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Thoughts on Getting Hired as a UX Designer
How do you define UX design?
User experience design (UX, UXD, UED or XD) is the process of enhancing user satisfaction with a product by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction with the product. User experience design encompasses traditional human–computer interaction (HCI) design, and extends it by addressing all aspects of a product or service as perceived by users. (Source: Wikipedia)
What’s your design process?
UX Design Process
What are some apps and websites that you love?
SEOMoz
How do you work with engineers/product managers and other designers?
Most organizations are structured in a way that designers work closely with Product Managers (PMs). They have an enormous say on how elements in a product function. They have the power to VETO a design decision or take a call on how a particular user-flow for a product is crafted. They are also completely involved in business needs and think about how the product has to be shaped to meet the above-mentioned needs. They think about how users interact with the product and analyze if the product meets the need of the intended target users. They help engineers prioritize the list of tasks that needs to be built. They are decision makers. They help build the roadmap and maintain/define the vision of the product.
These are a whole lot of responsibilities for one role, ain’t it?
In short, they are superstars who work in very high-pressure environments. At any given point, there’s always more on their plates than they can handle.
Designers need to work in tandem with the goals of a PM because at the end of the day, both these stakeholders have the same vision.
(Source: UX Design)
Who in the industry do you follow and read?
What’s the most interesting project you’ve worked on?
The majority of the projects I have worked on have been interesting. Each and every project presents its own set of challenges which in turn makes it fun at times, but frustrating as well too. Overall some of the most interesting projects are the one’s that require me to learn some form of new technology, such as; different forms of programming, a unique layout which differentiates from others and require teaching the new clients what they need to know or did not know. Another form of an interesting project is when you need to learn the industry from scratch and then apply what you learned to complete the project.
Do you prefer to work alone or with a team?
I have worked alone on almost all of the projects from start to finish. There are some examples where I have worked with Project Managers, designers and developers, but it was primarily done through the Internet only. I do not mind working with others as long as communication is sufficient and the goals can be achieved. Working with problematic people or people whom try managing to much of what you need to be doing can at times become very bothersome.
Tell me about a project that was difficult. How did you handle the situation?
Although I have worked on multiple projects through the years, one major project that stands out is the designing and developing of an online store with payment processing. This took multiple hours on end of reading and trial by error. Significant amounts of testing and finding solutions to areas of the project that had to be completed before continuing on the the next phase of the project.
Why do you want to work at [company x]?
There are several reason that one would want to work with a new company. Some primary reasons are a change of pace, financial gains, room for advancement, better benefits, meeting and working with new people, more opportunity to gain experience and increasing your portfolio.
Why should I hire you?
It is obvious that if you bring value to the table for a company you are to be considered a valuable asset for the company. Any individual that has been provided the opportunity for an interview in most circumstances has already potentially brought the chance of added value for the company conducting the interview. Although some companies require multiple levels of the interviewing process each phase is usually more challenging than the next phase. So if you made it through the initial stage of the preliminary interview you should start to prepare for the next round of questions.
Essentially you are trying to sell your skills and accomplishments to the company. Be tactful and explain what type of value you can bring to the company. Not a time to brag about what you have done. Try explaining it in a meaningful way that assures the interviewer you are the right person for the job.
Be descriptive about what type’s of projects you have accomplished. Layout in detail what it took to get the projects completed, what aspects were challenging that you had to over come and try explaining it in terms that the interview will understand. More than likely though the interview should already know what you are discussing, but that is not always the case.
“Make sure you prepare before the interview”.
New Website Design & Development From Link Worx Seo
What has the Agenda Been Like
Okay, recently there have been significant changes going on behind the scenes for the company. Not only has the company created new added features to the custom content management system, a new invoice system has been created as well. The new editions to the system required some intensive Cold Fusion Developing and some well thought out planning. The new edition, includes widgets that can now be used on blog pages created by the administrative users on the fly.
