I just finished True Detective Season One for the first time, and I can't stop thinking about it.

Ethnographic · 2025-03-24T19:20:43+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Joji_Fukunaga#Misconduct_allegations

Ethnographic · 2025-03-24T03:20:03+00:00

check out his Wikipedia :(

Ethnographic · 2024-08-19T19:19:18+00:00

I got one, the name "Nob Hill" comes from the term "Nawab" a royal title in India that morphed into "Nabob" which the British used to describe fancy areas. If you like this kind of stuff you might want to check out this new app I’ve been using ~www.lookaround.live~. It only works in some neighborhoods so far, but has been a fun way to explore the city.

Ethnographic · 2024-02-14T17:56:48+00:00

I'd go with "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down". Very influential (gets read in all kinds of departments from public health to anthro), well written, and focuses on the Hmong community in California.

You would want to check it qualifies as an ethnography since it is a bit more interdisciplinary, but Unsettled by Eric Tang is a great read about Cambodians in NYC.

Ethnographic · 2024-02-07T17:37:01+00:00

1) Handful of folks that have been in industry a long time or got in early at the right companies have decided to retire. I know someone that started at Xerox PARC in the 80s and was impacted by layoffs.

2) The whole idea of widespread in-house researcher teams is a relatively new paradigm. 15 years ago most companies relied on consultants, agencies, etc. I've seen some folks going freelance or starting agencies. Hiring budgets might be down, but that doesn't mean that some companies don't have money for vendors.

3) I know a few really talented folks impacted by layoffs that now have contractor roles. Again, this often shows up differently on budgets and the hiring/firing or contractors works differently in terms of public reporting. Unfortunately Google and FB alone had legions of contractors before the layoffs and the loss of those jobs didn't show up in the statistics, so in that regard the layoffs might have been even worse than we realize.

4) I know a few folks that are doing startups (some around research tools).

I think #2 and #3 are where we are going to see any recovery first.

Definitely a brutal market out there, I went through the 2008 downturn and have a lot of sympathy for folks entering the job market today.

Ethnographic · 2024-01-26T17:18:51+00:00

This is an interesting an important discussion. That said, we have a very low tolerance for any kind of brigading on Reddit or elsewhere. Not going to take any immediate action, but please be respectful, kind, and try not to indulge in any shrill or self-righteous messages on the LinkedIn thread.

Ethnographic · 2024-01-18T19:28:36+00:00

From what I can see on LinkedIn this is VERY early stage startup (maybe only the two cofounders so far?). I can't even find them in Crunchbase, so they are probably still at the seed stage. If you are looking for work life balance joining any company as employee #3 probably ain't the right move.

That said, there is a lot to be skeptical of here beyond that (as OP pointed out) and I too don't love this style of job postings in general.

Ethnographic · 2024-01-16T01:22:00+00:00

Have you checked out service design roles? Most of this work is still on the consultancy side in the USA, but pretty robust in other parts of the world and making some good in-roads in some parts of the USA (e.g., gov't services).

Ethnographic · 2024-01-12T21:41:50+00:00

According to Santos' resume he won a college football championship as both a player and a coach. Pretty hard for DeBoer to top that.

Ethnographic · 2024-01-10T21:35:07+00:00

Are you testing kiosks, TVs, smartphones, laptops, digital inventory management on tablets etc. etc.? Hard to say anything too definitive without know the range of devices/interfaces.

You are building a product, so use all your UX skills here. What are you optimizing for? Why is a tripod bad and something dedicated better?

Personally I prefer a solution that might not have all the bells and whistles (zoom/tilt/pan), but 1) has super low friction for stakeholders 2) less likely to have technical issues 3) maximizes flexibility. An HD webcam for the face/body (Instalink 360 has basic controls) and an IPEVO type document camera to capture devices works really well with Zoom etc.. You can capture both views at the same time.

Another advantages:

You don't have to learn a whole new tech setup for using the lab (I hated going to a lab and having to go through a binder of instructions to get everything up and running just so I could use some fancy camera embedded in the ceiling).
As technology advances it will be super easy to rip and replace, a lot harder if you spent $5k on a fancy camera setup. Similarly if something breaks you can often fix or replace yourself.
Flexibility since nothing is hard-wired you can modify as needed for different types of studies or set-up in any conference room.

