My ten years, the things beyond the interaction

This is the tenth year of my work, today is also my birthday, if the way to review, there should be a lot of stories, if you want to say, I always habitually from the 5th year of my work began, on the one hand 5 years ago the work experience is mediocre, unknown, lack of drama, basic in small companies, Traditional IT companies are hanging out and 5 years of work resumes will be more concerned about, because it is in TX, because there is the opportunity to do all the experience of the product design, was exposed to a star position, on the other hand because I was also called marking, in the design of the lake, the word generation is still relatively young, now I was called Uncle Mark for many years, At the same time often can be lucky to be a set of new designers pull, the company training requirements, in everyone's curious onlookers, voluntary or half volunteer to say the revolutionary history. In fact, God Horse is a cloud, the first year is quite fresh, but said N times, I feel like a Xiang Lin sister-in-law, a kind of feel like vomiting, but also better to write a resume in the past, called biography in ancient times, we have a humble words, and other people to preach is impossible, this thing can only do-it-yourself, have several advantages, on the one hand can be "sincere" Praise yourself, just as Tangj did, the bigger advantage is that you don't have to repeat it every time, write well at a time, can even use for several years, just like Jefferson write the Declaration of independence, write well, hundreds of years can be for the later one set aside, ten years is a ridge, take this opportunity to review my work for 10 years, I've been a designer for ten years, don't take it too seriously, just read the story.

In March 2006, a very ordinary workday, I received a call from a guy claiming to be Tangmu, and then after a round of dinners, a round of visits, a round of interviews, a one-month struggle to join the TX CDC interaction group, until now.

06 is a critical point, I have been in the so-called traditional IT industry, work step-by-step, I follow the popular saying, is really into the emerging industry, which also gives me the opportunity to look at both sides, years later, I suddenly found that it is such a contrast, let me have the opportunity to compare the opportunity to Summing up their own design concepts and design management ideas, but also let me always very calm view of the internet industry called the "new Concept", "new ideas."

The first thing to say is that it's fun to be an interactive designer, especially in the CDC, when the early team size is small, we have a lot of opportunities to eat and drink together, the most profound impression is that every day lunch, to risk death across a big road, and then turn west turn into a big Chong of a small restaurant, Often think of the scene at that time, are quite miss, soon I also into this atmosphere, later I thought, this also is the CDC characteristic, everybody is very natural, does not install, but does not install in the Work field is quite rare quality, also easily lets the innermost feelings have the same identity feeling the person to find the sense of belonging, in later has the opportunity to lead the team, I will also find some outgoing, full of life fun, can engage in atmosphere of the team pistachio, but also have to admit that such a few designers.

The first project in the company was the interactive design of the TX k system, when the project leader, S, first convened the project meeting, I was surprised to find that the project had no product manager, no project manager, only 3 development engineers, no requirements documentation, and only one feature list that had been discussed internally two times. This is a situation I've never met, that's when I saw how "agile" the style of the early TX development was, and how it would open. I don't remember, I just remember in the eyes of everyone's expectations I stood up and said, if we do not need, then let us edit a user to use our software story, I tried to write down a very difficult design in a way that we could understand, on the whiteboard, spent 2 hours, mainly including the target user's typical environment, the user's task, the user's expectations, two years later, the team expanded, remember a while popular about the "War of Faith" topic, Inadvertently in the first project of my work, I seem to have easily dissolved such a confrontation, and later thought, in fact, we are not so many barriers in, but you take the means of communication is effective, whether the team loved the way, tell the story can also be said to have methodological, Storytelling can be quickly narrowed down from the abstract to concrete, we are accustomed to induction, the vivid user scene condensed into more than 10 dry demand, timely interpretation, you will find that everyone is simply inspiration, and very common topic.

After working one months, I began to have the opportunity to participate in a confidential project at the time of H, the first meeting from 9 in the morning to 9 o'clock in the evening, I do not know the term, I nodded concept, notebook 2 pages, let me feel the pressure is very large, and the next one months, the time is very tight, need to design the morning plan, Afternoon discussion, evening summary, a week to find boss report once, every day I have more than 10 large requirements on the To do list for discussion and output, according to normal progress, is never possible to complete, the biggest one is one day to pull down a major program, at the same time at night with GUI colleagues, at the same time out of three programs, The next morning summary design, 2 o'clock in the afternoon report, no error, the effect is very good, this kind of tough battle, if there is a chance to experience, and survived, you will be quite confident. Now often talk about new people to endure hardship, I think we have to find a chance to play tough, instead of playing fatigue war, that this pain, the whole of the small universe can upgrade a lot.

