Information that will change our lives!

Water Cooler
#41

Where in the world are you?
Engie Bashir, Dubai, UAE
What stage of your career are you at?
5 years of experience in Industry as a software engineer, 10 years of experience in Academia focusing on teaching HCI and interaction Design, currently doing research/PHD in HCI

What are your current challenges?
Bringing the hot topics and best practices of UX/ID industry into teaching. Looking whether UX/ID Industry practices are similar across some countries.

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
Passionate about the User-centered, Agile UX and Lean UX processes and the techniques that are being practiced in Industry across the following: user research, design and prototyping and user testing and evaluation. Also looking at the tools that are being used to support these functions.

3 Likes
#42

Hi guys!!

Where in the world are you?
Manila, Philippines

What stage of your career are you at?
I’m in a stage of getting knowledge and experience :smiley:

What are your current challenges?
Right now, I am confused to where to start to dive deeper in UX with many aspects of it.

What aspect/s of UX are you passionate about?
I’m not yet on the stage to be passionate about each aspect of UX. But since I’m a visual learner, Interaction design piques my interest.

Cats or dogs?
I am a dog person :slight_smile:

1 Like
#43

Welcome. :slight_smile:
Is there anything that we can support you with right now?

#44

Thank you :smiley:

I’m really confused on where I should start focusing on first :frowning:

#45

That’s cool – we can dig into that! How did you hear about UX and what about it appeals to you?

#46

Where in the world are you?
Rainy, foggy, and beautiful Northern Humboldt (California). I’ll be relocating to the Bay Area in spring. Mix of emotions–I don’t know a single soul down there yet!

What stage of your career are you at?
Early. My background is in Anthropology. I held a graphic design coordinator position at a college within my University during a semester of post-bacc study in engineering. I started design freelancing out of college. A year later I started a web design & development partnership with a programmer. It’s been a super fun and challenging couple of years, but we’re both interested in moving onto more interesting and complex roles :slight_smile: Hello UX.

What are you current challenges?
Organizing my self-study (making sure my drive to learn UX now doesn’t distract me from tending to my existing commitments), and in-person networking. I live in a very small town, many hours away from any population that houses UXers.

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
Human factors, IA, and research and testing. Design is great, but I’ve found that I get bored with a product/project after so long. Really getting to know who’s using it, how they’re using it, and why fascinates me and tends to revive my interest in the project/product itself.

Cats or dogs?
Yes. :wink:

2 Likes
#47

Hey Justine, great to hear from you. :slight_smile:

I have met some amazing people in the Bay Area.
If you join our Slack channel you could make some contacts ahead of time.

1 Like
#48

Hi,

My name is Vicky brand new to the world of UI/UX design, but based on my current feedback it seems I have been part of this world from a data perspective :slight_smile:

I am a student at the StartUp Institute in NYC in the Web Design Program so I will be totally green behind the ears with UI and Front End development. It is exciting, but so empowering to me.

I am hoping from this community to gain knowledge, build confidence and really understand what an impact UX puts today. I am learning I hope to update this as I continue to grow in the field.

I am pug person by the way :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#49

I’m totally not a dog person, but there is a pug that walks to school with us and I admit to being a bit besotted.

#50

I’ve read about it from a Software Development book. I really can’t understand its difference from UI before. Luckily, the workshop that I attended help me to understand it. Well before I heard about it, I’m already complaining and asking why technologies are hard to use when the main reason that they were created is to make a person’s task easier. What UX really appeals to me is how they make people feel special, how it gave “FUN” another meaning and how it teach you that failing is important.

2 Likes
#51

Where am I?
I’m sitting on my couch in Brooklyn! But I am originally from Michigan. I spend my life in a state of yearning for forests and big lakes.

Stage of career?
I want to enter the field- at 47. Have a background in marketing, SEO, web design, education, and sales. Recently completed a bootcamp style, 10 week UX course, and addicted to Lynda.com (now LInkedin Learning)

Current challenges?
I’ve been looking at the world and solving problems with a UX mindset since the beginning, but I find it difficult to get people to take me seriously without ever having (formally) worked in UX. I’m hoping to change that by learning about portfolios here.

