Katarina

UX Designer @ Microsoft NERD, graduate of New Media Design program.

[kaloughlin]

The Pursuit of Work: Remedy Teas, Capitol Hill

Remedy Teas has over 150 teas and according to one man I met, is better than any tea place that he went to in NYC. The staff is friendly and it’s a lively atmosphere. If you are into tea, the tea list looks pretty extensive and I’m sure it’s impressive if you know something about tea (I don’t).

When I went: Sunday afternoon

The best part: There’s a bat with seats that have a back. Plenty of outlets. They also have light bits like tea sandwiches and soup in addition to a selection of tasty looking baked goods. 

The meh part: It’s really crowded. And really noisy. Lots of chatter going on, you can’t really hear the music. It’s pretty cramped - even the tables are cramped together. It’s also underground, so the windows are above eye level so no people watching.

The zomg part: They have matcha lattes! I would come back for this alone

Doing work here?: It’s okay, I’m not sure I would come back unless I was craving a matcha latte or a tea sandwich. It’s comfortable but it’s just too noisy for my taste. 

[kaloughlin]

The Pursuit of Work: Joe Bar, Capitol Hill

Up the street from my go-to, Top Pot, is Joe bar. It has great natural light and they serve beer and wine as well. I spent most of Saturday day at Joe Bar. In the morning, there were lots of families. In the mid afternoon, young kids, and in the late afternoon, older couples. It was interesting to watch the clientele change.

When I went: Saturday morning

The best part: Food! Real, actual food. Great soup and I hear that the crepes are very good. I didn’t have the crepes yet, but Yelp tells me they are fantastic. The chicken soup I had was great. 

The meh part: It’s pretty loud. Kids come in on the weekends. People come in to chatThere is no bar for people watching, just two tables by the windows. 

The zomg part: There is an upstairs balcony area. One section is above the bar, the other is above the main room, which is where I was. I found a single table in a corner upstairs and camped out for an afternoon. It was a nice spot.

Doing work here?: If I get up early enough to snag a spot upstairs, yes it’s a great place to do work. It probably would be a nice hang out spot on weeknights too.

[kaloughlin]

The Pursuit of Work: Top Pot Doughnuts, Capitol Hill

I started my journey close to home with Top Pot. Only a few block away on a quiet but active street is Top Pot Doughnuts. It’s a great space. It’s not cramped. Even when it’s crowded it’s never too loud. People are mostly working when they are there, it seems, or having quiet conversation during the weeknights 

When I went: The weekday

The best part: A bar along the windows so you can people watch. Plenty of outlets. This is probably my favorite go-to spot.

The meh part: The bar seats are a bit uncomfortable and for me, the heigh of the counter is a bit awkward. Oh, and the bar seats are actually up on a step, which I always forget about. I basically fell into this poor guys table once. Whooops.

The zomg part: Doughnuts. Who could resist?

Doing work here?: For weekday working sessions or quiet reading time, totally. Always. Not sure how it would be on the weekends.

[kaloughlin]

2014

Blogging is, unfortunately, about a once a year occurrence for me. Sigh.

Everyone makes a big fuss about a New Year's "resolution." My resolution isn't a a box that I can check off like "loose 10 pounds." My resolution is taken from my college days (go go RIT) and it's more of an attitude towards life and change:

Make moves, son

The story behind that saying is much less profound. It came out of a dialogue in one of those "be responsible" kitchsy films that was shown during my freshman orientation week. One bro said to another "make moves, son" while they were at a party (I think, I can't remember). Somehow, that saying was what everyone latched on to.

Photo taken from this awesome kickstarter project

There was an abandoned house right across the street from one of the campus entrances. For my entire time at RIT, and since I've graduated, there has always been the phrase "make move, son" scrawled on the side in spray paint. 

I actually started "making moves" a year ago when I committed to applying to graduate school. I got in to my first choice, Carnegie Mellon, but I chose to accept at University of Washington so I could keep my job. I I am pursing a degree in human factors and since it's directly related to being a UX designer, I thought it best to keep my job in order to apply what I learn in the real world. I moved to Seattle in November. 

The goal is to keep making moves and keep striving for the next big thing, whatever that may be.

