Janine Velutini

Hi there, here you have a UX / UI Designer in the making

[jvelutini]

Week 8, double the effort

So, as week 8 came to a close I can only say I am relieved to have to some time to recharge and reflect...

I was really excited about our project since I thought we could achieve something interesting and different for the beauty industry. However, what seemed exciting at first has now become really challenging. 

To this week’s project we need to add the complexity of working with an actual client and understanding their business goals and needs. It’s been really hard to get the client onboard with our findings, since more than anything they seem to be over protective of their business... If our findings don’t agree with what they currently believe as true, then we must have done something wrong.

Learning or trying to learn to anticipate client objections, has been a bit of a roller coaster, with a lot of ups and downs... specially when they not only questions your research, your decisions but also your capacity to do your job.

Add to all of this a bit of team struggles and you’ve got the perfect storm, where everywhere you seem to look trouble seems to find you. So, it was time to double the effort on all fronts.

So, as the course seems to come to a close I can’t help but feel a bit sad my final project has taken a bit of a dark turn, hopefully this week things will lighten up.

@greengiraffes share your feeling!

[jvelutini]

Week 7, Bittersweet

Just two weeks left to go, final stretch!

This week we had our final individual project, our first individual project. They were a tough two weeks, so much to do, and as always so little time (even though we had two weeks). Even though I managed to stick to my schedule, rearranging a few tasks along the way... I can’t say I completely satisfied with what I delivered. I would have liked to develop more and continue finding solutions, since I feel I only scratched the surface.

Presenting to a UX professional was very nerve wrecking, fortunately he was very nice! But, his first question was really eye opening since it’s something that I constantly struggle with... What’s the MVP of your MVP? hahaha it two words, this is still a lot to be an MVP, if this was in real life, you still need to prioritize further. It gave me a lot to think about, since I feel there is so much to be done still... but, I think the question should be when? When to build more?

Even though we’ve gone over feature prioritization in class, it’s always a struggle... Where is the balance between something simple yet complex? If it’s too simple, is it good enough? If it’s too complex, how will we build it?

So, even though looking back on these past seven weeks, I am proud of what I have achieved overall, I still have a lot of questions... and I still realize I am only once again scratching the surface of UX. I still have so much to learn...

I am excited about the next two weeks! Although on Friday I really felt I needed some rest and I was ready to be done, I’m trying to power up as much as possible to give it all these coming weeks. No time to overthink it, just do. Looking forward to working with my team and seeing what we can achieve, BeautyUp, get ready!

Knowing there are only two weeks left, is bittersweet... I’m happy & excited to finish but I am also not ready to say goodbye. But, were not there yet, so let’s make the most of it!

[jvelutini]

Thoughts on Remote Contextual Inquiries (RCI)

I found this article really interesting, but it took a few reads to understand it well as I think it can be a bit technical in some things. Now, what does RCI mean? RCI is a research method in which we capture the screen of a person while working with a specific software on their computer. 

I find this really interesting as sometimes users tend to have an automatized way of getting a job done, and because of this they don’t notice or have stopped noticing the work arounds they perform in order to get that task done.

The information we gather as usability professionals from these tests can be used to identify problem areas, features, and inform design decisions.

Why remotely? This approach was initially done on-site, but it was rather expensive to do, since the team or person conducting the interview had to travel to perform this tasks. I also think it came as a way to adapt to Covid-19 and surely enough it has yielded its results. Although I think some people may be reluctant to share their screen I also think sometimes people can perform tasks a bit differently when they are being observed. With the remote format is not the same as someone standing behind you, watching so I think users are a bit more relaxed or realistic on their approach.

I think one of the most important aspects is having the right participants, and you can have participants in different roles interacting with the software. Another important thing I found is that 6 participants can be enough to get the results you need, but that we shouldn’t do more than 2 tests per day as we need time to analyze and get all the information written down. 

This is really different from the research we have been performing so far, since we usually guide the user or give them a task to perform. Here, even though we ask questions, we don’t lead them they lead us through their process.

To sum up, remote contextual inquiry gives us the ability to observe how users are using the product, what they hide or dismiss, what they do to be more efficient and all without having to travel to distant locations or offices to do so.

I look forward to performing this test in the next few weeks, will let you know how it goes!

[jvelutini]

Week 5 - Halfway there!

And once again, as another week flew by and it’s time to see how it went.

Our challenge consisted of re-designing a “small” business website, now, you may think small means easy but to be honest, there wasn’t anything small or easy about the challenge... When we first went over the brief, the project didn’t seem as challenging as the one’s from the previous weeks and as usual, it wasn’t the case. The quote “Nothing is what it seems” is really accurate.

Week 5 presented other challenges along with the project and it was difficult to manage my emotions and expectations...

Our website was the Tennis Club at Premia de Dalt, which at first glance didn’t seem too bad but when analyzing it carefully it was a bit of a mess. I had the chance to work with @carlacavauxui and Sergi this week, it was really great to get to know them!

This week we changed our approach and the techniques, we didn’t start with research as usual. We learned about content audits, site maps, card sorting and tree testing, which was really interesting.