At the same time, I saw a cow who belonged to the conference animal let me quite admire, can side meeting, side of the internet processing Mail, RTX, side of the surging don't think about product ideas, their CPU rotation is fast to open, want to stop on, and the meticulous thinking, grasp the focus of the quick talk of the people, I have been secretly try to think of observation , this is how to do, and later become a working partner, fortunate to be taught a few strokes, quite useful, this is something.

Speaking of cattle, in large companies, in fact, if you have the attention, there are many very good teachers of their own short boards, and may not be the highest in the job to fix the highest depth of the kind of my career played an important role is met a few mentor, in that ignorant ignorance, arrogant age let me get the benefit of life of the ideological enlightenment.

A Java control development engineer D,d cattle embodied in as long as I can find the effect, even if Java.lang not, up to 1 weeks, he can always achieve, that is, in his dictionary is not impossible to achieve the interface effect, and his cooperation for six months, I from a nodded Java layman, into an interface spec-makers who have a clear chest of 38 controls that need to be used, and from the future, in fact, the study of the interface, but also because of these basic things from the bottom of the study, it looked very slow and boring, but once you word to verify, to scrutinize, You won't have a lot of conceptual confusion.

A development engineer who writes the table base control F,f's cattle are embodied in: two years to write only one control, that is the table, and this table is similar to Excel, first of all, whether the performance or interaction is very much the same, but the experience, you will find a lot of financial software optimization, such as the number format, For example, loop nesting, such as indentation extensions, such as large data conversion and export efficiency is several times higher than the Excel class encapsulation, he gave me a simple understanding, to do the outstanding software, it is necessary to start from the bottom of technology, not simple and quick, find shortcuts, I later found that many of our software in fact will not do so meticulous, On one hand is the time requirement, on the other hand slowly everybody is accustomed to doctrine, the eye of the grade is not different, but in the extreme case, which is the higher the lower, it is easy to see, the real bottom, original research and design is always very exercise people, challenging, now, in the field of interactive design, we have so little precipitation, Everyone is busy with projects and needs, and there is not enough part of the project.

A product manager in charge of collaborative software H,h's cow experience when he speaks his product strategy, product direction, product feature, always can have the detailed data and the right reference to some method model, and the flow structure is very good to display, tone rhythm mastered quite in place, vivid, It's easy to take you to the scene that he created, powerful persuasive, this is the so-called "gas field" This gives me a revelation, product design is to speak eloquence, to differentiate and understand the idea, if you can put some very subjective things in the way possible objective, then the scheme is easier to promote success, You can build your place in each other's eyes again and again, there is a kind of people called uncrowned, not necessarily authoritative have authority, the so-called professional influence is in your work and around the colleagues every contact, so from him I can learn is to keep listening and enough passion, Cherish and make good use of each job contact opportunities, and slowly build their own professional influence.

These cows often inspire me and become a role model for me, this role model does not mean that I must have the same knowledge structure as he does, but that he reaches his depth, how he does it, his methods, all his skills, are the source of my learning, and I also found that a common feature of cattle people is Are very humble, not pretending that, very natural, so I firmly believe that to be a cow, is always to be very humble, to have this knowledge from the bottom of my heart, not to do for people to see the kind, is to feel that they really have a lot of do not understand, and this kind of natural low posture to self to help your heart without distractions to pursue a higher academic realm.

Recently summarizing the channel of the interactive designer competency model, in fact, put aside the specific regulations, my heart is actually only a figure, is this:

The core competence of the interaction designer is actually the intersection of the three, this is also very easy to see, why the interaction is easy to learn, that is, you each magnified a little bit, you need in each dimension is magnified a lot, product dimensions, if you know business objectives, product features, operating strategy is how to develop, So you've got the ability to talk to the product manager from the source, development dimension, the core, is that you have to know the boundaries of technology constraints, know the feasibility of how much, if you also know the implementation mechanism, then you can find and development engineers happy cooperation of the cornerstone, design dimensions, not to speak, Adequate design aesthetic and design taste should be, the more you know about design specifications and user habits, the more you can understand what design should not do, trifles, and from this model, it's also easy to explain why a good interaction designer should dabble in product, development, UI knowledge, and do the best of a comprehensive knowledge structure , we often talk about user experience, talk about experience design, in fact, there is a sentence I have been very agreeable, who said that do not remember the "experience is personal, physical examination design is not".