[kaloughlin]

On change

I've been fortunate enough that, over the past year and an half, the majority of the big changes in my life have been brought on by me - me getting a new job, me getting a new place to live, etc ... It's been a great past year and an half. I've met so many wonderful people and have had my world open up to new opportunities. 

Change isn't always in my control; other people change and move on. New relationships. New jobs. Relocation. It all changes the way these people that I hold so dear relate to me. 

It's scary.

It's easy to feel "left behind" when someone "moves on" to new things, whatever (or wherever) that may be. In light of New Year's resolutions, I think I might have to add one to my list: Deal with change. 

Not "learn how to deal with change" or "deal with change better" but simply "deal with change." Face it. Own it. Embrace - the second definition of embrace, which is to "accept and support - it. Good things happen with change, even when it's out of my control. 

It's funny - when I started making big life changes, I never really thought about how it affected others around me. It's easy to forget that I make an impact on someone else's life (and vice versa) and when I change, it creates a ripple effect on those around me. Going forward this year, I hope to make some more changes - going back to school and/or relocating for my job and among a few of them.

Even though it's uncomfortable to be the person who stays behind, I'm glad I'be gotten to be that person a few times over the past couple months. It helps give me perspective on an individual's impact on other people. It has also underscored the fact that I need to appreciate the people that are in my life while they are around (and be happy for them even when they aren't).

[kaloughlin]

On Apple ... Oh, Apple

My first computer was a Mac. I loved it because it was easy to use; my parents loved it because it was easy to use. Good, solid, Macintosh Performa. As well all know, Apple had their long, hard fall from grace in the 90s and made their come back with not a PC, but a music player (iPod anyone?).

Since the iPod, and subsequent releases of the Apple OS, and iOS systems, Apple has shown the value in "user experience." It's something that Microsoft completely ignored until recently. Making simple to use products is just as important as making a product to simply serve a user's needs.

Something has happened in the past few years. As Apple adds more features to their various platforms things seem to have gotten complicated. Granted Apple does fix some of these things, like a bug in Spaces when Mountain Lion was released. On closing a full screen app, a Space would remain open that you were not able to close or add any other applications too. Not only that, but if opened the same program again and full screened it, it would create an additional space. Kind of wonky. And for me, a heavy Spaces user, it really messed my with mojo. 

Actually, the entire integration of Spaces messed with my mojo, but that's an entirely different story.

I digress.

My point is simple: as Apple tries to "innovate" more across platforms, they really only seem to be adding more features rather than innovating on the platform itself. Nothing new has come out of Apple since 2007 and the launch of the iPhone. iPad revolutionized the market and made tablets relevant and killed the netbook (for the time - funny, it seems like the netbook never actually died, but instead the idea got reframed into a "friendly" tablet device but again, I digress). But, iPad in terms of an OS is the same as an iPhone.

I'm fairly certain this is one of the major draw back of Microsoft PCs. Too many features, thrown in all at once, for funsies. Sort of hard to navigate. Sort of hard to figure out what is even there. Apple is starting to have similar issues; maybe it's too many features, or too much change, or too much hidden functionality but OSX seems harder to use now (dare I say "bloated"?). 

I'll go back to Spaces for a second - Apple moved where Spaces lived in System preferences, a very explicitly controlled environment, to making Spaces live within each app icon. You now assign applications to a Space and then that Space/screen is yours to move it where ever/how ever you want unlike Spaces of a previous life. Old Spaces you had a drop down menu and that's how you controlled order. There may have been some drag and dropping of Spaces too, but I can't recall. Now - more "intuitive" control over oder which is good. The bad? I still can't figure out how to see all the applications I have assigned Spaces too ... which I used to be able to see. Why is this necessary? Because I don't want to full screen every app. In fact, I want some apps to open in the same Space ... but it's hard to do that when I don't know what app is opening where. Apple took a feature that was pretty simple, and made it less discoverable and added more complex layers to existing features. How is that benefiting me again?

Apple has made some amazing hardware advances in recent years, most notably taking every flagship product they have and making it ... mini. Or nano. Or airy. Oh an by amazing hardware advances, I also mean a brilliant way to make more money. Non-upgradable systems? Genius. 

