Niche
1) What do you consider to be your medium, style, and services of choice? Describe why you feel that is the case.
medium: UX design & research; photography
style: realistic with a bit of whimsy; practical with a bit of humor
services:
research research research;
a keen understanding of people, and what they really mean beyond the surface of what they're saying;
immediate understanding of what in a system is effective, what is not, and realistic ideas for how to fix it (quickly considering all the requirements to address, priorities, & consequences of a certain decision)
-> practical fixes for what people really want and need in a UX/UI framework.
2) Conduct some research and identify and target potential clients and partners you hope to work with in the future. Provide links and write a few details about why you choose those individuals, companies, etc.
Super-duper pragmatic UX firms, or in-house. Probably ones that don't take themselves too seriously and have a loose grip on hierarchy; may be tech-focused companies if in-house. (Not somewhere with lots of committees.. that's where ideas go to die.) Would probably be better off in a smaller-sized team or someplace I can gain the trust of my colleagues and get to know their strengths and weaknesses to use effectively. Can get along with pretty much anyone at work, thanks to years in retail. Need to feel comfortable asking for feedback, but also need autonomy.
-
Work & Co: redesigned Virgin America's booking app, radically essentializing the process so that customers can book in 60 seconds or less. Applied a mobile-first ideology and built a website from that, getting rid of the labyrinthine nature of most airline interfaces. Also, used AngularJS as an intermediary between the airline's backend and the customer-facing pieces. Quick prototyping.
Brave UX: Tackling some complicated and unglamorous projects (the federal government's employee health incentives, admin paperwork processing, a news aggregator) and actually bringing clarity and workability to them. Also, dude, that "approach" page... [heart eyes emoji].
Trimble has a local office but also a global presence and works on some really interesting navigation systems, UAVs, satellites and such. I find them interesting because there's such a wide range of products/applications/problem spaces to dig into, and because it is less mainstream than most UX stuff. Complicated enterprise applications are the kind of obnoxious challenge I really want to dig into. However, their job description for what they want in a junior designer is a little... wide-ranging shall we say.
Dandi Creative is a small, local agency that just did Colorado Public Radio's app design as well as a lot of other neat local issues/projects. They have an approach that's not overcomplicated but produces some really quality work, and brings out the personality of whichever customer they're making things for.
3) What common frustrations or needs do your services or products address? How does your business solve a problem or find a solution for your customers? In particular, do you solve problems that nobody else can? Through your research create a list of the kinds of problems you are most interested in addressing after you graduate with some details as to why that is the case from both a skills and interest point-of-view.
I'm interested in tackling living with anxiety for my thesis project because it's something that a lot of people are dealing with, and it can be crippling. I hate the thought of wonderful people missing out on life experiences or positively changing society because they are barely making it in daily life due to anxiety. Additionally, it's a condition that tends to be isolating and self-propagating: having anxiety makes it harder to deal with being anxious, especially in areas like asking for help or doing basic necessary tasks. The privacy and immediacy of a mobile interface would be quite powerful in addressing those facets of living with anxiety.
Another area I'm interested in researching and finding fixes for is designers creating yet more awareness campaigns. We drown in data and things that want our attention in today's media-saturated society. I'm not convinced that most "awareness" campaigns make any sort of positive change for their causes, but instead are quickly forgotten or an annoyance. Ironically, this would end up being a project on awareness about awareness. Probably best suited for a website format, as it's more geared to occasional visits and reference use rather than more regular usage.
Finally, I'd like to revisit an award-winning prototype made for an Inworks initiative. That project focuses on diagnosing vitamin A deficiency in clinics in developing countries, and was tailored to be logistically feasible for their use. However, we were not able to get all the SME input we needed, and we also need to test it. After those steps, we'd need to look for NGOs or charities who would be interested in deploying it and propose it to them or partner with them and a manufacturer.
medium: UX design & research; photography
style: realistic with a bit of whimsy; practical with a bit of humor
services:
research research research;
a keen understanding of people, and what they really mean beyond the surface of what they're saying;
immediate understanding of what in a system is effective, what is not, and realistic ideas for how to fix it (quickly considering all the requirements to address, priorities, & consequences of a certain decision)
-> practical fixes for what people really want and need in a UX/UI framework.
2) Conduct some research and identify and target potential clients and partners you hope to work with in the future. Provide links and write a few details about why you choose those individuals, companies, etc.
Super-duper pragmatic UX firms, or in-house. Probably ones that don't take themselves too seriously and have a loose grip on hierarchy; may be tech-focused companies if in-house. (Not somewhere with lots of committees.. that's where ideas go to die.) Would probably be better off in a smaller-sized team or someplace I can gain the trust of my colleagues and get to know their strengths and weaknesses to use effectively. Can get along with pretty much anyone at work, thanks to years in retail. Need to feel comfortable asking for feedback, but also need autonomy.
-
Work & Co: redesigned Virgin America's booking app, radically essentializing the process so that customers can book in 60 seconds or less. Applied a mobile-first ideology and built a website from that, getting rid of the labyrinthine nature of most airline interfaces. Also, used AngularJS as an intermediary between the airline's backend and the customer-facing pieces. Quick prototyping.
Brave UX: Tackling some complicated and unglamorous projects (the federal government's employee health incentives, admin paperwork processing, a news aggregator) and actually bringing clarity and workability to them. Also, dude, that "approach" page... [heart eyes emoji].
