Design-ability Buddies [Portfolio / Interview Grind]

[ivory parrot]

Thread here

I have like 10 days or sth til interview

;-;

Been slacking off for 2 days GAAA

[rotund venture]

let me see that resume lol

[ivory parrot]

kekw its private :))

interview meaning its for an assessment round

alr done w resume screening and all

i'll prob study research plan related stuff today. bc in asia it is chinese new year today soo there isn't any work

was busy w work on monday and half of tuesday

[rotund venture]

oh okay

friends were celebrating the new year! 😁

[ivory parrot]

what r u up to for design stuff? r u applying for jobs or sth

[rotund venture]

primarily designing a website atm

past the applying stage for both good/bad

[ivory parrot]

ooh what good / bad? like the jobs u had applied for?

[ivory parrot]

i was doing that bahhahaa but i guess that is now on the sidelines bc i need to ace the interview

[rotund venture]

just that i'm "on my own"

[rotund venture]

LET ME SEE 👀 or is that private too lol

[ivory parrot]

im "on my own" too, its super boring esp as someone w adhd ;-;

[ivory parrot]

i haven't published anything tbh

also i was using some framer template bc i was in a rush

and i didn't really enjoy how it was turning out

prob gonna redesign since now i m in less of a rush

[rotund venture]

i get that 😭

[ivory parrot]

originally i needed to submit it. but the power of networking

[ivory parrot]

feeling nervous about consolidating materials tgt ugh

[sullen cypress]

Hey! Mind if I join? I spent all day grinding on… tech debt for my portfolio site. 😭

[ivory parrot]

no problemo ofc, anyone is welcome to join

i've already read up on stuff about research plan, so basically what i need is to consolidate a template so that i ccan use it for interview(s)

unfortunately bc its cny it means relatives are visiting my grandma who lives w me (or rather... i live with her) so i have to poof for a bit and smile and be nice

should i use figjam to make my template or nah... keeping in mind that i need to be able to export into pdf

[ivory parrot]

kickstarted on figjam

but reading some medium article about framing qns too

[fossil hearth]

whats up dorks im here to grind

not really i cant tonight i have to grind my job 😦

but tomorrow i will (after i have an interview for walmart [rip my ethics for working for a monopoly])

[ivory parrot]

fr. welcome :))

just done w lunch

back to fogjam in a bit

[ivory parrot]

shucks i fell asleep but back now. hm wonder if anyoen out there has their portfolio on neocities lol

[verbal leaf]

omg the perfect thread! I have screening interview for junior ux design position and i just want to know what kind of questions i could expect! i dont think it will be extremely technical because its only 30 mins but i want to still impress!

[ivory parrot]

tbh you could ask on #👋ask-professionals too for more visibility HAHA

for screening interview its kinda low-stakes isn't it?

at least from what i remember. mostly asking about your past projects, design philosophy, what are your aspirations ETC. and then they'd ask if you have any questions for them so this is where you can ask some basic stuff too

:(( have been napping instead of doing what i need to do. ugh.

prob gonna get tea and shower and continue on

[verbal leaf]

sorry i just released this is a side thread😭 im still getting the hang on discord

thanks for the advice and im sure you will kill your interviews! lock in!!😆

[sullen cypress]

So, my goal yesterday was to make some updates to my 9–5 portfolio, but instead, I ended up wrestling with tech debt on my 9–5 portfolio all day.

So I think my goals for today are:

• Post at least one LinkedIn post about something I’ve designed in the last year
• Make some of those changes to my 9–5 portfolio
• Add pricing information to UX Office hours over on my new business’s website

Also, I have a customer discovery call with someone who works at a startup and is currently hiring a part-time designer, which is exactly the customer profile I want to learn more about!

[ivory parrot]

ooh is your new business site available for us to see rn hahah

i've been wasting so much time getting distracted and sleeping

will go to cafe in a bit i guess

[sullen cypress]

Yeah! It’s https://craftandcontext.io

I haven’t announced it on LinkedIn and whatnot yet because I’ve been getting signals from people on whether to charge for UX Office Hours or make it free but super limited, or how much I could charge if I had big names in my work history that I don’t have, etc.

So I feel compelled to add some sort of pricing and add a Stripe integration. But then give out some offer codes to people I meet, etc.

[fossil hearth]

This is what you had two weeks ago 😾 FASTERRRRRR

make this text white its too dark. the green kinda too "dusty" and dark make it brighter :3

maybe if you make it white dont need to make it darker. also if you can speed up the rate it changes states on hover, its a lil slow. dont know if you set it custom or not

feel free to flame my portfolio its more fun this way (but i also havent touched my portfolio yet but lets just keep flaming the fact i have a slide deck in it as a case study thats also not a slide deck b/c im a silly boi) [im also sleep deprived as ive been working 12 hour days for the last 2 days and last week i pulled a 55 hour week so anyway enjoy my stupid random ted talk thx lads and lasses]

[ivory parrot]

finally left home. need to finish this research plan template and prob use remaining time for reviewing visual design concepts / common flows

[ivory parrot]

i think if this was more obvious that it was a link from the get-go asides the -> icon, might be better too..

[ivory parrot]

also.. zamn airbnb w that neumorphism trend

ugh fugging wasting half my time away is so ominous.
despite already knowing what i am going to be assessed on, i am feeling soo nervous :((
have like 1.5 weeks left before interview =.=

shd i bother even booking mocks or sth if its going to be a takehome?
i think what i cld really use is just someone vetting thru stuff like research plan / ux audit work

feels like i wasted days trawling through so much information on random websites / pdf etc

[sullen cypress]

Woke up feeling suuuuper burned out. But I have a founder community meetup tonight and an interview tomorrow, soooo… I may have to give myself some slow time today. Maybe.

[sullen cypress]

Did some interview prep today for the interview tomorrow. Not much else. But I feel like that was the most important priority.