Webpage Creation With Widgets
These widgets can be stacked in any order as you see fit. The decision to change the stacking order revolved around a method know to many as A/B testing. If you are not familiar with A/B testing, it is the testing of more than one version of a web page. If you would like to learn more about A/B testing just search for it and you will find a ton of resources covering the topic. You can also add analytic code to track the different web pages on a three month timeline as well with GA.
By being able to change widget order and selecting which widgets you want for the new web page, you can gain more insight on what works best through various page layouts. Now unfortunately, we do not have a demo at this time; but have plans for one to be created in the future. Will keep you posted.
The widget implementation was a sophisticated but yet tasty addition to the management system. But it was decided that it was just not enough. Next, was the choice of being able to choose between a one column, two column or three column layout for the new web pages being created was a foot. Now this took some doing, but seem to be working great at this point. Although there was one last detail needing to be checked surrounding IE and styling. As we all know, IE is a real bare sometimes when it comes to rendering.
SEO Reporting
Webpage Layout Options
After that it was time to do those wonderful taxes. On top of all this, it was long over due to get the tax man up to date. After countless hours of tax forms for five years of taxes and some number crunching I am happy to say it is complete. During this time of making sure the taxes were done correctly, it was decided that a simpler way to bill clients and allow clients to see their billing invoices online was necessary.
Invoice & Reports
Once a user has registered for an account they will now have access to view able invoices and reports. Yet, although these reports are not full-scale graphical reports they at least allow for the client to see how their link building campaign is going. There are plans to add more features to the reports at a latter date, but some more research about a few Cold Fusion tags is going to have to be done first before venturing into the realm of development. Will keep you posted on this coming edition too…
International Formatting
Finally, during the process of all these development editions, it was decided to add some international formatting to the pages. If you happened to view a webpage and it was not found or was just a bad request to a page, my sincere apologize. There were a few unforeseen issue’s with time and date formatting that required some database changes that just had to be done along with some tricky select box manipulation. Along with this time and date formatting problems, it all had to be wrapped around a complex form that controlled the billing and different plan selection choices. Wow, glad I finished it.
New E-mail Design for the News Letter
E-mail Marketing News
Anyway, this forced some other changes as well. One change in particular I did not realize until just recently was the news letter being sent out. the HTML version and the inbox version were error prone because of time and date formatting problems. So another apology is in order. Now since the process of updating was taking place for the news letter, I figured what the heck why not just update the entire kit and caboodle.
So without further a do, magically appears a newly designed news letter. If you have seen or been receiving the old news letter, you are in for a treat. This baby looks great. Was worth the effort and time to revamp it. All known development errors have now been resolved and the new design is much nicer looking. The promise to provide e-books is on the way as well. At the moment the e-book landing page is not completed but will be hopefully this week sometime. Was in a hurry to push out the new news letter. So it was opted to show at least a coming soon page.
Conclusion and Feedback
Now since this post is the first one to go out on the new format we ask for your feedback. Whether it is to about a complaint or just to give props, bring it on… Well it has been another long day but a fruitful one. Hope everyone enjoys the new news letter and special thanks goes out to all our subscribers. Do not hesitate to let everyone know how to find us and sign up for the news letter.
“Long hours, but worth it”.
How Color Scheme, CTA’s and Web Design Affect Website Visitors
Overall Added Value
Color Wheel and Usability
As a Web Designer, Programmer and SEO Specialist it all goes hand and hand for the most part. Knowing your target country or audience can aid in the delivery of your message and what you are trying to accomplish. The design and layout are for sure areas that go overlooked and under factored a lot of the time. Being a Web Designer, programmer and SEO Specialist has definite advantages. This is one of the main sell points for some company’s including mine. Having one company do it all eliminates a third-party and brings more value to the table.
Why are Color Selections Important?
There are tons of color charts on the web for learning different do’s and don’ts of web design and how color effects selection of choice, meaning and decision factoring when a visitor is viewing your website. Selection of color choice for call-to-actions (CTA’s) can be the difference of capturing a lead or losing it. For example using red can signify importance or something requiring urgency. These choices of color selection for CTA’s are extremely important but at the same time should compliment the website or webpage they are placed on.
