Job Interview Tomorrow
I have a job interview tomorrow, doing web design part time for EMU. I dread the prospect of getting a corporate design job. The worst part about design work is the subjectivity. I like coding websites better than designing them because I can nail down the specifications. You wanted the site to do X; we objectively defined it; Look! Now it does X. I hold out my hand. That will be money dollars. Design clients don't like it when I give them a site that I think looks good. So I try to nail down what outcome will please them. But they don't know.
With corporate nine-to-five web design, you've got to justify your existence on the payroll by continuing to do more stuff as long as you are on the clock. But my philosophy of web design is to do the minimum stuff possible and make it the right stuff. My favorite web design of all time is Isotropic.org's implementation of the card game Dominion, which probably disqualifies me as a designer.
It's just like when I pick out clothes in the morning. Just get the content up. Make it dark-colored text on a light background. Make the CSS a liquid layout so that it will flow when they resize the browser. Put white space between elements. Use repetition, contrast, alignment, and proximity. Obey usability principles. Then for the love of all that wins the internet, please stop.
But unfortunately there are more hours on the clock than that. So I get into a big fight with a co-worker about whether to treat the web as if it were a print document. As if our company can take control from the user. As if the user wants us to take control. Is there anyone who will stand up for the people who actually have to put up with the site when looking for information? I do not like getting employed in a position where my job is to make the web worse for the people browsing it.
I just hope I am not expected to add excessive ornamentation, or pointless stock photography of anonymous models who viewers don't care about. This job is even going to make me use fucking Dreamweaver. I can work with Dreamweaver if I have to. Actually, Dreamweaver is not something you work with, it's something you work against.
Here's hoping EMU is a relatively hands-off employer!
Comments
sorcycat on Nov. 4, 2010 3:22 PM
One thing you could do with that extra time is spend it doing some usability analysis, like Cognitive Walkthru, Personas, and other techniques from HCI which can be performed by a single person. Then you can point to that analysis as evidence against some new 'feature' the crazies want won't impact the end user or another new feature which impacts the users negatively.
matt-arnold on Nov. 4, 2010 3:36 PM
I'm not sure how to get people to participate in user testing, but I will definitely give some thought to that.
sorcycat on Nov. 4, 2010 3:38 PM
The techniques I listed don't require users.
matt-arnold on Nov. 4, 2010 8:36 PM
I've done a little reading on them, and maybe I need to do some more, but I'm not sure how they constitute evidence of anything but my own state of mind.
sorcycat on Nov. 5, 2010 12:42 AM
Personas are, in fact, designed to get you out of your own state of mind. Here's an exercise. Think of a person who might want to buy a car. Is this a soccer mom or a guys who needs a truck to haul stuff for his job? Now, go to http://www.edmunds.com/ and try to buy a car. See if the information your character wants is readily available and obvious to access.
matt-arnold on Nov. 5, 2010 3:28 AM
That sounds useful. The tricky bit would be making sure I'm painting a picture of a significant number of the site's actual users.
atropis on Nov. 4, 2010 7:23 PM
good luck!
matt-arnold on Nov. 4, 2010 7:41 PM
Thanks!
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