Now off to the founder meetup.

[ivory parrot]

goodluck for tomorrow!!

ugh have work today. prayge

[ivory parrot]

idk what is sth low stakes i can work on if i only have like 1-2h of energy aft getting home :/

[ivory parrot]

and just a random thing
i totally love seeing late 90s / early 00s web elements in the wild.
think i might just abandon framer and use neocities for portfolio LMAO

[fossil hearth]

Ok i got an interview in 9 days i gotta update my portfolio landing page: edit an existing case study, edit a written out case study, then make it. alll while doing my actual work too LEGGGOOOOO

also gotta hook up hotjar (this hopefully will be 20 minutes or less)

[ivory parrot]

how is progress

i just spent $20 bux to sit myself at a cafe :/

[fossil hearth]

what progress :^)

idk im gonna start tomorrow

[ivory parrot]

todays plan for me is to continue sieving thru UI components and patterns

been reading that observi ng user experience book… its really the bible i needed

[ivory parrot]

(feeling so insanely bored rn, studying about Chips.. wth)

[ivory parrot]

and now bouncing to the user experience bible book

[fossil hearth]

ok i finished my landing page intro and my about me section to be more interesting

can probably trim it down later but for now yolo

rip server blocks "f it we ball" 👎

https://anovotnyux.com/ i think i can just drop a few words here and there in first and second paragraph and that will ease it

[ivory parrot]

wow CMU

[fossil hearth]

going to school is ez

Its my pet peeve whenever anyone mentions it at this stage in my career. to me it means i havent done anything else impressive 😛 (and since im hyper critical of myself i think thats true)

but anyway yeah everythin in there is kinda garbage gotta rework those top two case studies and my landing page to reflect my new lens and how i framed erything

but ill do that later since i havent had food and its uhhhh 10 pm today WHOOPSIES

[sullen cypress]

I feel that. I frequently feel like nothing I’ve accomplished as a “grown up” designer stacks up to the magazines I designed in college, myself. Like I had all this promise and potential but fulfilling that potential has just consistently been out of my reach.

[ivory parrot]

fr i haven't had lunch yet

[ivory parrot]

isn't it hard to get into it?

[fossil hearth]

I mean it just motivates me

[fossil hearth]

Idk honestly, idk why I got picked

[ivory parrot]

will u be continuing on portfolio work

half the day is gone now.. i have been productive but at the same time everything is still a mess

[fossil hearth]

Tonight? Probably not I’m sick and it’s almost 1am

[ivory parrot]

rest well

[ivory parrot]

._. in terms of overall structure, am i missing anything

still reading thru and conslidating the types of research methods from the measuringU site :,/

[ivory parrot]

ok finally done with that =.= after like a weeks worth of sieving thru information ^

[ivory parrot]

kinda chill day at work today (i think)… will use the day to sneak in some studying maybe.

• finish usability test template
• finish interview template
• read articles on filter / search

[fossil hearth]

i slept til 3 pm again 🥲 gotta do actual work but instead started texting a friend for an hour and watching yt. WHO NEEDS A JOB not meeeee (its me i need a job)

[sullen cypress]

Had a busy day volunteering at the food bank and recovering from that. Calling it a night early-ish so I can hit the ground running tomorrow.

Might actually go to a free coworking day for AI/ML startups at the incubator where I’m talking with them about starting to mentor founding startup teams tomorrow!

For whatever reason, when I was on my call with them on Friday, I could have sworn Feb 3 was middle of the week—not literally the next business day. 😂

[ivory parrot]

!! this is so wholesome

[ivory parrot]

waiiit dont u have a job rn!!

i didnt manage to work on anything portfolio / interview related… having an insane headache for no reason during work

[fossil hearth]

yeah for a month left

then my contract ends

then i get to sit back and laugh as nobody has SME working in design on that product anymore (jk they got a guy with 20 years experience to come in he'll be fine)

[fossil hearth]

welp got sidetracked doing work a fried wants me to help document his village's language of ~50 ppl and its a spoken only alnguage what a cool ass problem to solve for

[ivory parrot]

contract worker pain..

i mean technically i would still have a job its just that I don't want to do contract work ever again (like they wld renew if i choose to reject for whatever reasons)

Literally today, there was this email chain about some award that the team got

Whoever who sent that mail didn't bother cc contract staff in

Idk if i would REALLY want to work for this kinda org as a fte but i didn't even do up my portfolio entirely yet... fml

Feel like maybe i should push myself to do a teeny tiny bit of studying before crashing.

or at least create a new template

[fossil hearth]

i mean yeah i probably wont do contract either unless its super good paying, i just needed a job and i was burned out 18 months ago so i just went with it

[ivory parrot]

apparently kinda the norm now within tech though

[fossil hearth]

at this point though honestly FTE vs contract barely matters in big tech with how layoff happy those companies are

nah its not

anyway off to bed for an hour

CYA

[sullen cypress]

You know what’s even more wholesome? How I found them.

I was out with my dog for a walk, and the lady who runs this was outside with her cat, and my dog tried really hard to make friends with the cat.

He laid down, and made puppy eyes at the cat. And the cat eventually walked a few feet away from my dog and also laid down, mirroring his body language.

And it was extra cute because they both have matching colored fur (my dog’s a Golden).

Eventually the lady started giving my dog treats when we stopped by, so she became his favorite aunt.

[ivory parrot]

aww!!!

[sullen cypress]

I gave myself two goals today, and accomplished one. 😂

I feel like my landing page is finally ready to announce in the morning!

My next goal is to add some more impact sounding language to my 9–5 portfolio case studies, and add support for video, so I can show a scrolling animation I contributed to in ‘23.

[ivory parrot]

good job!!!

[ivory parrot]

should def use the energy i have rn to churn out template

[ivory parrot]

managed to do a little. kinda wanna combine like... 3 usability templates together LMAO

(o well ig that will happen tmr..)