By the way I think important interaction designers are good habits.

Stay curious.

When I first entered the profession, I was an art designer, a company in Guangzhou, the pace of work, all I have a lot of leisure time, in that year I downloaded a lot of gadgets, from the regular hard disk partitions, to the 3D rendering, as long as the public software has a name, the computer newspaper recommended, I am very hard to find them down, The first time to demo, 2000 is the time of personal web site surging, by June 01, that year I collected almost 3,000 sites screenshots, more than 2000 software, many software I can still use today, the vast majority of sites have vanished, it is this experience, Let me have a broader vision, my then manager often praised me a lot of novel ideas in the design interface, the same group of a three-year designer is always not to his surprise, about six months later, I have become the design group's first designer, in fact he did not know that I because a new person, In the new environment of strangers, only to the secretary for home, every day with the computer accompanied by this ample time, large doses to observe a lot of people do not have time or disdain to pay attention to things, and consciously carried out some coarse-dimensional collation, formed a simple but very practical design ideas, Practical is because these ideas are from the first line of the first-hand information, I am grateful that the Internet has become a general IT company standard, while thanking that era of personal web sites and personal software blossom, full of freedom and innovation spirit.

Keep empathy.

A lot of people ask me, what is the most important potential of a good interaction designer? For years I've insisted that empathy, in short, is about what's going on around you, the person you have not experienced can set the body to do things, empathy, not indifferent, not calm, careful is rooted in your heart care, care, otherwise it is not really careful, at the same time, empathy and compassion are different, the biggest difference in attitude, A neutral, a biased, not the same thing.

Maintain a focus on development implementation technology

My 2nd job was to reconstruct the engineer, the most important purpose is to build a market research company's industry site to news, professional article management, forum-oriented, in 02, the construction station is basically jsp,php,asp three schools, ASP because there are many complete source code can refer to, so in a small company , in the case of singles, I chose the lowest entry threshold of the ASP, because only need html+css+asp+mysql and free IIS can start building and debugging work, I believe that many personal sites should also be in such a simple condition to start, In that year I had the opportunity to do all the work of website refactoring, one-stop, from ui+ front-end + backstage, there is an MBA of the returnees mm with me to do the operation, now look, the technology is rough to shame, but at that time is really very input, often a one-time collection of open source code, and then step by step, adjust the parameters, Look at the interface performance, that is, at that time to develop a show off the problem of special effects, this is also an ignorant technical engineer very simple problems, I hope the whole site is covered with JavaScript small plug-ins, I wish all the forms can be used to my comparison test more than 10 kinds of fillet implementation, the last optimization of the one, Website experience of Word-of-mouth can be imagined, and later in several revisions, I gradually began to focus on what is the right UI performance, what is good layout design, how to achieve the content to win, more importantly, how the most appropriate time to use the most appropriate technical way to express, I've always had a stubborn idea that all the people who interact should start with job, do a test line, so what do you do in your mind the dimensions will be very rich, and practical, and you will be very rigorous, and you will have the opportunity to think how to use the powerful development tools development platform for me to use, Instead of just being confined to the PS,FW frame, in 06, the idea of starting a UI designer tool was also due to the idea of Dreamweaver Urtal.

It is important to keep independent thinking and speculative spirit, not follow blindly, not fawning. Attention to practicality is very important to UPA, for example, many designers know upa,09 year's General Assembly is my 4th time to participate, this year did not go, more and more feelings, UPA on the theme of the guests like a wedding banquet on the roast suckling pig (absolutely no disrespect means,  This is an inappropriate analogy, but I can't think of a better dish. The most expensive, the most decent, but whether it is best to eat on a question mark, maybe roast suckling pig itself is good, but not according to Asian taste to tune, may be the most valuable is the suckling pig as embellishment of coriander, carrot flower, because this flower is still relatively fresh For example, Ideo's video, for example, everywhere Happiness index If I remember correctly, basically the theme of these years is this category, "What is design?" "Why do we have to do experiential design?" We have to consider human factors, to understand the needs of people? To understand the background of people, culture, social factors we have to consider design from multiple latitude "What I want to say is that we have no questions about why we have questions, what I want to know is the latest creations of these masters in the industry, the latest thinking, the latest observation, the latest thinking not to their decades of experience! The real impetus to the world is not the experience of progress, is fresh thinking, of course, can not blame these masters, they are old, no longer active in the front-line, in fact, they are also the most distant from the internet wave of people.