While hardware innovations are cool, it can only make up for lack of true innovation in experience for so long. Looking an iOS/OSX, the platforms seem visually dated. The new iTunes is full of overdone gradients, low contrast lines, and with the added bonus of hidden functionality. Why? Where is the benefit of hiding my playlists at all times and not telling me about it. 

Now is the time I should talk about Microsoft. I won't say much, but I will say this: it's interesting. Windows 8 (the modern face) and Windows Phone 8 are closer to a unified OS then iOS. It's also visually different than anything out there currently. WP8 is not as refined as iOS, and the app base or quality isn't there - in WP8's defense, there are about 5 years to make up for where two of those years iPhone's only competition was older iPhones. 

I miss Apple of a few years ago when I looked forward to upgrading. Now I dread it. I still have an old laptop from two years ago I refuse to upgrade because that OS just works so well. Lion was a mess. Continues to be a mess even. 

And what happened to new products? Not just smaller, thinner versions of cash-cows. Where is the innovation? 

Apple has been virtually unchallenged since 2007 when iPhone came out. Perhaps that was their downfall. There was no need to innovate. Look at Microsoft - a company that went from being on top of the world to playing catch up when it comes to consumers. With other platforms around - Android and WP8 - hopefully that will encourage Apple create something again. And with any luck, it will be something no one knew they needed.

[kaloughlin]

On bad things ... and the good things that come afterwards

I took the GRE last night and needless to say, I did not do as well as I had hoped. I was bummed last night, but this morning ... well, that was another story. I thought it was no big deal - it is just a test, right? My future does not depend on the graduate school I go too, or even if I go to graduate school at all. The pressure isn't nearly the same (thank god) as getting into college.

This morning, I was surprised to find out that I was more down about my scores than I last night (#firstworldproblems?). As the day has gone on, I've noticed something; nice, little things keep happening.

When I got up this morning, I had an enthusiastic email from my friend telling me he had gotten my Xbox Live subscription. At work, the girl at the front desk that I've walked by every single day for over a year and never spoken to, complimented me on my shoes. It led to a half hour discussion on boots, DSW, and why we like wedges. For lunch, the cafeteria finally had pumpkin bisque, a soup I had been lusting after for over a year.

On any other day, I probably wouldn't have given a second thought to those small things. But today, it has made all the difference. 

Now, I could connect this to my job. As a UX designer, we are supposed to make things nice, and easy or, at the very least, less sucky, for people. It's not just about the experience on screen. User experience is about the emotion before, during and after interacting with whatever technology. It's about brand. It's about feeling connected. It's about the playful language used in error messages, or the cute dinosaurs that tell you funny thing about your life (go go Timehop). 

But I don't really want to beat a dead horse with all of that job/ux stuff. The ultimate take away today from me is: imagine what life would be like if every day we could appreciate the pumpkin bisque and friendly conversation. 

[kaloughlin]

On interactive things

I heard something interesting on the train last night. Two friends were talking, and one mentioned how a website was "really interactive" because the website posted to their blog and facebook pages daily and, I'm assuming, this activity was reflected on the company's website.

I found it interesting that people are viewing one sided interactivity as "interactive." You the user, do nothing but read. Maybe you "like" something sometimes - but what does that really mean? How does that benefit you? I'm not sure, but it will give the company more marketing data. Facebook has taught us that if we "like" something, that will play into our online personality. You are what you like.

I thought interactive experiences were about people truly engaging in something - maybe it's as simple as a game, or maybe it's more complex like using software or a software platform (like Facebook). I thought it was something that the user contributed thought too - even if the thought is simply "I'm tired" or "I had a chicken sammich for lunch." You're sharing out and creating content, not just passively stamping your approval on someone else's content.

Maybe we are just getting too lazy to create anything anymore. Or maybe it's just too easy to "interact" that people have forgotten they aren't actually doing anything but clicking a button.

[kaloughlin]

On Cofounders Lab

Ah, Cofounders Lab.

A friend told me about this site a few months ago. It seemed like a fantastic idea - I’m a person that wants to get involved in a startup, but I don’t necessarily want to be the “idea” person. I want to design. I want to create.