[sullen cypress]

Tell me a little more about these usability templates. Are you going to use them to conduct some usability studies for a project you’re working on?

[ivory parrot]

i have an upcoming takehome assessment and i am just (overpreparing maybe?) for it

basically i just want a quick and easy way to present and fill information lmao

[sullen cypress]

I made some minor edits to my 9–5 portfolio today. Brought back some material that I cut during a very, very aggressive round of edits. I think? Actually, it would be good to get the original Google Docs back in sync with the new changes.

The other thing is I started looking into what it would take to add video to my case studies and I think maybe it’s time to get a Vimeo account?!?!

[ivory parrot]

video? like video clickthru of app?

gonna work on interview stuff otw home and at home

stayed back at work for like 2h…

bc i went to help w notetaking for some usability test @ work and neglected my own work

i just feel so bleh tho bc of whatever i posted on the main emotional support group chat. and also muchhh rather be doing these than dev

o well at least the day of me leaving dev world inches closer w yet another day

[sullen cypress]

More like a scroll through. One project I worked on at an agency involves making an animation sync up with blocks of content as they scrolled by the animation.

[sullen cypress]

I got stuck trying to figure out how to downsample the video clip in a way that makes it still look good, so I moved on to some other 9–5 portfolio visD issues yesterday. Feel like maybe there’s room for another polish pass, but I’m interested to hear feedback on the updates I made—especially to dark mode!

https://dan.hiester.design

[ivory parrot]

i like ur case study for design engr stuff!!

idk kinda feel some of the copy is a bit “strange” in the sense its veryyy rambly

like most of the portfolios people post on here have the problem of lacking details and/or poor structure. but yours seems like it has so much informtation (maybe too much?)

[sullen cypress]

That might be the one where I had a plan to add the deeper-details component… which ended up getting stalled.

Basically, it’s a component that hides long bits of detailed information by default but lets a user expand it if they want to see more information.

I started working on it because I realized part of the reason why we get conflicting feedback about how much detail to include is because our portfolios are read by different personas at different stages of the hiring process. People closer to the end of the process have fewer candidates to review, more time, and more questions.

Buuuuut I got stuck on a super tricky styling issue with that component. So that one case study has some long copy in it for now.

[ivory parrot]

u mean .. accordion? hahaha

[ivory parrot]

i saw how some people have more surface level case study on their website. then a detailed one (and/or for recruiters) that they can provide if u contact them

[sullen cypress]

Some people also call it progressive disclosure. There are lots of specific ways to execute it.

Most accordions are really designed for multiple sections of really short form content, whereas this was one long form content block.

Also, I built it with lit so that it would be framework agnostic. It’s headless, so it’s brand agnostic as well.

I may still try to make a Framer component with it!

[sullen cypress]

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anetakmiecik_uxportfolio-uxdesigner-activity-7294013005204189184-Mlcf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAABu8rkBRInw7E7l7Usa4C1v9Ue9Ykwlb9k

[sullen cypress]

Got feedback from a friend that my 9–5 portfolio isn’t loading the body text webfont right, and it was defaulting to Helvetica—which is a red flag for some HMs.

And honestly, I actually have gotten fewer interviews since I launched that portfolio. I wondered if something was wrong with the design relative to the previous one. But I couldn’t easily roll back, because the previous one was built on an EOL’d framework and was 100% tech debt. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Anyway. I fixed the font for body copy on my 9–5 portfolio today.

[rotund venture]

need a buddy to look over some design work 🙋‍♂️

[ivory parrot]

what kinda work?

[ivory parrot]

hows your progress btw 👀

[rotund venture]

design, ui

[ivory parrot]

sure why not. u can just post here and/or under #943196929813282857

[rotund venture]

@ivory parrot check dms 🤫 site is not live

[ivory parrot]

okk

i dont see anything

[ivory parrot]

ig next mission for me is my neocities portfolio

[sullen cypress]

So I spent my afternoon making a carousel for LinkedIn, and I don’t feel like I nailed it, buuut I need to keep on moving along to the next thing sooo I think I’m gonna ship it in the morning.

[ivory parrot]

yeee done is bettee than perfect fr

[ivory parrot]

did u manage to ship it?

i need someone to kick my butt about portfolio work fr

but i think what santiago mentioned about finding irl people for accountability may help me more

js that idk any design groups locally LMAO the only one i am in is the local figma one, and its so deadddd

[ivory parrot]

anyway, about "realistic deadlines".

Presuming if I don't take up the PM role and follow what others say & "just work in something which I seem to like the most out of everything" aka design:

• IF i want to leave my current job when my contract ends, I need to find / start a new job at June.
• Idk if its realistic enough to at least draw / sketch out some dummy layouts by this wkend bc I've alr did some research :/ still have to decide on stuff like colors & typography though!

&& the sh!t that I have to do either bc colleague is slacking off (more like isn't thorough w their work, i literally have to review / redo it myself 💀 ) (literally no clue how to handle this, everyone is so exasperated) and/or due to my "slow work" cos of mh reasons

that's why I am really so tired w being stuck in "contract". Can't even "wfh normally" due to some dumb clause on a paper. Whereas the "slacker" colleague was hired as a New Grad. And bc of the dumb clause, what I can do / output is also normally restricted to normal work hours, in spite of sometimes as a team effort we need to be putting in more hours. There was this incident where i got "blamed" for trying to bypass these restrictions when I tried to ask to lemme handle everything completely by myself so that the whole team will not have to deal w the issue of redoing someone else's work. urghhhhhh.

I mean the outcome was that the mgr went to ask our department head and/or just let me be on call for that weekend so that i can "wfh". but sh!t like this is so infuriating that literally i am ready to throw away bonus money just to get rid of these blockers. I don't want to have to be stuck doing contract work even past June T_T help..

[sullen cypress]

I did!

