The story of two Government Agency websites

Which state would you rather live in if you need vocational rehabilitation?


California or North Carolina?

California










How's the content? Irrelevant news, a discouraging application preamble, and no description of what the site is about.


Telling quote:

"DOR's vocational rehabilitation services program assists Californians with disabilities obtain and retain employment and maximize their ability to live independently in their communities."

North Carolina










How's the content? An encouraging mission & vision statement, help applying, a phone number(!) and address.

Telling quote:

"When you become a VR consumer, your rehabilitation plan will focus on your abilities and new possibilities. The goal is gainful employment!"

Thanks to Anastasia for this blog post idea :)

More old school UI

A mentor is not enough: a quick guide to finding guidance

Some people, especially those of us that are ahem, a little more early on in their careers, tend to whine about something kind of ridiculous: "I don't have a mentor!" or even more infuriating "No one ever helped me". Ugh.

I hardly know where to begin on this one...but here are some points on this:

1. Don't complain--take action
Keep in contact with people you enjoyed working with, who were engaged, smart, and produced great work. This should be a variety of people both at, above, and below your own level of experience. There is no career silver bullet that is going to make everything align perfectly. A mentor who's just like you only further along in his/her career is hard, but it's impossible if you never branch out, reach out, or go out. Don't let shame or guilt get in the way. If you ping people regularly just to say hi, when you finally do need a favor, they'll hook you up and you won't feel bad/weird about contacting them out of the blue because you need help.


2. Be ignored & be OK
Expect a variety of responses...such as unexpected great advice or total flakes. I'll give you some examples, both good and bad:

• I'm still in touch with one of my first bosses who lives in Illinois. I'll drop him a postcard or letter from time to time & ALWAYS get a response. As a former U of Illinois Omnibudsman & director he has tons of perspective on life, managing, and is still funny. I've never tapped him for a favor, but I have no doubt he would help out.
• At one job, the VP of my department agreed to meet with me once a month to mentor me. Sounds like a great opportunity right? He had very little in the way of advice and even less personality. I once pressed him explicitly for some kind of tip since he wasn't engaged at all. His advice? Something about money. Nothing about relationships. Hmph.
  
• One former coworker and friend dropped off the face of the planet after she left the company. Though I'd emailed her a few times, I never heard from her again.
  
• A friend of a friend talked with me for over an hour on the phone, offering tips, & advice on negotiating, running a business, & at the end even offered some work (I wasn't available but this was still wonderful & a lot).
  

The point is, you just don't know what people will do, so don't take it personally if someone doesn't respond. Give them the benefit of the doubt, try again after some time passes, & try someone else.

3. Read a book
Thirsty for help? People who write books are there for you, waiting patiently at your library & favorite bookstore.

4. Mental Alchemy
Sometimes you just won't have the advice you need from a direct source. In absence of real advice, consider your old favorite bosses. List of some of the things they did great & why you liked them. Do they all have something in common. Stitch together a set of themes you notice across great leadership. Those are the traits things you should develop.

5. Meet new people
Go to conferences, professional meetings and bring business cards. You might not meet the right person, but due to the law of six degrees, you'll meet someone who knows the right person.

6. Work with what you've got
Appreciate the talents within the people immediately around you. They don't need to have even climbed the corporate ladder, they might just be awesome at something. You definitely know people who are awesome at something. Gardening, Running, etc. Learn their habits and you'll have no shortage of quality role models.

Illegal, dangerous design: Not just a problem of Big Brother

Do you get an icky feeling when you see a red light camera? Holman Jenkins Jr.'s article on Shortening Yellow lights sheds light on how,

"red-light cameras (which are designed to be conspicuous to motorists) lead to an increase in rear-end collisions"

and that:

"...the solution is usually a longer yellow -- at least three seconds is the recommended minimum for a 25-mph intersection....Half a dozen Georgia towns just cancelled (sic.) their camera contracts after a state law mandating the addition of an extra second to the yellow made them unprofitable."

Pretty gross, no? The Federal government & many states provide laws specifying yellow light duration. Some cities have prioritized their own revenue over safety, the law & common sense and people are fighting back.

