justinteractive

It’s not the first time, and I’m afraid it won’t be the last time, that I’m told by a person who is yet to meet me that “you’re production work is outstanding but we don’t see any evidence of your being able to shape a design concept based on solid research techniques”.

Hmm, it’s a bitch for a couple of reasons.

1. I’m seriously failing on communicating my abilities on paper.
2. How did I launch my own software without being able to shape design concepts?

I fall asleep thinking my way through every project from the users perspective, I am the user. I often fear I appear to be rather dumb to my peers when I ask the kinds of questions a user might ask. I watch my non-web-geek friends “doing Facebook”, I question every single process I’m ever involved in. Seriously, it’s becoming obsessive Petrol dispensers, Facebook documentation, dinner menus, the poster on the Victoria line that states (with accompanying wheelchair symbol) “Disabled exit, 100 metres on foot”.

I doubt you’ll meet many designers who painstakingly craft every pixel based on contextual research, interviews and observation. I fear that the industry middle managers believe that understanding users and understanding colour theory are mutually exclusive. Hmm, aren’t they the same folks that think you can’t write code and push pixels?

I get lots of positive feedback about how easy to use or understand my software is, it’s a bitch I don’t seem to be able to do the same thing with my own pitch!