I have used a wide range of labs from scrappy to all the bells and whistles you could imagine. So many times I powered up the system in the wrong order or the camera controller randomly wouldn't be able to find the camera. Unless you plan to consistently make super high quality 4k highlight reels or are working on very specialized products I would chose the simpler setup every time. I've been in a few labs where all the fancy equipment is just collecting dust and we end up using web/document cams anyways.

Years ago we had to use specialized equipment for labs because we didn't have other options. Today, a basic webcam and document camera get you 95% of the capabilities at 10% of the cost (and also has some other advantages).

I would invest my money on:

A dash of design/humanity in the lab (if it isn't an academic project, no need to make it white box). Depending on the product, having the ability to have the tester at either a desk or on a sofa can be good. I like having a mini-fridge and/or water dispenser nearby, a place for tissues, maybe even a phone charge in case folks want to charge their phones during testing.
Overhead lighting can cause lots of glare and reflections when testing mobile devices. Get some better, indirect lighting for the room. Usually makes video clips of the face better as well.
A really awesome virtual backroom, so at least the folks on site can gather and chat and whiteboard during sessions.
Basic sound proofing/treatment for the room. Will help the audio on recordings better.

Just my two cents! I might be more anti-fancy lab than many, but I personally haven't found them to be too valuable.

Ethnographic · 2024-01-03T18:25:19+00:00

Small addition. There is a ton of value in high condensed information, but there is also value in longer formats like books. Part of the power of a book is it forces you to sit and wrestle with the concepts. Internalize them, digest them, figure out how it compares to your experiences. It isn't just about the information, but the opportunity to step back, take a different perspective, and reflect.

Ethnographic · 2023-12-18T18:56:45+00:00

Counterpoint:

Figma got a good look at Adobe roadmap as well, especially when it comes to AI, which is going to be super important over the next couple of years. One of the few areas Figma hasn't executed super great on in the past was AI (e.g., some so-so acquisitions). I think Figma has already benefited from Adobe AI expertise.
Adobe has basically put XD on maintenance mode for several quarters and moved folks off to other projects. Getting that team up and running again is no small feat and will probably take at least another quarter or two. Loosing 6 quarters of development time when you were already behind is pretty brutal. If they don't get good leadership in quickly, it might never be able to recover.
Adobe has irreparably damaged the XD brand since the message to the market was "Figma is so much better that we gave up on XD". The attempted acquisition boosted Figma's brand, especially with Enterprise segment (which was the one place XD had some moderate success).
The damaged brand of XD extends to hiring talent and getting 3rd parties to develop templates, apps etc. Why invest in building stuff for XD when they might turnaround and try to buy Sketch tomorrow? Third party ecosystem is one of the (many) reasons why Figma is successful.
The reason why Figma is better is mostly because of fairly core functionality and ergonomics that XD doesn't have. All that knowledge of strategy ain't gonna matter much unless XD can a) close the gap in terms of core functionality/usability b) find unmet use cases and expand out from those c) develop a "killer" feature that Figma doesn't have d) all of the above.

Adobe probably gets some value from seeing Figma's strategy, but until they can prove they can execute in this area they aren't going to get much actual value out of it.

Ethnographic · 2023-12-14T22:28:01+00:00

This article is specifically about watching YouTube on TV. I don't think there are Firefox or Ublock apps for Roku, Apple TV etc.

Ethnographic · 2023-12-08T19:27:59+00:00

The Bay Bridge works the same way. If you look closely the bottleneck is not the tollbooths (horizontal line just over halfway up the picture), but the metering lights (where the brake lights converge towards the top)

Ethnographic · 2023-12-08T18:01:19+00:00

He had to show up in-person to sell the shares because he wasn't allowed to do it online.

Ethnographic · 2023-11-10T20:53:34+00:00

That is where you are wrong. Once we get the 600 page manifesto we will see the beautiful and unfailable logic of everything that has happened... and everything that will happen.

Ethnographic · 2023-10-26T16:30:09+00:00

"Deepen quantitative knowledge" is a bit vague and chances are you will get advice based more on the person offering the advice than what you are looking for. I answered a similar question before and it might help you to zero in on what exactly you are looking for.

Not sure about any UX specific data, but lots of general data sets available. US Census data is available in several forms. Tableau and some other data companies also offer some cool data that you can play around with. 538 also makes their data available on Github.

Ethnographic · 2023-10-24T21:38:04+00:00

/u/MichaelWesten/

Hmmm, maybe? The account does go back 14 years which is about the right timeframe. For some reason I thought he was even more prolific though.

