After School UX

In the fourth installment of AfterSchoolUX, I talked with Yujia Zhao, a 2010 graduate of Indiana University’s HCI/d graduate program. Yujia and I talked just before she moved to the Bay Area from Salt Lake City. She is currently a User Experience Designer at Ooyala. Topics we talked about include: dealing with constraints, working in a sales and engineering driven organization, how to sell UX, and the joy of working with fuzzy problems. You can follow Yujia on Twitter here: yujia

In the third installment of AfterSchoolUX, I talked with Elisha Allgood, a 2011 graduate of Indiana University’s HCI/d graduate program. Elisha is currently an interaction designer at HUGE in Brooklyn, NY. Before HUGE, she worked at SproutBox in Bloomington, IN. Topics we talked about include: getting to design execution (vs thinking), working in an agency, getting involved in design for good, and much more. Some of the books that were brought up in our conversation: Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell Eyetracking Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen

In the second installment of AfterSchoolUX, we’re talking with Brandon Stephens a 2009 graduate of Indiana University’s HCI/d graduate program. He’s currently an interaction designer at JobVite after working with Lextant, Nationwide Insurance and Medium Large. Topics we talked about included: the rise of UX in Columbus, OH, how job application software sucks, the importance of mentorship, strategic vs tactical UX, the MidWestUX conference, books to read and much more. You can follow Brandon on Twitter here: bpstephe Some of the books that were mentioned: Sketching User Experiences by Bill Buxton Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge Observing the User Experience by Mike Kuniavsky Thoughts on Interaction Design by Jon Kolko Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko also, all of Don Norman’s books: The Design of Everyday Things The Design of Future Things Emotional Design Living With Complexity

Binaebi Akah and Rachel Bolton-Nasir kick off the inaugural After School UX conversation. Both are 2010 graduates of IU’s HCI/d grad program. They join us from Columbus,OH and Brooklyn, NY respectively. Binaebi is an experience designer and user researcher currently working at WD Partners as a User Experience Design Associate. Rachel works at MISI Company as an Experience Architect, doing a little bit of everything UX. Topics covered in this episode: applying UX methodologies at work, soft skills, working with clients and developers and the challenge of making designs delightful. Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive list, so have a listen to get all the other gems. As we continue this series, we’d love to know what you think. Ping us on Twitter or leave a comment!