In response to me beaming about my job, Kevin wrote:

Would you say that you are doing all the things you were trained to do at the School of Informatics?

I got to see Matt and Apurva over the weekend, and one of the things that came up was how little their jobs resembled what we do. Apurva took a job that doesn’t really understand HCI, and Matt spends the bulk of his time doing wireframes.

I know you took an extra course, essentially, when you started your job, but where does the School of Informatics training fit in?

Well, I think I should respond to that. I’ll take them a paragraph at a time…

Would you say that you are doing all the things you were trained to do at the School of Informatics?

Kinda. I’m doing a lot of stuff that I was trained to do at the School of Informatics. Still, I’m doing my fair share of wireframes, lo-mid-hi fidelity prototypes, and the like. A lot of what I do simply has to do with communicating exactly what I am trained to do, so that I can go forth and do it. This takes a lot of trust from my coworkers…generally when I explain my game plan at the outset of a project, I’ll get strange looks. By the end, though, so far it seems that people think the results are noticeably better than the inputs.

The most invaluable part of my IU HCI/d education has been the “d.” Without a doubt, the tools that earn me the most gratification are my Design sensibilities, which Marty, Eli, Erik, Youn, my Graphic Design courses, as well as all my classmates, helped me to find. Ideas like Computer Imagination still inspire me, but a lot of our clients generally aren’t ready to think in terms of “pie in the sky” ideas…they want grounded results, ASAP. As I gain experience, I hope to be a stronger advocate of Computer Imagination in my workplace, but for now I’m simply here to make my clients & their customers happy.

I got to see Matt and Apurva over the weekend, and one of the things that came up was how little their jobs resembled what we do. Apurva took a job that doesn’t really understand HCI, and Matt spends the bulk of his time doing wireframes.

Look, I’m not saying my job is perfect. There are times when I get fed up with technology-centered thinking, and am frustrated and feel like an outsider. The difference with a place like ThoughtWorks is that the people are really open to new ways of thought, especially if they’re backed by some academic rigor. Many people here don’t necessarily understand HCI, especially the intricate differences between Usability, UI Design, Interaction Design, and the like…but my coworkers have been very interested to learn about them.

Just a few weeks ago I taught a room full of about 30 coworkers and clients about User Centered Design. They were psyched to see how easy lo-fi prototyping and basic usability testing can be, and some of them planned on carrying the ideas out on their own projects. The people around me yearn to learn, and that makes my job somewhat easier.

There have been lows though. Like when I was told I should go read the Windows User Interface Manual. And when people have kurtly told me to “make the app pretty.” It’s at this point that I know that I have my real work cut out…not only do I have to do what they ask for, but also get them into a state where they can be ready to learn about what an Interaction Designer is meant to do. Yeah, I guess a lot of my job is just about being accepting of opinions and doing some work that I don’t love in order to open the doors to the stuff I love to do, like talking to real users.

Hey Matt & Apurva (and others) – if you want a piece of this action, let me know. I can hook you up with a recruiter. 😉

I know you took an extra course, essentially, when you started your job, but where does the School of Informatics training fit in?

ThoughtWorks University was a fantastic educational experience, and I am so glad I was able to take part in that. The most important part of that experience was meeting and hanging out with my new coworkers from all over the world for 6 weeks in a foreign country. The next best part was learning about the techniques that ThoughtWorks uses with our clients, which generally fall into the category of Agile Development. Now, the somewhat highly structured Development methodologies like the ones that fall under the category of Agile are far different from Eli & Marty’s PRInCiPleS, which encourages free thought…but there are still many overlaps between the two. Being able to think above standard practices and processes served me well at TWU, and I think I have Informatics to thank for that.

You can’t forget the 7 Themes. Those come up all the time.

My graphic design classes in the School of Fine Arts were also invaluable. I highly recommend those to all HCI/d folks.

Above all else, the School of Informatics gave me the confidence to walk into a growing company and feel like a leader in my field. I can talk with authority on subjects ranging from Design to Usability to HCI to Innovation, and on and on.

Finally, there’s a lot of talk around TW about how they recruit and hire the best and brightest. This can be intimidating to many. It hasn’t been all that intimidating for me, though…I’ve been among the best and brightest in the world of HCI/d for the past 2 years…so I know I can hold my own in a room full of brilliant people. (It sounds cheesy, but it’s true.)

What else?

Of course, there’s some stuff that I learned before I came to IU that has helped me as well. I had a degree that said “HCI” before I came to the School of Informatics. 🙂 Studying the Contextual Design process changed my life at UCSD, and becoming familiar with the literature that has come out of the field of HCI over the past 30 or so years definitely helped. So yeah, some mad props are also in order for my other alma mater.

So yeah, I hope that answers your questions, Kevin. And I also hope it wasn’t overkill. 😉