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One piece of resume advice I'd give people is to have decent-looking Word and ASCII versions of your resume handy. A lot of bigger companies require one or the other for their HR systems. If anyone has questions specific to UI design I can probably answer them.
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Dec 19, 2007 23:15
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 17:29 |
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pikacheney posted:My design career recently took a turn towards UI design, which is something completely new to me. I realize this is a broad question, but what are some good resources for learning the basics? I've read "Don't Make Me Think" and enjoyed it but felt a lot of it was already obvious to me from my regular web design experience. UI design is weird because there's 2 main ways into it: HCI or organically. In my experience you'll find that academic HCI people have a lot of knowledge and usually an easier time getting work but have difficulty adapting to the realities of product development. The resources for learning are pretty spread out. There's the aforementioned HCI education. There's classes from places like Cooper. There's a million books on the subject. What I think is important is figuring out what works for you. I, for example, hate personas. I've had to use them and I can but I'd rather not. A lot of people love them though and they work for them. I personally have learned the most about UI design by being a conscious user of software and websites. I bookmark or write down things that I see that I think are good so that I can refer to them later. When I'm using a new site or application I do a few 30-second "squint tests" and "what would I fix here?" thought exercises. Sometimes I just play with their widgts and try to break them. The good thing about UI design is that we use interfaces all day. You can learn just as much from a bad interface as a good one, sometimes more. In my opinion a lot of the design challenges either boil down to common sense and/or brute force and the biggest challenges are convincing people that your design is the right way to go and then communicating it clearly to the people who are going to build it so that it works right. Learning to document well is critical. BayCHI is probably the most popular industry group but the IxDA has a chapter here too. Professional associations aren't really my thing though, for some reason every event/F2F I've been to has sucked. If you're trying to get started it might be useful to check that stuff out though. qirex fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Jan 3, 2008 |
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Jan 3, 2008 19:45
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One fun thought exercise to do while designing your portfolio [not directed at anyone in particular]: Imagine a design manager who's going over a bunch of emails during his lunch break. There were 120 new responses to their craigslist ad in the last 24 hours and they need to find someone ASAP. Cover letters are skimmed for school or company names, resumes are skipped and the URL is clicked. The design manager had budgeted exactly 10 seconds of "figure it out time" and if they can't find portfolio pieces the tab is closed, the email deleted, another bite of salad is taken and the next email is skimmed. There is a time and place for subtlety and cleverness in design. Portfolio design is typically not it. You should design such that someone could conceivably look at your best work and skim your resume in 30 seconds or less. Maybe a minute if your work is really that good. Every second someone has to spend figuring out your navigation, hunting for a link to your resume or resizing their browser window back to its original size is a second you're not getting your message across.
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Jan 9, 2008 01:19
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CoffeeIsForClosers posted:Any current or former students of the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco here? I'm thinking of enrolling in the fall and focusing on illustration, if anyone has any experiences or insights they would be much appreciated. Just the usual for-profit, rejects nobody art school warning, make sure you're getting your money's worth when state colleges offer similar programs for a fraction of the price.
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Feb 20, 2008 04:36
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One thing to think about when you're considering schools is that no matter how good your training is it's just a few months for one class. If you're going to be a designer or photographer for 20 years your college education is a tiny part of your "training". I've been doing design for half my life and I'm still learning all the time. I'm 100% self-taught. I definitely think that not having an art/design degree was a bit of a hindrance earlier in my career but nobody's asked me much about college in an interview in like 5 years. If the school is going to inspire the hell out of you and help you kick a lot of rear end that's awesome and an expensive private school might be an OK idea. Just remember that you can get a BFA from a state school and then spend 2 years interning and honing your skills for the same price. I've seen a lot of uninspired, lazy portfolios from schools like AI or Academy of Art.
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Mar 5, 2008 02:15
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I use 2 cheapo Itoya portfolios, one tabloid and one letter size. For web stuff I feel it's as or more important to show in-process pieces, design documentation and the like for each project than it is to show the final "money shots". If you're doing mailers or anything that folds it's nice to have loose ones you can hand people. I've heard a lot of discussion around physical portfolios and the general consensus is to not get too fancy. Nobody's going to complain if you have individually mounted and centered pieces but nobody's going to give you a job because you have one of those $400 ones made out of old road signs. Not that those aren't totally bitchin'.
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May 7, 2008 07:31
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TheKingPuuChuu posted:Ok, I have an issue, and I would the advice of my fellow peers. There is definitely a gap between academic design and what happens in the real world but crap is crap. Focus on improving so you can get a better job in the future.