Design that violates it's audiences safety is wrong on so many levels. Don't design something that is profitable, dangerous, and hated. If you are encouraged to do so, you probably work for a scummy company. It's not good for your conscious.

Shudder.

Ode to Undo

Before you I may have made a mistake or two
dashed off a letter I didn't mean to

because people make mistakes....
a few
of them do

& there you sit through & through
you
little button labeled "undo"

You also come in the form
of easy returns
for it seems as a system
you've come to learn
I act at times without concern
For my dollar sometimes flies
and doesn't discern
between a right
and a wrong
dollarly turn

So you care
and you hault
like zipcar
like yelp
you help
and you help

delete is so permanent
publish so firm
the recorded message,
a terrible burn

I thank you for the key strokes
I don't need to do
& there you sit through & through
you
little button labeled "undo"

UI, UX, Interaction, etc.

Most of the time, when I tell people I'm a UI designer they ask "what's that?" Often, what follows is some bang-up job, but I really like Wikipedia's take on User Interface Design.

Oh, don't forget Interaction Design, Information Design, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Human Factors, Human-Computer interaction & Information Visualization. OK, I know these all have subtle differences but still. Can we stop the madness?

Unlike computer science which tends to overload terms, to assign many different meanings to one word, User experience suffers from term dispersement. Too many terms for the same or very similar things.

Old school UI

A knob which you push & pull














A trigger which you squeeze.
















A switch. Which you flip.

Template: An out-of-the-blue email to a potential role-model

Two things you should be good at for the sake of your career is keeping in touch & writing well. Here's a template for getting in touch with someone who you admired at your old job:

Hi, idolname:

I hope you are well. I worked on projectName as a pastJobTitle while you were hired on at lastCompany. I'm now a currentJobtitle at companyName which is a great company & I love it there.

I'm working to define goals in my own career & I feel I could learn a lot in hearing more about yours. I would love to buy you lunch at eateryNearIdolsWork and talk about it sometime next week.

Let me know,

you

Get inside the hiring managers head

I know I've talked a lot about job hunting...blame the economy.

Recently, I posted a job ad for a part-time job helping me out on some personal projects. In it, I asked applicants, as a bonus to list three websites they like and one or two sentences on why. This proved to be a great idea. I was easily able to sort out "nos" and "maybes" by who did the bonus and who did not. When people just replied with a form letter & resume they were a "no". It seemed like this was one of a dozen or so of jobs to which they were half-heatedly applying in that session.

Some applicants took it a step further and mentioned why they were looking for work. I think this is obvious but I'll say it anyway, If you are looking because you need to make ends meet, or are having a hard time finding work because you lack experience, the cover letter is not the place to mention this. In fact, this isn't something to say to anyone hiring or anyone you work for. This is something to say to your friends.

The websites applicants provided gave me a glimpse of their personalities, writing skills, & organization.

Out of about 40 applicants, two applicants went a step further and provided a list of what skills they brought to the table in relation to the job requirements. Excellent.

For more tips I highly recommend this best of Craigslist article: Tips for applying to a job from Craigslist. You'll find spending a little more time customizing and polishing cover letters is worth it.

Sites to help with your job hunt

With this list, I tried to skip the obvious sites. First some tips:

• Put these sites & any other sites related to your search in an easy-to-access bookmark folder...firefox is great because there is an option to "Open All in Tabs" when you create a folder & put it on your toolbar.
  

• Don't rely exclusively on websites. Don't be shy about inviting people to lunch. And if you can afford it, treat. Brainstorm with friends, get in touch with old coworkers, bosses, and old professors/advisers for council.
  

Indeed
An aggregate site (picture kayak for job searching)

Boxes & Arrows
Not many jobs but they are all related to UI

LinkedIn
Facebook for job seekers: this is also a great resource to share & otherwise manage your resume.

BayChi JobBank - Bay Area
Requires you to join BayChi, which is modestly priced at about $25 a year

Triangle User Experience - Research Triangle near Raleigh, NC
This blog always features UX jobs on one of my favorite parts of the East Coast.