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/craft-and-context_craft-context-custom-tailwind-config-activity-7295159294809804800-iocJ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAABu8rkBRInw7E7l7Usa4C1v9Ue9Ykwlb9k

[ivory parrot]

Getting the design to look great in production takes someone who understands how visual design principles translate to code.

FRFR tho.
Nice job!

ok not rlly a moodboard per se but exploring themes and the visual direction i want to go more toward

[sullen cypress]

I had lost this thread in my Discord sidebar, so thank you for bringing me back! I didn’t want to lose it.

[sullen cypress]

I like the way you have axes on this board to sort out thematic elements.

Do you have thoughts on what it is you want the style to tell others about you?

Like, if the visual style was like an outfit, and you’re choosing the outfit because you want it to tell others something about you, what do you want them to see?

[ivory parrot]

rn the general theme is old / early web and thats the messaging i would like to convey (that im someone v into these kinda stuff LOL and “i am not a boring person”) but even that spans between the 90s and 00s.

also am thinking of maybe sth quirky toward brutalism styles

my realllyyy old portfolio had a minimalist layout but that is so overused nowadays

[sullen cypress]

What I find funny is, your table puts 90s style at the opposite end of brutalism, but I tend to think of 90s design as being OG brutalism.

In architecture, brutalism isn’t a reference to brutality—it’s a reference to “raw concrete,” or raw material.

So 2020s digital brutalism is, I think, a sort of celebration of the cold, inorganic design primitives of digital UI. It took the “material honesty” philosophy that drove (but predated) Material Design and infused it with a little 1980s retrofuture (imo).

[sullen cypress]

I like where you are going with “not a boring person,” but do you have any more discreet ideas on that? What is it about you that makes you an energetic person? How does that energy represent you and your work?

For Craft & Context, my North Star was: I hear so many people talk about designers like we aren’t mature, and flashy designs often convey immaturity. But I want to convey my sense of maturity. I like the theme of a “seasoned explorer.” I also want to convey that even though I’m mature, I’m still forward thinking.

So I started playing a lot with a “midcentury retrofuture” theme, that looked to the past for an era of refinement and taste—but it was also a heady era of rapid transformation when we looked forward to a very heady future.

Once I had that part of my “why,” it became a lot easier for me to make certain decisions about my “what.” (Or at least, I think 😂)

[sullen cypress]

Anyway! I'm about to call it a night where I am. But I'll check in to see where you got when I wake up. I'll be excited to see or hear about what you worked on!

[ivory parrot]

Goodnight!!

[ivory parrot]

Hahaha i think it meant to chart 2 opposing ideas between a more playful vibes in contrast to a more stoic / dark vibe

I think for me, its more about being authentic. Thats a thing that I've always admired about so many creatives; being fearless and give no sh!ts about others who judge them for doing their own thing / creating their own biz etc.

idk if anyone else ever felt this way, but i think 1-2 years ago i'd never be able to have been doing a portfolio only simply because i had even less self-belief in myself than rn (not that I always had little self-belief, actually it was the opposite! its just years of bad depression..). To me, for things like this and networking, personal branding is sooo important.

[sullen cypress]

One thing I think about a lot is the difference between authenticity and having no filter.

On LI, I have way more of a filter than in an emotional support channel. But even on LI, I still make measured references to vulnerability—with the knowledge that we all struggle with this, and all need people to give a voice to it. Networking really helped me to see that need.

[sullen cypress]

Where did you land today, btw?

[ivory parrot]

for sure. hahaha. tbh i dont use linkedin that much though except in the past i’d just try to optimize my profile for keywords and somehow still managed to get people reaching out to me

which reminds me, i could hit up those people too

but need to get portfolio done first

[ivory parrot]

nowhere. HAHA. i was doing work-work…

of which i know i really need to cut back on. thats something i struggle with a lot — which is letting the team struggle by itself and letting others pull up the slack instead of always being the one to do it at my own expense

but at the same time i feel conflicted? because i know people (the upper mgmt?) do appreciate it and are aware of it

hmm. guess i'll try to work on MY own things for an hour til i have to get groceries ..

[sullen cypress]

Do it! Go go go!

[ivory parrot]

ok!! i got some progress

something like this for now.... moving toward actual moodboarding i guess. but these are the elements that i've selected so far

i like the kind of wacky early 00s / late 90s font and links that look like stickers LOL

and COMIC SANS

idk if anyone is going to find it so unreadable though, but lets see and adjust from there lol

i decided i wanted a layout which is more wide and open, prob just a single column, because i want to maximize space given that its supposed to be for a portfolio

[sullen cypress]

I lean towards constraining space for text and setting up at least two image sizes: One that maximizes space, and one that just takes like a medium amount of space.

That helps specific images have a more dramatic impact when I want them to.

[ivory parrot]

time management be my greatest nemesis fr tho

the weekend is almost over........

typically on weekends i tend to sleep for 9 hours. somehow, i think i have so much accumulated sleep debt that i can still accidentally fall asleep into a nap, which happened just now.

unfortunately I also have some assessment to complete for the other role from referral <project management> =.=
that i neeed to complete this weekend if I want to make it for their hiring cycle.
so i might not have more time to work on portfolio stuff rn...

[ivory parrot]

which reminds me. when i bring this up to colleagues they just say stuff like "u need more discipline and just sleep less"
b....bruh... that was the life i led all the way til graduating from uni. I think my body is kind of damaged at this juncture.

[ivory parrot]

just finished the test. ok at least it was a good call not to bother studying much for it bc it mostly just asked about testing (like boundary test cases) and architecture

[sullen cypress]

I hear ADHD also tends to mess with sleep patterns. People who don’t know that tend to think we should just be better about sleep.

