Ask HN: Possible ux/interaction design intern opportunity

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2476172

by mrwangkai • 15 years ago

7 10 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi there,

I know I'm a little late in the game of looking for summer intern, but thought I should try this avenue nonetheless.

I'm currently attending Indiana University's Human-Computer Interaction Design (HCI/d) program.

I'm looking to work with startup as an user-experience/interaction design intern because I love the dynamics of a startup, and the potential to work in a closely-knitted team.

I'm also motivated by the good experience that one of our 2nd year student had while working with one (Rock Melt).

Please check out my portfolio site or contact me for more information: http://www.wang-kai.com

Thanks!

Kai

appwork• 15 years ago

Just created a prototyping tool: http://www.appsketcher.com and in the process to launch it. Do you think it's of any interest to one from ux/interaction design area? I don't have a position to offer (hopefully next year) but would like to say hi.

mrwangkai4• 15 years ago

Hi Feng,

Anytime the word 'prototype' is involved, it lights up the eyes of an ux/interaction designer. :)

We love prototyping. We love creating rapid prototype even more - it saves time and can give others (clients, stakeholders, etc) a rough idea of what we are trying to describe quickly.

I've given it a quick run through and it seems like a fairly easy to use program that works with very low load time. It also just work (at least of the times I have tried to run it).

Kudos for putting this together. The somewhat low learning curve should encourage usage from different users. I know I would.

Thanks for sharing.

triviatise• 15 years ago

Kai, I think it is a great idea for you to post here. One suggestion that I have is that you improve your portfolio. Looking at it, I just don't get a great feeling with regards to your potential in HCI.

Maybe I'm expecting too much from an intern candidate, but in the arts I would still expect a lot of personal projects that were more thought experiments. Like here is my idea for a redesigned amazon that I did for fun.

One other thing is that in a startup they might not have any UX people to learn from. What is your goal in taking an internship? To prove your worth? To learn from those more experienced? To have fun? etc

gareim• 15 years ago

Completely agree. I took a look at all 6 projects under your portfolio and I was underwhelmed with what I saw.

The first thing I noticed is the grammar. I get the feeling that you're not an American by birth, but you should still go through each page and fix the errors. It doesn't impress me to see a smart guy write like a first grader.

And I guess the other gripe I have is the actual designs you came up with. They're mostly uninspired and impractical. You have some really great ideas and some really bad ones. Unfortunately, the great ideas are also hampered by practical problems. The best idea is probably the large touchscreen device for creating and joining events anonymously. The problem is that there are cheaper alternatives (websites can reproduce the same functionality without requiring a large touchscreen display). Then you'd also have to be able to login with something so you can join the events, or else people can screw with you by joining over and over to blow up the numbers when there's actually no one going. This is college we're talking about and there are bound to be a few jerks.

The "Design for Sadness" and "Friend-O-Meter" ones are something kids can come up with. The "Friend-O-Meter" especially has no practical use.

The "Grocery Stop-and-Go" device might be cool if it wasn't so flawed. Groceries aren't updated all at once. I might want to buy some ramen, milk, and eggs (aha, all my examples are random) this week, but only some milk the next because I have enough of the other two. Now, if the labels were on the packaging of the individual items, it might work better. But then you'd have to figure out a way to minimize costs.

And "Textbook on iPad" is uninspired (I'd be shocked if it turns out no one has ever tried this before) and also wrong. Just wrong. In your example, the book is on the left while the dictionary is on the right. Ask yourself: How often is someone going to be interacting with the dictionary? Probably not as much as the actual book. Most people are right handed, so to change pages using your design, they'd have to awkwardly reach over to the left half of the screen and the right half becomes dead space. It's almost never interacted with (why would you need to touch a definition except if you wanted to copy and paste it?) and things would be much simpler if you swapped the two areas.

