Development, Usability, and Experience

Getting my hands dirty

July 1st, 2010 6:17 am —  14 views
1 Comment 

I’m supposed to golf tonight. It’s been two weeks since I golfed. Last week I was on an airplane coming back from Hoboken, New Jersey. And I’m supposed to be on vacation today but there are two meetings that won’t be rescheduled.

My desk is still a littered mess. Not with articles and textbooks, but things that need sort of need my attention…but not immediately.

A couple weeks ago I received my degree in the mail. Everything was spelled correctly with fancy paper and lettering. When I received it I was pleasantly surprised for some reason. Maybe because I wasn’t really waiting for it. Already it seems a long time ago.

My days are filled with meetings followed by bursts of engagement and interaction with multiple subjects, people, machines, and information. All working on the same things, but only some see the connections. I see some of these connections nobody else can see. It makes things more interesting. And more challenging.

This morning I have a meeting with about 15 people scattered around the globe, all remote via audio, at least 6 with video, sharing a desktop view on the presenter’s computer. I have three monitors so the middle panel is the shared view, the two outside monitors for docs, taking notes, chatting with coworkers, monitoring systems, etc. This lasts an hour. During this hour I’ll present on a research paper four of us collaborated on over the last couple weeks. But mostly the last two days. For me it was into last night.

It’s a lot like school. But it’s more work. And there’s never enough time.

Related Posts

Degree requirements completed

April 22nd, 2010 11:22 am —  75 views
5 Comments 

I just cleared off my desk. There were stacks of books, papers, and piles of scribbled notes. A couple hours ago I had problem sets and discussion notes and previous exams spread out as a supportive cast for the statistics take home final I was working on and which is now finished.

And I can say just finished, even though it was 47 minutes ago1. That’s is nothing compared to how much time has passed since I posted my first blog entry after having attended my first graduate degree lecture. My brain was on fire. I was seeing collections everywhere. I had a noisy Dell tower keeping me warm and I thought it was awesome.

That was a long time ago. I wondered how long so found a site that would calculate the date from my first post to this post. Here it is, the time spent indentured to the pursuit of a Masters degree nobody understands and a blog that is marginally entertaining.2

3 years, 7 months, and 14 days
(114,220,800 seconds)3

I made it through. I learned a lot.4 I understand so much better the connected world accessed through designed interfaces. From the infrastructure, to the design, to the psychology, to the usability, to the study of what works and what doesn’t when people and computers come together. Nerdy IA/UX stuff that people building stuff should know and understand.

And it’s changing all the time. People are connected through technology in ever increasing ways. Regardless of device we find ways to stay connected, to communicate, to interact synchronously and asynchronously. This is leading to more connected social networks with broader reach and dispersion.

Someone who understands and can adjust to the ramifications of a connected society while leveraging available technology is needed in virtually every industry. At a high level, that’s what school has trained me to do. All along I’ve been exercising that training in the real world, in my real job.5

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next. In the mean time, I should probably mow and do some vacuuming or something. Maybe eat some lunch.

Image: Taken walking to one of my last sessions at the B school last week.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  1. …according to my status on Facebook. [↩]
  2. Not entirely true, but I recall most reactions when I’d tell someone my specialization. It wasn’t like being told you’d won a pony or a spaceship. [↩]
  3. Summers are counted because the shadow of fall class looms distant, on slow approach. [↩]
  4. And recently about alots. [↩]
  5. The same job from which I took a vacation day today to focus on my last take home final. [↩]

Related Posts

It’s late and nearly over

April 13th, 2010 10:01 pm —  18 views
1 Comment 

I drove back into town tonight to meet with some classmates to work on a presentation that we’re giving on Thursday. At the moment I’m listening to some Robert Cray. I should be working on something but I’m not.

But in reality, I don’t have a ton left to do. The presentation is coming along as well as can be expected given the circumstances. It’s not a significant portion of our grade but I still want it to be good. Our research isn’t terribly interesting, but we’re exercising skills we’ve learned over the last 12 weeks, so that’s something.

Less than two weeks until the focus of the last four years comes to an end. Then a fast week wrapping up stuff, getting commencement tickets, a gown, and preparing the house for guests…then graduation.

You want it. I want it. It’s time. Is it going to matter?

Classmates over the last few years are now working for Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft. I work for a pretty big company already.

Will I be able to leverage my usability, design, and development skills to blaze a brighter future? I sure hope I get the chance. Time will tell.

Related Posts

Four More Weeks, Lost in Laptops

March 29th, 2010 5:55 am —  31 views
2 Comments 

My statistics professor1 loves statistics, there is no doubt, but student participation during lecture isn’t great.2 There are about 35 students (when everyone shows up) and only 5 or 10 of us say anything all semester. You know who you are.