Especially in the Internet industry in China, really do a good job in fact are local enterprises, native designers made the most "soil" design is the most popular products, Whether it's QQ or Taobao. The reason may be very simple, because we are faced with a huge amount of users every day in the Test,test,test, in the internet industry is not a prophet, product planning is not even so important, the key is to change fast enough, to change enough close to the user's heart.

07, there is a chance because of the H project, you can use this as a blueprint to understand the spirit of Thomas,enya, the system to consider the appropriate department of the complete design process is what? This time I found the benefits of doing it in a rigorous traditional IT industry, that is to create a natural proximity to the process, because once felt a good process + tools to bring the great benefits of synergy, so do not need to mobilize, basically motivated, it is necessary to mention the CMM software Capability Maturity Model The influence of thought on me, specific I don't want to say more, it refers to document construction and knowledge management is a very important work, especially the process management of software development, is to measure the quality of a team research and development of the importance of reference, because the final process, do norms, do knowledge management construction, in fact, the ultimate can be summed up to three points, Do not make the same mistakes, do valuable innovation, efficient communication, that is, in the process of doing this design process, I feel that all the boss of the department began to build knowledge system, do have a normative design understanding of the strategic height, this is also later why we can do more perfect the foundation of the designer training system, And because of the design process, after many times of collision, scrutiny, we are in the design methodology has gradually reached a consensus, and later a lot of team management why the implementation of a relatively smooth, I think and did this discussion has a great relationship, I also see a lot of internal design team in many ways to precipitate a lot of methods of process management, But have little impact on specific products, in the product design is gradually marginalized or squeezed to have no right to speak, now combined with their own experience at that time, there are two points is the lesson may be they negligence, first, on the design process of carding, must be from the top down to reach a consensus, it is best to do the complete process, and then do the subdivision process, Do not reverse, this is similar to the first constitutional legislation, the second, there must be a relatively successful case to do the blueprint, not just close the door to find, but also have the courage and boldness to bind it to the company or cooperation Department of the mainstream process, can not just design the line to play inside themselves.

About modular design and standardized design, now in the CDC this comparison is respected, also silently in the layout to do better, is not just a role designer, need to develop, or even the role of the product to join this ecological chain, this is not a lot of people can understand, in fact, modular and standardized design are relatively simple, Imagine the building blocks are good, if it is a block to put a variety of styles of castle, that's modularity, if it's multiple sets of blocks to put together a castle, this is standardization, when you think of the castle as a project, the building blocks are all your design template, as a design manager you will have a lot of things to do, At the UPA conference in 09, I shared the design of a unified experience, is also doing, actually speaking, should be done methodically, and so on the last two beams connected, what is the specific, I first sell a case, I have always had a desire to precipitate in this team things, It is best to copy the operation of the model or effective tools, not just the output point of view or experience, the more pragmatic, more time to accumulate, the more benefit to all designers, this is TX.CDC.HCI team as the industry's largest interactive design teams should have the industry responsibility and awareness.

Starting in 08, the team entered a fast-growing period, gradually expand the team, under the new more and more people need to lead or review the project more and more, often several design projects at the same time to do the design, in addition to their own to do the design, but also to audit other people's program, time and energy are doubled pay, But these are usually difficult to reflect on personal performance, it seems to be a loss, in fact, it is only in this way to exercise their multiple concurrent processing task ability, but also let oneself have the opportunity to look at the overall situation of the team from different perspectives.

