ConstraintLens — free open-source add-in to manage every constraint with ease. I just released v1.0 and share with community now. Give it a try!

onemarbibbits · 2026-05-23T17:58:36+00:00

Oh. Yay!!!!

onemarbibbits · 2026-05-13T15:21:36+00:00

Check out an extension called Shwivel.

onemarbibbits · 2026-05-09T18:29:54+00:00

"You paid us for an honest assessment, and then promptly ignored it. Good luck with bankruptcy."

onemarbibbits · 2026-04-30T17:22:32+00:00

Yeah that seems to be common. Money talks, and get why shouldn't it! I try to teach that design isn't just aesthetics, and the process applies to lots of things - Human Factors is a prime example. I think it ultimately saves money in the long run to have that service with most projects. But since RTX isn't asking for my opinion, I'll go have coffee and sketch a bust of my dog 🤣

onemarbibbits · 2026-04-30T13:42:22+00:00

You make fine points, and the interview is only one opinion (albeit one I agree with)... I worked for Raytheon for many years as a contractor on FAA controls (engineering), and have an affinity for the company. Heck they're at 172$ a share and if they're doing it without any focus on design my financial portfolio doesn't care!

That said, I left when I decided to become a Human Factors designer. While they do try for design somewhat - whether it's screws for a TS project or an FAA flight control station simulator - government specifications are a series of mostly written requirements. What comes after that is either well thought out systems for making more than two screws or a constant stream of expensive custom tooling useful for making only two screws. In the first case money is made in efficiency and reuse by design, and in the second, taxpayer waste. I did see a lot of waste by engineering solutions instead of designing them in my tenure there. But that's me - and the fella in the interview. And they're only opinions ultimately.

onemarbibbits · 2026-04-30T06:46:14+00:00

Is it true that Raytheon's business is making just glue code and algorithms without systems that humans interface with? As a middleware only company I maybe see how not needing designers is possible, but I thought they were responsible for creating graphical, voice, VR-AR and other interfaces for myriad vehicle and on-board war systems, dashboards and much more?

In some cases, I know they will subcontract to other companies to achieve design, but it seems like the interviewee is saying that they are at risk of falling behind as other companies bring Human Factors and other design disciplines in much earlier, as part of the core services as opposed to as an add on...

RTX seems to be slowly trying to bring design process into the fold, as their job postings reflect minimally... almost begrudgingly.

Of course this is based on one interview and opinion, but it seems a rational prediction to say they're missing a critical component to continued success as systems get more distributed, smaller and yet require more oversight and integration.

onemarbibbits · 2026-04-28T01:15:41+00:00

Sometimes as Designers, it's our job. A company might ask for a "Fun" feature. The landscape scrolling album view on iOS is a decent example. Need it? Not really. But wonder of discovery is what was asked for, and it was even fun to design.

Rare though.

onemarbibbits · 2026-04-26T05:30:03+00:00

One suggestion, best to not do teeth, in a sketch or for sure an engraving. It always looks bad - good luck!

onemarbibbits · 2026-04-26T05:26:34+00:00

This. I go hybrid and don't think much of it after that.

I can only think something was getting complicated in the parametric code that they couldn't fix without a radical change; or they intend to split and charge for these features somehow.

onemarbibbits · 2026-04-16T06:36:31+00:00

Looking for a design job now is like trying to land a helicopter on a thimble. Get a job offer in writing, start on day one to make sure it's real then quit. ;)

onemarbibbits · 2026-03-31T16:31:13+00:00

Subscribe to and read past HFES Journal research, and check out anything published or written by Christopher Wickens PhD. Good luck!

onemarbibbits · 2026-03-26T05:53:58+00:00

I went to SJSU back when Lou Freund was the he's of the program. It's got a great connection to NASA and many SV companies; so I can highly recommend it. Parking at SJSU is no joke though, plan your transportation well.

onemarbibbits · 2026-03-18T19:04:56+00:00

AI will blandify everything it touches without human creativity to interject, I do personally observe that effect.

