Information that will change our lives!

We have a couple of free sessions coming up with @Louise in our Slack channel which will help with this.

Here is the date and time of the first one. Keep an eye on the blog for more info in coming weeks.

And welcome!

Love it. Really glad you found us @linus

I’m curious – what is it that brought you here?

@HAWK please help me with this.

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Sure thing – sorry for skipping over that. :slight_smile:

There is a huge list of courses here – many of which are reasonably priced and some of which we have reviewed. The Designlab courses are mentored and are pretty reasonable at $299

And if it’s books that you’re after, here is a huge list of great UX books.

Where in the world are you?
“North” Jersey, though I feel closer to Central… NYC is only a 1 hr train ride away

What stage of your career are you at?
So for me its a bit unique. I’ve been pretty much working in IT operations for the last 7+ years and just randomly found myself able to transition into a manager user experience role. Now thats not to say I don’t have some qualifications. The last 3 years my current organization we were leveraging vendors to provide UX practices to projects on our enterprise self-service portal and I was a part or led the projects the vendors were supporting. So I learned a lot but in most cases it was a “refresher” to my undergrad studies. Speaking of which, my undergraduate studies had a focus on HCI and I’ve also taken a 1 week masters course from Rutgers on UX in recent years as well, along with an MS in Info Systems and MBA in Tech Mgmt that are focused on business process redesign (semi parlays into systems design).

What are you current challenges?
Advocating the theories of UX to my VP and overall organization, starting up a UX team (I am the manager but the senior manager isn’t hired yet nor my two direct reports), building a toolkit as well as getting the right additional training to feel comfortable (all of this with an 11 month old boy at home and #2 coming in March).

At my job we aren’t going to be performing typical UX from a UI practice (mobile and web), but using UX/CX practices to make sure our company employees are satisfied with our IT solutions that they use on a day to day basis. Most of what we deploy is out-of-the-box, but of course can be tweaked and tailored.

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
Every experience I have had with UX (college and professional) clearly shows its value. Quantifying it is the hard part but when isn’t it. It is a very creative field, and for me having an IT background, really lets me think more of the big picture of things when it comes to the technologies at hand that really makes it exciting.

Cats or dogs?
Dogs, hands down. Even though I’m not too much of a fan of mine at home, but the wife would say otherwise.

Sounds like an interesting journey! This month our theme is leadership and strategy so you may well have found us at just the right time. :slight_smile:

Welcome.

Hello all

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Hi Venkat,
Welcome. How does UX fit into your life?

Where in the world are you?

I live in Oswego NY where I attend SUNY Oswego as a grad student in Human Computer Interaction.

What stage of your career are you at?

I kind of answered this in the first question, whoops, but I am a graduate student who finishes up in December. I am entering the job market in hoped of landing a job in User Experience Design and or research, any combination of either really will do.

What are you current challenges?

As you might expect, my current challenge is figuring out where to start this whole job search process. I coded up a portfolio that I am no longer happy with. I am going to rebuild it to reflect my research and my process more. It’s chirsstultz.com, not very clever but it’s effective since that’s my name and all. I purchased the Ebook 'Get Started in UX and now I am here. I don’t necessarily know what I have to do first so I’m just trying to do everything.

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?

In this order
Usability Testing
Research
Wireframe & prototyping
Information Architecture
Front End Design

My background is Psychology so I am most drawn to the human aspects of UX. As much as I want to be, I’ll never be the guy on top of every javascript library and writing complex back end algorithms.

Cats or dogs?

Despite my tiny thumbnail pic where you can vaguely make out a cat, I am definitely a dog person. You have to work for most things in this world but a dogs undying affection is not one of them.

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Hey Chris, great to hear from you. If you want some help (either feedback or advice) with your portfolio, just ask. :slight_smile:

But only if you change your mind about cats.

Thanks so much. I have drawn my own conclusions about my current iteration
but I would love to hear your feedback as well. I am working on a more
project oriented concept that will be more like a lot of the wordpress
templates and standard UX portfolios I’ve seen.

Sorry I love my cat she just can’t match that dog enthusiasm.

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Can’t wait to see you do this in our next meeting :slight_smile:

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Where in the world are you?
Sheffield, UK - but soon to be travelling around Europe in a T4 Campervan

What stage of your career are you at?
Newbie, passionate learner.
Currently, a content editor trying to squeeze UX research in where possible. Also learning front-end coding.
Give me a shout if you need someone to help you out on a project!

What are your current challenges?
Getting on the ladder, getting a portfolio/basics in place ready to find remote projects to work on during van life

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
Getting users to the right place, first time. Getting rid of dead-ends and loops.

Cats or dogs?
Dogs - Border Collies.

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Hello there! I’m Dee :slight_smile:

Where am I?
Berlin, Germany
(Originally from Sydney , Australia)

What stage of my career am I at?
7 years in. Now a senior UX Designer.

What are my current challenges?
Recently moving up to a senior role for the first time it’s tricky to balance doing real UX work that I love with new challenges like being responsible more top level strategies and direction in the startup that I’m now working at.

What aspect/s of UX am I passionate about?

  • Keeping touch with the fundamentals of understanding real user needs.
  • Helping people and teams learn and use user centred methods in their daily work.
  • User research

Cats or dogs?

I’m not fussy. Whichever gives me undying love and attention.
Until I get bored of looking after it, then it’s on it’s own.

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Wow, that sounds amazing! (Welcome)

Yay! We love people like you around here. :wink:

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I’m in Philadelphia, PA, just beginning training as I want to transition from experiential marketing to UX.
My current challenges are choosing a program to help me build a portfolio. I’ve done UX Basics on Treehouse & I’m in the middle of David Travis’s Udemy course & I want something to show for it :slight_smile:
I’m passionate about user behavior, I’m definitely a data/psychology/research nerd who loves to observe & ask questions & see what makes others tick. I’m also excited about the opportunity to meld my psychology hobby with the opportunity to both create & communicate on a regular basis, since I consider those to be my innate strengths.
Dogs.

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Fantastic and welcome! We have a couple of free online Slack sessions on portfolio building coming up later this month.

You’ll get an email. :slight_smile:

Awesome, perfect timing! Thanks for the welcome, glad to be here :slight_smile:

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Hey all! I’ve been stalking this community for a while, it’s time for me to chip in.

Where in the world are you?
I’m in Chicago! Originally from Utah.

What stage of your career are you at?
I’ve worked in UX strategy for 2 years – so pretty fresh off the block.

What are you current challenges?
I work for an advertising company that doesn’t focus on UX. It’s the classic need for projects and UX evangelism.

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
People. Understanding people and how they think, work and play is the key to good UX. I love researching and making things better for others.

Cats or dogs?
I’m a dog person, but love cat snuggles.

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Hi All

Happy to be here and part of the community!

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Music to any community manager’s ears. :slight_smile:
Welcome Toph.[quote=“toph_carter, post:38, topic:2229”]
I’ve worked in UX strategy for 2 years
[/quote]

I’m really interested in this. When you say UX strategy, what do you mean? Product strategy, or something different. We’re struggling to define what UX strategy means at the moment and I’m interested in all viewpoints.

Oh no – and just like that he got himself banned! :wink: :wink:

http://community.uxmastery.com/uploads/default/optimized/2X/0/0a0d1185b39dcf6faea3fe27a6716d0252f7e098_1_389x499.jpg

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