hiring - How do you write a compelling job listing for UX

I'm looking to hire another person for my team so I've been researching job sites that list open UX/design positions. I thought it would be a good idea to familiarize myself with the language employers are using.

I've got to be honest: 95% of them are total shit. Nearly all of them sound like they were written by the HR person after Googling for the most generic list of attributes ever assembled.

Since I've come to trust this community's opinion more than the average site, what types of techniques and language would you use to convince the most talented UX'ers to come work for you?

Answer

First, as a recent job applicant, thank you for caring enough to edit your ad. I was very frustrated with the multitude of poor job descriptions. I couldn't believe the amount of effort they wanted from the applicant, when the company couldn't be bothered to list real details, let alone spell check. As someone who builds a cover letter from the job ad, if you give me nothing to work with I can only do so much.

Based on my recent job search I can tell you somethings based off my experience.

• Everybody wants a "rockstar" that doesn't make you interesting. I cringe when I see it now.



• Keep it short and relevant.


• I was always most interested in which phase of the UX cycle most of the work is expected.


• If there is something special about this UX job over similar job (like: must be able to use Linux, or will primarily be doing remote testing) make sure that it is listed first.


• Anything that will give a sense of the team that the applicant will be working with. (ex. we're dog people, or Expect to discuss tv show X every Monday morning)

Keep in mind that by the time they are reading your ad the applicant is looking for something that stands out about the team or the company.

novel - Are fantasy books expected to be trilogies?

Lately, more and more fantasy books I've seen are part of a trilogy. Is this because readers like it, or is it a cynical plot by publishers to draw out the story longer, so they can make more money? :D

I'm worried if I follow the market, I may be forced to unnecessarily drag out the book, in the way many fantasy books are. On the other hand, by not doing so, I may be ignoring an important genre expectation.

My question is: As a writer, should I plot my book so it follows the trilogy structure?

Answer

Hell no! You do not have to do it and there is no need to do it. And I am writing a fantasy trilogy ;)

There are a lot of fantasy series which are longer than just three books. If you have a series in mind, plot it, write your first book and see how it sells. If you don't, don't.

The advantage for the reader is, that he knows how many book will come when choosing to read a trilogy. Some series do not mention how many books shall come. Which sounds like (and often is) milking the reader as long as possible. These series often end someday because of quality problems, not because of a well plotted story.

If you plotted a single book, go for it, don't try to make it bigger as needed to follow an arbitrary structure. People won't think you are the next Tolkien just because you write a trilogy. I often read carefully before buying a book to find out if it is part of a series. Then I refuse to buy it. I do not want to start yet another series. I'm reading too many.

usability testing - When does statistical significance matter?

When does the statistical significance of a usability test matter?

I ask because in a recent Boagworld podcast, Steve Krug talks about how he recommends testing with only three users. When asked if that's statistically significant, he says no and goes on to explain that, to paraphrase, it doesn't really matter because some issues will cause everyone to fall at certain steps.

education - How to become really good in graphic design from being average?

I have seen many designer's work (logos, websites, brochures, animations, infographics, business cards, scenery, illustrations). Most are average but some stand out. Their work just takes you. You can't help but admire the quality of it and right decisions that were made. Even though you are in field of graphic design you still interact with it just as other person would.

In not so awesome works, certain graphic design principles and elements stand out. You can see they were well done, accurately used, and harmoniously interact with each other. However, you can still see these elements and not the design as whole. As one with a trained eye you can't help it.

On the other hand, designs that stand out are so great that you can't help but see the message and your brain ignores those elements. Basically, you become an audience as well.

So how does a graphic designer break the average design barrier? I know skills, imagination, and experience matter. But I don't know how to acquire them exactly or anything else that matters. How can I improve?

icon - Effectively creating this effect in Illustrator?

Been lurking awhile but this is my first post.

I've always wondered what this effect is called and I'm almost certain there's an easier way to doing it than how I do it. I'm talking about the "empty" stroke around overlapping parts of icons.

In this case I would put a stroke that's the color of the background around the first character. I know this is bad practice for many reasons, but I haven't found a way to use the pathfinder to do this.

I'm looking for a way to do it that would effectively cut away the shapes smoothly in a X amount of pixels around a certain shape instead of covering it up so I can save the icon and use it over whatever colored background I want to.

I'm guessing I'm not the first person to ask this but I have no earthly clue how this effect is called so my research has returned nothing relevant.