[ivory parrot]

ive wanted to get a sleep study done since forever (or rather as a teen) but since i got the adhd meds which was.. late 2023, did some research, usually even if its some sleep apnea issue, asides CPAP its just gonna be stimulants anyway

my hypothesis is kinda, because my usual routine (flexible routine) is disturbed by this wfo shenningans, as well as being overstimulated in such an env, i need more sleep to recover from it LMAO

and yeah youre right. people without adhd dont get it.

to them tbh they dont care about adhd or autism or anything. which means they also dont bother to find out how it affects an individual. but they just want the person to get work done

which is funny bc i have some other colleague which we all suspect has autism. and he keeps getting chided for “being unable to sit still at his seat even when there is an important meeting”

[sullen cypress]

That sounds more like ADHD than autism to me. I’m still only beginning to process “AuDHD,” tho. Sounds like it’s a whole… thing.

It’s a bummer more people don’t know about this, though. The incidence rate of this is pretty high in tech, so managing ADHD and autistic employees is really actually an important skill for runing a business that deals with tech.

[ivory parrot]

hahaha. its a spectrum

the "autism" part is just more of the person "not being aware of social / work norms"

literally i / other people will get told to keep an eye out on this colleague and ensure that they are not sleeping at work randomly

[ivory parrot]

the common argument i tend to get is, "might as well hire people without these conditions then"

asia ain't a v inclusive environment.

oh yeah. haven't managed to do much on portfolio stuff today as of yet too. been so busy with chores.

and there's still work in.... 7h time.

[ivory parrot]

hate it when folks like my partner can be watching football and go to work w 5h of sleep and somehow still be able to study stuff after that as well.

and if i say i cant do it and even w 7h of sleep i feel exhausted, it becomes some “discipline problem”

[sullen cypress]

What did I do? I guess… I had a fair amount of chat with my lead gen guy about strategy. Not convinced we have it nailed down.

Oh. He redid my LI profile. For science, I’m letting it stay that way for now, buuuut I have a lot of feels like “this is the garbage everyone in my circles loves to hate.” 😬

So this week will be interesting, at least.

[sullen cypress]

I finally did a mini-deck of one of those projects I designed in 2020 that never shipped.

Wish I did it years ago.

But… I mean, it didn’t ship… so I may just end up learning that it’s okay that I didn’t do this sooner, anyway. 🫤

[ivory parrot]

[ivory parrot]

Hmmmm is it still useful for your portfolio overall?

Im thinking of saying “yes” to the proj/prod management job. But still trying to nego and squeeze more salary now LMAO.

More so just to get exposure to the upper mgmt meetings and improve my communication skills. But i dont think I’ll want to do it forever. Do u feel the experience will still def be useful if I want to do lateral switch to exclusively design job to chill?

I wonder if its something unfeasible to juggle that job and working on portfolio over a year LOL or worse case scenario maybe js lateral change aft 6 months to a year and not screw up the 40% of assessment again

[sullen cypress]

Only if I can figure out how to password protect a page with a Nuxt generated site.

Haven’t tried asking Claude about that in over a year. Could be fun to see what it says now.

[sullen cypress]

I keep tuning in and out in this career question of yours, @asd! If you want to voice chat for a spell I’d be down!

[ivory parrot]

have to decide by Fri. idm voice if our timings sync up, im at gmt +8 here

[ivory parrot]

my sleep deprivation level is so high. even with adhd stimulants & 2 shots of coffee. I still feel like I need more sleep LOL.

Ystd I woke up at 0740. Then i was at work til 1830. Went to the gym, felt too tired to do any compounds, did some accessories, got back at 2120. Had to help partner w cooking and washing remaining stuff for meal prep & eat dinner. By the time I was done washing and packing and throwing garbage, it was already sth like 0140. And I woke up at 8am today to keep a few things and go to work..

Thats why i keep saying that IDK how to manage my energy and time. Ystd was my gym day. I do have free time at night today but probably half the time I am already so out of it and need sleep 🤣

[sullen cypress]

I’m in GMT-8 (or US Los Angeles). It’s like 9pm here and I’m home from the evening dog walk unusually early, but starting to slow down for the night.

Hard relate on the energy thing. It can really feel like so much.

Although, it also makes me wonder what things energize you and what things drain you? Maybe sleep is part of it, but maybe there are mother ways in which you drain more than you recharge?

[ivory parrot]

I’ll try to catch you on my nights (your morning) then!!

I read about some flow state template before, where one can reflect on energy levels based on Activity, Environment, Interaction, Objects, Users

I def feel less drained not having to constantly interact w people and/or not being in high stimulation environments. Stuff like working from home def isnt taxing for me LOL

But i think it is also a matter of wanting to pursue personal growth and “be uncomfortable”. at the same time, i am also not sure which is a good amount to avoid burnout

[ivory parrot]

I think I explained before on this server. My biggest challenge is time and energy management when my schedule is so fixed. Never had an issue doing so many things w flexible schedule, but cant cope rn..

I asked another person (online friend) w adhd (mid 30s, previously working as project mgr, now moved to lcol country and handling small local biz). Their pov is better to go / wait for something more low risk rather than risk severe burnout

oh ya. asides all of that. def stuff that gives me dopamine are stuff that are easy wins in general

[ivory parrot]

leaving work on time today

[sullen cypress]

Got it. I can hang in vc for a little bit! Full disclosure, I have an interview in a few hours, so I won’t hang around long. But I’m doing some thins in my kitchen for now!

[ivory parrot]

I saw you pop up in vc!
Ahhh.. still pondering. Feeling exhausted rn LOL

[sullen cypress]

Just asked Alexa what time it is in UTC-8, and she says she doesn’t know that right now. We may all be a little tired. 🙃

[ivory parrot]

LMAO

How long will u be on vc for?

Lemme try to will myself to hop on. Even though I might be slightly nervous loool wanted to say that vc-ing to anonymous people makes me nervous, but there's always a first time for something like me vc-ing with my online friends for the first time so, doesn't seem like a valid excuse

[sullen cypress]

Maybe a little longer. Depends on how many dishes I clean after I eat.

