New York

by U2 from All That You Can't Leave Behind

Hi all again. Decided to add an entry to update all of you (all 2 of you) I suppose of some recent going-ons in my life. First off, is that I signed-up for a sprint triathlon, the Stanford Treeathlon. It is a 500 meter swim, 20K bike, and 5K run. So for the past three to four weeks, I have been what one could consider, under generous terms, "training." So I have been biking more often, although with all the rain has made that difficult at times. I have also been going to bootcamp as usual. As also, I have made it out to the pool the past three weekends. Way back in a past life, I was a competitive swimmer who trained year round. Eventually, all that training (14 hours in the pool plus weight training) burned me out right when I started to be "good." So not surprisingly I stayed out of swimming for many years after. So when I jumped back into the pool, let's just say "how the mighty have fallen..." I used to do 100 yard sets on 1:20 intervals (meaning I averaged 1:10 per 100). I timed myself and I am at 1:50 now. So yeah, I am nowhere near where I used to be which is kinda depressing. But then again I should remember I am dragging 40 more pounds through the water now than I did back then. The triathon is next weekend so wish me luck. Hopefully I won't be a walking corpse by the time I finish.

Work-wise has been uber busy. I am assigned to two major projects, which means dealing with two product teams. One team I really enjoy working with since they are super engaged and place a very high priority on valuing and incorporating user experience. The second product team, well.... There is a scene towards the end of one my favorite movies, Before Sunset, where Julie Deply's character explains that one of the major reasons she loves her cat is because everyday she takes it into her yard and everytime the cat thinks it is the first time he has ever been there. So the cat sniffs and explores everything like it is brand new, even though he has been there hundreds of times before. While this characteristic maybe cute in cats, it is terribly frustrating when working with a product team. This particular team, even though I have been working with them for over a year, still operates like they have never heard of user experience before. Here are a two examples. As one of my collegues would say, "Design by its very nature is iterative." Even with the most clear and throughly thought out requirements backed by quality research, it is almost always the case that a design will have to be iterated on. I mean it is just a basic principle in all engineering. Usually a software engineer does not get the code just right the first time he types it. I mean there is a reason why develpers do code reviews, testing, and QA. Yet, for some reason, this team (mainly the product management and engineering management) believe that a UI design can be pumped out perfectly the first time. Therefore they don't build in any time for iteration, let alone any design evaluation during iterations.

Which brings me to example number #2. As in the case with usability testing, often times entire workflows can't be fully tested until they are almost developed because they are too complicated or time-consuming to effectively prototype. So the time comes when a very critical flow is just about developed and ready to be QAed. So the team management decide to do an evaluation. Do they think to perhaps talk to the user experience researcher who they have been working with over a year who has organized and performed all their UX research and evaluation? Nope, they hand it over to someone with zero background in UX to send out a link in a email and get feedback that way. For the UX uninitiated, that is like looking for feedback on a novel on if certain characters develop, act realisticly, and in particular employ the proper grammar and vernacular for the time period by sending out a entire 500 page book with a note that says "Good?" You'll get back feedback but most likely not the feedback you want. And overall it would be a colossal waste of time for everyone involved. So yeah I vented this feedback to a colleague of mine and he said, "Well that is the reason why teams have UX people.." Yeah that is the reason why teams have UX team at the very start. It is not the reason why teams have UX people after a year and a half. Like the cat in Before Sunset, this team seems to forget everything they experience working with user experience professionals anytime they want to develop more UI. It is terribly frustrating and probably one of the main contributing factors on why I am choosing to roll-off their project.

So yeah that above project was one of the reasons I was in New York this past week. I was also assisting on another study. Aside from the work aspect of the trip (which unfortunately took up much of my time), it was a great time. I went out every night (which unfortunately probably negated a significant amount of my triathlon training). I didn't do any touristy stuff. Mainly because it was my 4th trip to New York in the past year. Just hung out, drank, and ate during the time I was not in the office. I did happen to see Jon Oliver from the Daily Show walking on 15th avenue in Chelsea. It was snowing and pretty miserable outside so I didn't stop to get an autograph. I also to stay in the really nice corporate apartment, in the penthouse of all places.

Anyway I should hit the hay. Thanks everyone for listening to my rants. Peace and good night.