UX Job Recruiting: What's it about?

I just recently got myself involved with the whole recruiting process of my company and I must say it's been a really interesting experience. Not something I'm very fond of doing, but something very interesting indeed. Even if I'm not really into the whole Human Resources area, there is a lot of value in how you select the people that enter your team.

My team is now growing slowly, but effectively I hope. And I wanted to share some of the strategies I put in practice for this purpose. A lot of it is new to me, too, so feel free to share your thoughts on it.

What you should look for in a prospect

I know it's an obvious remark, but I still gotta say this: He/she must have a killer portfolio. It's always an effective filter, since you can not just measure their work on quantity, but also on quality. Their way of thinking and organizing ideas is clearly visible not just in their past work, but also in the way they've put it together for a presentable portfolio. Getting a .ZIP file full of JPG images is very different from getting a PDF or a link to a personal website.

Are you a fan of social networking? This is where it all comes into play. Personally, I'm not very fond of doing this, but I recently found this infographic on the subject and it got me thinking of the value behind it. How about checking their social media presence? I ended up checking some of their blogs and it was a nice addition to what I'd already learned from them.

Then of course comes the interview. Interviews are the final breaking point, because then not only is their professional experience important. I've identified these following factors:

1. Their enthusiasm is a key aspect of their qualifications. They should enjoy themselves doing what they do!
2. The way they interact with you. If you are going to be working with them, there should be a favorable interaction between the two of you. Are they open-minded? Are they introverted or extroverted? Do you see them in a team with you?
3. Can you maintain a conversation easily with them? And I mean, other than about the weather of course. They must be willing to speak their minds about the stuff they'll be dealing with on a daily basis.
4. They should be self-confident. And I don't mean self-confident to a point where they start being obnoxious because this is a big minus. Self-confidence involves knowing what you're talking about and saying it in a way that demonstrates you do. That doesn't involve repeating 'I this' or 'I that'.
5. Their future aspirations and goals. Do they fit in with what you have in mind for them?

What you as a recruiter must accomplish

What? Of course there's also the stuff you need to impress them with! You're not only evaluating them, you're selling them the idea of working with you. And this isn't just something I asumed, but something I've personally experienced being on the other side of the coin.

When I was a full-time developer (oh, those days...) I had the misfortune of going to the must stressful and degrading interview I've gone to in my life. I'm not going to say where it was, of course, out of respect. But they were so mean to me that, even though in the end I convinced them I could do the job, they'd already convinced me not to work for them. The money didn't even matter to me after that, even though it was well payed considering the experience I had back then. They'd asked me uncomfortable personal questions, the team leader had almost barked at me and stared at me doubtfully during a painfully long session of question-answer, and the place was creepy as hell. Needless to say, even after they called me back a few times trying to convince me, I was the one who rejected the offer.

In short, we need to convince them as well. How?

1. You should be friendly. This should be obvious but... well, if you read my story, it isn't always like that.
2. Let them know you enjoy your job. They must understand that, if they work for you, they'll enjoy it. It shouldn't look like something they'll hate waking up for every morning.
3. Be clear and specific about everything. What will they be doing? How does your team work? What are the abilities required from them? What benefits do they get for working with you?
4. Don't turn the interview into a good cop/bad cop drama. You can get the data you need without being rude or pushy.

I hope this helps, good luck with your future recruitments!

New Projects for November

Hi everyone! And sorry that again I've been away from my fabulous blog (I still love it even if I can't post on it, I've worked so much on it!). But I assure you it's been for good reasons.

Let me elaborate on my new projects:

1. I opened a new blog! I wanted to work on something in spanish, given that it's my first language and I have a considerable audience that speaks spanish. It's a little different from this one and I decided to make it on Tumblr because of the dinamics. It's called Diario de Usabilidad (Usability Diary) because it'll consist on small, daily tips learned on the job. I hope I can share useful stuff with everyone.
   
   
2. I'm a busy speaker now, I was invited to my old college to give a special talk on mobile design this coming Friday, and next November 10th I'll be part of the chosen speakers on the event held at the UANL (local government college) for the World Usability Day.
   
   
3. At my office we'll also be starting a new project for design and development bootcamps! So locals, stay tunned to my new blog where I'll be announcing everything.

How's that? Of course this blog will remain, for more elaborate, non-daily posts. Just be patient with me :D

Blogger's new iOS app

I can't tell you just how excited I was to hear about the new Blogger app! I literally read a tweet about it, downloaded it an started writing this post!

It's a fairly good approach, I must say. It has very simple design, which is appropriate since you, as a writer, don't really want anything getting in your way. After you choose the blog you want to update, there's a listing of all your blog posts you can easily update with the now-so-popular scroll-down method.

