Wow. I haven’t written a blog post in a very very long time, but I thought I’d share a very exciting life update. Around 2 weeks ago, I was a Workshop Presenter at SXSW Interactive with my friend and former colleague, Quinn Brennolt. Our 3-hour long workshop was called “How to Prototype for Better Design.” The first 30 minutes were spent talking about the basics of prototyping and choosing the best tool for your project while the remaining time was dedicated to hands-on workshops of InVision and Axure.
Presenting to 100 people was definitely a little nerve-wracking, but I am so grateful to have had the experience!
Here are our slides and a video of the first 30 minutes of our presentation.
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GeneralProof I Wireframe!
I realize that my site could benefit from more items that demonstrate my process. Here are some nice wireframes I found in my notebook.
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WireframesWait… We Won The Hackathon?!
Early last week, I randomly decided to join a Hackathon team with other students from my school. I really didn’t know many of them, but thought it would be fun and a great way to make new friends. I never imagined that we would actually win the entire competition and $50K.
To be honest, it’s a little surreal. We were up against professionals with years of experience and other teams with great ideas. The experience overall taught me so much, but the main takeaway was this:
Collaboration is awesome. But actually. I don’t think we would have won if we didn’t work together and communicate effectively. Although we didn’t know each other very well (if at all!), I thought we had some pretty fantastic synergies happening, magnified by the fact that we were all incredibly passionate about creating a great product. The whole experience felt like I was part of a mini-company (granted for only 48 hours) with everyone taking their own individual position, whether it was as a product manager, designer, or developer. In addition, we each had the chance to move between the roles of listener, contributor, idea generator, mentor, follower, and leader.
My specific contribution on the team was the front-end design and development. I had never designed a dashboard or implemented any type of data visualization before so it was a great design challenge and learning experience. I know this is a little corny, but if anything, the experience made me want to test my abilities further and seek out more opportunities.
Overall, I have to say that the 48-hour sugar and carb diet was totally worth it… And I guess the money wasn’t so bad either! :D
The rest of my amazingly smart and talented teammates included Eric Elias, SJ Lee, Leslie Ding, Du Zhang, Dan Borstelmann, and Fangzhou Xiao.
For more information on the event, check out this article!
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HackathonLess Buttons, More Gestures!
Today, Facebook announced their new standalone iPhone app called Paper. Although the UI is visually similar to Flipboard, I am most excited by the fact that the app seems largely gesture based!
From a user experience perspective, buttons seem much more clear to users because it is a convention they automatically recognize. Gestures, on the otherhand, are harder to grasp because they have to be learned (and sometimes different gestures can also vary for different apps!).
Despite this, I think there is something quite delightful about gestures that take the experience to another level. An interaction on the screen that was once a press is now a pinch or a slide. Although there is the initial learning curve to figuring them out, gestures somewhat replace the function of buttons, and less buttons means more room on the screen to entice the user visually.
Right now, there are very few well-designed, gesture-based apps, and the two that come to my mind are Rise and Clear. However, Facebook is such a goliath of a company, and by releasing an app such as this to the market, they are bringing gestures to the forefront. Hopefully other apps will take note, and move towards a more gesture-based experience!
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UX/UI ThoughtsThings I’ve Been Reading…
Don’t get me wrong. I have, for the most part, very much enjoyed my liberal arts education. However, not studying design full-time, I have to admit there are some gaps in my education. In addition to taking relevant coursework in the art school, I try my best to read a variety of books with topics ranging from interaction design to general design principles.
Here are some books I’ve read this past month.
- Universal Principals of Design by Jill Butler, Kritina Holden, William Lidwell
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson [interesting to learn about Jobs’ design aesthetic]
- Designing For Emotion by Aarron Walter [A Book Apart]
- HTML5 For Web Designers by Jeremy Keith [A Book Apart]
- CSS3 For Web Designers by Dan Cederholm [A Book Apart]
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BooksA Very Happy First Post!
I have a blog now!
I actually feel quite silly blogging. I’m not exactly sure what I want this to be yet, but I think I will use this space to talk about my design process, challenges, and achievements (hopefully!).
Since I am on Winter Break, I have tried to use my time productively to finish my portfolio site, which, to be quite honest, has been such a struggle for me. I am such a perfectionist, and I am probably on the 50th redesign! I have always made sites for classes or other people, but when it comes to making something for myself, it feels so much more complicated… and personal. I suppose I could just have a “normal” portfolio made with WordPress or SquareSpace, but it just feels so generic, and I want my site to represent me! :)
The immovable goal I have set for myself is to have the site completed by the New Year, but until then, happy reading!!