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
Usability, Information Architecture, UI Design, and User Research. (Not necessarily in that order… )

Cats or dogs?
Dawgs… and cats. But if I had to choose, dogs.

1 Like
#52

Do you like the idea of design or research better? Does creating interfaces appeal to you, or would you be happier talking to users about what they like/don’t like?

Welcome @kerrymeaway1

Your timing is great. We have a portfolio mentoring session coming up next week. You can find out the details here. You might also find this article useful: How to Build a Portfolio When You Have No Experience

#54

Where am I?
One of the Shires, England

Stage of career?
New(ish) to UX as a “formal” discipline. About 10 years experience of Graphic/Web Design before that

Current challenges?
I’m currently working for a company which designs & builds finance calculators for the automotive industry. The biggest challenge I’ve encountered so far is that the company has never really focused on front-end and usability before, and consequently projects are driven by back and front-end developers before reaching a product owner/UX designer - often the solution is being matched to a problem. Also, most of my colleagues speak in code haha… Pretty frustrating!

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
User research & statistical analysis is pretty fascinating. I’m most pleased whenever I find a nice elegant solution to a problem that looks pretty too!

Cats or dogs?
100% dogs :crying_cat_face:

1 Like
#55

Hey @russelldinho – welcome! Is there anything in particular that we can support you with?

(Side note: I’m surprised by the heavy weighting towards dogs in this community.)

#56

Hey @HAWK - thanks very much! Just mooching around forums and whatnot to compare experiences and hopefully pitch in with a few little nuggets of my own :+1:

1 Like
#57

Where in the world are you?
Springfield, MO USA

What stage of your career are you at?
I’ve been a web designer/developer for years but I worked for a company that was trying to function with the cheapest and oldest tools available (a lot of hand coding) so I never got to play with the new cool toys. Now I’m trying to catch up with the last 10 years of technology and move into UX.

What are you current challenges?
Being behind in and trying to learn everything at the same time while trying to create an impressive portfolio.

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
As someone else posted, function over form. I want to make tasks easier and simpler to accomplish. Life is complicated enough without the frustrations of difficulty apps and sites.

Cats or dogs?
I have both but the cats hate each other and are constantly bickering while the dog wants nothing more than to curl up in my lap (not easy for an 85 pound mutt) so he’s got a slight edge right now. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#58

Same! That was totally my experience. These days it doesn’t feel like I was ever a dev because I don’t know what all of the things are!

Oh, and welcome :slight_smile:

#59

I like the idea of design but it’s better if the user like it as well. So, I would love to talk to them about what they like/don’t like. Before I came up with wireframes, there are questions in my mind that I think will be answered through research.

1 Like
#60

Hello. First and foremost, let me give you some insight regarding my current situation. I am currently with a relatively smaller ad agency based out of buffalo, ny. My role here varies, but there is a strong focus in UI/UX. I personally come from a design background w/ knowledge in development ( html, css, js, php ).

Prior to my opportunity with this ad agency, I had some experience with UX methodologies, but not very much. Over the past year, I’ve become quite enamored with UX and User Centered Design and in my free time, I try to absorb as much material as possible regarding those theories.

So, anyway, back to where I stand presently within the ad agency that I am employed by. My first two months here I focused primarily on small design projects, but somewhere between those two months, one of the stakeholders here had mentioned me as candidate to focus primarily on the UI/UX theory and become the driving force on implementing UX methodologies within the company.

So, after 3 months of spinning my wheels and not feeling any better on where I stand as a UX leader, I am stuck looking for answers. Questions as of, am i taking the correct route into efficiently learning the ins and outs on UX theory?..How do i approach implementing such theories into a company that has no knowledge UX?..

These are just a few questions that I have been sitting on for quite awhile. So, that’s basically where I stand as of now.

#61

Hey Michael,
Great to hear from you. What an interesting situation/dilemma. Let’s see what @deprecated thinks.