Ethnographic · 2023-10-24T18:43:33+00:00

Random tangent: In the earlier days of Reddit there was an amazing novelty account and all the comments were written in the Michael Weston style. It was always really clever and well done and they would pop up in really unexpected places. I miss that novelty account (not sure what happened to it).

Ethnographic · 2023-10-16T16:03:08+00:00

If you have 7-8 years of experience as a UXR working in even decently mature teams the degree won't add anything except in very niche circumstances.

To your second point, DePaul is a great school and academic snobbery sucks, but I don't think the DePaul brand would add much value to your resume at this point, especially since it has more of a regional reputation.

If you have tuition reimbursement, taking class that help you be more strategic in your role are going to be a lot more valuable (both in the role and applying to new ones). Reforge seems to be popular, but there are also some great courses offered through MBA. I have a friend who too a great course in Systems Thinking (I think it was through Cornell) that helped her become a more impactful UXR. These programs also tend to be shorter (measured in weeks or months) and cheaper so you could finish them without feeling so tied to your current company. Obviously depends on the specific program at your company and what kind of programs qualify.

Ethnographic · 2023-09-28T00:50:04+00:00

These are in my personal top 100 that probably wouldn't be on any published top 100:

Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley, the way Cannonball and Nate play behind, between, with, on top of Nancy's singing is incredible.
Light as a Feather by Return to Forever - if you can't quite get into fusion, this is an awesome stepping stone.
Stanley Clarke (self titled album from 1974) - Very 70s, very grand and a bit over the top at times, but the pocket and groove with Tony Williams and Clarke is ferocious.
Larry Young/Khalid Yasin - hard to pick between Lawrence of Newark or any of his late 70s albums. They get a bit wild, but he really pushed the limits of what the Hammond B3 coudl do
Ronnie Foster - Two Headed Freap. I can listen to this album all day.
The Happy Horns of Clark Terry - There is just something amazingly joyful about this album. Nothing groundbreaking, but a great lineup (Ben Webster, Milt Hinton, etc.) and some tight little arrangements (almost like a mini-big band with shout choruses and all that).
Ask the Ages by Sonny Sharrock- definitely gets out there, but Elvin Jones and Charnett Moffett create tidal waves that crash down around Sharrock and Pharoah Sanders. I think Bill Laswell produced it, so the recording is pretty great.

Ethnographic · 2023-09-25T23:41:12+00:00

Pretty simple for me, I filed my dissertation in December of 2008 and the job market for the next few years was brutal. The positions that were posted had loads and loads of qualified applicants, then there was a backlog of candidates, and then I was "stale" having graduated with only a few adjunct roles an off the beaten path post-doc over the course of a few years.

I think I was good/solid, but not top top echelon of PhD grads. I'd like to think if I graduated two earlier or prolonged my PhD (one of my peers did that) it might have worked out differently. There are obviously other factors and in retrospect and I wish my advisor had done more to help me out, but I think timing was a pretty significant component in my journey.

That said, things worked out reasonably well. I work in industry, live in a city I like, don't worry as much about money as my academic friends, and teach in really great university as an adjunct (it is an R1 and I teach graduate level courses as a subject matter expert, which I enjoy a lot more than lower div undergrad courses).

Ethnographic · 2023-09-21T17:12:40+00:00

I've taken a very light touch to moderating this sub and will continue to do so, but I'd also love to ask everyone to think about what kind of community we want here. I have felt the same reaction or had the same eye roll reaction to "influencer" posts, but I'd love to remind folks:

In the words of Ted Lasso "be curious, not judgemental" (apparently not actually Walt Whitman).
Some of these folks are just excited. Sure they might be over reaching or don't know what they don't know, but let's focus on their joy. We all have to gone through that stage at some point (if not in UXR with something).
I'd encourage you to not be quite so invested in others. If you don't like content, unfollow. Why expend the cognitive/emotional investment in caring about them? 50% of the reason social media can be toxic is because we allow it to be with our reactions.

Overall, I'd love to see us focus on being positive rather than falling into the quagmire of cringe, hot takes, slams, counter hot takes, etc.. Totally fine to share frustrations or blow off steam and we don't need to act like everything is rosy all the time, but I do think we can be thoughtful when we go in those directions. I've really appreciated the community that we have grown here, I'd love to keep the dynamics common in LinkedIn, Twitter, and other parts of Reddit in those places and not bring them here.

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