Any fool can wireframe … getting it right is the trick.

A while back I wrote WTF is UXD in an attempt to explain what user experience design is, as response to bewildered looks from clients, colleagues and most of my friends and family. There’s still ambiguity around job titles, blurring the edges of user experienced designer, interaction designer, information architect and web designers (or to make it doubly-Dutch confusing UXDs, IXDs, IAs and web designers) and, in line with Ryan Carson’s “‘UX Professional’ isn’t a Real Job” there are a lot of charlatans peddling half-baked wireframes and someone else’s personas as website panaceas. However, against Ryan’s tech-heavy list of UX capabilities (I don’t have even a passing knowledge of JavaScript, but I’ve been making / saving companies A LOT OF MONEY over the past decade), Jared ‘UIE’ Spool lists the ‘Five Indispensable Skills for UX Mastery’ as:

• Sketching
  (my article:Drawing on walls: Lo-fi prototype sketching’s quick, cheap AND good)
• Storytelling
  (my article: Once upon a time – storytelling techniques for communication)
• Critiquing
  (my article: Comparing apples with bicycles – reviewing the big picture experience)
• Presenting
  (my article: Presentation is a skill, not a human right)
• Facilitating
  (must blog about facilitation, to mirror the Royal Spool flush of articles)

But there are some core attributes that set aside the common wireframe monkey from real, proper, actual user experience professionals and these are very very simple, yet very very potent and to be frank, not everyone has them:

Adding value: If you’re not understanding where to add value or remove waste it really is just boxes and arrows. This is the biggy. If you’re not focussing on this, you really are charging money for old rope. You’re just pongo-pongo pictor vulgaris*. Stop reading and go and start adding value – you disgust me.

Relationship management: Including the areas of presenting and facilitation, any UX worth their salt must be able to articulate, demonstrate and even defend, in necessary, their work and approach with clients, suppliers, co-workers and even recruiters. Trouble is, clients come in all shapes, moods, capabilities and prejudices, so in the morning you could be shining the bright light of enthusiasm onto the hitherto ignored facilities team for your intranet project, and spending the afternoon convincing The Board that you’re right, because you’ve done the research and the testing and they’re just making it up on the spot while answering someone else’s emails on their Blackberries.

Experience: Sorry kids, this is one you can’t buy, qualify in or (unless you’re unusually talented and which case you have no need of my sagely wisdom) bluff. I’ve sometimes thought that interaction designers grow up to be user experience designers, widening their scope from the page to the big picture, but this again is just terminology (death threats or outrage to the usual address please). But experience is essential. While trying to help a friend get into the digital biz, a recruiter once said to me “there’s no such things as a junior user experience role”. When someone asks “how” and you answer, you’d better have a “because” to back it up. If you haven’t put the years in, experience can be borrowed from the knowledge of others, so keep learning. You may start, but not stop at “Don’t make think”, so keep creaming blogs, books, podcasts and blagging your way into conferences.

Enquiry: While experience gives you oven ready parboiled solutions ready to finish off in workshops, you will NEVER know as much your users, your clients, their employees – the subject matter experts. Your job is to be as good as you can get as being a UXD. I’ve worked with clients in engineering, banking, pharmaceuticals, gardening blah blah blah .. the point is, I never understood as much my clients about their businesses, but I knew how to get them to tell me what I needed to know.

Get it right: Don’t be precious about getting negative feedback. Take it on the chin and change or defend. Do the research. Build up the experience. If it’s not right, you’re not worth your money.

And lastly, adding value. Again.

You DON’T need working technical knowledge of layout languages or computer scripts. You simply need to be able to understand your objectives from your clients and colleagues and find the right solutions. Whether that be some wireframes and a site map, or the education of entire team and the overseen production of working prototypes and stakeholder engagement workshops – who knows. Well, frankly, you – that’s your job. Forge relationships, enquire into the organisational goals and audience’s needs and produce remarkable products, processes and services, whatever they may be and however they may suit each individual project.

Be bold, be bloody, and be bloody bold while you’re at it.

Add value. That is all.

The Long Dog.
*Pongo-pongo pictor vulgaris: The common wireframe monkey.

“Expert opinion comes highly priced and chiefly ignored” – The Long Dog 2009

On and off, I’ve been freelancing for a decade. In that time I’ve had some great clients and recruiters … and some not so great. So here are some observations and tips from my world.

