anniemayux-blog

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UXDI is done and we’ve been set free upon the world to find UX positions. Job hunting is no fun and I’m dragging my heels. As I venture into the real world, I’m putting together an interesting portfolio based on classwork. Lucky for me, I had the benefit of working with some super-talented UX designers in the “Doozers” class of 2015, and I have been satisfied with each of our projects. 

In my search for portfolio advice, I’ve found The Worst Portfolio Ever, by Alex Cornell, a UX Designer at Facebook. The link is sadly accurate in that every UX portfolio I have examined seems to reflect the same tropes and even look alike because of the frequent use of Square Space templates. Adrian, Lead Designer at Farmigo, our client project, observed the same thing and offered assistance in reviewing our portfolios once they were complete. Although I would agree that the consistency of the look and feel of these portfolios raises the caliber of expectation for finding truly unique, qualified UX-ers, I’m not sure what the solution is. You don’t want to seem to unique such that you’re missing the point or adding extraneous information. But, you also need to have the basics down to show that you meet the baseline of a qualified candidate.

Anyhow, if we’ve learned anything from the UX process, it’ll be iterative and maybe 5-6 drafts down the line, I’ll have something I can brag about (if only a tiiiiiiiny bit).

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In watching the 2013 Apple story video, I observed the following in this evaluation. Apple knows to make design "delightful"!

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The 5 Whys - NYT wants a newsfeed Clients usually have trouble distinguishing symptoms from the root cause.

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Project 1: The Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Yay! It’s presentation day! 

I’m not ACTUALLY bleeding from the work I did this weekend to complete this presentation (although at several points of the project, paper cuts were a potential health hazard), but it feels like I should have. 

Last week, we covered the process of UX product creation and testing, which was fascinating and what I imagined it to be. While I felt like I was comprehending the material, I still had to wonder if I just wasn’t fully grasping the concepts. Doing the process is how I best learn. You just don’t know it until you get there.

However, I am concerned that I’m either slacking or still uninformed. Last week came and went and I believe I was worried that I was suffering from what they call the Dunning-Kruger effect, where an unskilled individual mistakes their abilities to be higher than accurate. Basically, an overconfidence. Unfortunately, as part of the term, you can’t tell what is accurate so for the meantime I’m just going to try to “fake it until you make it.” 

So I’m about to go present this product that I’m pretty sure doesn’t reflect my full potential, but I believe it still accomplishes the task. 

[anniemayux-blog]

Stuff I wanna do and learn as a professional grownup.

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ZocDoc has a great, easy to use search function to help you find doctors that carry your insurance, see their ratings, and even book a time. I’ve never found one so easily before. I could even operate it with my concussion.

Hello Dr. Nagy. You can clean my teeth any day.

[anniemayux-blog]

I'm a huge fan of the effusive voice of Florence and the Machine and the addictive beats of Drake, but whoever designed the app missed a few marks. The only reason why I downloaded the app was to figure out who I wanted to see the schedule. However, to get there you had to find the menu three swipes to the right and THEN find your list of bands you wanted to see and THEN find when they would be playing. Eventually, I figured out that I could look up the entire schedule to see who was playing on each day, which was still annoying to use because it would include the bands that played on all days. If I wanted to know who was on Sunday, I still had to scroll through the previous two days. Also, what does "most liked" even mean? Most attendees come to the festival knowing who the headliners are already. I'm not going to accuse anyone at the 2015 Governors Ball of drug or alcohol abuse (I plead the fifth on this), but I'm pretty sure this app wasn't useful to those users. I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to use this on the clunky, school bus shuttle ride. We opted to use the paper map my friend posted.

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Of course Facebook is monetized by selling ad space. The marketing algorithm searches for ads that are most attractive to said user. However, when it comes to skin problems, I would prefer if Facebook did not falsely accuse me or imply that I had bad skin. Sure, I might be the demographic and yes, I've had a few zits in my life but still, the algorithm hurt my feelings.

[anniemayux-blog]

The Tumblr interface is also a bit difficult to figure out.

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Oh Hello

Hi. I’m Annie, an aspiring User Experience Design professional, a former academic researcher, and a sometimes stand up comic in the NYC area. I’ve just joined the General Assembly UX Design Immersive to mash together my love of design and analytical thinking style. I have a Masters in Sociology from the University of Chicago and a background in quantitative and qualitative research. I’ve decided to leave the ivy tower and the lucrative field of comedy to chase my pipe dreams of working in technology. Hopefully, I’ll be able to bring my intellect and sense of humor to the UX Design table.