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Candidate:Abdul Rehman Khawar

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Is Abdual the right fit for the role?

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Work of Abdul Rehman Khawar

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Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 31, 2006
    I don't get the feeling that any of these candidates truly understand the role of the User Experience Advisor, let alone the needs of the Canadian UX community. I don't care about your resume - show me that you understand my needs! How about some basic user research? Get out and actually talk to your target audience! For all candidates: pick up copies of Tom Kelly's the "Art of Innovation" and "The Ten Faces of Innovation." Get to know your users inside and out, then show me what you've got!

  • Anonymous
    November 01, 2006
    Hey Audrey, Great comments and you know what... I really appricate you taking the time to make sure we get it right.  I've linked to your blog post to highlight the expectations from the community and look to yours and the community guidence to help find the right person! Thanks again and if you have anyone interesting I'm open and willing to pay what I need to get the right person for the community.  My only cavet is it has to be a recent grad (within a year) take care, john

  • Anonymous
    November 01, 2006
    <a href="http://">testing links</a>

  • Anonymous
    November 01, 2006
    You are right! From what you have seen I would have had the same reaction. That is exactly why I really like the open approach Microsoft Canada is following to select the suitable candidate. In fact, it is a key(1) ingredient for times as complex as we live in and such openness can lead to outweigh the power of the few(2). It is a journey as rightly stated here(3), a journey I am willing to make. With the mind of a beginner and the heart of a humanist... I have and actively continue to assimilate the essentials that help me understand the whole mindedness needed to begin such an undertaking as the role of the UX Advisor requires. But, it is what I think is required! and to some extent believe... an intuition...  I do admit that at this very moment I am not clear what the role truly requires. I am finding it hard to make out the whole picture and UX advisor's role in it as demonstrated in the first effort(4). Yet this blog and feedback of members like you will truly help. I read your post here(5) and John's here(6) and the links you have suggested... they will be the beginning to develop a clear picture for this role along with the links John kindly provided earlier. As for the primer on innovation and creative thinking you suggested: Tom Kelly's great work(7). Although I was introduced to IDEO(8) long time ago when I started using a mouse(9)... my only reason to study at Vancouver Film School (VFS) Digital design program(10) was that I really got inspired by their "design thinking(11)" and IDEO happens to inspire the digital design curriculum(12) at VFS and let me assure you from day one at VFS we really see/feel/touch the influence they have... from team bombardment to deep dive(13)... we have had our share of the secret formula(14). I truly believe that the way forward for business's today is in innovation or design thinking that take advantage of universal principles as simple as play. Or should I say it is an accepted truth... with Business Week launching Innovation section(15), d.school(16) and all the beta apps out there... it is only a matter of time before businesses embrace innovation(17). Which brings us to this role... and my humble questions to John and all of you... to help me and other candidates understand this position... Since we all agree with IDEO's command on the subject, allow me to use their language... The "secret formula" of nurturing innovation is a blend of methodologies, work practices, culture, and infrastructure. So my first question (a combo, more so) is towards John and the crew... The mission of the UX advisor as stated in the job description here(3) ... is to "engage with the broad community of designers and influential's learning the industry challenges and driving excitement around design related technologies for both the standards-web and windows platform". So the UX advisor when learns such industry challenges through depth engagements... brings in those insights to whom? in terms of the larger structure? what contributions does this role have on the broader development cycle for Microsoft's products... and especially Expressions suite? How does the CAN UX team work with other teams across Microsoft? How is the culture and infrastructure for innovation regarding this role?... since they are the key ingredients upon which the success of this role depends... I would really appreciate all your thoughts about this role... as the more I understand it... the more I can be true to it. It's a blast... been given this opportunity to get involved early in the process... and I will do my best to be in it all the way... Kindest Regards, Abdul Rehman Sorry to increase the complexity of this reply... I had to introduce reference numbers in the body of the reply as I think we can't have links in the comments.

References and Links

  1. Key - http://lawsofsimplicity.com/?s=openness
  2. Power of the few - http://www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/
  3. Rightly said here (job description) -  http://clients.njoyn.com/cl//xweb/XWeb.asp?tbtoken=Z19aQxhdNVAFY3NwQidTY086d2FYaVVYBFVMIisKDXkuK0ofWDdpemQEBUQY&chk=dFlbQBJZ&Page=JobDetails&Jobid=J1006-0081#
  4. First effort - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR7SsigxQ_Y
  5. Audrey's post - http://audreycarr.ca/?p=9
  6. John's post - http://blogs.msdn.com/canux/archive/2006/11/01/great-community-direction.aspx
  7. Tom Kelly's work - http://theartofinnovation.com/
  8. IDEO - http://www.ideo.com
  9. a mouse - http://www.ideo.com/portfolio/re.asp?x=50184
  10. Digital design program at VFS - http://www.vfs.com/fulltime.php?id=13
  11. Design Thinking - http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?357
  12. IDEO happens to inspire the digital design curriculum - http://www.vfs.com/adv_board.php?id=13
  13. Deep Dive - http://www.ideo.com/media/nightline.asp
  14. Secret Formula - http://theartofinnovation.com/chap1_screen_5.htm
  15. Business Week Innovation - http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/
  16. D-School - http://www.stanford.edu/group/dschool/
  17. Businesses embrace innovation - http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/93/design.html
  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2006
    I am the UX and Interaction Design instructor at VFS - Digital Design program. Within the program, all students  learn various tools, techniques to construct an optimal user experience for their target audiences on various projects. The program covers all aspects such as:
  • audience research using ethnographic techniques
  • uncovering user needs and goals
  • persona development
  • interactive storyboards and process flows
  • schematics and site-path diagramming
  • paper prototypes and modeling
  • use cases and design validation All of this is taught in a collaborative team based environment and emphasis is laid on the iterative aspects of interactive design. Due to privacy policy restrictions, I cannot confirm nor deny that Abdul went to VFS to the general public (I know, policies, policies!) However, I would say that any student that went through our program, and was focussed on the user experience curriculum to work in the industry would find that they leave with all the techniques and tools necessary to be very successful. Best of luck! Gagan Diesh http://www.vfs.com/faculty.php?id=13&staff_id=289 or http://www.designstamp.com/opinion