Getting the gig – standing out from the recruiting hopefuls crowd.
Recruiters see hundreds of CVs (résumés) a week, so why are you special? Sadly most recruiters don’t care if you live or die (unless you can make them money). They also copy/paste your details into a database and whoever’s CV meets whatever they’re searching for gets the gig. Just like Google. Best bit of job application advice I got was from Nick at Zebrapeople – apply SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to my CV. What are the words and phrases recruiters searching for? ‘Experienced and accomplished consultant’? Or ‘IA,  UXD, interaction designer with 5 years experience’ / “Internal communications professional specialising in intranet and online communications”?

I’ve also asked previous clients to provide recommendations on my Linked In profile. When I send my CV to new recruiter or client, I also send a separate document with these recommendations copy/pasted in. Know what? They read them ever time and don’t have to be bothered to click on links to websites.

Expectations: How much should you lie to your clients?
‘Not at all’ is the simple answer.  Get found out – you get fired and a bullet hole in your reputation. “Under promise and over achieve” is a maxim I’ve often heard. People are constantly surprised by your ability to cough up the goods faster than was imagined. It works fine. Until, that is, some smart arse promises more and still delivers. And yes, I’ve been that smart arse. What did it get me? Extensions to a contract that lasted nearly 18 months. Nice.

Just be realistic, make sure you can deliver what you promise, actually deliver it and when it’s needed put some extra work in. But make sure your client realises this. When I was 20 I worked in a department store, on the management training scheme *snore*. I was a little too modest (no, really) and my manager / mentor would say “When you’ve done something  good tell me! If you don’t tell me, someone else will show me what they’ve done and why should I think you’re any better?”. Doesn’t mean show off, just make sure people realise when you’ve done something good for them and they’ll appreciate it.

Win battles, don’t fight wars.
If you’re a freelancer or consultant, you’re not the Director in charge. You’re paid to provide expert knowledge and to argue the case if necessary. If your client chooses to ignore your advice because they know better (and a lot think they do), then you’ll have to decided whether to fight your corner or let them send in the Light Brigade and see what happens. I’ve had to present my feeling on a  real shocker of a project. I wrote a polite, but honest one page report which was presented to the board, considered and then ignored. I wasn’t happy, but there’s a point where your opinion becomes a problem. May I refer you to the recent sacking of drugs advisor to the UK government because of his unpopular opinion? Ok … so … find the balance between your integrity and your desire for the continuation of employment and don’t let pride get in the way.  Or move on – that’s the joy of freelancing.

Be nice: People like nice people … and re-employ them
I had an odd conversation with a colleague once who angrily complained that “it seems to be the people who are all smiles and ‘nicey nicey’ who get listened to round here”. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that despite his academic qualifications and that he’d run his own 2 man agency, he was aggressive in meetings and no one was listening to what he said because they were too busy worrying about him.

We all like nice people so, without being fake, be nice. It’ll make it easier for you to communicate with your client and if something goes bad, they’ll see you as a human being, not just a resource. Being nice – much underrated. Just think: Who would you prefer to be working with?

The rest? Work it out for yourself – that’s why you get write “experienced” on your applciations.

The Long Dog

“Since the start of Facebook real conversations are down 10% and real poking is down 40%” Mark Watson, comedian

Comedy aside, it’s understandable to think that expertise is enough to get and hold onto a job or contract, but sadly it ain’t necessarily so.

Someone recently said to my friend “You’re just as good at your job as [your colleague], the difference is no one knows who you are”. And while the buzz words du jour are social media, making sure you don’t underestimate your online social capital is only half the story. Employers and clients are looking for individuals who can communicate their expertise and change hearts and minds in organisations, using their inherent real-life social skills.

Trouble with being a professional specialist is you’re often far down the food chain or at least brought in late in decision processes, to ‘make it happen’. I often find myself in positions where clients ask me for something I know is fundamentally wrong. I either have to grin and produce unworkable rubbish, wasting their money and tarnishing my reputation, or find ways to politely tell them they’ve got it wrong while not embarrassing them and giving compelling arguments for why my way is better and reassurances it’ll all be alright in the end.