There was more focus on design and branding, creating a style tyle that reflected the brand attributes proved to be challenging. Selecting colors, typography, image styles and developing a bit of content was fun. We then applied this to our prototypes, which I think came out really well!

We also had to create the HTML & CSS version of our design (this wasn’t so much fun) I struggled a lot. Thank you web dev bootcamp student Sergi & Marina for your help. Even though I already admired web developers, I now admire them even more.

This week, sleep was a bit lacking but all in all I think it was a good week and as a team I think we balanced each other out.

Just had the brief for our new project which as usual seems a bit impossible, looking forward to it!

[jvelutini]

5 iOS Guidelines

So far, I’ve decided on Alicia as my proto-persona a 28 year old, international buyer for Mango. However, based on what I may find of my next interviews I wouldn’t set this in stone. Just like we saw in the Apple video, your first idea may not be the best idea... so, even though I have chosen her for now this is subject to change.

The same goes for the 5 guidelines I have chosen, based on what I know so far I think these should work, however, I may iterate and find these aren’t the best ones. Here goes nothing:

1. Tab Bar

2. Moving between states / screens

3. Action sheets & activity views

4. Action Buttons

5. Typography

We’ll see how it works out!

[jvelutini]

Design is not effortless...

As Ryan Olshavsky and Jonathan Cho mention in their presentation, good design is not easy and it’s not effortless - it may seem obvious, but in reality there is a lot that happens behind the scenes in order to achieve a good design.

I think they do a great of taking us through their process and how they go from a lot to end up with a little. They did this several times, first with the app functionalities and then with the designs. Even though they didn’t involve any users in their process, which I imagine was due to time constraints, it was very clear they were trying to keep their decisions as objectively as possible.

Something else I found interesting, was how they differentiated between goals. App goals vs audience goals vs business goals. 

Audience goals - the characteristics your users have and what their needs are.

App goals - describe the qualities of experience you want users to have.

Business goals - describe the results you want the app to have after launch.

I think this is very important to keep in mind when designing an app, since as they say, you don’t want to design a really cool app that no one uses. Which is why understanding your audience is so important and we constantly make the mistake of saying, our audience is everyone, or we are users of our app, that’s why their emphasis on “you are not the user” resonated to well with me. Specially since before I started at Ironhack, I used to be one of those people.

Another important aspect of their presentation was with design, what’s the right design? It’s difficult to make a choice or to know based on just one screen, this goes in hand with their idea of “one idea is not enough”. Which is difficult, everytime we make something, we think, yes! this is it! when in reality, the first screen we do is rarely the best one or the one that resonates more with users. This is where iterating comes in, now, something they didn’t mention is... when should we stop iterating? When have we iterated enough? and I think this is also a problem, because we can then become confused with our own options and we stop being objective.

To sum up, I think Ryan and Jonathan do a great job at answering the question: “how do you achieve good design?” 

First, good design is not easy. It can be a lot of fun, but it takes time, energy, and thoughtful deliberation.

Start with what you do know and build from there. It's okay if you don't have the whole system figured out ahead of time.

Don't settle for your first concept, or what might be good enough. Then critique your designs to determine which options best suits your customer goals and your app goals. Keep iterating and evaluating until the design feels right.

(Quick note, I was really impressed at how they used Keynote for the interface)

Those are my thoughts, I hope you enjoyed them!

[jvelutini]

Three Musketeers

As we say goodbye to week three of the bootcamp, it’s time to reflect on how it went. This week we had the chance of working on a cool yet challenging project. I had the chance of working with @marcelrm and @estelaux to add a language learning feature to Netflix, in order to help people who want to practice a language use an entertaining alternative.

Now, this feature may sound as an obvious next step for the platform since so many use it to watch shows in other languages to practice or learn, but in reality... it’s not that simple.

As a matter of fact, we found it so challenging at first, we almost negotiated with another team to exchange projects. (It’s a good thing we didn’t!)

So, upon embarking on the journey we had some ups and downs as team, just like the three musketeers, we didn’t always see eye to eye on everything but as any good team, we compromised and managed to come out on top.

I think we were all really proud of the work we were able to deliver, it also built our confidence as we went along - we went from not wanting to take the project to becoming so invested in it, we didn’t want it to finish.

But as the saying goes, “all good things must come to an end” 

(Netflix, if you ever see this, come talk to us about language learning as a we have a great tool for you!)

And so, we move on to week 4 - can’t wait! Each week never ceases to surprises me. I’m ready for the next challenge.

[marcelrm]

When entertainment became education

There were three creative individuals who were called to take action on a very important matter not long ago. Crazy enough, and naive enough. They accepted the callenging task of transforming what was an absorbing and time consuming activity for humanity into something useful for their lives.

They were facing a giant and they were so small. They knew they wanted to provide the future generations with meaningful education, which would give them freedom. The more we know, the less we can be fooled.

It’s well known how humans create distractions for other humans, so the formers can control the latters, in the way Noam Chomsky once said.

Well… what if the biggest digital entertainment platform was added just a small feature able to transform an entertaining experience into a revolutionary educating experience. David beats Goliath.

I guess you already know what I am referring to: Netflix Learning (2020).

The rest is just history.

