Artist Talk - Joshua Buckwalter

Today Joshua Buckwalter came and talked at Millersville. He is the creative director at Inovate and the president of the AIGA chapter. He took the time and talked to us about user experience. He said that user experience does not mean user interface and that many people think they mean the same thing. Some things that user experience include are: field research, data analysis, persona development, requirement documentation, and content strategy. Joshua also described two case studies of businesses that he has worked together with. The first one was Engine Yard. Joshua stated that communication skills are greatly needed because you get together as a whole team and talk everything out. He also talked about some of the exercises that his team would have the clients do. Things such as a word sorting game and scales. In the word sorting game, Joshua's team gives 60 word tiles and the clients are to choose the words that they would like to represent the product they are producing. The scales are to figure out where the product will be on a spectrum. The example Joshua showed us was a line of men each dressed more formal than the next. When working with clients, Joshua's team used user flows, wireframes, and moodboards. Joshua stated that the user flows were usually revised maybe 20 times before getting it right. The next case study that he talked about was 403 Labs, which were providing security to people. Joshua used the sentence, "a bunch of hackers preventing other hackers." Joshua's team had them look at their competitors' logos and websites and critique them.  They also did an "Open Design Hour." During this hour everybody had 20 minutes of individual exploration. The goal was to create as many ideas as possible. Then each person had 10 seconds to present their idea. Joshua said that if it took longer than 10 seconds to explain, it was too complicated. Then after everybody had presented, they would have everyone vote for the ones they thought were the best. Joshua's one piece of advice for everybody who is about to graduate was to always be curious.

I enjoyed today's lecture. I felt that it definitely pertained to me because the Experience Design class is all about what he talked about today. I also got to see another type of job that I could potentially go into.