Another feeling is that under the accountability system of design, will find a person's power is too slim, that is, since then I have the idea of training the backbone of the design team, the original is only a simple master of the idea of apprentice, but found that the speed is too slow, and the other is mixed, different teachers to bring out the level of apprentice, And the original masters are too new to be honest, in the field of ERP, an industry expert more than 10 years, more than 20 years of qualifications abound, while in the Internet industry, 4, 6 years in a company to do a front-line senior designers are very few, on the one hand outside the temptation is too large, many people in the 2nd year, The third year has a chance to get a good job-hopping for me such a team, is more people are always eyeing, in fact, an interactive designer to mature, three years is a ridge, it is best to do three years, and then say to do the management or do other things, and then talk about why the three-year period, this is a bit arbitrary, With my own experience, I think I am not stupid, and some smart, 03 to join KD to 06 to leave, I have been very grateful for this experience, let me from an interactive layman, through the project, observe what is efficient process management, what is a large team job, what is the real software architecture layering, During that time I thought about a sponge, absorbing all kinds of nutrients that are useful to me, I often secretly go to listen to the sales colleague's speech sharing, borrow the project's convenience to listen to the development colleague to explain the newest java,c++ architecture technical analysis, attentively ponder the research and Development Center's annual plan ppt idea, although is a soldier, But there's a faint voice in my heart that tells me when I need to do these things one day, I do not have to have no clue, many years later, I have been very happy that I have done so many assorted classes, my process management ideas, my document management awareness, my understanding of software architecture, my love of technical speech, is not in this imperceptible influence, not 3 years of experience, the so-called comprehensive ability is not very able to translate into the real core competencies, a mature interactive designer core competencies? It is in their own professional internal complex uncertainties can be designed to "once", and to achieve the design of a clear, accurate, complete, design of the most simple scheme structure, the lowest cost to achieve. These are not simple but interactive design professionals themselves can bring.

In addition, a mature interaction designer, it is best to say, can write, can do, can do this should be the basic requirements, but to do a good job is not easy, I have a experience, is to write more technical topics, preferably when the paper to write, general technical topics, not only to make their own further thinking, will deepen the understanding of the problem, Because in writing it will be found that some of the problems originally they do not know, to give lectures are also so, write and speak seem to help others, in fact, is beneficial to their own.

Some of the core experience of being a mentor brings new people, it is important to cultivate his professional self-confidence, Chinese enterprises engaged in interactive design, or experience design, usability, product design in the name of a similar design of more and more practitioners, perhaps my prejudice, I still think that the Chinese interaction designers have not succeeded in mastering the deep technology yet, this is related to the composition of the people, most of the practitioners are mostly industrial design, even the art design of the people born, many companies rely on such a group of no development, no business experience to start the "usability" of the new The design of the road, coupled with the interactive design of the industry in fact the doorway is very low, similar to the entry threshold for product managers, you will find that a large number of people are stuck on the advanced path, and because of the lack of technical background and business knowledge, it is easy to become a tool for drawing in team warfare and is marginalized over time. Commonly known as the extras, this is not the tragedy of this profession, but should be the problem of people, no practical experience, many people talk more, feel good, one to the actual work because of the lack of technical background and business knowledge, can only rely on the design expression on a little advantage based, this is very dangerous, I summed up how I was able to work at my last company, have a great job self-confidence, in fact, summed up to the end, I think it is because of my miscellaneous, I did art, all typesetting, layout, with color, details to font size I have more experience, and because I have done web development, for object-oriented development mode, Includes basic but important software tiering, software structure, control of the derivation, refactoring, inheritance and other knowledge have to understand, the university is also graduated from finance and economics, so the mistake, found a best fit point, plus a small six months time, I was a person with great concentration of the entire software UI specification rewrite, the response is very good, I found confidence in the place where I needed to build up my professional self-confidence, and I was convinced that I was a proper interaction designer.

Let's talk about confidence, many designers are actually not confident that they are interactive designer "material" in fact, this self-confidence is not a hint of their own, it is really necessary to have a successful case to support, if you happen to have recognized success stories, then you will not doubt their "innate qualifications", This also gives me an inspiration is to develop a designer's self-confidence must be Inns, put him in the right place, give the opportunity, let him boldly to break through, encourage him in the free State to realize, don't too disturb him, once he gains real self-confidence, ordinary people can not beat him, and he will have a great sense of recognition of this profession.

The designer's work is layered, now more and more feeling, interaction designer's job is to need hierarchical layering, I have been very fond of the ebay model, as shown:

You can see your influence to where, a designer if is proficient in designs, that you are a very good design assistant, if can be able to put forward the mature plan to frameworks, that should be a very qualified interaction designer, if you have influence to strategies, even have certain decision-making power , congratulations, you deserve the respect of all hcier.

Dan says that people are at their farthest from their middle age. Because when young, can be with sex, old age can be quiet, only middle-aged, that is a role. Now, at this point in the year 10, in fact, I entered a new realm of life began, I am not very willing to speak their own history, the above is not complete, think of where to say, but are the truth, if you are on the road and my peers hcier some inspiration, I am very relieved.

(This article originates from Tencent CDC Blog, please indicate the source when reprint)