Week 1:  Orientation

We started work on a Thursday, and half of that day was orientation.  A little more than a hundred students sat in the Amphitheatre listening to a series of presentations one followed by another.  After that, we were split into 3 groups and each group alternated in getting a tour of the building, getting a tour of our gym, and getting our photos taken for our badges.  The rest of the Thursday afternoon and Friday, I mainly spent reading DB2 material, meeting the people I’ll be working with, and familiarizing myself with the building.

Week 2:  Getting Started

By the end of the first week, I already started configuring my desktop at work.  The rest of this second week also consisted of some installations here and there.  I still spent most of my time reading about DB2 though.  The most exciting thing about the second week was the fact that I finally got exposed to something UX related.  I got to sit into a secondary evaluation of a product that last year’s PEY student has already done a primary analysis for.  I was really happy to be able to draw back on a lot of things that we learned in our HCI course at school.  I didn’t feel as lost as I thought I would be because I already have most of the background knowledge needed to understand these analyses.

During Week 2, I also found out which project I will be taking part in.  This project has had no usability team participation in the past, so we will be starting right from the beginning, where we generate preliminary results through walkthroughs…etc.  Another team member and I will be the main ones working on this, but we will also be coordinating with the development team as well as other people that are involved in the product.  Seems like a good start already!

Week 3:  Now what do I do?

After getting assigned to be part of a project, I was told to complete a usability walkthrough already.  Having not done it before, I was very lost (and I still am).  But I was told to just use my judgment, and ask lots of questions.  Having learnt all these usability assessments and procedures at school, I wasn’t sure which ones I were to apply.  But after speaking with others, I finally decided to take bits and pieces of what I learned, and make variations to it as appropriate.  I think the most important things to keep in mind are probably the purpose and goal behind these analyses, and to focus on usability and not to get sidetracked.

Week 4:  Machine!!

Today’s Wednesday, so it’s not exactly the end of this week yet.  But I already know what the highlight of this week will be.  Since the second week of work, I’ve been trying to arrange for a test machine to be set up in our lab for me to do the assessment on.  However, there has been a lot of complication and confusion in between.  After lots and lots of email-writing and instant messaging, our machine is finally on its way!  I think we’ll get it by tomorrow, and I can finally start assessing the installation and configuration of our product! :)

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This PEY experience is definitely quite different from school.  A lot of this reminds me of how I felt at the beginning of last summer when I was developing full-time for Google Summer of Code 2008.  It’s always hard to get started, and I’m trying to constantly remind myself about that.  I sure hope I can contribute more to the team in the near future, and actually be of some help! :)

A few weeks ago, I officially accepted the IBM User-Centered Design Specialist offer as my 16-month internship for the Professional Experience Year (PEY) program offered at the University of Toronto.  I spent a lot of time thinking about the position, and I also spoke to a lot people to get some advice as to which offer I should take.  I had a few offers to choose from (luckily): a few IBM positions (1 of which was this UX position; others were generally software development related positions), and other offers from various other companies and organizations.  The two offers that I was mainly deciding between were this UX position at IBM, and a software developer position at Intelliware.

This was a big decision to make, and there were so many aspects to take into consideration.  For example, I was thinking about the position (and whether or not I would like to pursue in that direction upon graduation), travelling (will I have to spend approximately another 3 hours on the TTC every day?), the people I will be working with, the projects that I may potentially work on…etc.  But I finally decided to take the UX position at IBM.

I’ve always wanted a position that would allow me to work and interact with many others.  I know there’s this stereotype about coders working full time in their basements (a stereotype in which our whole team of DCS ambassadors are currently trying to disprove to high-school students), but we also have to have people to work with the clients and define what they really want to be designed.  As software developers, one of our main goals is to develop something that will make life easier for others, in one way or another.  However, our software has to be usable to the users to begin with (in my opinion at least).

During the interview for this UX position, I specifically remember how the interviewers mentioned that one of the main skills that I will develop as an intern will be negotiation skills.  Their main role is to work with clients, figure out what needs to be done, let them know whether or not something is doable (this is where the software development experience/knowledge kicks in), and negotiate with the clients as to what really can/has to be done.  I spoke to a few friends about this, they certainly didn’t feel very attracted to it, but I personally thought it’s pretty interesting!  The team will also do usability testing, and I luckily got to see some of their equipment on my tour of the Toronto Lab. :)

One of my main concerns regarding this position is that I’m afraid I wouldn’t get exposed to coding as much as I’d like to.  Throughout the PEY application process, I’ve really only thought about software development positions because I really want to improve and learn more about software development.  But after taking the Design of Interactive Computational Media course, I started to really like HCI as well.  But as one of the professors I spoke to mentioned, there’s no one position that will allow me to learn everything.  So as a developer, I probably won’t learn much about user experience design.  Similarly, as an HCI specialist, I most likely won’t get to learn much about code development (since this falls under the responsibility of the software developers).

Internship opportunities in user-experience design seem to be really rare, and I’m sure I’ll be learning lots as an intern (since work experience is always an eye-opener for students).  I’m definitely very excited right now about user-centered design at IBM.  Only 2 more months before I start working!