Many UX practitioners learn by doing and researching on the fly. This approach can also help those who want to develop their careers, who feel stuck in a narrow role when job postings seem to be looking for unicorns. Kate draws on her own experience and that of her peers.
9. Who are you?
How much UX?
New?
Repositioning?
What draws you to it?
What do you want to get out of this?
10. Information architect at
BlackBerry for 7 years
Led User Experience group
Love UX (there, I said it!)
Do this career stuff myself
What about me?
12. Little exercise
Make a title page for your book
Write down a statement that captures what
you want
Share it with your group
13. Here’s an example…
I want to work in a role that is
Collaborative
Challenging
Strategic
And lets me learn
In an environment that is open and decent
19. UX designers
Ben Melbourne:
UX Designers focus on the structure and layout of
content and how users interact with them. They don’t
normally (but can) try to be perfect from a visual
perspective.
Trip O’Dell:
We solve problems for people with technology or
services.
20. Another way to look at it
Trip O’Dell framed it nicely:
Storyteller
Artisan
21. Storyteller
Radical generalist who is really curious and likes
to engage with stakeholders, users, and develop
a vision:
Empathetic
User-focused
Strategic
Research
22. Artisan
…sweats the details whether it’s the easing in
an animated transition, the polished comp, or
the pixel-perfect CSS and assets that go from
prototype to final shipping product:
Intensely focused
Passionate about craft
23. UX deliverables
Again from Mr. Melbourne:
The types of deliverables they produce include site-maps,
user flows, prototypes and wireframes.
These depend on the problems you’re solving
Activity: If any of these are new to you, write
them in your book
24. Discussion:
Where do you fit?
I fit in research and design
I influence visual design
What interests you?
25. Activity: Get it on paper
Take a minute to write it down:
Where you fit
What interests
you
26. Example: Here’s what I did
Research
Myers-Briggs
Skills Inventory
Overkill?
Maybe
But it reinforced my decision
28. What do recruiters want?
Someone is likely filtering on keywords
Looking for
Experience
Deliverables
Accomplishments
Not surprising…
29. What do recruiters,
managers, & peers want?
Objectivity, openness, and self-awareness
Ability to present ideas clearly and
confidently (good client manner)
Willingness to collaborate and listen to ideas
Ability to speak to the process
35. Own it! Strategies
Who do you want to own your career?
Define what you want
Done! (for now)
Create a plan
Use strategies
Create opportunities
37. Create opportunities
At work
Find gaps, identify needs
Get stretch assignments
Outside of work
Volunteer
Make your own assignments
38. Example: Here’s what I did
On a few occasions
Saw a need
Asked for a mandate
Did the work
Built credibility
For IA and UX work
39. Opportunities: Examples
Pro bono: Charity or cause
Your resume and portfolio
Make it a design problem
Include the career book you’re working on
Tackle something that has always bothered
you
40. Create stories
Think about your process
Keep the artifacts
Have a story to tell about
Successes
Challenges
These are things you can share
41. LinkedIn
Join before you even worry about your
resume
Get inspired by other profiles
Find jobs that are only posted there
Be there for recruiters to find
42. Letting it percolate
Which strategies look
good to you?
What might get in your
way?
Internal
External
49. Training
Adaptive Path UX Intensive
Cooper UX Boot Camp
Follow the UX Leader (CanCon!)
Human Factors International
Nielsen Norman Group Usability Week
50. Conferences
Adaptive Path UX Week
IA Institute IA Summit
IxDA Interaction
User Interface Engineering UI 18
UXcamp Ottawa
UXPA Conference
58. Twitter is a conversation
It’s easy to forget it’s a conversation….
59. Twitter: A sampling
Steve ‘Doc’ Baty
@docbaty
Livia Labate
@livlab
Dan Saffer
@odannyboy
Kris Mauser
@krismausser
Patrick Neeman
@usabilitycounts
Christina Wodke
@cwodtke
Jeff Parks
@jeffparks
Peter Morville
@morville
60. Twitter: A further sampling
Alan Cooper
@MrAlanCooper
Whitney Hess
@whitneyhess
Eric Reiss
@elreiss
Beck Tench
@10ch
Steve Portigal
@steveportigal
Luke Wroblewski
@lukew
Dana Chisnell
@danachis
Kristina Halvorson
@halvorson
70. Activity: Set goals
Write down 3 goals for
Next week
Next month
Next year
3 years from now
71. Activity: Define activities
Write down what you should do
Weekly
Examples: Read websites, record accomplishments
Monthly
Quarterly
Yearly
Example: Revisit and refine goals
72. Activity: Quick check
Look at your activities
Look at your goals
Make sure your activities get you there
If they don’t, you need to rethink something
73. Suggestion: Get meta!
Planning, researching, and prioritizing are
part of UX
Treat these as deliverables:
your book
your planning and learning process
Same with your resume
74. Speaking of meta
Part of my process for this presentation
Could share as a portfolio piece
81. References
@katewilhelm
*
Cory Lebson: These are my people: The Value in
UX Organizations
Monique Valcour: Craft a Sustainable Career
Nick Finck: Starting a Career in User Experience
Design
Dr. Leslie Jensen-Inman: Lone Geniuses or We
Intentionality?
82. Peer support shout-outs
@katewilhelm
*
Trip O’Dell
Kimberley Peter
Diana Wiffen
Kristina McDougall
Mary Pat Hinton
Steve Baty
Mark Connolly
Susie Simon-Daniels
Larry Cornett