Welcome
My name is Lis, and it’s here that I write about my experiences with User Experience. This includes everything from observations I make as a NYC based UX consultant, to reflections on career development in the UX field. I'd love to hear your thoughts & comments so please don't be afraid to reach out to me & share them:
Popular Posts
- UX... Let’s Stop Being Unicorns
- The Secret Ingredient to Experience Innovation
- Confession: User Research is Boring
- “Respect is Something You Need to Give”
- The Problem with "It depends"
People I Learn From
- dechezette
- Experience Matters
- Experience Planner
- Innonate
- Pleasure and Pain
- Ray DeLaPena
- Solid State UX
- That's So Digital
- Usability Counts
- UX Booth
When I started this blog back in 2007 it was purely for selfish reasons. I was looking to move to NYC and needed a job. So, I used this site to define my online presence and showcase my past work for potential employers. But, as I began to write, something strange happened… I began to love doing so! And thus, the blog was reborn.
Today, over 4 years later, I have redefined this site as a place where I look to share my experiences in user experience with whomever will listen. Only one thing is missing… a blog name! Back when I first put my blog together it was a representation of my online self. As such, the site name of Elisabeth Hubert made sense. But now, as I look to complete the re-definition once and for all, I’m hoping to come up with a name that is a better fit. Being the UX person that I am, I thought there was no better place to turn to for input than to the blog users… meaning you.
Below are some ideas that I’ve been thinking about. If you like any of them (seriously, it’s ok if you don’t), then please vote for the one you like best. If you don’t like any of them I’d love to hear other ideas in the Other field or in the post comments. I can’t wait to hear what you all think and want to thank you so much in advance for participating!
It’s that time of the year… time for another Interaction conference. My bags are all packed, and in a little under 24 hours I’ll be hoping that express bus from NYC to Newark Liberty Airport to catch my flight to Dublin. I couldn’t be more excited to attend this year’s conference, and have high hopes after attending both in 2010 and 2011. This, however, will be my first international conference so I’m interested to see how the location influences this year’s event.
When I return, be prepared to see some posts referencing the event. With such an amazing line up, I’m sure I’ll be learning alot. And, knowing me, I’m sure I’ll have opinions and insights to share as well.
So… here’s to what I’m sure will prove an amazing adventure in Dublin. Can’t wait to tell you all about it!
This post is the third in a series devoted to pointing out How being a jock makes me a better UX Designer. Also, be sure to check out the second post UX and Sports? Ya, Damn Right! (oh, and if you are coming to Interaction 12 be sure to check out my talk How being a jock makes a better interaction designer!).
I can’t tell you how often I hear user experience professionals and designers talk about wishing they had proper mentorship. It is obviously something that is lacking in our field, as well as something that people are begging for. In this case, given that there is a clear lack of official mentorship, I think it is important for us to ask ourselves, ‘what if we never get the mentor that we are looking for? Will we then allow our careers and expertise to lack and suffer? Will we continue to go on and complain that it is the fault of the UX field not providing us a mentor that has disabled our ability to progress?’. Obviously this is something we’d like to avoid. So thinking of the problem another way, I was thinking that maybe it is possible that we are just not taking advantage of the mentor opportunities that are right in front of us. And we are not doing so, simply because they aren’t officially labeled as ‘mentor opportunities’. So in order to solve this issue, I think we should all take a step back and take a look at one lesson learned from being a jock that can help us solve this problem. That is: Leadership/mentorship comes in many different forms, it’s up to us to recognize it.
Every sports team has a captain, right? Just like most UX teams have a lead, someone who is to guide the UX approach and knowledge transfer for everyone. But, what happens when that person sucks or doesn’t do their job of leading and teaching others, or just doesn’t exist at all? Well, you could sit down and grumble or you could recognize your other options. The problem with sitting down and grumbling is simply that no progress is ever made on your end. You will never get the leadership and mentorship you need from someone that sucks at being a leader and mentor, and by continue to perpetrate the problem by expecting a different result from the same crappy person, you are just causing yourself to be more bitter.
