.
I imagine over the centuries that practitioners of any craft have debated the absolute necessity or utter uselessness of various techniques and tools employed in their craft. The user-experience profession is no different. Recently the UX [insert social media of choice]-o-sphere has been bouncing around the topic of how to communicate a thing-that-doesn’t-yet-exist to a client or developer.
Respected entrepreneur wrote about a new project they’re working on. Surprised to find smack in the core of ‘here’s the problem we’re solving for: customers want to do x because of y or z‘ – this assumption that customers’ reasons for wanting to do this thing are binary – their reason is either this or that. I’m one of these customers, in fact; my J Alfred Prufrock response:
And turning toward the window, say:
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.”
Coworker sends me a Dilbert cartoon in the morning. Me: “Ha ha – yep, that’s you all right.” We laugh, work goes on. Later that same day: he stops by my desk to comment on a recent document I wrote that he’s been using for some marketing materials and says, completely forgetting this morning’s exchange, “Great documentation – I love it when the requirements are all there.” As in, I love it when your completed requirements have complete requirements.….um, yeah. So today I got to be Wally.
melonknees 