Perhaps that was my first mistake. Part of the startup culture is truly believing in the product. Cofounders Lab seems to have two different types of people - people like me, who are bored and want to use their talents for … whatever. And then people who are truly ingrained in their startup and need resources. Those two groups of people seem to compliment each other … but, they really don’t.

No amount of talent will make up for a lack of passion. I get a lot of messages from people who are so excited about their startups - and a lot of them, I personally don’t believe in and I can’t in good faith work with them. I wouldn’t enjoy it and I would ultimately be hindering their business.

Granted, I have come across a few people with some good ideas. So it’s not all lost.

BostonInno wrote an article a few weeks ago talking about how the Cofounders lab has merged with another local Boston entrepreneur matchmaking service, FoundersMatchup (lucky me, and my photo was in the screen shot they took). The article points out how Cofounders Lab is gaining momentum in Boston - and it is, but is it all for the right causes?

I got this email the other day.

I am looking to implement a phase 2 redesign and rebranding of my site. This process will include both design and technical enhancements. I am putting quick contest together to see who can come up with the best idea. Whoever wins will be in charge of the redesign with programmers and will get paid plus potential equity

That’s it. No other information. I have no idea what the site is about. You are trying to get me to join your startup - where’s the elevator pitch? Why aren’t you selling me on your product? Why aren't you telling me what your product is … and, more importantly, why aren't you telling me why it’s in my best interest to do work for you for free.

Design is not about bells and whistles. It’s not an afterthought. It’s a legitimate discipline that requires a professional. Design is not something that should be given away for free; the profession is already undervalued as it is, why contribute to that?

I don’t want to work for people who make a startup into a game. It’s serious business, so let’s treat it as such.

I also get a plethora of emails that are looking for “front end.” Well, I’m a designer. Designer != front end … always. I even specified I do UX design and still, I get emails looking for front end devs. JS ninjas. I included a link to my portfolio site as well … and still, I get front end dev emails. That immediately makes me question - do the people sending the emails a) know what they want and b) do they even have any understanding of this aspect of the business? c) did they even take the time to investigate me before they emailed me? or did they just search “designer” and send the same email to whoever showed up in the search results?

Ultimately though, it makes me seriously question whether these people truly understand this UX/UI side of the business. This isn’t limited to Cofounders Lab. I’ve had a bosses who just don’t “get” UX/UI design. They know they need it for their business, but they don’t really know why – nor do they really care to find out. It’s just lip service – to either sell more, or bring on new clients.

You see this in job postings as well - most job postings want a “designer” who can do front end dev, back end dev, AND make it rain gold with their designs …. when what they REALLY need is someone who can design a 4 page website and run it through Dreamweaver. Or maybe, they really do need all of those things .. in which case, they are looking for 3 people, not 1 magic person.

Anyway, based on my experience, this is how I feel about Cofounders Lab and working for other people in general (which is ironically very similar to how I feel about dating):

There’s nothing worse than working with a CEO that doesn’t value design (or any discipline). If you don’t understand what I do, or what you need, then I don’t want to work for you. As CEO, it’s your job to understand everything and hire people smarter than you to do the things that you aren’t good at. If you can’t understand what is lacking in your product, how are you going to be able to make solid decisions about the work your team is doing? And how are you going to bring on the people that you REALLY need?

[kaloughlin]

On learningz ... for real

Okay, now I'm ACTUALLY learning Python. I'm offically halfway through "Learn Python the Hardway."

I managed to power through the first half over this past weekend, and I also am now using Vim (the best text editor EVER!). I can also make basic uploads to Github.

It's the basics of everything, but it's still more than I knew last week. Hey, you have to start somewhere.

Go go productivity.

[kaloughlin]

On being female

Through the miracles of facebook advertising, I saw that Zooey Deschanel has a website called "Hello Giggles." Appropriate. I checked it out - I enjoy her on The New Girl.

Needless to say, not only was I underwhelmed by what I found but I even felt a little ... offended. Their mission statement reads as follows:

hellogiggles.com is the ultimate entertainment destination for smart, independent and creative females. Everything hosted on the site will be lady-friendly, so visitors need not worry about finding the standard Boys Club content that makes many entertainment sites unappealing to so many of us.

Wait, huh? "Lady friendly," "standard boys club content," "unappealing to so many of us." What is this.

