CHI2 Town Panel

On April 5 I was invited by Brian Maggi to speak with Mark FelcanSmith [Allstate] Frank Gruger [Motorola] & Jason Kunesh [Orbitz], at the Depaul Center at 1 East Jackson. Frank & Brian recorded the event for a podcast - I think elaborate mixing & sweetening is occurring as you read this.

Pre-talk dinner at the Exchequer loosened tongues & elicited shared histories with several of us having journeyed to the West Coast and/or back, and this became one of the first topics of the panel in terms of the opportunities available both here & there. My comments centered on the differences in the kinds of business endeavors which predicated a much more conservative environment here.

I find far less frivolous business ventures here - no pets.com or flash in the pan outfits like Friendster. What Chicago has is brick & mortar businesses who tend to be in a discovery phase with User Experience Design & HCI concerns; this means that there is vast opportunity. The logical corollary is a requirement for significant education; the panel agreed that IT departments were very much the gatekeepers here, and tended to be suspicious of anyone from outside their world-view. Luckily for us, there are many supportive currents in the media, both tech & general, that are helping open these doors.

Brian moderated, goaded & cajoled with great skill, keeping the conversation flowing. The structure of the event was simple Q & A, but as the panelists had many years of experience between them, stories & opinions were anything but lacking.

Adam Steele - in a moment of brilliant academic scheduling - brought his DePaul class. There were a couple of questions regarding what to show in an interview - I think the first one was whether you should show a book. YES, definitely was the resounding answer.

But what kind of book? The answer from the panel was unanimous - all of us wanted to see evidence of process. I recall it was Mark FelcanSmith who said show how you got there. I reinforced his comment by saying that I would rather see the process steps of three examples - problem statements, concept, iterations, solutions, results - than 15 unconnected finished pieces.

If you actually make it to an interview, then it gives both of you something worthwhile to talk about. How you developed an idea leas to methodology discussions of how you approach the stages of a process & how you deal with collaborative environments. UXD or HCI work is a team event - particularly as a junior, you are not likely to be handed a problem and told to come back with a solution in two days.

There will be Business Analysts, Developers, Senior designers & Clients working together to solve what is usually a complex series of problems. Work needs to be produced in a way that allows for comment, technical realities or epiphanies or creative market approaches. So the ability to work in stages is crucial.

Many other questions were asked & answered - I will link in the podcast when it appears. Thanks to Brian & the other panelists for an enjoyable evening & freely sharing their stories.