I like to test out and share my UX skills outside of my workplace, and do so via teaching and mentoring, hackathons, blogging and podcasting. I also enjoy going to UX meetups, mingling with the community, and developing my accessibility skills. I see these activities as an important way to grow as a UX practitioner, and step out of my work space and see what else is happening in the UX world.
1. Teaching UX (2014-2015 & 2019-2020)
I really enjoy passing on my UX skills and knowledge to those who are new to the industry. I’m able to do this at work, by being paired with juniors on projects and helping them with their technical knowledge and client interaction skills, as well as through formal teaching.
1a. Digital Fellowship Program (DFP) (2019-2020)
I was a co-Lead of the Design function of the Deloitte Digital DFP 2020 class; a program over 6 months which teaches Deloitte juniors digital skills after working hours. Along with generalist Digital teaching, and a specialised discipline each (Design, Product Management, or Engineering/QA); the students engaged in 13 weeks of weekly classes, and 13 weeks of developing a digital product. As the Design co-Lead, I assisted with recruiting the Design students (selecting 7 from over 60 applications), creating the curriculum and plan, teaching and reviewing work, bringing on guest speakers, and mentoring throughout the product development phase. I loved watching the students grow so quickly; and helped their development with interactive tasks, and led the initiative to socialise the disciplines more with tasks like interviewing each other, creating personas and sketching together, and presenting back findings to help the other disciplines with their work.
1b. General Assembly (2014-2015)
At the end of 2014, I was approached and asked by General Assembly in Melbourne to instruct one of their night-time UX classes. I very happily accepted, and worked as a teacher’s assistant on a 12 week course, run from January – April 2015. The class had 25 students, who learnt UX concepts from research and design. It was my role to provide real-work anecdotes during the class, assist with in-class activities, and mark and provide feedback on the homework. I enjoyed marking the homework as that was where I could make the most difference, and gave feedback that matched what would be given in a real working situation. This lead me to being known among the staff as the TA who gave the most detailed feedback to their students, making me feel accomplished that the students were really learning real-world principles. My General Assembly profile
2. UX Competency Co-Lead (2017-2019)
I was the co-Lead of the Deloitte Digital Seattle UX team of 11, a role I undertook in my spare time around client engagements. This role involved looking after the health of the UX competency, and enabling the team to meet their client obligations. This included: running recruitment activities to hire UXers (writing job descriptions, resume reviews, facilitating interviews); staffing UXers onto client engagements with their career preferences in mind; bringing the team together weekly for an educational discussion, and encouraging networking throughout the week using buddy systems; mentoring junior and aspiring UXers; participating with and helping to staff business development; assisting with national career progression structures; working on studio initiatives; and organising fun events for the team to bond. I really loved this role, and really helped shape it to not only be a point of contact for the UX team, but also investing in each person’s and the team’s success.
3. UX Talk at a UXPA Seattle chapter event (2018)
I organized and gave a talk at a chapter event for UXPA (User Experience Professional Association) Seattle in October 2018. Organizing the night with a colleague, we designed a night around “UX in the Pacific Northwest“, and asked three pairs of speakers to present a 15 min talk each. This ranged from researching with those from the PNW and the anthropological observations that have been made, and how to get the outcomes you need from a PNW native; emerging technologies and how UXers can work with engineers on them; and getting the most from client reviews, keeping in mind the outcomes you need and the social interactions to expect from a reviewer from the PNW. The opening talk was given by myself and my colleague Rohit Sharma, and focused on how we as UXers can contribute to the ‘Seattle Freeze’, by creating highly addictive digital products (attention harvesting), filter bubbles, and social isolation. The event was attended by 40 local UXers, who enjoyed a led wine tasting between each talk.
4. Accessibility Focus
I find it really important to design for as many different people as we can, and take into account many different considerations with thinking through user groups and functionality. I incorporate accessibility considerations into my work, I teach others accessibility, and also enjoy attending talks in the community on accessibility.
4a. Accessibility Working Group (2017-2018)
I was the Design Lead for the Deloitte Digital Accessibility Working Group, which met weekly after hours to create a national approach for incorporating accessibility into our client work. It involved creating resources and tools, setting standards, incorporating more accessibility tasks and checks into work and business development, and teaching others in the studios about accessibility.
