Inspiration can – and should – come from sources outside of UX. Recently, some movies have caught my eye in this regard, and I’m writing a mini-review of one of them.

Not only is this just a good movie, period, but it gives good insight into how Chanel became the brilliant designer that she was (having Audrey Tatou as the lead role certainly helped in this regard!) Here are some things that came to mind that may be of help to beginning UX designers:

Be observant in everyday life: Chanel observed people intensely. She noted details in clothing such as color and shape. These would eventually become part of her own designs.

Aim for simplicity: you can see from her clothing in the early days how Chanel embraced androgyny when women were still squeezing themselves into corsets. Later, she made suits that move with the body, not the opposite.

Get a mentor: you don’t have to be a courtesan, but it will definitely help to have a mentor who can help you improve your designs and build up your skills, and can introduce you to people who may be able to find you a job or a freelance project.

There’s nothing wrong with self-education: Many who are in the UX field now didn’t get degrees specifically in IA, IxD, etc., as these programs are just emerging. If going back to school isn’t financially feasible for you, read up on UX through blogs, discussion forums, and recommended books (many of which are available in libraries.)

Coco Before Chanel is the perfect movie break from your latest UX project. Seeing her at work on her designs – cutting the fabric, laying it out on the dressforms, her meticulous handsewing – is truly inspiring. There are times when she’s in that state of effortless flow we all long for. And there are times when she’s frustrated and blocked, but she still keeps at it. It’s become all too easy for us beginners to be frustrated and discouraged by the current job market, which leads to an inertia of sorts (I too am guilty of this, seeing the time gap between this post and my last one.) But we all just need to keep at it.

The seventh session of Whit Hour this past Sunday was the absolute best so far (I’ll post a link as soon as she uploads the text and video.) It was inspiring and gave me much hope. As an introverted and shy person, it’s hard integrating into something new. I’ve been in libraries all my working years, but it’s no longer something I feel passion and enthusiasm for. When I discovered IA and in turn UX, I was unaware that there were people responsible for making websites – among other things – easy to use. I’ve certainly had my share of bad user experiences, so what’s not to love about an entire field dedicated to weeding these out?

In my efforts of taking very, very scary first steps, you may notice that this site can now be Googled. Whitney makes a good point that there’s no point in keeping things under wraps if you want to be a part of the UX community. Hence I have also made my tweets public.

For fellow introverts and shy people, check out Whitney’s slideshow. Listen to the audio for extra tips and ideas.

A tad late with this entry, but I have to say how much I enjoyed Bill Buxton’s lecture. It left me with much food for thought. Among other things, I learned:

Products encompass individual, social and cultural experiences. A design falls flat if it doesn’t.

Humans tend to act like lemmings; hence multiple similar products.

Don’t be a one-dimensional designer – collect things and be observant.

All this from a guy who spent ten years looking for a Casio watch with a calculator. Ten years. I really can’t complain that I’m still looking for my holy grail doll for nearly two years.

In addition to the awesome talk, I got to chat with some wonderful ladies who are also on the learning path towards understanding usability better. Because of this I am once again eyeing the bandwagon known as LinkedIn that I’ve been avoiding all this time. But wouldn’t joining make me one of the lemmings Buxton was talking about?

In completely unrelated news, I’ve switched the colors of the background and text. Hopefully this will make the site more readable for the majority.