Daily Brad, the blog

The Omniture UI team is growing continually, and we’re always looking to get some talented people on-board. It seems the UI designer is one of the most difficult to find. Someone who is not only talented in the aesthetic realm (our highly graphic applications depends on creativity and innovation), but who is also adept at creating easy-to-use interfaces for a highly technical and complex web-based software. And someone who’s willing to work in Orem, Utah. (Utah rocks!)

Here’s the latest job description we’re getting out there for a new hire. If you’ve got questions about the position or what it’s like to work at Omniture, drop me a line.

User Interface Designer Job Opening

Omniture is looking for an innovative, visual UI Designer with a strong sense of graphic design, layout, color, and usability. The ideal candidate will have an appreciation for sleek and usable interfaces, a solid understanding of the design process for web applications, strong technical know-how and a great attention to detail.
The UI Designer will work closely with product managers, researchers, engineers, and technical writers to visually and creatively take product ideas to concept by rapidly prototyping through conceptual sketches and mockups. The UI Designer will continually refine concepts to reflect input from internal and end-user testing. This is a high-profile role in a company that places high importance on creating a web product that combines cutting edge graphic technique with an easy-to-use interface.

Description

• Take direction to implement the creative vision and overall look and feel for projects based on design objectives, product requirements, functional specs, and an iterative feedback process.
• Assist in defining and developing the user experience for Omniture’s award-winning web-based products. Work with product manager and engineers in drafting initial concepts.
• Convey design ideas via storyboards, and prototyping tools.
• Create deployment-quality mocks and prototypes on tight timelines.
• Maintain graphic standards and corporate branding throughout the product’s interface.
• Review completed projects for consistent and correct look and feel.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of professional web design experience with an emphasis on creative, visual, and interaction design.
• Prefer web product design experience.
• BA/BS or equivalent in Graphic Design or related field preferred.
• Understanding of graphical web design principles, typography, composition, and iconography.
• Ability to set conceptual design and product direction from functional requirements.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with a group of creative individuals to produce highly polished and professional finished works.
• Ability to accept and design against feedback in an iterative development process.
• Ability to produce effective ideas under tight timelines.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Strong computer skills and a demonstrated expertise in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Comfortable in Microsoft Windows environment.
• Willing and able to contribute to the creative spirit and teamwork of the company.

2008 is one of the first years in a long time that I’m not taking a trip to celebrate my arrival to this world on January 31st. For those of you who know me well, you’ve already been asking, “where are you going for your birthday?” This year I decided to stick around town and enjoy this snow we’ve been having instead of lying on a sandy beach somewhere. Years past have been gloomy, gray and cold and it has been nice to escape to Florida, Cancun, Acapulco, Hawaii (all trips in years past). But while this year we’ve had plenty of the cold, in contrast to years past, we’ve also received plenty of the white stuff. I mean lots! It’s a nice change - I love the snow!

So to take advantage of the white stuff, I’m going snowboarding. Yup, hitting the slopes this weekend. I typically head to Brighton with my friend Jonathan, but we’ve also talked about trying somewhere new this time. In pulling up to check the weather for my birthday and the day after on KSL.com, I was surprised to find it was going to be a toasty day (and for the low none-the-less!):

So other than the oceans boiling and every living thing cooking in their skin, I think it just might be a good day to hit the slopes. I’ll be sure to grab my SPF 10,000 - wish me luck!

For those of you who know me, you’ve probably seen that I haven’t updated my blog in a while. You’ve also probably noticed that my Linkedin profile shows me back at Omniture. Or if perhaps you haven’t noticed any of that, yes, I’m back at Omniture. After working nearly 5 years and being a one man show designer, I took a job at Cymphonix, a job that was converted into a contract position after a year. I started contracting with Omniture in March of 2007, and was hired on in August.

Things have changed significantly since I worked for the green machine by way of employee count, their public status, their client base, their product line, and much more. It’s like working for a completely different company - other than the fact I still get to see my brand influence all over the office. My title is “Senior UI Designer”, and since I’ve never been one on throwing titles around, I think it works just fine.

Speaking of User Experience (which I’ve blogged about before), I found a recent user experience pretty comical. I opened up my MSN Messenger to find an ad at the bottom showing none other than Alyssa Milano. Tell me what “user experience” you think is broken in this one:

Here’s a clue: How beautiful is THAT picture of Alyssa?!?

So I blogged about Donuts the other day on my Tweet Sweet blog. Heaven knows that I love donuts. Thank goodness for a fellow employee that brings them into my work every-other Friday (You rock Joe!).

In the blog post, I mentioned Glazies, a donut location paired with several Hogi Yogi/Teriyaki Stix food locations. The eating locations (Hogi Yogi is all about Sandwiches and Yogurt, Teriyaki Stix serves rice bowls) are franchised by Hyats, LLC. To become a franchisee, the cost is about 300K which is pretty typical for a shop like this. The Hogi Yogi headquarters are located in the Riverwood’s area of Provo, Utah located in a nice brick building above a large Hogi Yogi/Teriyaki Stix location. When trying to find a link for Glazies (which doesn’t exist) I headed over to their home page at HogiYogi.com and found a page that has not been updated since 2002, uses terrible outdated design and frames. (Does anyone use frames anymore?) At first I thought I had landed on the wrong page, and tried doing other searches. But THIS IS their corporate page. Here’s a company that is obviously not taking advantage of the power of the web, or doesn’t think that their online presence has much to do with their offline business.