Nick Cochrane is MD of digital recruitment agency Zebra People , has found that as well as professional knowledge, his clients are increasingly demanding candidates with ‘influencing’ abilities, following this very real trend for real-space social skills. To be able to show our professional peacock feathers or communicate our potentially controversial opinions, we have to consistently communicate and engage a variety of audiences.

“When you present, you’ll be trying to persuade someone to alter their behaviour, or attitude. ‘Influence’ is a pretty constant feature of everyday life and work. We’re more emotionally aware than we used to be, and as people become more aware, the dark arts of persuasion need to keep up, like an arms race.” Rob Archer, Bloom Psychology.

The moral of the story is, keep Tweeting, blogging and interacting online for a wide reach, maintain distant connections and build personal brand, but also do the other social things we hairless monkeys are so good at …

- Make sure your interpersonal skills are up to scratch (remember, “Presentation is a skill not a human right”)
-  Capitalise on your strong points and improve your weak points in social interaction – you might want to do one of the many personality profiling tests to help you identify these
- Remember that everyone you deal with is firstly human, then many things after: parent / sibling / carer / manager / director / customer
- Collaborate and share to engender good will, showcase your knowledge and create new relationships
- Stand up and be counted, or the blabber mouthed numpties will climb over you and stupidity will prevail
- Be natural and treat everyone with the same level of respect from the CEO to the cleaner

Be Human.

Er … The Long Dog

“The hardest part of a thousand mile journey is the first step” traditional Chinese proverb

Over the last four years most of my clients have been in London. Friends and colleagues balked at my one and a half hour train journey, but now I’ve really moved to the countryside and my journey’s even longer: A 280 mile  (450km)drive + 40 minutes on trains round trip weighing in at roughly nine hours all in.

Why do I do it?

Because I only do it one day a week. The rest of the week I work from my cottage in the rolling English countryside.

In this age of household broadband, social media and good quality mobile phone reception, there are few reasons why I need to be in an office, except for occasional face-to-face or kick off meeting. Thankfully my current client is enlightened, so I can work from home, avoid unnecessary travel and food bills (never mind the money I’m saving on razors) and work surrounded by home comforts. The client’s basic requirement is that I do the work they want me to, to the standard they want me to and trust me to get on with it.

UK employment law now says that employers need to consider flexible working arrangements and with a young child and a partner with ongoing health issues, for me flexible working is a necessity and not just a luxury.

But … for anyone hoping to spend their working days lolling on the sofa, languidly wafting their fingertips near their laptop and watching Jeremy Kyle / Manga / Frasier reruns (delete as appropriate) there is one vital (but often overlooked) thing you need to get grounded in reality … you still need to do the work you’d do, if you were sat at an office desk.

Some less fundamental, but equally important considerations:

Can you do your work remotely?
Not all jobs can be done without regular face-to-face interaction. If home working’s your goal, make sure you do the sort of job that employers or clients are happy for you to do on your own.

Recall distance
If you do need to suddenly get into the office, how long will it take you? The only reason we didn’t move to a perfectly lovely lighthouse keeper’s cottage on the remote, but internet connected Scottish Isle of Raasay was the 6 hour round trip to Inverness or three DAY round trip to London. The more flexible you can be, the more relaxed your employer / client can be. Also, as I write this, I’ve had a call from home to say that my partner’s unwell, so I’m rushing back home to help and look after our son. Long journey, but it does mean I’ll be there tomorrow as well (and I’ll only charge my client for half a day got today. See … flexibility).

Tools
Make sure you’re kitted out for working remotely. I now use skype for audio calls and as soon as I can find my camera I’ll be using that as well (although I suspect this is more about my client wanting to have a nosey round my new house), I have a broadband connection at home and a mobile dongle so I can move around and work anywhere. As well as the ubiquitous email, I use a lot of social sites for communicating with my peers and doing research, primarily Facebook and LinkedIn.

Setting expectations
Be clear about how you want to work, and understand what you employer / client expects of you. There’s no point arranging one day a week, to be instantly called in for an extra two days. Conversely, you need to compromise – remember, this is about getting the working conditions YOU want, so give a little to gain some more.

How do I find it overall?
On the day I get up at 4:30am to do my nine hour commute – knackering. On the other days it’s relaxing, inspiring, less stressful and I get to collect the eggs from my chickens and see my son grow up.

Signing off in uncharacteristic tranquillity,
The Long Dog