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May 17, 2008 04:16
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If you do photos on contract that is probably work for hire. My limited photo-specific understanding is that the company that pays use has exclusive rights to use of the images regardless of format. I don't think there's anything preventing you from keeping copies for personal use as long as it's strictly that. You should ask specifically about using them in your portfolio but most places are OK with that in my experience barring NDAs [I have to scrub a lot of the work I do].
qirex fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Aug 28, 2008 |
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Aug 26, 2008 20:26
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I Are Internet posted:Question is, how do I get around this? I feel some of my best work is done within the company that I'm with since I don't have much extra time to do freelance. Same, your portfolio is stocked with tons of awesome stuff and a few of my designer friends in NYC have their work for Visa, Nike, Coca Cola, etc. in theirs. Designers gotta eat too.
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Sep 5, 2008 07:00
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I only bring a printed portfolio because if something can go wrong with your laptop during a job interview, it will.
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Sep 25, 2008 22:35
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Diamond Back posted:So what are some good schools for graphic design? Preferably ones that focus on the tech aspect of it?
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Nov 17, 2008 20:32
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Maybe he's asking you for a contract?
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Nov 19, 2008 04:02
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Don't worry about knowing programs, at that stage of your career the best things you can be are organized, motivated, reliable and able to talk about design. A lot of people are hesitant to hire newbies because they have a tendency to burn out or be flakes in their first real job. A lot of places do contract to hire now so make sure you're registered at the agencies like Filter and Visuals [there's more but I forgot them]. Those temp jobs can pile up into a decent living and amount of experience. Also don't just respond to postings, post your resume. Make it keyword-friendly so it'll hit a lot of searches. KittenofDoom: Your portfolio is an illustration/photo portfolio, not a design one. Kne.Li.: she thinks you'd be frustrated with the limited scope of the position and she's probably right. But you could still convince her to take you on if you want but what all hiring managers want to avoid is bringing someone in and then having to do it again a short time later.
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Nov 22, 2008 00:34
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The "this portfolio" page is a little too meta for me. Also the inside margin beneath the page numbers is uneven between pages and is kind of distracting.
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Dec 2, 2008 01:09
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It's really important that you have everything on your portfolio. I get a lot of hits to my website from google searches of people looking for resumes. I wouldn't worry about it sending the wrong message because most designers have online portfolios whether or not they're working.KittenofDoom posted:I'm not sure why, but sometimes when I load your page the first tab for "Ehouse" doesn't pop open all the way. It fixes itself when I click back from another tab, but it shows up weird the first time.
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Jan 8, 2009 06:09
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KittenofDoom posted:Aside from being able to list my address in the Bay Area on my applications, would I gain any kind of additional knowledge or benefits from living there?
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Jan 20, 2009 18:51
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Hey nothing wrong with a psych BA. I've done all right with one. Whether or not you end up going back to school there's a LOT you can teach yourself at home. I just got a recruiter hit for a full-time UI/web design position at a startup in San Mateo, CA that's intended for a junior designer, with say 1-2 years of experience. If anyone is qualified and interested please let me know by PM or email me qirexlol at mac dot com. If you've never done any design before please don't bother.
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Jan 23, 2009 08:58
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Zurich posted:Can someone take a look at my CV? I just redesigned it (again), still not entirely happy with the copywriting at least (but I'd prefer it to be human than formal) Kind of gimmicky to me, some blurbs about what you did for all of these clients are probably a lot more interesting to employers than your education or a lot of whitespace. Layout-wise your horizontal and vertical spacing are pretty disjointed. Kill the yellow text. It's unreadable on screen and will probably print out green. I'm confused by the fact that you're going to get an honors BA in 2011?
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Mar 13, 2009 21:37
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KittenofDoom posted:They're a staffing agency. It doesn't necessarily mean they're not worth applying with, though. Also see if you can find your resume using a google search for relevant terms and your city. I still get a fair number of hits to my resume from Google.
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May 7, 2009 17:50
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Prylex3 posted:Right now my online portfolio is built so it can easily be viewed on a 13" Macbook. Do you guys think this is a waste? Internships are far and few so I am trying to cater to everyone. But at the same time I do not want everything to be so small on a larger monitor. a 13" Macbook is 1370 wide which is pretty big to begin with. If you're really concerned make the layout stretch but I wouldn't bother since text can be really awkward to read when it gets really wide. I'd imagine a really good design company would probably look at your layout at several sizes to see what happens. Hell, they might even look at it on a phone.
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Jun 29, 2009 20:50
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Being a non-profit does not change your rights to use other people's images. There's probably licenses that specify that it's OK for not-for-profit use but that's it and commercial images are still commercial images.
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Jul 1, 2009 18:12
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I've been getting a lot of recruiter hits for UI deisgners in the SF Bay Area lately, most of them are for senior positions but it might be worth it to get your resume into the hands of some of these recruiters. PM or email me if you're interested.
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Jul 15, 2009 21:49
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Some general things I like to see in portfolios: Some explanation. Talk about the problem/brief and how you addressed and solved the challenges involved. Maybe mention the scope of the audience. Show the process. Show early/developmental versions of things to illustrate the process of getting to the end goal. Show context. For branding add pictures of ads/business cards/signage/t-shirts if you can. For web design try to show different kinds of pages that show off the system you developed.