Trimble has a local office but also a global presence and works on some really interesting navigation systems, UAVs, satellites and such. I find them interesting because there's such a wide range of products/applications/problem spaces to dig into, and because it is less mainstream than most UX stuff. Complicated enterprise applications are the kind of obnoxious challenge I really want to dig into. However, their job description for what they want in a junior designer is a little... wide-ranging shall we say.
Dandi Creative is a small, local agency that just did Colorado Public Radio's app design as well as a lot of other neat local issues/projects. They have an approach that's not overcomplicated but produces some really quality work, and brings out the personality of whichever customer they're making things for.
3) What common frustrations or needs do your services or products address? How does your business solve a problem or find a solution for your customers? In particular, do you solve problems that nobody else can? Through your research create a list of the kinds of problems you are most interested in addressing after you graduate with some details as to why that is the case from both a skills and interest point-of-view.
I'm interested in tackling living with anxiety for my thesis project because it's something that a lot of people are dealing with, and it can be crippling. I hate the thought of wonderful people missing out on life experiences or positively changing society because they are barely making it in daily life due to anxiety. Additionally, it's a condition that tends to be isolating and self-propagating: having anxiety makes it harder to deal with being anxious, especially in areas like asking for help or doing basic necessary tasks. The privacy and immediacy of a mobile interface would be quite powerful in addressing those facets of living with anxiety.
Another area I'm interested in researching and finding fixes for is designers creating yet more awareness campaigns. We drown in data and things that want our attention in today's media-saturated society. I'm not convinced that most "awareness" campaigns make any sort of positive change for their causes, but instead are quickly forgotten or an annoyance. Ironically, this would end up being a project on awareness about awareness. Probably best suited for a website format, as it's more geared to occasional visits and reference use rather than more regular usage.
Finally, I'd like to revisit an award-winning prototype made for an Inworks initiative. That project focuses on diagnosing vitamin A deficiency in clinics in developing countries, and was tailored to be logistically feasible for their use. However, we were not able to get all the SME input we needed, and we also need to test it. After those steps, we'd need to look for NGOs or charities who would be interested in deploying it and propose it to them or partner with them and a manufacturer.
4) Conduct a bit of secondary research to see just how competitive your chosen market is. Create a list of links with short sentences describing how competitors are approaching their niche to address the kinds of problems that interest you.
While it's a growing field, which means a considerable demand for people to fill UI/UX positions, there's a ton of people who want those jobs. Standing out from the herd on the internet is gonna be the challenge, which means a really solid portfolio website, strategic use of terms describing myself to weed out the places that don't fit me. Fortunately no one else has my name, so that's one thing done already...
Also, a lot of these jobs want some coding experience as well for prototyping purposes. I did a year of computer science but I really need to brush up on/possibly get certified in those kinds of things (HTML5, CSS, various javascripting.)
This Jeremy guy's website is a little sloppy layout-wise but has nice photography. His resume is interestingly designed, if much too long for the amount of work experience on it, and suffers from wall-of-text syndrome (i have it too). Focuses more on who he is as a person than showing off his work, which is not great, but he must've done some neat SEO stuff because he's the first human to show up when i google ui/ux designer in colorado.
Brett Duryea has some real nice photography but I don't know how it relates to UI/UX work. Also the layout is a hot mess when I view it.. don't know what browser conditions he built the site for. He has two different places for his portfolio, one of which is a PDF link (what?!!) and the other of which covers up the preview of each project with a text box reiterating the title of the project. When you click on an individual project, a page featuring one oddly laid-out photo of the project, with no text or explanation, appears. Not a fan, but he comes up pretty early in google's search results.
Max LaRue presents his work really well--it's clear and polished and well-organized. There's not a lot of work on his site, but what he does have is really great. I think his stuff is a few years old though; some of the concepts don't quite hold up. That said, gonna steal a lot of inspiration from the way he's got things laid out.
While it's a growing field, which means a considerable demand for people to fill UI/UX positions, there's a ton of people who want those jobs. Standing out from the herd on the internet is gonna be the challenge, which means a really solid portfolio website, strategic use of terms describing myself to weed out the places that don't fit me. Fortunately no one else has my name, so that's one thing done already...
Also, a lot of these jobs want some coding experience as well for prototyping purposes. I did a year of computer science but I really need to brush up on/possibly get certified in those kinds of things (HTML5, CSS, various javascripting.)
This Jeremy guy's website is a little sloppy layout-wise but has nice photography. His resume is interestingly designed, if much too long for the amount of work experience on it, and suffers from wall-of-text syndrome (i have it too). Focuses more on who he is as a person than showing off his work, which is not great, but he must've done some neat SEO stuff because he's the first human to show up when i google ui/ux designer in colorado.
Brett Duryea has some real nice photography but I don't know how it relates to UI/UX work. Also the layout is a hot mess when I view it.. don't know what browser conditions he built the site for. He has two different places for his portfolio, one of which is a PDF link (what?!!) and the other of which covers up the preview of each project with a text box reiterating the title of the project. When you click on an individual project, a page featuring one oddly laid-out photo of the project, with no text or explanation, appears. Not a fan, but he comes up pretty early in google's search results.
Max LaRue presents his work really well--it's clear and polished and well-organized. There's not a lot of work on his site, but what he does have is really great. I think his stuff is a few years old though; some of the concepts don't quite hold up. That said, gonna steal a lot of inspiration from the way he's got things laid out.
Comments
Post a Comment