So, we turn to the wide world of sports for our answer. I have been a part of many sports teams. Some have had great captains who have taught me how to excel, many have not. When I found myself on the teams that did not have the leadership I wanted, I went out and looked for it from other sources. I observed those on the sports team who I wanted to play like, and I asked them for help in every step of the way. Whenever they had a down moment, I asked them to show me a new move, or explain to me their line of thinking. I did this both inside my team and outside. I would play sports outside of my ‘official’ teams, and there I would find mentors in the least expecting of characters. The important thing to note is that by exposing myself to different experiences, and not rooting myself in my anger, I was able to see beyond my situation and grow as a athlete with or without my captain. You see, leadership and mentorship is a two way street. Sports taught me this. I could rely on just the captain or the coach or I could rely on myself to find and respect real leadership. The choice was up to me.
By applying this same methodology to my UX career, I was able to find leads and mentors without waiting for someone to assign them to me. I was then able to extract the type of information and insight I needed and wanted to grow into the UX professional that I am today. I am still using this methodology to grow even further (so yes if you’ve gotten a random email or tweet question from me, you have contributed to my mentoring… thank you ). Leadership and mentorship is something I’ve learned both how to do, as well as to extract from others. By doing so, I have become the master of my own destiny. Yes, that can seem scary when you don’t trust yourself, but the more information you are able to gather from others about your profession, the more you are able to internalize that information and build yourself up into the person and professional you want to be. That is… the leader of you.
This March will mark my very first time… attending the highly-regarded IA Summit! I couldn’t be more excited to finally attend the event. I literally have a feeling of joy and “going home” welling up in me. Like many of you, when I first started in this profession the term User Experience was not yet rolling off the tongue of anyone that looked to build a website. Back in those days, we were all Information Architects, and the IA Summit was our only chance to meet and exchange ideas about the new field we were a part of. I have heard tales of how amazing the Summit is, but, sadly, I have never gotten to attend, and thus part of me has always been missing.
Finally, the time has come, and I wait no more! I am coming home to my IA roots and I can’t wait to get back to them. To me attending the IA Summit is so much more than just going to another conference. It means:
- closing the circle of my life as an Information Architect, and me to finally feeling whole.
- that IA is still very much alive and well, and that I am a part of that community and can still explore the industry.
- that there is still a large group of us out there dedicated to this side of the “UX Umbrella”; a side that introduced us to thinking user first.
- that I didn’t completely F up when I started working in a profession that no one else had heard of before.
- that our passion for our users and profession has not diminished, nor has our passion to explore it further.
The best part is, I’m actually getting to speak at the event as well! (Be sure to check out UX is All About the Benjamins… Well, Partly the blog post that inspired my talk) I look forward to sharing my thoughts and hearing your feedback on them. If you plan on being at the Summit too reach out and let me know. I’d love to meet up and chat!
It is a news item worth repeating even thought it has been a little over a week since this was announced. It’s true what you are reading. Microsoft has ended their partnership with The Dealmap, and has inked a new deal (pun intended) making none other than 8coupons its official deal partner! It’s a very exciting relationship that will prove to introduce some great new opportunities and challenges. Can’t wait to see what the future months bring!
Wanna know more? Be sure to read Bing Ditches Google’s Dealmap — Inks New Deal with 8coupons
This post is the second in a series devoted to pointing out How being a jock makes a better UX Designer (Also, if you are coming to Interaction 12 in Dublin, be sure to check out my talk How being a jock makes a better interaction designer!)
As UXers, we are really great at researching and designing solutions for our users. The problem is that we are not so great at convincing our teams and clients, that 1. research is needed, and 2. our design ideas are sound. One way to combat this is to understand The Importance of Rationale. However, today I wanted to talk about a new method gleamed from the wide world of sports that can help you to evangelize your ideas both within your organization as well as with your clients.
First, I think it is important to highlight why not being able to sell our process and design ideas is a problem. Besides the fact that it makes us completely depressed about our profession, and therefore makes us wonder why we are even part of a project to begin with; not being able to sell our work means that when we walk into the project we are prey waiting to be pounced on. Any know-it-all marketing person, business manager, project manager or other project team type can out talk us and make our ideas look idiotic (even when they’re awesome) just because they don’t agree with our solution (or it doesn’t work best for their part of the organization). Thus, what happens by us not being able to push our process and ideas is we end up sacrificing our expertise to the greater team (everyone is a designer, afterall) and allowing group think and design by committee to create solutions for our users instead of us. Now, of course there is always room for critique and brainstorming, but what I’m talking about is different. I’m talking about someone just pushing their ideas over you, and through the machine in order to be the hero of the organization.
