Session Title
Showing Your Math: Communicating the Quality of Your Thinking in Your Portfolio
Presenter
Fred Beecher, Adam Connor
Session Type: Discussion
Communicating how interaction designers do what they do has become a frequent and passionate topic of discussion in the interaction design community. The intent of this discussion is to collaborate on a solution to the problem of the interaction design portfolio. How must an interaction design portfolio be structured in order to show the quality of the designer’s thinking?
We will be interviewing and surveying UX managers, HR personnel responsible for hiring interaction designers, and recruiters to find out the specific problems they have in judging the quality of a candidate. We will also be talking with job-seeking interaction designers and students to find out the problems they’ve had in communicating the quality of their own thinking.
We will then design one or more potential portfolio structures that attempt to address these issues. In the discussion, we will briefly present the results of our research and the solution(s) we’ve come up with. From that point on, we will moderate a discussion with the audience in an effort to get feedback from the community, see the problem from a broader set of perspectives, and generate even more solutions to the problem of showing an interaction designer’s math.
After the conference, we will integrate the results of the discussion and post revised portfolio structures in a place that anyone can access them.
Biography
Fred Beecher
Fred Beecher is a Senior User Experience Consultant at Evantage Consulting in Minneapolis. Fred has been working in the user experience design industry for 11 year, doing research, information architecture, interaction design, and usability evaluation for a diverse array of clients like Medtronic, UnitedHealthcare, 3M, RBC Dain Rauscher, General Mills, Thomson Reuters, and the National Marrow Donor Program.
A recognized expert in rapid prototyping, Fred speaks frequently on the topic at national professional conferences and local user experience group meetings. In 2007, Fred developed the official training program for the Axure RP Pro rapid prototyping tool at the request of its makers. He has since trained additional consultants to give the courses and currently leads a broader Axure training program for Evantage.
Fred and the rest of the Evantage user experience consultants blog on all things UX at userexperience.evantageconsulting.com.
Adam Connor
Adam Connor is a Senior User Experience Designer at MassMutual Financial Group and an independent UX Consultant. His background in Computer Science and Film & Animation provides a unique perspective and approach as a User Experience (UX) designer. Adam has spent the past 8+ years involved in UX Design and Analysis, Visual Design, and Front-end Web Development.
Over the course of his career Adam has also been a frequent guest lecturer on the subject of UX, Usability and Interface Design in the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Computer Science department and has helped develop course materials for related classes. When not designing creatively simple experiences, you can find Adam polishing his rocket-powered lawnmower, planning mischief with his two small henchmen and faithful sidekick, or kayaking.
Adam can be found on Twitter @adamconnor or by email adam [at] adamconnor.com.
5 Comments
I’m very interested in this discussion. This would be worth the trip to the conference alone. I’ve recently been in the position to hire several ux contractors and the process has been very frustrating. The formatting of the resumes and portfolios makes it very difficult to assess the talent of the candidates. This is a pain point in my profession that really needs illuminating. I think there are probably many talented people not getting jobs because they don’t know how to represent their methodology or quality of thinking in their portfolio.
This seems pretty ambitious for 40 minutes, but it’s a critical topic and one that I personally would find absolutely invaluable.
I feel cheated. Where’s the maths?
Otherwise, a valuable area for discussion.
I agree with Elizabeth. This is a very important topic, and one that hasn’t been explored nearly enough.
Love this idea. We see so many candidates who think they’re going to dazzle us with the end product. Great finished work is nice, but before we hire anyone, we need to know how they get from A to B. Hope this gets picked!