One can directly choose whether to view, edit or delete a post through said list by using the right-hand side arrow. I must say, though, its size is a tad bit inconvenient. That is one difficult tap because of the arrow being so small.

I loved the posting form, it reminds me of the one provided by Tumblr's mobile version, which I have always found very enjoyable to use.

All in all, it's a good UX for a first version, if you grant them that listing detail. I think I'm going to start using it a lot, that might increase my number of updates.

This post was partly written using the Blogger app, by the way. And I say 'partly' since the app doesn't let you arrange images. You can attach them, but not arrange them. It just pastes them at the end of the post, one after another. But most of the work could be done through the app, so simple posts can be accomplished.

Additional note: I didn't notice right away, but the app also seems to have issues with special characters used for the title (like the one I'm using for this title in particular). Something to look out for.

What are your thoughts on it? Have you tried it yourself?

Starting with HTML5 and CSS3: Two Books Away

My complete knowledge on HTML5 and CSS3 had been with my previous coding experience with JQuery Mobile, since the library implements both. I still didn't have the concepts quite clear, though. I chose to get started with a couple of books that are available at the A Book Apart store.

I could just go ahead and say 'buy the red one and the green one' but I think they deserve a more insightful review, since they have proved to be so useful.

HTML5 for Web Designers

What I loved the most about this book is that it helped me understand each and everyone of the new markup tags, not just their overall functionalities, but also their specifics. The book provides very in-depth comparisons between how something is commonly done and how something can be more easily or efficiently done through the use of HTML5.

Most importantly, though, it maintains a cross-browser mentality. Of course, many of us already know HTML5 is still not supported by a lot of browsers (and, surely enough, again most of our problems begin with an I and end with an E, if you know what I mean). Hence, this book is always providing alternatives for the non-supported features of HTML5, focusing on the specific browser that ignores each tag and how to overcome that situation.

All in all, it's worth reading it not only to learn how to use HTML5, but also to stop fearing it. If you need encouragement to start working with it, then this is the book you should go to.

CSS3 for Web Designers

I could vaguely say that the same review applies. It fully explains and details the new features of CSS3 (though not all of them, but its scope is more than enough for starters).

What makes this book unique, though, are its examples. Every explanation comes with a practical example. I was lucky to have enough time to sit in front of my laptop with the book and code each example as I read about it. I can assure you it works pretty well that way. If you can't do that, it will become a useful reference anyway, for when you actually need to code something along those lines.

A complement for this book is the one I reviewed last month on Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte. Dan Cederlholm's book doesn't cover media queries, but Ethan's does. Read both of them and you'll be all set.

By the way, two great books are coming up at the A Book Apart store: Designing for Emotion by Aaron Walter and Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski. I'm a big fan of both of them, you can bet anything that I will be buying those books as soon as they're out next month.

UX Lessons with SpringPad

Now and then we all bump into some application that makes our lives brighter and easier, so why not talk about it? We can always learn from what they're doing right.

And I want to start doing this by talking about SpringPad

If you're anything like mw, with a bunch of bookmarks scattered everywhere, you probably took up the task of searching for the right online tool that can make those bookmarks available for you everywhere.

But it doesn't end there.

Don't you have wishlists, notes, pictures, and task lists scattered around too? Really, what's the point of using a thousand apps to organize all of it when must of the time they're related?

That's where SpringPad comes into action.

The big picture is just that. The SpringPad application allows you to store any of those in organized folders. It also allows you to share stuff with your friends on SpringPad, sticking to our current social paradigm.

But there's more.

Going mobile - Of course there's a SpringPad application for your phone. It's the exact same experience as on the web, which is already very pleasant. No more steps on either one of them.

Adapting it to your browser - There's also an alternative to quickly add stuff to your SpringPad account via your browser. By adding a special bookmark, you become fully integrated with SpringPad's options, not only for bookmarking but for events, alarms and tasks as well.

Also, if you want the full functionality integrated to your browser, you should switch to using either Firefox (why would you do that?) or Google Chrome (please do that!). There's an existing plugin/extension for both of them.

An easy-to-use interface - Tasks on SpringPad are pretty simple. In one, two steps at the most, you can add content and organize it.

Fully customizable - Customizing your accounts makes them feel more like 'home', doesn't it? SpringPad allows you a very limited, but very sufficient amount of customization that makes everything look like its yours (changing your background image, adding an avatar, creating a profile, giving your folders specific colors). This customization extends to your mobile and browser extension experiences, too.

I know all these statements make it sound like I'm getting paid to promote this app or something of the sort, but I just really enjoy finding such a useful application, specially one that solved many problems I had at once.