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Jul 20, 2009 18:01
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Hackuma posted:Is it true that it is considered rude/unacceptable to ask how much you will get paid for a job during an interview? Someone told me this was the case, but it sounds ridiculous. The best advice I could give is to do some research and find out what people in the kinds of positions you're looking at are actually getting paid. Also make sure you're happy with your base salary as bonus plans, raises, equity, profit sharing, etc. are nice but they can always change or go away.
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Jul 28, 2009 19:08
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KittenofDoom posted:How do I a) put myself in a better position to succeed in this job interview and b) ensure I don't get sucked into something unpleasant? b) Ask questions about the company, how they work, what their development and release schedule is like, who all the people involved in the production process are, etc. If they're a startup it's OK to ask about their funding situation and revenue model. Be honest about what you want out of the position besides money.
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Jul 30, 2009 05:08
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gently caress agencies, stay inside if you can. I think at this point "agency experience" is code for "doesn't balk at working 12 hours a day with no overtime". I've worked at agencies and inside of companies and there's no topical knowledge differences and any kind of process stuff you could pick up in a week so that leaves stupid hours, substance abuse and backstabbing co-workers as the primary differentiators.
qirex fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Aug 10, 2009 |
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Aug 7, 2009 21:45
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Zurich posted:Money is cool but when she asks me to take images from Google or directly from competitors I don’t know what to say. It's easy to say "refuse to do it" but we all gotta eat.
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Sep 14, 2009 17:42
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All creative fields are incredibly competitive. The good news is that most of the people you're competing against aren't very good and if you work really hard at improving your work and work habits you'll have a leg up. Nobody gets paid to just relax and screw around with fun software all day though. Learning graphic design will help your animation work and learning more about animation will help your design work. At some point you're going to have to figure out what you like best and pursue it specifically but you're still young so don't sweat it too much just yet.
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Sep 29, 2009 18:52
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stoneb posted:I do not want to teach, but I do want to be the absolute best I can at what I do, which I think grad school will be a huge part of. The graphic design program at my school is honestly pretty weak and I'm hoping to fill in the gaps with an MFA. magnificent7 posted:Oh look! Somebody's not made it to management yet.
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Oct 23, 2009 22:11
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KittenofDoom posted:Does anyone have any experience with Academy of Art University in San Francisco? I was planning on taking a few courses to improve my sorry design skills, build up my portfolio, and make a few Bay Area contacts. I'm more interested in expanding my practical knowledge than getting another design degree.
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Nov 9, 2009 01:29
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cheese eats mouse posted:What's the best way to keep in touch with an interviewer? LinkedIn?
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Nov 16, 2009 23:36
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ceebee posted:my first term was taught by people who are still in the industry. qirex fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Dec 7, 2009 |
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Dec 7, 2009 20:00
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Job fairs are totally useless for designers. Get your portfolio online and use the power of the internet.
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Jan 26, 2010 23:38
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Put your resume in HTML on your site as well.
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Jan 27, 2010 23:18
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RiceTaco posted:Only positive thing I can think of is that their office is pretty cool. So... are all design agencies are like this? If it is... god drat, I'm switching careers or sticking in-house.
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Feb 4, 2010 23:42
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Saw this on Core77
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Apr 1, 2010 07:12
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Replace the Comic Sans with Akzidenz Grotesk and you're on the way to fame and fortune.
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Apr 16, 2010 06:54
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Onox posted:Any opinions on this school? Seriously though, you can learn a lot there if you work hard but if it will ultimately be worth the money is hard to say. Maybe do some math here. I can say that the city is full of AAU grads trying to figure out how they're going to make that $800 monthly loan payment.
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May 24, 2010 16:15
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Onox posted:I don't think a lot of students are wanting to do quite what I am.
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May 24, 2010 23:32
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 17:29 |
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Hey dude, I'd forgotten your forums username but it's good to hear you're still in the game. One thing to keep in mind is that most of the people working and making hiring decisions in the kinds of jobs you want don't have an educational background in this stuff. There's still a few industries [notably advertising] where you should have gone to art school but most of this stuff didn't exist 10-15 years ago. I know 3 people who do effects work on feature films. One is a physics dropout, one has a traditional animation degree and one went to UCLA film school. I'm not trying to talk anybody out of anything but any instruction would just be a step and not an end result. When hiring managers look at portfolios or demo reels what they're looking for is a level beyond what you can get in a classroom that shows serious personal initiative and passion for the craft. If you think classroom instruction will help you get that faster then go for it, just don't think that passing a class or program is the end result. It just will equip you better to do it yourself. edit: Also don't think that it will improve your starting wages at all, that's the big dilemma. It's way easier to work for peanuts for a couple years if you don't have a giant loan payment hanging over you. qirex fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Jun 2, 2010 |
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May 28, 2010 18:19
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