About career planning, interactive design

On the way home from work, ran into a colleague, just walk home together, on the way to chat some questions, stimulated some thinking.

After going back, seize the time to do some sorting. The theme is miscellaneous, so it's just a record. Also welcome to read friends to discuss.

I. Frequent career changes how to do personal career planning and precipitation

Assuming that small a in the company just 2 years, but has changed 4 jobs, 5 boss, such things strange? At least as far as I know, it happens often. Frequent change of guard, may not own choice, also is not because of the ability problem, but the strategic adjustment, the business reorganization, the business Line merger and so on "the Force Majeure factor".

Employees change jobs, can expand the horizontal skills and experience, improve the comprehensive ability, but frequent changes, if not out of the initiative, but passive, but really will be professional planning, personal ability to precipitate formation of obstacles. Especially the first two years of work, more important to us, this period is not only to eat with the professional skills and knowledge to strengthen the sublimation, but also to develop a good professional quality and habits (planning, sense of purpose, time management, responsibility, and problem thinking and solving ideas and methods, etc.). 4 years in college may not determine what you want to do after graduation, but the first two years of work may really make you decide what to do later. So the drift is not easy to think, but it is not the best solution to face the change. Based on my experience and lessons, my advice is to be able to pursue active change before or during passive change, but how do we do that? Do you have a career plan? How do you plan for career change?

From the internship of the printing company graphic design, publishing house art editor, to work on the web design, online teaching animation design, product planning, and then to E-commerce site Interactive design, I really did not deliberately to do career planning. If I do career planning based on college major, I might be designing in a printing factory? If I'm planning on the web design after work, maybe I'm working towards the art director or the project manager? We will face many opportunities, sometimes opportunities and career planning are not related, so in any plan, Must retain a certain degree of flexibility and adaptability. We can not plan careers, but we are responsible for their growth, that is implied in the various positions of professional skills, knowledge and thinking and problem-solving ideas.

Even without a career plan, we need to take a moment to look at ourselves, what we can do, what we want to do, and then know our subject headings and stick to the skills and knowledge of this line in change. In my past career changes, users, products, design, display this is a few of the same key words. These will allow us to learn a lot of knowledge and skills in addition to our work, such as marketing, analysis, management, design, visualization and so on. So I also suggest that students who are in frequent changes, can take some time to think about what you are interested in or think you should do in the future of several key words, in peacetime work and study, can not give up to plump these words, perhaps one day, you will be merged from the extension to this own main line.

Two. The value of interactive design

First of all, I personally feel that interactive design, like English, is a skill, not a job.

So arguing about whether this position is reasonable is to combine the specific circumstances of the company, some can let the product Manager to assume the interactive design of this work, and some can be independent of an interactive design department, specialized deep digging, do deep to do thoroughly.

Since interactive design is more like a skill, it can actually be applied to a number of jobs. Even write a piece of copy, using the idea of interactive design, will achieve a multiplier effect, you pay more attention to the other party's feelings of reading, standing in his understanding of the angle and not entirely his own point of view to organize language. Do product planning, will not fully stand in the interests of the company and KPI to design a variety of functions, but will take into account the user's goals, as well as to achieve the objectives of the tasks to be completed by the reasonable degree and convenience. Design a dress, will consider the wearing of people is convenient, such as the traditional cheongsam behind the zipper to improve to the side, to facilitate a woman in no one to pull her zipper can still wear cheongsam, and so on.

In the book "New Thinking", the author believes that people who have a competitive advantage in the future need several skills:

Design Sense

Story Sense

Symphonic ability

Empathy ability

Entertainment

Among them, design sense + empathy ability (can be understood as empathy, refers to a kind of ability to experience others ' situation, so as to feel and understand the feelings of others), in fact, is engaged in interactive design necessary. Design sense naturally do not have to mention, empathy ability, before panda counseling us, although wood useful so professional vocabulary, but he will often say "soul possessed", let the user soul possessed, is how powerful empathy ability. Perhaps some times, the empathy will be considered to be their own yy, so designers in order to avoid their soul pressure on the user's soul, it is necessary to be as close as possible to user perception needs, mining needs, or through data to verify and so means to prove the soul attached body.

