Workplace and Career Archives - Page 2 of 20

July 17, 2018 Learning From Others / Workplace and Career

Biased by Design

Back in the mid-90s, as the personal computer was booming, I was just your fairly average tween with a Skip-It™. I spent my summers in the California sunshine counting: 100, 208, 300, 986, always aching to get to 1,000. While my parents worked long past sunset, I played on the sidewalk of my parents’ company, Design Matters. Before it was a podcast, Design Matters—one of the first agencies in the San Francisco Bay area—was my personal experience with design. My

March 6, 2018 Workplace and Career

Are We Taking the “U” Out of UX?

Posted by Mark Richman

What is a UX designer? I recently saw a great ad for a senior UX specialist from MathWorks. Some excerpts: Work with the development team to follow a user-centered design approach as you work collaboratively to brainstorm and design innovative solutions to complex problems. Make recommendations to team members about which usability methods to use to answer their questions about users and design directions based on projects’ needs, goals, and constraints. Work closely with team members to conduct user research,

June 23, 2015 Business Design / Foundational Thinking / Workplace and Career

Ending the UX Designer Drought

Posted by Fred Beecher

The first article in this series, “A New Apprenticeship Architecture,” laid out a high-level framework for using the ancient model of apprenticeship to solve the modern problem of the UX talent drought. In this article, I get into details. Specifically, I discuss how to make the business case for apprenticeship and what to look for in potential apprentices. Let’s get started! Defining the business value of apprenticeship Apprenticeship is an investment. It requires an outlay of cash upfront for a

May 5, 2015 Learning From Others / Workplace and Career

Mentoring as an Investment

Posted by Chris Poteet

Have you ever asked for an update on a project you’d invested a great deal of time and energy in, only to hear “they have completely redesigned it since then”? I did, and it left me with this very empty feeling. After some wallowing, I realized I needed to discover a new way to think about the way I work and what really matters in my consulting career. My answer: The mark of a truly good consultant is investing in

January 6, 2015 Workplace and Career

Grow Your Career without Leaving Your Company

Posted by Lis Pardi

When I wanted to make a career shift to information architecture, I was reluctant because I loved the team I worked with. So instead of leaving to find the right work, I tried to start doing it where I was. What follows are my recommendations on how to make similar moves. It’s not rocket science, but it’s always nice to get some reminders. The least rocket science-y part is the first: Set a goal. You can’t get to where you’re