Improvisation. Creativity. Ingenuity. Fun.
It was all there when Emily Rhee tapped into her inner mother and fellow Team 9 members Saeoul Park, Priya Jain, Mayuka Ashwin Lokre, Madhumitha Manimaran, and Avyay Kashyap reclaimed their unruly childhood feistiness during a skit as part of the Human Computer Interaction/design Connect Challenge.
“It was fun to put everything we’ve learned to the test,” said Rhee, a first year HCI/d master’s student.
The result was a Team 9 victory and an opportunity for all 12 participating teams, totaling more than 80 HCI/d master’s students, to display their Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering-honed skills, impress employers and alumni, and glean key career prep insight through this recent HCI/d Connect event at Presidents Hall. In conjunction with Luddy Career Services, it gave students a real-world look at their potential futures.
In other words, show patience and resiliency in a challenging job market.
“The focus needs to be on leaving yourself open to make opportunities and build your network,” said Colin Gray, HCI/d associate professor and director of the HCI/d program. “It might not yield a result this month, but it could lead you to a person who might connect you with someone six to eight months from now to seal the deal.”
Teams gave three-minutes-or-less presentations as a rapid “pitch” judged by program faculty, alumni and industry participants. Evaluation was based on the quality of the pitch, quality of the solution and how well the solution addressed at least five of the 10 use cases provided to students. Prizes included Luddy swag.
“It felt great to win,” Rhee said Rhee, “but it was more about having fun with the great people in the program and connecting with others. That was the real victory of it.”
The design challenge, along with alumni and professional panel discussions, were used to connect alumni to the program and engage students in their professional development.
“The program has over 700 alumni from the last 20 years,” Gray said. “They are so willing to give of their time and resources to help the program grow and help students succeed. Students see that this network exists for them and that Luddy is paying dividends, in some cases many years later.”
HCI/d Associate Professor Austin Toombs, creator of the design challenge brief, said the challenge gave students a chance to practice their skills in a rapid format beyond a class setting. Judges provided “real-time feedback” in what worked and what needed adjusting.
Judges were Rocket Mortgage senior experience designer James Goldsmith; Luddy alumni Alex Hoffmann, Junjin (Jin) Chen, Abby Stegall and Yatrick Raithatha; and Luddy HCI/d professors Elizabeth Kaziunas, Toombs, and Gray.
The challenge rules were clear -- take a family of two parents, three children and one car, add a very busy schedule of activities and devise a calendar software to maximize productivity and family time.
“Calendars look exactly like they did in the 1990s,” Gray said, “but the demands on people’s time have changed. How can a calendar help the family better understand the resource allocation so they can focus on spending more quality time?
“(Students had) to figure out how they would reflect the realities of this busy family environment by adding on to or extending that calendar interface in a meaningful way.”
Team 9’s outside-the-box approach of including a skit with their presentation separated them from the others.
“The winning team stood out for its innovative approach that blended an awareness of the complexity of family labor and relationships and technical feasibility,” Gray said.
Rhee said the team focused on basic solutions.
“We wanted to get in, get out, and get some real user research done with the people we had. And we had a lot of great people.”
Going ninth in the presentation order gave them time to see and learn.
“The presentations sounded similar, and everybody was rushed,
Rhee said. “We thought, this is not going to work for us. We were all frantically texting in our group chat -- ‘Let’s do something crazy.’ One team member said, ‘Why don’t we just act like members of a family?’”
So they did -- Rhee as the mom, three others as her children.
“We came up with it on the spot, which made it fun for us and for everyone who was listening,” Rhee said. “We tried not to laugh while doing it.”
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Isaac Gutjahr, a user experience researcher at Zebra Technologies, was one of six returning Luddy alumni who participated in an alumni panel discussion that offered insight and perspective. Other panel alumni were Hoffman, Stegall, Chen, Kathleen Surfus and Yatrik Raithatha.
Gutjahr, who earned his Luddy HCI/d master’s after getting a bachelor’s degree in film and anthropology at the University of Southern California, emphasized the importance of connecting with alumni.
“We know it’s a difficult market, and we’re here for them,” he said. “It shouldn’t be a scary thing to reach out to people. We want to help.”
During the discussion, collaboration and communication were called “critical,” as was the ability to find solutions without always getting straight answers. Panelists talked about building empathy, finding boundaries, and understanding the context of client stories.
One topic, “imposter syndrome,” where anxiety and doubt can cause people to feel like frauds even with strong job performance, resonated with students.
“That’s a big thing,” said Lokre, a member of the winning team and a second-year master’s student. “They also talked about mental health and the importance of shutting off your laptop after 6 o’clock. Having time to do other things helps you keep your sanity.”
Alumni advice included: reflect on your values and skills; glean insight from research; fail early, and learn fast; and try new things.
A key point was it’s fine to be bad at something new because that’s how you improve. Don’t compromise on who you are, especially when job searching. Take advantage of mentorship opportunities. Give good feedback as well as learn to receive it. Do what you’re passionate about. Most importantly, have fun.
A professional panel of Goldsmith, Salesforce digital designer Hanna Knight, and Rocket Central talent relationship manager Khayluv Torres discussed what employers want.
That included the ability to problem solve, provide clarity of thought, and show engagement and curiosity to understand company culture.
“Make sure that comes through clear and concise to show you can think your way through problems,” Goldsmith said.
Knight said there are a lot of design opportunities, especially if you’re willing to start as a generalist and build to a specialist.
“If you stay open to possibilities, you’ll be amazed at what you can find,” she said.
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Lokre said she got invaluable information on networking and forming deeper connections, as well as user experience design.
“With the products, it’s not just how they look, but how they behave,” she said. “It’s about how people interact with what you are designing.”
Sanika Patwardham, a first-year master’s student, said learning what’s happening in the industry and how to navigate the job market were priorities.
“I was surprised that what they do in the corporate world is what we study in school,” she said. “That’s comforting and exciting.”
Sanika Mehta, also a first-year master’s student, said she got a better understanding of what the U.S. design industry is like and how it works.
“I’m learning how I fit into this space.”
Another first-year student, Rajvi Sanghvi, switched from visual communication design to human computer interaction because of her interest in the technology field. She said hearing from industry professionals clarified available opportunities, and that collaborating in the design challenge provided insight in “how to make myself better.”
“To hear it straight from the professionals helps a lot,” she said. “You want to know what we as students can do to stand out.”
One topic that stood out -- how hobbies and doing things unrelated to work can help in the design process.
“It helps you think in a new way,” Sanghvi said.
Second-year student Samarth N will graduate in May and start a user experience design job in Boston in June.
“This event gave us a perspective of what to expect once we enter the work force,” he said.“It helped us see the difference between what we are taught and how it works in industry.”
First-year master’s student Leena Gandi said she learned ways to improve her portfolio as well as utilize better application strategies.
“What I was doing before was getting me nothing,” she said about applying for internships. “Now I have a better idea on how to tackle it.”
That, in so many ways, was the ultimate goal -- help prepare students for the future no matter how challenging it seems.
“Overall, the students had a successful day,” Gray said. “We had just as many positive comments from the alumni, many of whom were able to nurture and extend their own professional networks with alums from other cohorts.”