The story sense is a very effective way of conveying. When you have a strong sense of empathy, can you communicate clearly? It is possible to draw pictures, to tell stories, to write words, to speak, and so on. Storytelling is now proving to be a very effective way of communicating, precisely because of the scene, it will make the audience feel deeply (enhance the empathy ability of the audience), make communication more efficient.

Therefore, from the above points, interactive design This ability, a bit like a few core skills for a compression and packaging, from empathy, to the story, to design performance, output, then, whether other types of work can also use this ability?

Three. Want to learn interactive design, how to proceed

So, since interactive design is an ability, how do I start? My graphics ability has always been very weak, I do not you so good software, I do not know what theory, principles, or even, I do not have such people around me to lead me ... What to do?

Now my experience with this old question is: When you don't have the awareness of this interaction design, tools, theories, principles, methods, guides, masters ... is a cloud (oh, I only so did not use "meaningless" three words, because of the superficial, or can have some meaning).

The first is to have consciousness, which is the most important.

For instance. I often get emails and ask me how to start interactive design.

Some messages are concise, first speak their own background, and then speak their own goals, and then talk about their problems and confusion and hope to get the guidance, clear, clear points, so that the reader, cost reduction, back up, but also more relaxed.

Some mails are written like prose, although the literary talent may be good, but after reading, found that, mom, I still need to go back to high school, to summarize the theme of an article, and then to refine a few questions, and then write a reply-such mail, who is willing to selfless dedication?

Some mail, is too simple, come up to ask questions, do not account for any context, is clearly to ask, but also need to be asked to reply to an e-mail, ask the background-such a message, perhaps sent to the time Hou, he did not think clearly how to answer.

By reading a person's email, it is easy to tell if TA is suitable for interaction.

And I insist on blogging, there are many reasons, one of the reasons, is also to exercise their own user-centric awareness. Write an article, in the absence of expression, no voice, no argument, no questions and answers, but also can let a completely not understand the person to understand this matter, to learn something, to feel the feelings of your experience. Then, you have to tidy up your mind, even if you have to increase the space, but also to make logic clear, or use illustrations, metaphors, storytelling methods to enhance the effect of communication.

Do you realize that every e-mail you send is an interactive design product?

Learn interactive design, first from the promotion of their own mail and the readability of the article, want to read the beginning.

And to judge a person is not suitable for interaction, first pulled out ta sent the mail, read the following can be judged out of a few.

With this awareness, it may be necessary to learn many things, such as the basic theory, to establish the basis of dialogue. For example, basic software--make survival no problem ... With awareness and long training to be ingrained, these things are icing on the cake. Without consciousness, these things are flashy.

Four. Why do you keep writing long blogs? Why can't I just stick with it?

This question has not been known for some reason recently and has been asked by several people. Every stage of the answer to why you write a blog is different.

For example, in April 2008, I wrote a blog is to self-expression, when my blog name is called: the heart of nature.

The reason is that if a woman often does not come out to meet people socially, then naturally may not pay attention to maintenance and dress, over time will become a yellow-faced woman, people's thinking is the same, if not speak out to others to listen to, then also do not need to pay attention to literary, logic, the word use sentence, anyway, I can see it well, to their own requirements are very low, Long time will also find words boring, want to express also can't express. So that is I think that blogging is to allow themselves to stand on the reader's point of view of their strict standards of high demand, sorting ideas, to promote their progress.

In 2009, I wrote another blog name for the third time: Heidi Nonconforming, will own life and professional exploration to try to separate, because I have learned to write long blog to me in the utilitarian heart of things, it is a good transformation of information, collation of information methods. When I think about something, I'll record it in a notebook (each blog starts with a notebook, see the Notebook), and then either forget it or, when there is an idea, add more thinking until it becomes a system-ready blog post. And what we have written, we will be more impressed, until we can pick it up, than the simple effect of reading better.

Now, with the popularity of microblogs, information is graphically read the age of the picture, insist on writing long blog, more people do not understand, so someone asked me, but also someone to ask the way, I also to the other part of the summary of the stage, so I will be another line, good lattice one this topic, including how to write professional long blog. Please look forward to it.

End]