I’ve never understood how friends can get jealous of other friends. If they seal the deal on a new home or announce their engagement, why do some feel gnawing resentment instead of happiness for someone they claim to care about?

The same thing can be applied with how we feel towards fellow UXers, no matter how long we’ve been in the field. Yes, even though the recession’s been officially declared over in the US, it still sucks to be a junior IA, UX designer or interaction designer, since nearly all new jobs are going to those who have mid- if not senior-level experience. While thankfully some people are taking steps towards resolving this (or at least are putting ideas out there), we need to stop beating ourselves up and not envy someone who’s landed a new position, even if it was the exact one you wanted. Would you want someone hating on you because you obtained what they wanted?

It would be far more productive to be happy for such ones – reach out to that person and congratulate them, wishing them success with their new position. Perhaps at some point down the line they may get wind of a new job opening at their company and drop you a line about it. In the meantime, don’t neglect sharpening your UX skills, even if it means working on self-directed practice projects or revising your resume and portfolio for the 18 billionth time.

Send good vibes out, get good vibes back.

(or, an I-haven’t-fallen-off-the-twig post)

Recently I had to put a major freelance project on the backburner because I needed to care for a sick relative. Three weeks ago, I was making funeral arrangements. I kept in touch with my client, and through email, phone and text messaging, we managed to devise a strategy to redesign a fairly large site. Nevertheless, I felt guilty for not contributing more to the project, and for not completing it in the time frame we had initially agreed upon.

My client said not to worry about it, and to do what I have to do. “Without friends and family, you’re nothing.”

This one statement is comforting and insightful. It’s wonderful to work with a client who doesn’t view me as a cog in the machine, but as a multidimensional person.

LU makes some of the most delicious biscuits I’ve ever tasted, all the more so if you’re a chocolate lover. But I’m disappointed by one thing – they’ve recently changed their packaging.

Yes, they still taste wonderful, but the dark packaging threw me for a loop. Before this incarnation, the box was white with a blue stripe indicating that it’s milk chocolate (the dark chocolate had red and the hazlenut had green – check this website for the old style.) This new packaging makes it hard to distinguish between the different varieties, and had I not slowed down to look at what was printed on the box, I could’ve easily brought home a flavor I wasn’t expecting.

What was wrong with the previous design? The typography was legible and it was easy to distinguish from other brands on the shelf. I feel this is an example of change for the sake of change, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Apologies for lack of new content these days. Still plugging away at things with project Naan Map, and I’m prepping to be a judge for this year’s STC competition. On a completely random note, the lapsed writer in me is working on an outline for a novel-length manuscript. Whether it’ll turn into something that’s publishable or a hot mess has yet to be seen.

Here’s a list of links I’ve found to be informative and inspirational as I try to segue into UX.

So you wanna be a user experience designer – Step 1 – resources

Starting a career in user experience design

Finding an IA job, idea #1: Practice

Hiring the next generation of interaction designers (video from Interaction ’09 featuring Jared Spool and others)

While not UX-related, this is a great article for those who struggle with networking, introverted or not:
Networking for introverts

The wireframe phase of Project Naan Map is complete! Now we’re going to be working on personas. This is new territory for me, so there will be much to learn. I’m scouring around for ideas, and may even post on IxDA to see how other people develop theirs.

Whitney Hess has an online chat session on Sunday nights, answering questions about IA. It’s really helped me, and I’ve recently gotten in touch with someone who’s willing to introduce me to some people in order to further my goal of getting into the IA door. This field has been a bottomless source of inspiration for me, and I also like its international focus. I’d give my left eye to be attending the upcoming IA conferences and conventions dotted over the globe. It’d be awesome to talk to IAs from other nations, see how they do things and what their thinking patterns are like.

End of rambling. Just needed to put up something new since it’s been nearly a month since the last update. And while juggling all this I’m still trying to design my own WP theme since this is clearly not cutting it.

Since I haven’t updated in what seems to be forever, now would be a good time. I have a Twitter account.

http://www.twitter.com/mortvia

I’m keeping the updates locked, but as long as I have an idea of who you are I’ll add you. Tweets are now open. Basically I’m using it to keep abreast in the IA field. I wasn’t aware that so many were using it this way until I was encouraged to join (I always thought Twitter was strictly for shooting the breeze with other people. Isn’t blogging sufficient?!)

Hopefully I won’t run out of ammunition just yet. I’m really looking forward to the Bill Buxton lecture at Princeton. Glad to have an excuse to hang out on Nassau Street! I haven’t been to Micawber Books since it became Labyrinth, and I may very well pick up a volume or two when I’m there.  And there will be plenty of people to be met (this is one of the very rare instances where I’m willing to set aside my anthropophobia.) But I’m in dire need of advice and guidance as to how to break into IA/IxD/whatever they want to call it now since there’s been so much  over it on the mailing lists as of late. I’m learning the programs commonly used in the field and of course have set up this website to practice on, but I know I need to do more. 

Of course, the current economic fallout leaves no room for novices – every job posting has been for senior level positions that require years of experience. While some have encouraged me to send my resume to them, it’s gotten to the point where I don’t even expect to hear from them again (the “throw crap on the wall and see what sticks” approach.) Applying for a job is no different than buying a lottery ticket these days. Admittedly I am in a more fortunate position than many in that I am merely underemployed at the moment, but it’s barely enough to keep me out of the red. I can’t even rejoice over the tax refund I’ll be getting shortly since it’s just going to go up in smoke as soon as it’s deposited. Damn you money and your necessary evilness!