[sullen cypress]

I appreciate you sharing that. Don’t want to pressure you! Especially if you have other things you have planned to get done.

[ivory parrot]

preparing to sleep rn actually HAHA

but it would be nice if I could hop on after I am done preparing to sleep

oh but someone else is also on vc, maybe i'll try to hop on early tomorrow for me before work (evening for ya)

goodluck for your interview 😄

[ivory parrot]

time for that design assessment prep & grind

thanks for the voice note btw

imma listen to it again

listened to it once just now

i don't deny its a good opportunity btw

but it is more about the energy and time mgmt aspect

and pay to... energy expenditure ratio

[ivory parrot]

i asked my current pm about work-life balance but ofc the answer i got was "it depends on the project"

majority of pm roles are intense in schedule tho

[ivory parrot]

also, didnt manage to catch some of what you were saying because the connection seemed muffled. were you saying that your prev design roles didnt involve enough research and strategy or sth along those lines?

[sullen cypress]

That’s right

You know, come to think of it… seeing you say “intense in schedule” makes me curious about what roles are more introvert-friendly.

Also, I’m curious how many articles there are on, like, tactics to help make more collaboration-intensive roles more introvert-survivable.

[ivory parrot]

the only thing i know for sure is that one of the tactics is to find a remote role

thats why i am fearful tbh esp w the adhd and all.

like if just working in a noisy environment and not being involved in most meetings already makes me so tired

[sullen cypress]

So wait, not being involved in meetings makes you more tired? I thought more meetings makes you more tired, but I want to make sure I understand these important details correctly!

[ivory parrot]

noo.. i meant that if i am already struggling in terms of energy management right now (when I am not involved w many meetings now), then how am I going to cope if my whole day is just meetings

not so much about getting work-work done; but more so about being able to schedule / carve time out for myself

[sullen cypress]

That does sound a little like a learned skill.

My concern for introverts is, I think ai tooling will make many of us so much faster at the desk work we do solo, we’ll all end up compensating with more meetings.

Unless some genius introverts invent new desk work that still consumes a lot of time even with ai tooling.

[ivory parrot]

even for AI, humans still have to vet its work

[ivory parrot]

yeah and not sure how <_>

[ivory parrot]

for accountability sake:

[stuff i want to do for myself]

• consolidate list of things to be done for UX portfolio
• timebox each step / stage, apply lens of project manager
• restart using ticktick & toggl to time-track each thing
• properly migrate bujo to new one
• wireframe portfolio site (landing / case study / about)
• site identity w fonts / color / typography
• research about neocities > CMS?
• read ui design books in books app (actually read half of one of them today!!)
• redo the fked up assessment, for my own sanity and self-improvement.

[ivory parrot]

not even joking - the project mgr in my current proj said they stayed up doing some slides til 1am 💀 and still wakes up early to send kids to sch and reaches work by 9...

[sullen cypress]

That’s them over-committing or not managing their time well.

…he said, as he’s running behind schedule on this project for an assessment… 😂

[sullen cypress]

Gotta hustle on that assessment today. That is all.

[ivory parrot]

whens ur deadline?

btw u also have adhd right. do u bother disclosing about it at this stage

because i def couldve aced the dumb assessment IF i had so much time to get it done

but because i managed my time poorly despite being warned abt tt being sth to take note of

so i dint submit that 40% chunk due to the panic when i realized i had so litrle time left

like ik that doesnt make me a bad designer bc at least i got praised for everyth else. but i still cant help but keep kicking myself in the ass for it

anyway tdy im going for a concert!!! maybe ill do some reading while waiting in line

was reading the refactoring UI book

[ivory parrot]

i had an online friend who interned at G, and for their full time assessment they sought for accommodations

which was sth like email them the set of qns 30m earlier i think. so effectively giving extra time

just so sick of myself performing like dog poop for all these kinda timed assessments (unless i alr preemptively know definitely / similar to what to expect) and then if they didnt know me personally theyd just mark me down for my bad performance

[sullen cypress]

Review call is Monday morning.

[ivory parrot]

💪

[sullen cypress]

The good news is, I got started by asking the HM questions about it the morning after the assignment was sent. I didn’t put off the whole thing.

I did take longer to get started in Figma than I would have liked, but part of how I’m taming my anxiety about it is, I’m telling myself that the double diamond process is all about giving yourself space to diverge before you converge. I got so excited about the assignment, I explored more divergent territory than was truly necessary this time—but doing too much divergent work is better than doing way too little.

[sullen cypress]

Gave myself an afternoon off because I skipped having a weekend the last two weekends.

Diving back into it tomorrow.

[ivory parrot]

How was your review call!!

[sullen cypress]

I feel like I handled the actual call part better than the making stuff in Figma before the call part.

Like, I did a good job of explaining that there was so much more that I did than just designing. I did some interviews, generated a ton of ideas, and got really excited about how new tech can disrupt the space… and I think we both really enjoyed talking about all of those possibilities and ideas together, as well as pushing some of those ideas to the next level together.

But I didn’t get nearly as far in making the things in Figma as I think I needed to be competitive.

She did say I’m on her short list. So it was really validating that I know this job, I’m capable of doing it…

Her goal is to make a hiring decision by tomorrow.

[ivory parrot]

🥺

[ivory parrot]

Did u feel u over-focused on all the other parts and did not devote enough time to the figma designs?

[sullen cypress]

Yeah, that’s a good way of phrasing it. I also over-committed to other things in the days leading up to the review.

It was mostly a good experience, though. However, I won’t consider this to be a change in my luck until I get more interviews.

[sullen cypress]

Goal for today: Draft some strategy docs around what kind of design skills / problem solving skills I want to highlight in new design posts and portfolio material.

[ivory parrot]

how is this going?

[ivory parrot]

yeah i feel u. I wanna redo the part which i botched up for thr assessment too

[sullen cypress]

Struggling to find the words for the skills.

