
👋 Oi, mga repapips, Brian Dys here! I love music, photography, and creative stuff like UX design and art. This is a place where I collect my thoughts and works. Apart all these, I’m Jaycelle’s better half and Bryce’s dad. 🥰
It was a very early morning at 10 a.m. I was half asleep, half awake when a phone call jolted me from sleepiness. The signal inside the apartment was so weak that I went outside to answer the call. It was an invitation from Chikka for an interview.
A mere seven months ago, I resigned from a night-shift job and ventured onto the mountains – equivalent to working freelance without a clear business plan. The offer from the other line was a real wake-up call for me to set focus once again into designing for the web. The position being offered was quite new to me – User Interface Designer. I said that as long as it’s on a senior level, I was interested.
Web products need to be supplied with a Technocal Document. Its content are the basic specifications of a mobile app or website in the following aspects:
Filled-up by developer
Filled-up by product developer
Filled-up by front-end designer
This document aids all team members involved in the project by providing with a preview of each team’s specifications. It also puts in context the capabilities and limitations of the product.
Consider this scenario:
The same goes for websites wherein each team member knows that the product will not be supported in IE versions 8 and below.
A UI Review is a testing methodology conducted by a designer (UI/UX/Front-end) on web products prior to Usability Testing.
The first aspect to be reviewed is visual design and the second is usability.
This is conducted primarily to ensure that the obvious negative findings in a Usability Testing are lessened.
Consider this scenario:
It is recommended that a UI Review is conducted on a working product rather than on a prototype or mock-up because this puts the reviewer in the context of actual usage and not just a replicated one.
Karin Alody Chan was part of Chikka Design Team as front-end designer. She has graduated from the position and currently pursues web design. This is her essay from an exit interview.
Working with Chikka Design Team has given me an opportunity not just to grow in terms of career but also with personal development.
Before I started working at Chikka, I didn’t have any confidence with my design and front-end skills because I know that I was a bit behind with all the new stuff that has been going on with the design industry, but because I’m passionate with what I do, I decided to challenge myself to be open to new things.
Everyone in the team has their specialization and common knowledge when it comes to UI/UX but this didn’t hinder them to learn new things and make design as a lifestyle. I like that we’re open to discussion and our team lead wants us to be innovative. I felt like I was in college because of the environment – in college we were trained to have the courage to talk about our design ideas and be able to defend our designs – like every detail should have a purpose and not just design something and put it in an empty space as filler. That’s what I felt with the team.
I am grateful that I was part of it. What I learned is that being humble is the most important thing you need to have if you’re working for a company because we learn to admit to ourselves that we’re not right all the time. I know there were times that maybe I try to defend my designs too much but it has taught me that sometimes it’s okay to just listen and accept other people’s perspective.
I think that this is, so far, the best team I have ever been to. I hope everyone the best of luck in the near future.
I’m in the process of letting go/disposing of/getting rid of/selling stuff that I no longer need around the house. In line with this activity, I signed up for two online shops, namely: OLX and Tackthis. Both offer free registration so I went on to set up my online shops.
Just a disclaimer, this blog post does not intend to rigorously compare the two services – I would simply like to document my experience as a user/seller – specifically the noticeable stuff whether positive or negative. Also, this could be an ongoing piece of “review” as I go along with this new adventure of garage selling on the internet.