When you browse through Hello Giggles, you will find things like a live kitten and bunny cam. You'll also find DIY instructions on how to bedazzel your own tights and a plethora of (delicious) recipes. You'll find a lot of lists about the top five reason some unimportant TV show "ruined" your life and photos of painted nails.

Somehow all of that equates to being "lady friendly." As a female, the last thing I need are other females, public figures or not, telling me that bedazzling my tights and going to thrift stores will make me a better female. I don't see how this content is supposed to entertain the supposedly "smart, independent, and creative female" audience it claims to be targeting. I like to think I fall right into that group of females, but I find it incredibly frustrating that women are encouraging me to be a homemaker and watch bad TV.

I am a female in tech. I see the gender inequality. People love asking the question "why aren't there more females in tech?" Well, a lot of reasons, but sites like Zooey Deschanel (read: public figure) Hello Giggles are not helping. It's communicating that things like kittens and how Lizzie McGuire ruined your life growing up are actually important not only to other people, but to being female.

I get that there is a need for female-friendly sites that are lacking in the boobs, beer, and bros department. But I don't understand why all female sites encourage females to be uber-female and crochet. It's OK for women to want to be involved with math and science, so why aren't people like Deschanel promoting that instead of someone's nail polish of the day?

By female oriented sites like this not advocating for women to get more involved with typical "boys club" areas (math/science/tech), they are essentially saying that it's not feminine even though the site never really comes out and says that at all. Simply by saying nothing at all about it gives the impression that it's not lady like enough for their lady friendly site.

I also came across this article on Hello Giggles which really got me - The New Sexy. The premise of the article is great - it's advocating that being sexy isn't about being a hot mess anymore, it's about being smart and funny etc. That is a great message.

However, the author destroyed it fairly quickly. This is all from one paragraph under the title "SMARTS." The article is much longer than this, but it has the same tone.

Always being abreast of current events, knowledge of niche films and comics, and a quick wit, smart people are engaging on so many levels.

Okay, huh? So does that mean if I watch Run, Lola, Run! and read obscure comics, that I'll be smart? The lines following talk about how if you are smart, it'll make other people around look better by association. And something about how awesome it is to have a captive audience at a dinner party. Are these really the true benefits of being "smart"? For other people and dinner parties?

I thank technology for the proliferation of intelligence. Learning how to brew your own beer, reading the classics you skipped when you were in school, or learning the guitar on your iPad are all easy to do from a shoebox apartment. 

I blame technology for making people think they are intelligent. It's so easy for people to simply parrot back one sentence of a news article and call it their "opinion" without fully understanding what they have just said. Also, brewing beer doesn't make you smart. Interesting, but not smart. 

This one is my favorite

Nerd glasses and social awkwardness are hot. In fact they’re technically high-fashion

So if I buy some really thick hipster glasses, that will make me smart! Hooray!

Man, it's awesome that I have lady friendly sites telling me that being smart is as easy as watching Netflix foreign films and buying thick rimmed glasses. I'm so glad I wasted 100k+ on my college education when I could have just gone thrifting and achieved the same effect. Thanks, internet.

For now, I think I'll stick to sites like Reddit that, for the most part, lack a gender bias. Sure, I'll have to deal with more boobs and penis jokes than the readers of Hello Giggles, but I'll take my chances.

[kaloughlin]

On (re)design

One thing that has always fascinated me was the idea of redesigning exisiting interfaces. It's a really good way to learn the basic principles of layout design - you get to deconstruct and analyze the original and take that information and apply it to something new.

Anyway, I just saw this post about redesigning the Metro Card (http://howtostartafire.canopybrandgroup.com/?p=375). At first I was really excited to see what people had done, but I came away feeling underwhelmed.

The visual design of the card was redesgined, not the card itself. Where is the innovation? What's new? What is supposed to make me say "Hey, that design is benfitting my life more than the old design?" No one paid attention to the "user experience" problems of the actual card - bent, lost, stolen, etc etc. Forget about the visual design and attack the larger issue of the CARD.

