In this lecture we had a special guest Ronan Mckinless. Ronan has worked in the IXD industry for 20 years ranging from small start up companies to big successful businesses such as Apple and Carlsberg. He came in to give us an insight into the industry.
He firstly gave us a brief explanation to the difference between skills and medium, UX and UI, digital, product and service design roles. He also explains the importance of each design aspect, “form is function” was a quote that I had never heard of, he explained this to mean that manipulating any aspect of design will change the form and meaning that that aspect portrays to the user.
Ronan gave us some insight into the job, he said there are two types of companies large and small. Larger companies have a larger network, you will have a larger space with lots of other peers , however being with other creative peers and does not mean you will have easy access talking to higher up designers.
On the other hand, we have smaller company agencies, there is smaller space however you know everyone you are working with and you build relationships. There is less opportunity but more networking can be done with senior designers.
Ronan shared a term “In house designers” which means an agency that you work for but are part of a smaller team, you are not the main product, for example, you are the UX designer for Pepsi. Larger companies can take a long time to make any changes that could be done in less than a day since there is a lot of people you have to communicate with. On the bright side it can be a less tense environment.
Ronan gave some advice that the first job you should take should maybe not be freelancing, freelancing is very convenient for the client and not the worker, it is not for the faint hearted and can be very tough. He also advised to not become friends with your clients and know the boundary as you can be disappointed very quickly.
One topic I was quite surprised at was that Remote working is quite common, he mentioned that talking directly to designers and seniors is something that is extremely helpful with networking. Being aware of the trade offs with working remotely is something to really consider. Knowing what you want from a job and knowing what you like will set you in the right direction. Working in a company you dislike will not be beneficial to you or them. Bad decisions are inevitable, if you end up in a place that you don’t fit in, don't waste time and don’t be stuck. Remote working would probably best suit me as a person however I think if I jumped straight into this kind of job I would miss a lot of opportunities.
peter tale 0-1
good strategy bad strategy
“Design of everyday things” Don Norman
Overall, I found the talk extremely fascinating, I wasn’t expecting a deep dive into the working environment which I am glad he spoke about. Surprisingly, I do not feel scared or anxious about talking about careers in the first year, I really appreciated the talk as we can become more familiar with the idea of working in this industry. His talk allowed me to understand what I want from this course and what kind of job I want to do. I feel like I will be suited more to a smaller company and work with people that I can build relationships with as I believe you work better this way, I also like the idea of having a bigger responsibility and role when working in a smaller company compared to a larger one.
However I am not completely closed off to working within larger business, ideally I would like to get as much experience as possible working in all types of businesses with all types of people. One topic that stood out to me was he talked about getting fired, laid off from a job, your work being judged and critiqued and how to react when this happens. As this is a big part of the job role and something that will most likely happen to everyone, it was reassuring to hear someone who has experienced this and struggled when this happened to them.
Ronan’s email- [email protected]