4b. Winner of the ACCAN Apps for All Challenge Accessibility Award (2015)
In September of 2015, RentRight, an app I had designed and meticulously led with an accessibility focus, won the ACCAN Apps for All Challenge – Accessibility Award – “Most Accessible Mainstream App”. I interpreted the W3C guidelines carefully, and implemented them through writing all voice-over prompts, including navigational assistance through multiple methods (ever-present content with step numbers and gestural), including content around iconography to decrease wrong interpretations, providing alt-text content, and ensuring colours were not the primary means for interpretation, among some. I found it to be a really educational process, and proud that it won the award and could be used successfully by so many people. Read the portfolio case study I’ve written on RentRight.
5. Hackathons (2014-2015)
I love working under a really tight time pressure, with a group of like-minded team members, working on an idea that could change the way we do things. I’ve participated in three external and two internal hackathons over the past year, with a placing in four of the hackathons.
5a. Hackathon #1 – run by Commonwealth Bank (May 2014)
I participated in this hackathon with two software developers and a UI designer. The brief was to create a retail app for the Albert device, running on a secure version of Android. Assisting with idea generation, and creating personas, wireframes, sourcing images and research on consumers and retailers, and co-presenting to the judges, I had a lot of fun on this project. Our idea revolved around a portable point of sale machine, which assisted throughout different places in a store (products and services), acted as an item locator, and inventory manager. Our team placed first in our category (of 3) for a specific retailer.
5b. Hackathons #2 and #5 – run by Outware Mobile (employer at the time) (September 2014 & May 2015)
The first hackathon was about creating a solution that assisted the business and it’s employees. I created the wireframes for a staff directory app, which utilised geofencing to enable employees to check into the different business offices. The second hackathon was focused on health, and was about hacking for good. I created wireframes and undertook research to help create an app that recorded when a rheumatoid sufferer was experiencing a ‘flare’. They could do this by utilising big touch points and voice technology, which would create and store medical records over time. The second hackathon saw our team place first for our charities, HISA and Dragon Claw (of 6 categories).
5c. Hackathon #3 – run by National Australia Bank (November 2014)
The theme of this hackathon was to help the bank’s customers and related staff members in the areas of agribusiness or health. Our team, including two software developers and a UI designer, looked into the agribusiness sector. I did some user research with staff members at the event, researched online, helped with idea generation, created wireframes, and helped with the logic of the app. The app revolved around using financial customer data, and benchmarked agricultural data, to determine expected produce levels for a year, coupled with expected market rates, assisting the agricultural sector with their financial decisions of if they could pay back their financial loans. We placed first in our category.
5d. Hackathon #4 – run by BattleHack (January 2015)
Entering with three software developers, the theme of BattleHack is to “hack for the greater good”. This was an intriguing concept, and as a team we wanted to try our hand at an IoT solution. As a country that suffers horrific bushfires, we wanted to create an awareness system for events, as well as create a pre-pledge system. Users could pre-pledge prior to an emergency, enabling funds to be released in a timely manner. The IoT solution included outdoor smoke alarms being activated by smoke, and alerting a number of app users (who had the app we created) to check out the situation. If validated, the app would then connect the user with the fire brigade, who when they arrived on site, could advise homebase if funds were required to be released to assist with the effort. It was my role to assist with idea generation, create personas and use cases, wireframes, and write the pitch for presenting. We placed first in our use of location services, and second overall.
Team photos from the Commonwealth Bank hackathon, and the second Outware hackathon
6. Blogging and Podcasts (2014-2015)
I really enjoy the chance to blog and do podcasts, having done so on a few occasions. It gives me a chance to describe my role and process, and provide opinion on what does and doesn’t work. I have had the chance to blog on behalf of places I’ve worked on for two of the hackathons, written an article on applying accessibility in apps, and was part of a couple of company podcasts, on the Apple Watch announcement, and Android material design release.
Blog – Hackathon #1 – run by Commonwealth Bank May 2014
Podcast – New Apples September 2014
Blog – Hackathon #3 – run by National Australia Bank (NAB) December 2014
Podcast – Who wants a Lollipop? October 2014
Blog – A is for Accessibility April 2015