So how do we solve this? One way is to look at a timeless lesson taken from the world of athletics. That lesson? Be a teammate. Yes, it really is that simple. All jocks know this one. To be successful, you have to be willing to swallow your pride, be the bigger person, and admit when something is and is not your responsibility. Sure, you can have opinions about anything, but to be honest, the marketing numbers or the coding, or other non-interaction design focused things are not your responsibility. Might you be a better marketing representative that the person on your team? Sure. But you aren’t the marketing person responsible for this project, you are the interaction designer. Respect the other person’s role. Offer up suggestions to them in a kind way, in a way that you want people to offer up design suggestions to you, and then… leave it alone. You are not the saving grace of this company, you are a part of the company team. By recognizing and taking control of your responsibilities and by letting your other team members do them same, you are showing that you have faith in your teammates, the overall team and the team philosophy.
The outcomes of being a teammate are mutual respect and acceptance on both parts (yours and theirs). Having these makes it a lot harder for people to rip apart your design ideas in a meeting just because they might clash with an opinion. By showing respect and acceptance, you are asking to get them back in return (see “Respect is Something You Need to Give” for more thoughts). By letting your guard down you are inviting your teammates to do the same. And once they do, they will start to see you as a valued part of the team and will then be a lot more likely to help you to curate the best solutions possible for your users.
Guest blog post on the Women in Tech UK blog.
Being a woman in tech is can seem like an overwhelming feat to accomplish. However, there is so much that I love about working in this field, that I wanted to show other women the huge positives that they may be missing out on. In my latest WIT guest post I write about the Top 5 Reasons I Love Being a Women in Tech. Please be sure to read the post, and leave me more ideas in the comment section on why we should love working in this industry!
Recently, while at lunch with my friend and colleague, Neil Redding, we got into a discussion regarding Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. The conversation centered around both men’s ability to see, so clearly, the vision for their products and to be able to push through to see that vision to fruition. The amazing part is not that they were able to push through to get to their vision and thus create amazing products and experiences, but that their visions were usually right! I believe that there are common traits & abilities that both men had that allowed them to have a clear, correct vision. And, no, I don’t think it’s just their genius (well at least genius isn’t the only thing). As a UXer, I’m sure you wanna know these traits so that you too can design amazing experiences. In order to explain it to you, let’s investigate our two amazingly successful examples so that we can uncover how to become successful like them.
First, let’s take a look at Mark Zuckerberg, or at least what we know of him from the film the Social Network as well as from general observation. Mark is an individual who, to be frank, is plain socially awkward. We see this both in his inability to be personable during real life interviews, and also in the film where he was more focused on becoming accepted and liked (pun intended) than he was about almost anything else. However, he could never quite make it to the social status he was looking for. We can see that not being in the “in crowd” meant that Zuckerberg was detached from it. He was, however, desperate to be a part of this crowd. I believe that it was this desperation that drove him to observe, in great detail, what interested people about in crowds, social groups, popularity, and their cliques so that he, one day, could enter this world.
From his detached observation, he was able to see what factors mattered to people when socializing and interacting, and he notated all of this in his attempt to “get in”. The important thing to note about Zuckerberg’s detachment is that because he was so far detached from those he observed, he was able to clearly observe them, without personal bias. This was key. He then used his technology skills, coupled with his findings to create Facebook, a “social network” that he knew would be cool and well liked among users. Thus, Zuckerberg’s gut feelings about what would make Facebook successful or not, aka his vision, were really due to his knowledge of the human interactions he had been observing in his quest to become socially accepted. If he had been knee deep in these interactions instead of detached, he wouldn’t have been able to observe them so clearly.
In our second example, we look through a different lens at the late Steve Jobs. Mr. Jobs social ability seems in contrast to that of Zuckerberg. Although he was sometime