While keeping this in mind and trying to make it all look appealing to the visitor your links should stand out or at least not be questionable to the visitor. Providing a clear indication for links or CTA’s should be created and implemented into the hierarchy and site design. Easy to understand and see navigable links and buttons will help the visitors stay and will be a much more pleasant experience. These simple design techniques will lead to more page views and conversions for your business as well as a better user experience.
Hiring the Right Company
UX and UI interface and design are some of the core areas that should be understood by a Web Designer, Developer and now a day’s a SEO Expert. Finding company’s with this kind of experience is not as difficult as you might think. With a little research and a few questions you can make a more informed decision before hiring a company to manage all of these services. Although it does not always come cheap, you can still find reputable company’s that will provide all of these services at a comparable price.
Website Usability
While all this is important the usability is one of the other key areas you should understand completely. Some great way’s to get a better understanding of a websites usability is to fully test it yourself, ask for other people to test it, gather input from those individuals about their visit and more. The understanding of a visitors visit is a key component to creating a better user friendly website. There are several way’s to gather this information other than what is mentioned. Try sending out survey’s, e-mails or even go as far as sitting down somewhere and asking someone what they think. Once you have gained some valuable input, apply what you have learned to make it better.
Remember, your work is never done!
Choosing an SEO Company for a New Website
Professional Web Design Services
If you’re planning on creating and launching a new website you should immediately be thinking about how to market your new website on the internet before having it designed. There are a ton of great web design companies available who can provide you with a great design and offer free consultations. One in particular I recommend is Small Box Web. This is a great company providing quality designs and a professional knowledgeable staff. If you happen to choose this company for a new design or any type of services, please let them know who recommended their company. Link Worx Seo by no means get’s paid to recommend Small Box Web, just to clarify this to you. Link Worx Seo suggest them for new designs and services because we have personally seen plenty completed projects created by this company. The owner of this firm is a gentleman and a scholar who comes with high regard from us. Just remember that no matter what company you choose for this new web design project, SEO is a portion of the design that should be carefully implemented during the design process.
Many companies prefer to do the SEO while doing the design because all the code is accessible during the design. You do not have to allow another company access to the code after the design is completed. Some companies even provide discount’s when you allow them to design and optimize the new website as a whole. Link Worx Seo provide’s these services as a complete package to our customer’s at affordable prices. Although some web design companies do have limits on an acceptable amount before they will take on a new project; whether it is web design or an SEO project. You will find it varies from company to company throughout the web design and SEO industries.
For a long time there has been somewhat of a dispute between web designers and SEO Specialist about what should come first, the SEO or the design. Well here at Link Worx Seo we believe in doing them at the same time because each of these are equally important. For example: good structure produces easier navigation for your customers while at the same time having properly named pages with the correct keywords also provides good SEO strategy. As you can see, these can go hand in hand. This is another great reason to have the same company do your new web design and SEO services.
On-Page SEO Tip’s to Consider for a new Website Design:
After making your site easy to access you should also be considering a long-term SEO strategy as well. To often, web designers get caught up with on-page search optimization factors, that they overlook the need to establish a foundation that supports long-term SEO goals. When deciding on a search engine optimization strategy, especially with new website’s, follow the basic SEO guidelines outlined above to get you started.
Of course there are a number of contributing factors to consider when creating a new website, but these are some of the most common SEO tips available.
Starting it off right and doing it right from the start will eliminate loss of business, future headaches and produce sales faster from the beginning. Making sure a strong foundation is created from the beginning is an essential part of designing a new website – Generate a site design that adheres to basic SEO standards but also supports your long-term search engine optimization goals as an integral part of a new web design. Remember that an enjoyable and remember-able site will help produce conversions, create a lasting memory and produces more repeat visitors as well. You should also discuss off-page optimization strategies with the company you plan to hire. This is the next step for the SEO process and is part of the long-term goals.
“Web design tends to trend year after year.”
