Marketing and UX -- mutually exclusive?

I've been reading a lot of articles for school about how user experience fits in a company hierarchy. All of them make a clear distinction between marketing and user experience. They say that the marketing objectives (selling) are different than the user experience/design objectives (making things usable*).

As someone who worked in marketing, I don't fully understand why these entities have to be so separate. Why can't marketing people use UX concepts to gather their information, too?

I always think of my experience at the startup. We were frantically planning for an event (as usual in reactionary startup-ville), and the marketing people threw together this new campaign called The Republic. It was geared towards teenage skateboarders, in an attempt to create a street team or affiliate program. It had that whole revolutionary, we-take-the-world-by-storm-via-helmet-cameras vibe. It also required people to wear bandannas. I remember thinking "hmm, this is a weird idea." Right before launch, someone realized that this was actually not the product demographic at all. In fact, the users were 25-40 year old action sports enthusiasts. Perhaps if we had incorporated some user requirements gathering techniques (such as interviews, surveys, focus groups, etc), we would have been able to produce a more fitting marketing campaign. This isn't to say that companies don't use user requirements techniques in marketing, but it's definitely not common practice in smaller organizations.

The articles always talk about how the design team gets requirements from marketing but not vice versa. To create a truly successful product, I think this information flow should go both ways.

Look at the new Windows 7 campaign - Windows 7 was my idea. They are leveraging their UX practices to sell things. I don't know why this isn't done more frequently. After all, people like technology that works. Plus, if user experience practices didn't help companies sell more things, companies wouldn't use them. So why such a strong distinction?

Maybe it's just a case of academics over-analyzing these concepts and trying to create clear distinctions between similar fields. I don't think it's so clear-cut in reality.


*Not to be confused with user-friendly.

New Pens

This weekend, it was 60 degrees and sunny, and I don't think there is any type of weather more inspiring for drawing. I got 6 new pens ranging between .8 and .05, oh and one brush pen. My skills are a little rusty, but I'm hopeful that they will come back quickly.





I tend to just draw random lines and then make creatures out of them. I feel like I've had a mental/creative block lately. I can't seem to write coherent sentences, and I feel like I am functioning in an endless loop. Perhaps this is just an end-of-the-quarter slump. I am trying to get it together.

I am also contemplating a triathlon comeback. I think I did better at bike racing (or at least had more fun) when I didn't take it so seriously, and when I incorporate swimming and running, my body is more balanced. I also have some unfinished business, such as that 2:15 olympic distance goal that has eluded me. I was right there, but things never came together, and I didn't get a chance to perform when I was at my peak fitness. Gotta take it slow, though. I'm not sure if I want to be that serious again. I still want to race bikes, but the thought of crashing on my hip this year sounds really unappealing. I may wait until next year.

This is still a ways away, obviously. I swam a few times last week without any issue. Then on Saturday I got dragged on a bike ride around Magnolia. This was hillier than I remembered, and longer, so of course it flared up my hip. I knew it was a bad idea, so it's not too surprising. Riding a bike is weird because my body still thinks it's fast, and I felt fine during the ride, but it always takes a day for the hip pain to respond. I just need to rest a few days and then I will start swimming again.

Back to PC!

Ok, so perhaps my last post was a bit of an exaggeration. My classes are relevant for UX applications, and I don't even want to be a technical writer anyway. Still, I do feel like I need to work hard outside of class in order to get a decent job. And I haven't lost all hope on bike racing.

Oh, I have a big announcement! After using a mac for about 3 years, I have switched back to PC. My shiny new Dell XPS arrived a few days ago, and I am quite happy with the switch.

Why did I switch back? A few reasons:
1. The "wizard behind the curtain" aspects of mac. When something goes wrong or the computer starts slowing down, I feel helpless. Generally because I am. At least on a PC, I can clean out spywear or defragment, and it usually helps.

2. Document organization. I don't like how mac just dumps stuff wherever it sees fit. Like when you put a file into a folder, it drops the file wherever you let go of it, not nicely in line with the other files.

3. Excel and Word. I hate, hate, hate the mac versions of these programs. Actually, I dislike pretty much all mac programs. I like my programs contained. I do not like the toolbars and components of the program floating around in free space on my desktop. I also do not like when the document gets stuck under the toolbar and you can't get it out.

4. Form over function. Clearly, macs are mostly about image. They look sleak, but I went through 3 batteries and 2 heat sinks on my macbook. That cool, sleak design does not allow for adequate cooling.

5. Price. I got a 64 bit XPS for much less than a macbook pro would cost.

Downsides:
1. Helvetica, but there are ways around this.

That's really all I can think of.

Our hero tirelessly presses onward until she stops for a minute and thinks "why am I doing this?"

I have reached the "Why am I doing this?" moment of grad school. This is for a few reasons.

First, my program is highly theoretical and conceptual, and this conflicts with my rational, job-oriented mind. I know that I need skills in order to find a job in this profession (by this profession, I mean HCI, UX, technical writing, etc). But since the program is so theoretical and broad, I haven't been learning any of the technical skills in class. Thus, I've taken it upon myself to learn these skills outside of class, on top of all the coursework.

I also spent a few days this week doing some really hard "writing exercises" for some undisclosed, California-based tech giant. It's worth reiterating that these exercises were really hard, and they required me to learn about things like the DOM, REST, SOAP, and more scary acronyms that require research just to understand the research. Now, I like to think of myself as pretty tech savvy. I know some C++, and I can code HTML/CSS websites by hand. I know Flash, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Motion, etc, etc, etc. But, this test opened up a whole new world of things I have to learn. Really, it never ends.

After 48 hours of tirelessly working on the aforementioned exercises, I returned to normal life where I completed projects for my classes. It's pretty impossible to overlook the discrepancy here. The projects in class are just not nearly technical enough to help my technical writing. And they don't emphasize the code and design techniques to enable me to learn about UX design or research.