What other applications have saved your life lately?

When we 'asume the user knows'

I'll confess I'm an Amazon virgin. Why?

Now, don't look at me like that. I know it's weird, but I just enjoy bookstores too much. Nevertheless, when a book's not there, it's not there, and I decided I'd give Amazon a try.

Since I was a first-timer, after deciding to start the check out process, they asked for me to register, which is actually a very fast step. It's fast... but it could be better, wouldn't you agree? I just happened to encounter a tiny problem...

This may not seem like much of a problem at first glance. Well, no, now that I think about it, it does even at first glance! Let's review in a more obvious kind of way...

I asumed it was because my password didn't have any numbers or special characters in it, but... is this really the best way to let me know? Of course not.

It was, in fact, because of the lack of numbers. But I'm a user that quickly asumed that. I can bet you a lot of money my father would've been staring at the screen for a really long time. And he is used to buying stuff online.

This problem, though, is not an e-commerce specific scenario. It's the password, after all. But looking a little beyond the actual data, we can see it's a problem generated by lack of information.

Is it really too difficult to include something on the lines of 'Your password should have numbers'?

There's a link that leads you to tips on how to create a password, but the word 'tips' doesn't imply obligation. It implies suggestion.

And I'm asuming it was because of the numbers... and not because of the length.

Really, now that I think about it... was it the length?

We need to avoid confusing our poor users like this. Correct vocabulary, choice of words, and, of course, enough information (just enough) are key aspects of our site's communication with the users.

For the record, the rest of the check-out process is very user-friendly. I liked it.

The Pros and Cons of Responsive Web Design

As you probably read on the last post, I just recently finished reading Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte. And, in risk of repeating myself too much, I think it's one of the best web design related books I've read so far. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, you can read Ethan's introductory article on the subject.

But, even though responsive web design seems like a very impressive approach, is it always the right solution to your task at hand?

We should remember that it's never just about implementing the latest design trend there is. Before thinking about investing time, money and resources on responsive web design implementation, we must consider the following:

• Does it align itself to our site's objectives?
• Do our users expect the exact same of the website when they visit it on mobile as when they do on their computers?
• Do we have the resources to do it?
• Do our time schedules allow it?

I'd like to review a couple of statements against and in favor of its use

Reasons to consider Responsive Web Design

• One solution to rule them all - Admit it, having a single version of a website that works on every screen width and device is a pretty great deal. It will not only be benefical for the users, it will also be easier to maintain afterwards.
  
  
• Avoiding device-alternating issues - One of the main downfalls of building both, a desktop version and a mobile version of a site, is the fact either way the user is likely to share the URL, and the person who opens that shared link isn't always using the same device through which it was shared. Responsive web design avoids this effectively.
  
  
• It's not just about the device - Even if we have a very large screen, we don't always have a full-screen sized window open for the web browser. With a responsive web site, even if the window is resized, we never end up with that horrible horizontal scroll.
  
  
• Attacking media display issues - Of course, a responsive website has to consider resizable media, in formats that can be viewed from every device.
  
  
• Designing for mobile first - By now, I'm sure everyone is familiar with Luke Wroblewski's motto of designing for mobile first, which is something we are practically forced to do while implementing responsive web design. This way, content that isn't really needed by the user is avoided in the final result.

Reasons NOT to consider Responsive Web Design

• Development times and resources - Building a responsive website has its complexity. Do you have the time (considering your previously established delivery dates) to do it correctly? Are there people on your team capable of doing it or do they need training? Do you have the time for that training?
  
  
• Cross-browser compatibilities - HTML5 and CSS3 are very powerful allies for building a responsive website, but we all know that there are still many compatibility issues regarding these languages. Alternate ways of achieving the same results may be necessary, which brings a new issue to the list...
  
  
• Loading times - Internet connection on mobile devices is still a greater issue than on common computers, which brings this topic to the table. Responsiveness requires extra server calls due to cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility issues (yes, we are back on the IE topic). Media alternating also needs additional server calls, or else resizing a huge image everytime will also result in slower loading times since the same 700x700 image is still loaded on a 320x480 screen.
  
  
• Different devices, varying objectives - The objective of the desktop site (often informative as well as functional) is not always the same requested of the mobile version (often just functional, and not to the same extent of the full website). This makes it necessary to work on different versions for each purpose.
  
  
• Image resizing restrictions - Image resizing is a very important topic for responsiveness. But think about advertising. There are pre-established sizes for web advertising, and resizing or croping ads may result in harmful distortion.

So, as for every other available solution, the conclusion is that you must judge it for yourself. Consider every aspect of it and of your current project. Is it what you need?