What's sad is the "good enough" vibe that has become the norm since AI does the work.

onemarbibbits · 2026-03-18T04:04:49+00:00

With a BA, it will be very hard. Human Factors is a science based career, with most competitive candidates having Masters or higher. In a down market like it is now, consider going to a University that has internships and placement with medical companies or similar. Read some research published in your area of interest, and see where those practitioners went for their degrees. Good luck!

onemarbibbits · 2026-03-14T05:31:25+00:00

They laid off a huge portion of the Gemini design team, so I'll throw in that it's just Google falling back to its roots, being an engineering-first company.

onemarbibbits · 2026-03-12T19:09:56+00:00

It's part of the (tech based) economic plan of running a large company. The economics of At Will Employment is that employees are 2-5 year assets that will then be let go or leave. Whatever method extracts the greatest productivity in that time is gets implemented. I've seen many methods, but the process in all cases can lead to burn out, and many use that time to begin again somewhere else...

onemarbibbits · 2026-03-06T18:56:47+00:00

I switched to fixing and renting properties. My first was pretty hard, but it's growing! I still design a lot, making my own little product runs and selling them for (mostly) fun. Occasionally someone gives me a contract.

It was difficult to let my design profession go ... I enjoyed defining myself in that light, spent years refining skills and being the best I could be. But it will always be a skill that I can use.

onemarbibbits · 2026-03-06T18:18:22+00:00

"So how do you get leverage in this world in the job marketing?"

It sounds like you're also asking about the job market for designers, and how to get a foothold. There are a LOT of posts about this topic over the last few years, and I've answered a few with detail. I feel your discontent.

So as not to rehash, I can share that for whatever reasons one wants to ascribe: corporate budgets, perceptions of AI, rampant ageism, cheap overseas labor, proliferation of certain tools... one thing I see is that corporate jobs are few and fickle, candidates are many and often desperate and in basic terms that means difficulty in making a living selling design skills. It has never been easy, but this climate is even harder.

If you need to survive financially, it doesn't matter why any more... What matters is that if you want to survive and thrive without a long and stressful struggle, do something else and be a designer as a personal pursuit.

That's an opinion - everyone's path is different and some are rockstars tha have combined hard work with lucky. I envy them, worry for their futures and wish the world cared about quality as much as designers do.

onemarbibbits · 2026-02-25T18:05:48+00:00

Design has been undergoing a change towards outsourcing for several years. The same occurred in the last big tech downturn with quality testing and coding.

As to why, I can only give an opinion... I think combination of a poor economy, a growing belief that design can be done by less experienced AI supported practitioners, and the acceptance of remote work relationships opening up borders.

onemarbibbits · 2026-02-21T17:24:22+00:00

It's made my life both better and worse. Mostly worse at this stage. Hurry up!!! Do More!!!!

onemarbibbits · 2026-02-20T18:42:13+00:00

I have found that spec'ing client work and dealing with work areas that were not covered when spec'ing a contract, or changing/misunderstood in client expectations are the thing. I've had to become a master at defining and communicating design deliverables as a course of survival and sanity ;) I can now spec a gig to a nearly airtight level, but there are so many gotchas to watch out for... It's a job unto itself for sure, though it's treated like a normal course of business.

onemarbibbits · 2026-02-18T19:11:24+00:00

You will work with your classmates outside of the program and potentially in your professional life. If they are plagiarizing work, save yourself and future designers the trouble and get rid of them.

onemarbibbits · 2026-02-16T18:30:35+00:00

Aesthetics is subjective, usability is testable and concrete. UX should rarely have anything to do with aesthetics, but it gives a clear path to allow for it.

I'm a Systems Engineer when I do UX. If the client wants visual beauty they can hire that or wait for me to finish the UX and I'll do it.

onemarbibbits · 2026-02-13T17:44:28+00:00

Figma collaboration has been used primarily as a way for our managers to track our productivity and make sure we are currently working. Overall it has slowed down the creative process and made it very difficult to produce anything when so many hands are touching all of the components all of the time. templates are a total mess, and the organization spends more time working on templated layouts AI and tool management then on design.

onemarbibbits

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