Finding a few things, like designing for user agency with gen AI interfaces. Or systems thinking. But feel like I need to think of more.

[ivory parrot]

feels like its buzzword generation hahaha

[sullen cypress]

So! I got a template for a lead magnet done yesterday.

What I’m trying to get done is schedule research calls with startup founders, so I can be more strategic about marketing my services, but so far having a hard time getting responses. 🫤

[ivory parrot]

well done

[ivory parrot]

BTW, do you have access to co-working spaces

easy way to talk to that demographic :p

Feeling good today (generally) and this weekend!!

Apparently my current mgr says that my synthesis of our user testing findings is 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

its such a nice feeling to be praised / affirmed for stuff and without having to struggle-bus with it (unlike coding. bleh)

[ivory parrot]

Prob wanting to continue capturing info from my current projects work before I get kicked out eventually

[ivory parrot]

this did not happen btw

rather, i wanted to sleep early and get up early to get it done

i have a nasty habit of setting an alarm 7.5h later and still turning it manually off (need to do math problem)

and wake up an hr later + late for work

[sullen cypress]

There are some in the area, although I don’t have a budget for paid space.

That said, there is one coworking space where I can go for free because I’m signed up to mentor startups there. I’m looking for more days I can go to that.

[sullen cypress]

I have a spec project to work on this afternoon. My goal is… to get it as done as I can.

[sullen cypress]

lol still not done with that. But made good progress. What’s new in this cozy little thread?

[ivory parrot]

how much more do you have left?

hm… i’ll be starting new role in 2w time

so i gotta try to save as much assets as i can (before i get kicked out from accessing the proj)

[sullen cypress]

Omg congrats!

And yes, get those assets! Even if there’s a chance you’ll have to recreate them later, it’s still good to have them as a starting point!

[sullen cypress]

I think I’m close.

And also, I should give myself a little more credit: in addition to that spec project, I also did three customer discovery calls, an intro call with a founder of a mentorship platform, and a founder of a matchmaking platform for startup teams.

[ivory parrot]

need some advice on how to navigate presenting “confidential” work in a portfolio tho

i mean i know some stuff r def out of bounds to showcase. but public facing apps shd be fine and not an issue to put on a portfolio

thing is, everyone else on my proj team rn are devs or project mgrs

i tried asking around on this server but seems like everyone else (designer) was leaving their org

whereas i m not LMAO

[ivory parrot]

(they also thought such stuff cant be shown, btw)

[sullen cypress]

First step is review your employment agreements you signed when you joined. This can help eliminate guesswork.

How big of a company are you at? Are you doing an internal transfer?

Oh hey, this topic came up in a channel, too.

One tip I hear good feedback on often but haven’t completely done yet:

#👋ask-professionals message

[ivory parrot]

yeah I need to double check my contract.imma get back on this

[ivory parrot]

(recruitment agncy) contract -> perm

[ivory parrot]

What even is the context of a "working design file" ..??(https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/1dlco3m/do_you_keep_a_copy_of_all_your_design_files_from/)

Ok reading my contract again rn

Mustering all sorts of strength to do it. idk how people have a life after work LOL (literally this is how bad my exhausion and overstimulation issue is 🫠 )

"All works completed by you during your term of service shall remain as the property of the Client"

"You will not divulge any confidential information during and after the period of contract service"

"All official information acquired by you during the course of service is strictly confidential in nature, and is not to be published or communicated by you to any unauthorised person in any form at any time"

"You shall undertake to return any documents (including copies made) received / used in the course of service"

I def can argue about "anything released to public domain is not confidential in nature" but I am also afraid my project mgr etc may not be convinced

How advisable is it to discuss about all these ESPECIALLY bc I awill be in the same department lolol

just working on sth else

[sullen cypress]

That is the clause that is often used as the rationale for designers to publish work in a portfolio.

[ivory parrot]

So that password protect shenningan is kinda iffy

[ivory parrot]

wym?

[sullen cypress]

"Anything released to the public domain is not confidential in nature" is often used as the clause where designers are permitted to post work in their portfolio.

[ivory parrot]

Right hahaha

Ikr! Literally thats the legal definition

[sullen cypress]

Here's the thing, though: At this stage, what you need more than the portfolio itself is to document the work.

[ivory parrot]

What about "return documents and copies made / received / used" though

[sullen cypress]

Usually, design files for things that went public aren't seen as confidential after launch. Usually.

Portfolio styles come and go. If you update your portfolio now right as you're starting an FTE role, market trends will shift, and your portfolio will become outdated before you start your next job search.

So for now, I wouldn't worry so much about making the portfolio, I'd be more focused on documenting what you did. You can make decisions about what things to present or not present in a portfolio later.

Even if you just make screen shots of Figma files or something like that, and then recreate the work later (because if the work you have today isn't already super hawt then people will expect you to recreate your work except make it look hawt for your portfolio anyway).

[ivory parrot]

Yepppp but my proj mgr etc are "paranoid" and they don't come w a design POV, they come from an angle of safeguarding project / org interest

So basically bc the whole proj is considered "restricted information" but theres still a mobile app which is released to the public domain

TO ME, from a legal standpoint, anything that is publicly released shd not be considered "confidential". Even if the project itself is.

And as a designer, literally showcasing stuff is how we get jobs T_T

[sullen cypress]

Right! And that's where, like any relationship, there need to be agreements that are mutually beneficial to both parties. But both parties need to, like, understand how to show up each other in that way.

[ivory parrot]

Yep yep! Thanks for the tip. Will focus on documenting the process most importantly

[sullen cypress]

Does the app have a free trial, or free usage tier?

[ivory parrot]

Yeahhhh and it's hard to convey it to them esp cus they aren't designers

[ivory parrot]

It is just a free app haha

[sullen cypress]

Boom. Then at bare minimum, screen shot the hell out of the shipped UI. That part is totes public.

