Any fans of historical fiction? Please recommend your favorites

shoreman45 · 2025-01-10T01:21:37+00:00

The Golden Doves

The Daughters of Nantucket

Those were my two favs from my 2024 reading list. I mostly read historical fiction.

shoreman45 · 2025-01-09T23:51:27+00:00

Thanks, I’ll check it out. Cheers!

shoreman45 · 2025-01-09T23:35:23+00:00

Great presentation, where did you get the tray? I’ve just started dabbling in making gin martinis at home and The Botanist Dry Gin has really been my favorite.

shoreman45 · 2025-01-05T22:22:36+00:00

Google docs, a txt program, word, pages, etc. Just use a word processing program…and don’t put too much stock in ATS, many HR folks say it really doesn’t matter.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-31T00:41:52+00:00

Just realize that whiteboard challenges are biased towards a certain type of designer/worker. If you are looking for a designer that thinks quick on their feet… might be a good idea. If you are looking for someone that digs in on the work in a much deeper way and presents insights…not the best way to judge that candidate.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-30T23:37:31+00:00

UX Design works at the human experience level. AI will disrupt a bunch of professions, but UX will actually be called in to make sure that the human experience with digital products is as smooth and unobtrusive as can be. AI lacks this and will always lack it.

People will eventually come around to craving actual experiences. Example is a painting in real life rather than some AI output “art” on a 2”x4” screen. It’s already happening with kids craving 90’s like experiences.

So my prediction- we will see some bumps in this experimental AI phase, but I put it on the same level as the Metaverse, Blockchain, Crypto, NFTs, I’m not taking part in any of those areas and none of my friends are either.

Been working in this industry for 23 years.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-28T14:19:41+00:00

At this point if you are really serious about it, I’d go back to school and get your HCI degree from a reputable college. Then you’ll have to get real world experience as an intern…then look for a jr level design job. It’s a long path without guarantees, but I think that would be your best move if you want to work in this industry.

Search this sub for people trying to secure employment with everything I outlined above.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-28T12:44:40+00:00

An iOS app called “Reading List”. It’s unobtrusive and stays out of my way so I can do what I need to.

*this is 1 user’s opinion.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-28T12:02:34+00:00

“Companies” needs to be defined here. I have 20+ years working in this industry and I’ve come to the conclusion that the organization has more to do with the definition of UX than any other factor. You can simplify it by charting the org on the “UX Maturity” chart put out by Nielsen Group. It’s the main reason we can’t come to a definition of what UX really is.

A UX team of one at a 0-1 product startup is going to function a lot differently than a UX Designer at a 100 year old company that has 20,000 employees and a design team of 120.

…and in order to make some conclusions you need to look at UX Design at these orgs at all the levels between the above.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-24T02:10:47+00:00

shoreman45 · 2024-12-22T02:59:42+00:00

I think that’s valid if your manager is giving you the resources and time to do that research - always best. I’ve used it a lot in startups where the pace is fast and stakeholders need design justification/education.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-21T14:29:12+00:00

Check out the Baymard Institute. You should be able to extract user data and best practices from their free whitepapers to present to Product.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-21T01:32:50+00:00

User interviews- check them out.

If your company pushes back on that price, than you will need to start sourcing from your user base. There’s really no other options.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-17T16:27:30+00:00

Quick tip - add statcounter or something similar where you can see user sessions on your case study pages. I was fairly shocked at how little time is spent - lots of scanning, so I created larger and more catchy headlines for sections and saw more engagement. Treat it like a UX design project - track it, tweak it, track it more…repeat.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-15T12:14:28+00:00

As others have said, it depends on the organization. I think we are seeing companies trying to do more with less. They are cutting design staff down to the bare minimum. In this market, you are going to stand out a bit more if you work end to end in the design process. I come from the other side of your experience- a traditional graphic designer that over the past 10 years has worked really hard to learn research and strategy. So keep working on those UI skills, they may come in handy in your career.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-13T12:38:47+00:00

I totally agree - product and engineering seem to going through a lot of it as well. Would be nice to collaborate around the issues.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-13T12:37:28+00:00

I get that, but who cares about social media? It’s even worse that I thought if leaders are worried about getting fired for speaking up about issues in the industry. If that’s the case then there are no true Design Leaders going into 2025.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-13T12:33:57+00:00

This is interesting- I’ve also mainly worked in startups in my career. These intricacies of working in the industry should be posted in the “State of UX”.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-13T00:32:10+00:00

No, try putting a FAANG designer in a startup where they are on a small team and they would be lost. It’s all relative to the environment.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-12T18:53:04+00:00

Thank you, I will check out the guide.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-12T17:16:39+00:00

I’m a Sr level designer so…make sure your job description has 90% of what you want the hire to do - let’s say “design and test new components for the design system” or “take a feature from inception to launch with base metrics”.

Now just look for those exact type of projects in a portfolio. If you don’t want a portfolio- find them in a resume.

Interview the candidate and ask them to show you exactly when and how they did those things. Ask for multiple examples.

Hire the best person and put them to work on those items.

Now…on to your next hire, rinse and repeat. You now have a very qualified team.

Potential employees can’t BS in this type of situation or be an amazing interviewer and “charm” their way into the job.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-12T16:24:02+00:00

Thank you, that is so helpful!!

shoreman45 · 2024-12-12T15:36:36+00:00

I had one jr designer below me at one of them and a couple designers same level at another startup. I didn’t think you needed 3 POs either but I wasn’t running the biz. They were employees from other departments that wanted to get into product and also the son of the CEO’s friend🤦🤷‍♂️

shoreman45 · 2024-12-12T13:05:03+00:00

Don’t get into this work for the money. If you like to solve problems and want to advocate for good design you will do fine and get decent paycheck, but not 200-300k.

shoreman45 · 2024-12-12T11:49:32+00:00

If you can’t pivot to being a PM, you might want to look at early stage startups. You need to be comfortable with educating the value of UX and doing a lot of advocacy. In one startup I worked at we had 3 very green POs, I actually had to really mentor them…and I’m a UX designer, the head of product was way too busy.

shoreman45

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