I admit that I sound really harsh here (and I'm probably a lot off-topic), but it frustrates me when people going into UX design and they completely ignore actual usability. I have no degree in UX design or anything like that (and to be clear, I have zero degrees whatsoever; I'm in high school), but it's people like me that will be using the products. And unfortunately, people like me would be frustrated by the issues that I raised up there. Looking at your resume, I see that you're pretty smart. You just need to start thinking outside of what's already been done and at the same time, finding a way to make it practical and useful.

mrwangkai4• 15 years ago

Hi gareim,

Thank you for your feedback as well. I do apologize for any grammatical error that might have been left unchecked, I'll look into revising them.

And yes, I'm not an American by birth - as you might have read from my About page, I was born in China, grew up in Singapore and now studies in the States.

Your comments on each of the design (and the whole portfolio in general) is definitely helpful in not only reiterating them, but for me to revisit my design thinking. Points taken, thanks.

I definitely agree with you that actual usability/practicality should not be ignored in UX design, which seems like a majority of the field's existence.

Thanks again for taking the time to go through my portfolio site and writing up this response. Don't worry about sounding harsh, it is what it is.

mrwangkai4• 15 years ago

Hi Anthony,

Thank you for your feedback and your encouragement.

There are definitely room for improvement in the portfolio to better represent myself as someone from the field of HCI. And I will continue to work on that.

The personal project is a good idea that I'm now starting to be more courageous to step into as well. An example will be making more prototypes or just plainly making stuff in general. (Coincidentally, I did tried to redesign Amazon's rating system last year - no code just design).

In terms of prototyping, I have recently, after finding out the Flip will be discontinued, made a couple of rapid paper prototype of the device to get a look/feel to decide which one of the lineup I should purchase before they are all sold out.

My main reason for seeking out an UX intern is to get a feel of working in the field and to practice what I've learnt so far. The above answer may sound generic, but coming from a different field of study in my B.S, I think the prospect of applying the different theories/methods/practices I have learnt (so far) in a real world setting will be an amazing experience for me.

Thanks again for your feedback. The plain sight of someone replying is gratifying enough. I will definitely go back to the drawing board and continue reiterate my portfolio.

orky562• 15 years ago

Glad to see a fellow Hoosier! I did my undergrad in HCI and worked in a few UX design roles.

I recommend outlining your process. How do you approach a problem? How do you go about designing a solution? This insight can only come from someone who approaches ux/ui from a scientific perspective.

You should also let your designs in your portfolio do more of the talking. They should communicate the story and be relevant for the person viewing it.

Also, your overall portfolio theme is very elementary. Use your entire site as an exercise in ux. Spice it up and add your personal brand.

Your blog only has one post. You should consider removing the blog completely till you have at least 5 posts.

Feel free to contact me if you'd like. I'm at Kelley.

mrwangkai4• 15 years ago

Go Hoosiers!

Thanks Sumedh, I like your idealstartupintern.com & the idea of it. It looks neat and is something intern-seeker/job-seeker can definitely look into developing.

I think each designer have their own set of processes that changes and develops over time. I have one that's slowly coming into shape - I'll look into articulate it better and integrate it into the portfolio site.

Agree with the blog posts comment. I have too many draft sitting around that I need to get them polished and published.

I'm still a little iffy on expressing too much on the entire site. I don't want to be labelled as being minimalistic - although the term has some good connotation to it. I think ultimately, I hope the site should be simple and yet expressive.

All very good comments. I know I'm leaving myself bare by posting here, but getting all these comments push me to think. I really appreciate them.

So are you in Bloomington right now?

orky562• 15 years ago

In Btown. Contact me via my site.

namank• 15 years ago

Look at Carnegie Mellon's HCI institute's site...it has a publicly viewable job board. I remember being impressed by the quality of jobs posted

This post is awesome! I'm a computer engineer (electronics+programming) but I really want to foray into the design/hacking space which, for students, translates to HCI labs. Thus, I'm also looking for internships in the field from Sept to Dec.

Good luck Kai, keep us posted!

Ask HN: Possible ux/interaction design intern opportunity

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