[ivory parrot]

Like literally, free app on the App Store. Just that a person will need a valid user account to access it.

[ivory parrot]

I copied some screens to a draft figma file LMAO

[sullen cypress]

If it was an app where people have to pay a lot of money to use the app, or an app where a company has to sign up for an employee to use it, that might be "not so public."

But when literally anyone can open a free account, that makes the shipped UI a public thing.

[ivory parrot]

maybe SS might be safer though. Cus actually I owned the project file. But just transfered it to the proj mgr cos im offboarding soon

[ivory parrot]

Hmmm ok it doesn't fall into the category of "anyone can open a free account"

It falls into the category of "someone else creates an account for certain people" "group of certain people is huge"

[sullen cypress]

Hmmmm, got it.

The other, other, other option I always like to remind people is: If there's a different industry you'd like to pivot into, you can take the core theme of the problem you solved in this project, and then solve a similar problem in that other industry.

You can present it as a project "inspired by a real project I did at work, but totally anonymizes it to respect my confidentiality agreements."

But it helps to at least have screen shots of Figma stuff, screen shots of the shipped UI, all for your personal notes / archival.

[ivory parrot]

Hmmm true that!! Regarding rework / remix the project

Would u recommend being upfront about the latter / last para tho

I don't wanna be making enemies..

[sullen cypress]

No, the screen shots and whatnot I would just keep personal.

[ivory parrot]

Okie dokie

[ivory parrot]

Meanwhile the designers are so chill about me making copies of stuff. Even for their assessment LMAO

🫠

One more week til my new role and while I am excited, I am also anxious bc I feel its a bad perosnality fit (like project managers r so uptight...??)

Worst case scenario I can prob press some sort of SOS / evacuation button but that's not a good look at all for me lol.

[ivory parrot]

Thank u for ur advice and hearing me out btw!!

[sullen cypress]

Happy to help! I think we often relate on a lot, so it helps us to look out for each other.

[sullen cypress]

Designers are starting to figure this out, I think. The designers I talk to offline or in private chats get this way better than so many designers who chat in public spaces online.

[ivory parrot]

Yeah I was talking to a fellow designer in the same proj (basically the person who was hired to do the UI / UX stuff 100% of the time because obviously I cannot be doing that + dev work with 200% capacity)

Its like they wanted to know if they cld document sth from the proj as well fr their portfolio but got spooked by the PM mentioning confidentiality what not

[sullen cypress]

Oh! The other other thing is, some employers will give you an agreement that it’s okay for you to use your work for the purpose of a job search process but not post it publicly. So password protect it, or put it in a PDF that has supplemental projects that you only send to recruiters and HMs.

Or at least, the really toxic startup I was at last November did that.

I had to ask for this while I was getting fired. But getting divorced made me kind of good at treating a separation like a negotiation.

[ivory parrot]

Did they initiate this agreement, or did you ask them for it?

I would totally be OK with that

[sullen cypress]

I asked.

[ivory parrot]

Esp since password protect seems like an industry norm LOL

ahh ok, that is def sth useful for me to add as a caveat to relieve their anxiety lmao

[sullen cypress]

Who even knows? Maybe a year from now everyone will input a bunch of work from a confidential project to an AI agent running in their desktop and it will generate a case study that communicates the salient points of the work while anonymizing all of the screen shots and so on. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[sullen cypress]

Oh! One last thought: Try not to limit yourself to just one personality.

We all have a few different personalities we live with. I think this role may be an opportunity for you to explore one of the personalities you have that maybe you haven’t explored yet.

[ivory parrot]

yikes hahhahaha @_@ at least I still have the decency to mask out "sensitive terms" used in the project / replace it with some conventional layman term instead

[ivory parrot]

Literal worry about being thrown into situation of having my whole work day just = Meetings

Oh well but I guess I'll cross the bridge when I get there

[sullen cypress]

Tomorrow I’m starting a webinar on sales / lead gen. But I’ve been feeling pretty discouraged that so much of the advice I’ve heard on that is to lean on your past coworkers, and that worries me, because I don’t think I have ex-coworkers in any of the right places. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[ivory parrot]

Hope it goes well for you

[sullen cypress]

Did day one of the webinar! I’ll be thinking about whether it’s quite the right fit for me or not. I think it’s mostly geared towards people whose customers are just individuals, as opposed to someone whose customer is a company… and in fact a style of company that’s been subject to a lot of macroeconomic churn over the last few years…

But I also put together a graphic illustrating what I worked on last week and wrote up a draft of a marketing post for it, and sent it to the marketing guy I work with so he can weigh in on it. Hoping I wake up to feedback on that in the morning.

[ivory parrot]

was this webinar paid entirely by you or sponsored in some way 😮

My last day of work in current role is tomorrow..

Or rather today

Cos tmr Im handing back all my stuff

I still havrnt managed to have time to entirely document down the work though

Was still busy doing work and teaching some new hires…

[ivory parrot]

Im still a bit salty on how people like to remark that these new hires learn fast and are alr doing work on their first week

but never commented / praised me for the teaching via doing

like they’d say “in ur first week u werent doing work” lol thats bc all they did was give me and the other new person back then the functional specs document and left us to read it and didnt do anything else

Meanwhile I always give the “new hires” under me some small piece of work to be doing

or shadow / help me w my work

[ivory parrot]

like i just like validation and positive reinforcement. thats all

[ivory parrot]

But i kinda just created a figma file (in my drafts) split up to problem statement, research / ideation, proposal, impact / outcome for each thinf i worked on

the tough part is gathering and parsing all the various iterations and feedback at so many junctures

should i just not sleep tonight so that i can rush documenting stuff for myaelf and finetuning some prototype for <project that i m leaving tmr> LOL

[ivory parrot]

I crashed so badly

[ivory parrot]

but am trying to consolidate all these rn