Special mention to las putas amas @estelaux and @jvelutini

[jvelutini]

Learning to see, my reflections

I really enjoyed reading the article about learning to see, I think it provides a helpful guide on how to approach design but also on what good or bad design is.

A few of the things I liked are his thoughts on:

Design vs Taste

I think this is one of the hardest things to separate, we all have an opinion about things and it’s usually based on how they look rather than how they work or how well they perform.

Being objective specially about your own work is super difficult. As the quote goes:

“The slightest mistake looks incredibly stupid, when others make it” - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

It’s easy to judge someone else’s work and it’s hard to judge our own. Being able to identify our own mistakes the way we identify other’s mistakes is a great skill to have.

Objective vs Subjective

Something else I think is difficult is to avoid being biased. To, as the author says:

“Try to keep their ability to see things as a customer would. You need a design eye to design, and a non-designer eye to feel what you designed.”

I think it’s a great piece of advice but also difficult to accomplish, since the more we see the more difficult it is to unsee those details.

And finally, I also enjoyed the part where he says:

“Part of our job is to make the invisible visible, to clearly express what we see, feel and do. You can’t expect to sell what you can’t explain.”

Which I think it means to be transparent and allow the user to understand clearly what it is they need to do.

This article is really thought provoking, to be honest I had a hard time trying to focus on how to approach my reflections about it since it has so much. I will definitely keep it in my must reads.

[jvelutini]

Week 2 - check ✔️

For week 2 we had our first individual project, it was a challenge since I usually find it difficult to manage my time and stick to deadlines. I get distracted easily when working alone.  

To my surprise it went really well and it felt smoother this week to go through the steps we learned last week. I hope it continues to feel this way as we go along.

We learn so much every day!

I think every time when we kick off a new project at the end of the week, I always feel it’s going to be impossible to accomplish and every time I’m surprised at the end result.

I wasn’t very confident when we kicked off the project and doubted myself a lot, but I had a lot of support from my colleagues at the course. I feel like we are all a big team and it’s very reassuring.

This week I learned we shouldn’t strive for perfect as perfect is impossible - it’s better to do something good that can be great than try to do something perfect that is not even good.

Although ups and downs come with the package and I’m super tired, I’m also super proud.

Week 3 here we come!  

[jvelutini]

Check-in

We are midway through the week on our first individual project and once again I can’t believe it’s only been 3 days it feels a lot longer. I’m finding time constraints challenging, it forces you to prioritize which is always difficult. 

Today we had our first Crits sesion. To be honest, I was a bit worried about crits at first since it’s not always easy to present a work in progress... especially when you know it’s more in progress than anything else. But, I think it went really well, I was able to get the doubts and questions off my mind and see what everyone else thought - it gave me more clarity to continue. 

I found it difficult to formulate neutral questions and not give suggestions from the beginning, it looks a lot easier than it is. 

We’ll see how it goes! 

[jvelutini]

It’s a wrap - Goodbye Week 1

So, week 1...

To be honest, I had a lot of mixed feelings. I was excited about the project, stressed about time, anxious with the course work and thrilled to be working on a team.

I learned a lot, and it’s a lot! I’ve really started to enjoy the virtual classroom, also since I probably wouldn’t be able to do the course if it wasn’t in this setting (so, thank you covid?). Although it’s difficult to get to know people through zoom, I think we are all doing our best to engage. I really like our class! we are from all walks of life, it is very enriching to talk to everyone and hear their points of view.

Looking back it almost seems impossible it has ONLY been a week, I feel like it must have been a lot longer. We started the week learning about the -user centered design process which means having the user present at all times (no, you are not your user), it’s important to avoid personal opinions and try to be as objective as possible which is why interviews came in so handy. We interviewed a lot of people from our class, which was great since we got to know them better but also provide a great deal of insights for the project. 

We then went into affinity mapping which was a lot of fun and rapid sketching with a method called crazy 8. A funny story is that we created a paper prototype which we thought was great and could have no faults, we were really proud of how it came out and so confident, we went ahead and tested it and it was a disaster. What we thought was obvious, was not obvious at all - almost all the people we tested with weren’t able to do the task... which shows the importance of testing and how something that may seem good or obvious to you may not be to someone else.

I am really proud of what Vicky, Valentina and I presented and were able to achieve and the presentation we made. It was hard work but also rewarding, it was a long week but also really exciting!

Looking forward to what’s next!

[jvelutini]

Day 1

And so it begins!

Day 1 at Ironhack’s UX/UI remote bootcamp - there’s 20 of us diving into this adventure together. 

I had a lot of expectations going into the course but also a lot of doubts on how it would work remotely. To my surprise it felt just like being in an actual classroom, which I really enjoyed!

I was impressed at how organized and structured the course is - our schedule is set to the minute so we make the most out of every day. 

It was a bit overwhelming and we covered a lot but I am excited to see what we will be learning next! I’ll keep you posted!

[jvelutini]

Hey, there!

My name is Janine, I started exploring the user experience field a few years ago doing a lot of self learning and applying my background in Marketing and Computer Science. I am excited to continue to learn and grow in this field, the time is now. Welcome to my journey!