In addition to all of this, I built my portfolio website, and through that experience, I discovered that I need a lot more stuff for it. Will my future classes provide me with the opportunities to create useful portfolio pieces? Or should I do them on my own?

The interesting part is that it seems like other people in my classes don't share the same sense of urgency that I do. I think that some people are using the program as a crutch to wait out the bad economy. I hear things about how there are no jobs out there, so people are switching to the PhD program so they can stay in school longer. Then there are others, such as myself, who are using the program as a stepping stone, or even a launch pad, to something much, much greater. I, for one, am trying to get out as fast as I can so that I can start doing things.

But perhaps this is what separates me from the majority of the world. I am striving towards something greater than myself, greater than anything I've previously done, and I am not stopping for anything, especially a bad economy. From my perspective, if there are no jobs out there (which there are, you just have to work to get 'em), I will just make one for myself.

So here I am. The motivated, rational part of me wants to start doing things, and sometimes it feels like grad school is a waste of time. I know, though, that it's necessary and it's enabling me to do these things. I just don't want to get stuck in the grad student mentality where I stay in school and over-analyze things and lose sight of reality.

Lastly, I am juggling three separate lives - the grad school life, the marketing work life, and the bike racer life. Obviously juggling all these separate, secret lives is not sustainable, and the daily transition between unrelated work life and school life is really unpleasant. And each day, I continue to let go of the bike racer life, partly because my hip still hurts a lot and partly because I am thoroughly losing interest.

Surprise! You have hip dysplasia!

I had my 7 week follow up appointment today, and it wasn't very reassuring. I know that it's only been 7 weeks, and I still have to wait and see, but I am not recovering very quickly. I still have a lot of pain, I'm pretty limited in my activities, and after he made me bring my knee to my chest, I could hardly walk the rest of the day. It's not terrible, but it's not great, especially considering that the tear-related damage wasn't bad at all.

So while I know that things should get better, there is still a concern that they won't. Today, my doctor revealed to me that I have hip dysplasia, and if the hip impingement surgery isn't successful, we can look at fixing the hip dysplasia (requiring open hip surgery, yuck). No thanks!

Just considering the 'if's:
-If this surgery doesn't work, I'm pretty sure I'm done with competitive sports. I am already contemplating my future in athletics anyway, but open hip surgery and the years of issues that typically follow are pretty good reasons to quit altogether given that I'd like to be able to walk when I'm 50. And maybe go on a hike.

-If the surgery does work, it still seems like a good idea to avoid activities that might cause problems (mainly activities with hip rotation, high impact, and probably the ones that cause my good hip to make terrible grinding/popping sounds). So that would mean goodbye breaststroke, goodbye running, goodbye weird dynamic stretches. Maybe this will be easier to adhere to now that I have a reason.

I do think, however, that focusing on something other than athletic competition might be good for me. So far, school has been a pretty good avenue to channel my competitiveness. I've attended a few networking events, and I already have a solid full-time job lead. In this economic environment, you gotta work to break into a new field, and that is exactly what I'm doing. This seems like it will be more rewarding long-term.

Week 2 or 6 depending on how you look at it

Well it's the 2nd week of school and my 6th week post op. My hip seems to be improving. Walking around campus last week was really painful, but this week it's not as painful.

The weird thing is that riding the bike seems to make it hurt more. My theory is that when I ride the bike, both legs work equally, so the left leg (the one operated on) thinks it is fine. Then when I try to walk afterward, my brain thinks that leg is fine, so I try to walk like normal, but then it hurts because the range of motion is still limited on that leg. It is similar after pool walking, too, but not as severe.

Part of me is slightly panicking as I realize that I am in graduate school and actually deciding on a career path. I feel like I am limiting myself, and I keep wondering about all the other things I could be doing. I like school, and I think it is interesting, but I still wonder.

I am also learning in my classes, though, that constraints are what allow systems to function well. Without constraints, people don't know what to do. Ex. great art work comes out of constraint, either constraint of materials or constraint of the artist's situation. Another ex. Professors can't hand out a blank school assignment. It needs to have constraints so the students know what to write about.

So, as a whole, I keep reminding myself that constraint is good and that something good will come of this.

Back to School!

Yesterday was the first day of my masters program. Returning to school is a weird transition after working for the last 1.5 years.

First of all, I don't really know a whole lot about what I am studying. Luckily the subject matter itself is inherently not that confusing, but there were still a few minutes in each class where I had no idea what the professor was talking about. In each case, though, I figured it out pretty quickly. If I were looking at engineering problem sets, I would be in trouble.

Secondly, for the last 1.5 years, I've pretty much done what I wanted. My jobs have all been pretty autonomous. In working for myself, I can do whatever I want. At my current marketing job, as long as I can prove that it will work, I can also generally do what I want. It is weird being told that I have to write journal entries every week or that I have to read all these articles. I suspect that my perspective towards school has changed. Now instead of worrying about grades, it seems like I am more concerned about learning.

Thirdly, the transition from marketing coordinator to graduate student is weird. In marketing, you can write however you want as long as it is effective, succinct, and increases your sales. You can make it catchy and endearing and use bold letters wherever you see fit. As a result of this, though, I've forgotten about school writing conventions. Am I still allowed to write in an endearing way? Can I start my journal entry saying "Since I spent the last year attempting to become a professional bike racer, naturally I chose RoadBikeReview.com for this project." I just don't know, but part of me doesn't really care because I think my perspective makes me unique and I don't want to lose that.

Oh and one more. Walking around campus is difficult. I didn't think it would be so bad because things are pretty close together, but I was really tired by the end of the day. My hip is doing ok considering, though.