Visual design is a practice that is undervalued. No one is going to pay money just to change how something -looks-. People want things to work differently, and if it's designed well that's a bonus. Apple didn't make a mark on the design community just because they made a UI that was gorgeous - it was because their OS paid attention to problems that could irritate users and tried to solve them preemptively. THAT'S good design. Even in advertising - clients want beautiful marketing campaigns that are super creative but what they REALLY want is to sell their products better. Visual design is a means to an end.

I can only speculate about the future of visual design as a career path. I have already made a switch from my formal training in "visual design" to a "user experience" job title. It's semantics, really - visual and UX design are the same thing to me. It will be interesting to see how the careers continue to shift towards this melding of the "two" disciplines.

Going back to this metro card redesign (http://www.melaniechernock.com/metrocardproject/) - these cards were just given a visual refresh, which is awesome but there's no true innovation. Look at any iPhone app, or even in the start up community and you are going to see people doing the SAME thing. Where's the innovation? How many weather apps do I need? Why do I need another social network? Do I really need another way to read twitter? How is applying a filter to my photos enhancing my life? Where's the true value add? What problem are people solving?

It doesn't seem like people are solving anything anymore. Look at any industry leader in history, and you will most likely find that they were NOT the first in their field, they just happened to do it best for whatever reason. The tech industry has a fairly low barrier to entry. It's very easy for people to simply iterate on what is already there and not really contribute anything new.

For a culture that has advanced knowledge of tech and science, why aren't we truly innovating more? Are AR glasses REALLY the future? Or a watch that will alert you about GIT commits? I mean, really.

[kaloughlin]

On learning thingz

Starting the year off right with a goal to ACTUALLY learn Python. Go go turbogears2.

[kaloughlin]

On personal identity

When I created my first logo back in '10, it was a trying time. The logo came out of that last minute "oh my god this was due yesterday" pressure. The reality was, the logo HAD been due. Yes, due. My college program had built in a class dedicated to forcing the students to create a "personal identity" along with the normal resume building and job hunting. An entire 10 weeks dedicated to us working on ... us.

As most people know, creating your own identity is probably one of the hardest tasks that you can undertake because there are no limits. You can invent (or reinvent) yourself as anything.

Back in '10, my identity just ended up being my name. Of course, my name "Katarina" has some of the more unforgiving letters strung together. My last name just adds to the alphabet soup. I created the logo in 3D and it worked nicely as a 2d logo too. I was happy with it, but not super thrilled. 

Now here I am, over two years later. I look at my logo and I love it, but it's not me. So I decided to change it up.

I wanted a cute logo. Something with an owl. I love owls. People have suggested the obvious - use a cat. Uhm, nope. Then there is the option of creating some arbitrary symbol. However, at the end of the day ... that's what it is, an arbitrary symbol that I would stick before, above, in between, or below my name.

I could put letters in circles. Or play with negative space. Maybe I could stack the letters. Maybe I could drop letters. 

At the end of the day - none of that is "me." That's what I struggled when I created my first logo. All of this "cute" or super stylized logos you see just aren't me.

I am an interactive designer who focuses on clean design that allows the most information to be delivered to the user with the least amount of obstacles.

That's me. Simple. To the point. No frills. No bells and whistles.

So I've chosen something that's been done a million times, but that seems appropriate- just my signature. My messy, and frequently illegible signature. My handle on a lot of major social networks is simply my name, or my full name. It's taken me a while to figure this out but my name IS my brand. I'm not a cute owl, or a fuzzy cat. I'm Katarina. 

[kaloughlin]

Resolutions - a study in time management

Gym rage, always.

Do more personal projects, always.

Basically, I need to find a coffee shop that sells things other than coffee and has free wifi so I can go and camp out for a few hours on saturdays/sundays, in addition to my gym rage.

[kaloughlin]

The details are details. They make the product. The connections, the connections, the connections. It will in the end be these details that give the product its life.

Charles Eames

[kaloughlin]

IDOTD: #5 (or 4.5ish)

App that tells you the weather as per usual, but in a humanistic way.

IE: Rather than showing you hour by hour what the temperature will be (it'll be able to do that too), it'll say something like "Make sure to bring an umbrella, it'll start raining at 5pm."

Also, the background of the app will change according to the weather and/or time of day.

IE: There's a blizzard happening, so the background will basically be a picture of Rochester.