Every student has a laptop and seems to pay more attention to it than the professor.3 The professor has cleverly taken to using an online tool called LectureTools.4

With LectureTools she can post slides of the lectures. We can basically annotate the slides to leave notes. It also allows her to post questions which we can answer during lecture.5 She’ll ask us to answer a question then will call up the results.

When she asks about the answers nobody wants to admit having answered. Nobody responds. The look on her face is like, “Seriously? I know you guys are here, you just voted. Hello?”

I think she’s on to something though. If you’re all going to be in a room together where you can see and hear but are also networked, make use of it for learning. LectureTools holds a lot of promise, keep at it Lada.

It’s easy to get distracted though. At one point the prof (running her lecture off her laptop) switches to an email to find a link to something funny and relevant…I forget exactly what it was because I got lost for a second.

Understand that if the professor mentions a famous person, theory or event, many of us launch a browser tab and Google it. The next 5 or 10 seconds spent skimming data. Augmenting the lecture with facts, figures, pictures.

I started skimming this blog of “indescribable awesomeness” and almost bust out laughing. With practiced discipline I brought my facilities back to lecture. Just barely. A few days later W. and I are looking at some of the older posts and were laughing so hard we were in tears.

But anyway, back to school stuff, this blog, and it’s final days.

There are basically four more weeks of classes. The fourth week is committed to a take-home final in statistics. In one of my classes, I have only 3 more weeks. So even though it’s four weeks total, it’s less than that even. The next 2 weekends are going to be all about writing final reports, wrapping up a 25 page white paper, and a couple more problem sets for stats.

After that I graduate and move on.

Image: Taken on the way to study group and a group meeting in the Ross Business School. This is looking through the class toward a huge granite staircase.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  1. Before I had my first class with her, I remember an email being sent to SI students to vote for her on Wired.com. [↩]
  2. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that many are there because statistics is a requirement. [↩]
  3. Except for one person who shares with a friend for LectureTools stuff. [↩]
  4. It was a rough start, but a couple weeks into class she went to a session on how to use it and things improved considerably. [↩]
  5. We can also post questions which she checks every now and then to answer. [↩]

Related Posts

Long Hard Road

March 17th, 2010 10:17 pm —  11 views
1 Comment 

“You know there’s something that you need to know, it’s gonna be alright.”1.

A glance at the clock. It’s 11pm. I usually try call it a night by 11pm. The last couple nights I’ve seen 12:30pm before I made myself stop looking at the clock. Just had to get some stuff done.

Sometimes I think it’s because I have to serialize myself through this keyboard. Kickin’ it QWERTY style. If only I could find that gadget to keep me connected. Maybe it’s time for the iPhone. I want to be able to talk to something and have it sent me an email of what I said. I want my house to listen and respond to information requests. That’s probably a way off though.

Sought some decompression today through golf. It was sunny and warm. First round of the year. The next won’t be for another month. I golfed with a retired aero-space engineer and an incredibly fit asian neuro-surgeon medical student who will learn tomorrow where his 7 year neuro-surgery residency will be. His first choice? John Hopkins in Baltimore. He golfed par. I don’t know what I golfed. I didn’t keep score.

It’s been a long hard road the last few years. Taking classes to fulfill this degree has been arduous. I’m a better person for it. I’ve learned a lot and have been applying what I learn as I’ve been learning it. But still, something is missing. I think it’s interaction, engagement, co-creation. I’m not sure. I’m getting closer though. I love creating things that are useful and get people to interact.

Apparently my personality is one that thrives on feedback and interaction. I need feedback to make good decisions. Otherwise I feel like I’m wandering aimlessly, lost. I find it hard to get people to give you their feedback straight up. Not everybody is a waltzing bear.

W. was asleep when I got home tonight. She mumbled acknowledgement when I rubbed her leg so hopefully she doesn’t wake up later and wonder where I am. My mother used to have us wake her up when we got home late from babysitting. She didn’t want to wake up later and wonder if we’d made it home. She’d say weird things though, dredged from whatever dream she was having.

I didn’t leave the B school until about 10:00pm. After chatting with classmates and walking across campus through throngs of drunken beaded students wearing alls kinds of green I didn’t get home and connected until about 10:40pm. Surf the nets, look for feedback, then give some. Capture the moment.

I’m listening to Sade. I’m tired. I have class tomorrow morning. I have lots to do at work. Spring is parked out front. The living rushing by. Missing my cat every day.

Image: I just like this tree and building. Took this picture last week walking to West Hall.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  1. Sade, Soldier of Love, “Long Hard Road” [↩]

Related Posts

Next Page →