[IxDA Discuss] JOB UX Designer, Fulltime/Permanent Role, Recruiter, Redmond, WA

[Katie Albers]

At 9:54 AM -0400 10/9/07, Matthew Nish-Lapidus wrote:
>I humbly disagree...   A good technical background in
>html/css/javascript allows an interaction designer the freedom to
>prototype interfaces in a much more efficient way.   Working with a
>full-time programmer to prototype can be time consuming and isn't
>always possible.
>
>If you understand the technology and how it works then you know not
>only what is and isn't possible, but how systems react and change in a
>very detailed way.  As an interaction designer for the web you need to
>keep up with interface technologies or you won't know what to design.

Let me see...how do I put this politely...If we'd been adhering to 
this logic in 1993, you'd be out of a job. So would I. The Web was 
strictly a markup language. People developing perl apps for pages 
were on the cutting edge...and that was purely for very limited 
functions...it certainly had nothing to do with interface.

If your background is in the system, then you can't have the 
viewpoint of the user. The more completely aware you are of the 
former, and the more you design around it, the less you can design 
for the latter.

The reason UX exists is precisely because all the incarnations of the 
work that preceded it which were supposed to enable users rather than 
accommodating machines have disappeared into system/software/hardware 
fields...systems analysis to choose one at random.

Being able to prototype is, first of all, something that exists at 
many levels...paper, interactive wireframes, basic html, and so 
forth...prototypes are not the same thing as a .01 functioning 
version of the product.

The impossible becomes possible when you don't know it can't be done. 
Deeply understanding a programming language traps most coders in its 
logic. It's the difference between telling people "Find a way to do 
this" and "Optimize this code" and the results vary accordingly.


>On 10/9/07, Ari Feldman <ari1970 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  the only value that having a programming or technical background when it
>>  comes to interaction/interface design is understanding the limitations of
>>  what's possible under a given technical platform or operating system. this
>>  background really comes in handy when it comes to designing efficient and/or
>>  usable interfaces and working around physical restrictions that various
>>  technologies impose.
>
>--
>Matt Nish-Lapidus
>email/gtalk: mattnl at gmail.com


Katie
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Katie Albers
User Experience Consulting & Project Management
katie at firstthought.com