These days I am busy working on my own practice at Klik Logik. At the same time, I am also keeping my eye out for the next opportunity.
An interesting opportunity showed up, and I got an email back:
I think your CV is quite interesting, one thing though, you don't appear to have done any mobile, cross-platform, or service design work.
Persuade me that this is not an issue.
The truth is, I did go to school for interaction design. When we learned it in school, "service design" wasn't even a popularized term. We learned it as experience design. Do I have the knowledge to explore the different platforms of design? I do. I have done it before? Yes, in school. Most of my professional career has been on the web.
How do you persuade the Head of Service Design on such issue?
Here's my response:
Hi XXXX
Hope you had a good weekend.
Have you heard of the story of how to become a sushi chef? In Japan, it’s like a traditional art form to make sushi. The master gives the student guidelines and gives critiques to each one of the sushi made. It’s a delicate science. I went through school learning Interaction Design feeling like I am learning to make sushi. I have been given the guidelines and tools to solve complex problems. Interaction design is like a science. User testing is necessary for every project. There’s not a “textbook” way of doing things. I studied architecture in school to learn about the “flow” and how it affects people. I went abroad to Italy for one whole summer to understand the history and the society buy-in to high-end designs. I entered an entrepreneurial competition to launch a product. I believe doing is how we learn to do things better. I am a fast learner and adopter, and I believe that gives me the advantage while exploring new areas.
I am highly interested in mobile and service design. I am especially excited about service design. I like building systems and learning about systems. I believe this is part of the reason why I had always been involved with web applications. It’s the designing of a bigger system that intrigues me. To design a system to serve people better is a much more intimate approach to interaction design. I have also been very highly interested on social science as a system. I am passionate about this, and that can’t be taught or learned.
I believe that I am in this industry because I want to build better systems for people, regardless of the platform. One day, perhaps I’ll even build a city. Learning about the IDEO waiting room case study - Reading up on the Obama marketing campaign - Being an entrepreneur – Building communities (online and physical) – all these have allowed me to know people/users better. I took a career path of mixed experiences so I could see users in all different areas, stages, and industries. I drill down to the detail but design from the big picture. Isn’t interaction design really in everyday life? It is in mine.
I hope to be able to practice different parts of my passion that has been waiting to flourish. I could go on listing all the design methods and pattern libraries, but at the end of the day, the design principle of making everything easier and more meaningful for people will always be the key to my practice.
I look forward to keep learning and keep inspiring.
I am posting this because I spent a lot of time writing this response. I am being truthful about how I value design in my life. I am passionate about what I do. I live and breathe it. I felt good writing it and saying the truth about why I can do mobile and service design. It's not because I can list all the design methods and throw in big terms. At the same time, is that what's expected of me?
I am not sure if I have persuaded him yet.
How would you respond to such question?