Take a look at another franchise in the area - Cold Stone Creamery. If you visit their website, you’re greeted by an attractive site with a red background reminiscent of the wallpaper in their stores, and pictures of their yummy desserts. Not only does their website give the history of the company and franchise information, customers can also buy gift cards, sign up for their birthday club, and view tastefully photographed pictures of their desserts (notice the reflection effect that I blogged about the other day on their ice cream page).

How does your company’s website fit into your overall image, your brand? A well-designed website can:

So in my blog the other day I mentioned thisisbroken.com - Mark Hurst’s blog showing broken user experiences sent in by readers of his goodexperience.com newsletter. So today I ran across my own broken experience, something that made me say, hu? In response to my submission to the thisisbroken website, I got an automated email that said “I get 40 to 50 entries per week and only have time to post 5 to 7 entries a week. This means that your post may not make it on the site.” Sounds like the site is a victim of it’s own popularity it seems. That’s okay. So I decided I would post it here. What do you think? Do you think he should post it on his site?

Let PR work for you
I always take a chance during the day to read the most popular news on Yahoo News, and found an article that had an interesting thing in it that seemed “broken” from a PR point-of-view. A WISCONSIN man visiting a state park took home the ultimate souvenir: a 5.47-carat canary diamond from Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, ARKANSAS.

After reading the article, I clicked on the image, which showed the actual diamond next to a US Quarter for size comparison.

(AP Photo)

Notice that the quarter was the Wisconsin state version (where the man was from), rather than Arkansas version where the stone was found. After seeing the image, I thought to myself, “now where was that state park?” and had to check the article again for the answer - Arkansas.

So I thought, maybe Arkansas doesn’t have its quarter out yet, so I checked, and what do you know? In the center of the Arkansas quarter released in 2003 is prominently pictured a diamond. The United State’s Mint says “Visitors to Arkansas can search Crater of Diamonds State Park for precious gems including, of course, diamonds.” in talking about its choice for this diamond illustration on the quarter.

So in fact, the picture seemed a bit confusing. Don’t you think?

So I come home tonight and visit my mailbox. What do I find under my 1 letter, and 1 bill? That’s right, a stack of junk mail. “Have you seen me?” shows a face of a missing child on one side of the card, sponsored by a happy steam cleaner pictured on the back. Attention Ladies! Yells a bright pink flyer that calls me Contours Express to get my thighs whipped into shape. Lower in the stack is typical fare from Capital One with a big stamped “CONFIRMED OFFER” on the front. (I guess better than their most recent ones which told me “DO NOT DISCARD” in giant letters) And what’s next? You got it, my weekly supply of newspaper-based ads that I never read, that should come in the newspaper I don’t wish to describe to. (Including pizza offers I get when I call, and deals I’ll get if I decided to come in the store).

Thank goodness the city I live in recycles, because my recycle bin fills up very fast nearly entirely with crap direct mail. Where in the world is the spam filter for my mailbox? But that’s not my point. There’s this little voice inside my head that as a graphic designer says, “why are you throwing this away?” What is this voice you say? It’s the voice of someone learning from user experience.

How many of you have had to design something that you knew was unappealing? How many times have you had to make the logo bigger because the boss said so? I remember one of my first task as an intern for Salt Lake Magazine was to design a postage-paid reply card. You know the one - those pesky little pieces of paper they blow-into every 50th page that fall out when you read them in the airport. I remember laughing to myself when designing it - “I hate these things” I thought. But still, as an intern, I designed the best damn postage-paid reply card possible. It even felt worthy to put in my portfolio at the time.

I remember at one of the first businesses I started, we sent direct mail to stir up new business. The piece I designed was great fun, and yet it got pretty typical direct response numbers (even with a poor mailing list). And yet, I was proud of the design. When I first launched the Brad McCall, designer brand, I sent direct mail to introduce my new status as a freelancer and to show my new portfolio website. It was wildly successful by direct mail standards, and also a fun experience.

So we’ve all had to design it, and perhaps we’ll have to design much more. So I guess it’s all up to us to learn from those who try to sell something to us. What makes one piece appealing (Nissan sent me a GREAT one, as well as Infinity), and another trash? Understanding your own user experience with direct mail will help you design those pesky little projects that don’t seem so appealing.

So I use to be religious about reading Mark Hurst’s emailed newsletter about creating good user experiences, but through my last several email changes I lost the link to his site, and forgot what the name of his website was. (You’d think that goodexperience.com would not be a hard one to remember.)

But looking through some old things today, I found a print-out of a whitepaper he produced years and years ago entitled “White Paper One - Building A Great Customer Experience to Develop Brand, Increase Loyalty and Grow Revenues” under his Creative Good brand. (Creative Good is the industry’s first and oldest customer experience firm according to his website.) Creative Good just consulted with del.icio.us, a popular social bookmarking service, to create a new customer experience strategy. (They have the case study online)

Creative Good’s business - a user experience firm focuses on results. Their consulting projects have raised key metrics (like revenue, conversion rate, and usage rate) between 40% and 150%. These projects have also improved branding, competitive positioning, and the customer focus of the organization. The difference between one user experience and another can effect the bottom line significantly.

So I’m back on the newsletter, and so I’ll keep you in touch on that end on what Mark has to say about usability. Another site he’s put together is thisisbroken.com, which is a riot. It shows “broken” user experiences in everyday life as well as the web. One of my favorites is the pencil in the shape of a cactus, such that the eraser becomes completely unusable.