Answer

This is most effectively achieved by offsetting the path of the front shape, and subtracting the resulting shape from all the shapes in the back, using the Pathfinder.

As an example, say I'd like to do the outlining with the blue shape as my front shape:

• Select the blue shape with the Move tool (V);


• Choose Object > Path > Offset Path...;


• Key in an amount. The preview option will help you with this.

This will leave you with just the enlarged version of your object selected, so you can continue:

• Edit > Copy the currently selected (enlarged) shape. Ctrl/Option+C works too of course;


• Edit > Paste in Front (Ctrl / Option+F) as many times as you have objects in the back you need to trim;


• Select one of the copies and one of your background object (use Shift+Click to add to a selection), then Subtract in the Pathfinder palette (second option);

• Repeat for all objects in the background;


• You should be left with one instance of your enlarged shape. You can delete it, but I like to hide it, so I can re-use it later in case some more objects get added to the background.

Result:

Building an UX design portfolio?

I have been thinking of rebuilding my portfolio since its pretty outdated and I wanted some views on the approach I should take

Option 1 : Have an approach in which I list all the projects (major ones) on the front page and allow visitors to go through them

Option 2 : I build it like a conventional site and allow users to learn more about me (and my design methodology) before they have a look at the projects ,so the order would be home ,about me,my portfolio and contact me

The thing is I have seen portfolios of designers who have employed either of the methods and have been successful but I get mixed signals from people about what exactly they want to see,some say that most people are not interested in who the person is and rather would just like to see the work while I have heard contrasting views from other people as well.

I also would like to hear your views on how you handle the issue of proprietary work being displayed on portfolios

Answer

I have worked on my own site through countless iterations and have never been happy. I'll paraphrase the old adage, "A designer who designs their own site has a fool for a client" :)

This is what I have learned through feedback on my own site, from hiring and seeing the successful sites of people who have been hired.

Go with some version of option one.
Make it so visitors get a (mostly visual) idea of you and your work in about a minute.

Lead with your best project...have one or two more and that's plenty. List where and who you worked for and your education. Make getting in touch with you easy. Forget the rest. You can list your philosophy but IMHO, it has little bearing.

The goal of the site should be to get you an interview not provide enough evidence to get you hired.

Lastly, your site IS your first work sample. Make it unique.

Examples: I watched people on my site at interviews; they clicked on the first thumbnail section, looked around a bit more and they were done. Every time, I took stuff away it got less cluttered and more successful.

I was helping to hire my replacement at my last job... I often knew the second their page loaded whether they were a candidate or not. Two clicks later, I was sure.

Same at my new job... I just hired a UI designer. 30 seconds on their site was all I needed to know whether they should come in for an interview.

Finally at my last company, I was looking internally and got passed up for another candidate. I was friends with the recruiter and he showed me the winning candidate's work. His work was awesome and the site was simple. It looked almost like a PowerPoint presentation. He stated the issue, showed his solution and then quickly explained it. I think he had two examples. That's all it took.

My out-of-date site where I follow none of this advice is on my profile. Tell me if you think its any good.

Tim

print design - Two-sided printing: exact positioning?

I have designed some fancy cards (80mm x 48mm), and I would like to print them on both sides of a sheet of paper now (5x2 per A4 sheet).

Naturally, both sides of the print need to coincide exactly. However, after several attempts, it seems it's not working as expected: my printer seems to impose extra margins which mess up the alignment (which makes the printed area of the front side no longer coincide with the printed area of the back side). I already tried adding 1-2mm extra on all sides to allow some fluctuation, but this turns out to be insufficient. The difference seems to be always in the same direction, but strangely, moving the images around doesn't seem to change much -- as if the printer automatically corrects this.

So I wondered, are there any good ways to do it? In the PDF, things are aligned very well, but the printer messes it up with more than 2 mm difference. Any idea what would cause this and how to avoid it?
(For what it's worth, I'm using Windows 7 (pro, 64bit) and my printer is a Samsung CLP-325.)

Answer

I found the solution. Apparently my PDF program had an option "auto-center" to remove imposed printer margins. When I turn that off, the positions are moved quite a bit away from what they should be, but at least now they respond consistently to moving the images around on the paper. It's now printing with the 2mm margin correctly (with a fluctuation within 2mm, that is). Nevertheless, thanks all for the input! :-)