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Kai, I think it is a great idea for you to post here. One suggestion that I have is that you improve your portfolio. Looking at it, I just don't get a great fee

Kai, I think it is a great idea for you to post here. One suggestion that I have is that you improve your portfolio. Looking at it, I just don't get a great feeling with regards to your potential in HCI. Maybe I'm expecting too much from an intern candidate, but in the arts I would still expect a lot of personal projects that were more thought experiments. Like here is my idea for a redesigned amazon that I did for fun. One other thing is that in a startup they might not have any UX people to learn from. What is your goal in taking an internship? To prove your worth? To learn from those more experienced? To have fun? etc

gareim 16y ago
Completely agree. I took a look at all 6 projects under your portfolio and I was underwhelmed with what I saw. The first thing I noticed is the grammar. I get the feeling that you're not an American by birth, but you should still go through each page and fix the errors. It doesn't impress me to see a smart guy write like a first grader. And I guess the other gripe I have is the actual designs you came up with. They're mostly uninspired and impractical. You have some really great ideas and some really bad ones. Unfortunately, the great ideas are also hampered by practical problems. The best idea is probably the large touchscreen device for creating and joining events anonymously. The problem is that there are cheaper alternatives (websites can reproduce the same functionality without requiring a large touchscreen display). Then you'd also have to be able to login with something so you can join the events, or else people can screw with you by joining over and over to blow up the numbers when there's actually no one going. This is college we're talking about and there are bound to be a few jerks. The "Design for Sadness" and "Friend-O-Meter" ones are something kids can come up with. The "Friend-O-Meter" especially has no practical use. The "Grocery Stop-and-Go" device might be cool if it wasn't so flawed. Groceries aren't updated all at once. I might want to buy some ramen, milk, and eggs (aha, all my examples are random) this week, but only some milk the next because I have enough of the other two. Now, if the labels were on the packaging of the individual items, it might work better. But then you'd have to figure out a way to minimize costs. And "Textbook on iPad" is uninspired (I'd be shocked if it turns out no one has ever tried this before) and also wrong. Just wrong. In your example, the book is on the left while the dictionary is on the right. Ask yourself: How often is someone going to be interacting with the dictionary? Probably not as much as the actual book. Most people are right handed, so to change pages using your design, they'd have to awkwardly reach over to the left half of the screen and the right half becomes dead space. It's almost never interacted with (why would you need to touch a definition except if you wanted to copy and paste it?) and things would be much simpler if you swapped the two areas. I admit that I sound really harsh here (and I'm probably a lot off-topic), but it frustrates me when people going into UX design and they completely ignore actual usability. I have no degree in UX design or anything like that (and to be clear, I have zero degrees whatsoever; I'm in high school), but it's people like me that will be using the products. And unfortunately, people like me would be frustrated by the issues that I raised up there. Looking at your resume, I see that you're pretty smart. You just need to start thinking outside of what's already been done and at the same time, finding a way to make it practical and useful.
- mrwangkai 16y ago
  Hi gareim, Thank you for your feedback as well. I do apologize for any grammatical error that might have been left unchecked, I'll look into revising them. And yes, I'm not an American by birth - as you might have read from my About page, I was born in China, grew up in Singapore and now studies in the States. Your comments on each of the design (and the whole portfolio in general) is definitely helpful in not only reiterating them, but for me to revisit my design thinking. Points taken, thanks. I definitely agree with you that actual usability/practicality should not be ignored in UX design, which seems like a majority of the field's existence. Thanks again for taking the time to go through my portfolio site and writing up this response. Don't worry about sounding harsh, it is what it is.
mrwangkai 16y ago
Hi Anthony, Thank you for your feedback and your encouragement. There are definitely room for improvement in the portfolio to better represent myself as someone from the field of HCI. And I will continue to work on that. The personal project is a good idea that I'm now starting to be more courageous to step into as well. An example will be making more prototypes or just plainly making stuff in general. (Coincidentally, I did tried to redesign Amazon's rating system last year - no code just design). In terms of prototyping, I have recently, after finding out the Flip will be discontinued, made a couple of rapid paper prototype of the device to get a look/feel to decide which one of the lineup I should purchase before they are all sold out. My main reason for seeking out an UX intern is to get a feel of working in the field and to practice what I've learnt so far. The above answer may sound generic, but coming from a different field of study in my B.S, I think the prospect of applying the different theories/methods/practices I have learnt (so far) in a real world setting will be an amazing experience for me. Thanks again for your feedback. The plain sight of someone replying is gratifying enough. I will definitely go back to the drawing board and continue reiterate my portfolio.

gareim 16y ago

Completely agree. I took a look at all 6 projects under your portfolio and I was underwhelmed with what I saw. The first thing I noticed is the grammar. I get the feeling that you're not an American by birth, but you should still go through each page and fix the errors. It doesn't impress me to see a smart guy write like a first grader. And I guess the other gripe I have is the actual designs you came up with. They're mostly uninspired and impractical. You have some really great ideas and some really bad ones. Unfortunately, the great ideas are also hampered by practical problems. The best idea is probably the large touchscreen device for creating and joining events anonymously. The problem is that there are cheaper alternatives (websites can reproduce the same functionality without requiring a large touchscreen display). Then you'd also have to be able to login with something so you can join the events, or else people can screw with you by joining over and over to blow up the numbers when there's actually no one going. This is college we're talking about and there are bound to be a few jerks. The "Design for Sadness" and "Friend-O-Meter" ones are something kids can come up with. The "Friend-O-Meter" especially has no practical use. The "Grocery Stop-and-Go" device might be cool if it wasn't so flawed. Groceries aren't updated all at once. I might want to buy some ramen, milk, and eggs (aha, all my examples are random) this week, but only some milk the next because I have enough of the other two. Now, if the labels were on the packaging of the individual items, it might work better. But then you'd have to figure out a way to minimize costs. And "Textbook on iPad" is uninspired (I'd be shocked if it turns out no one has ever tried this before) and also wrong. Just wrong. In your example, the book is on the left while the dictionary is on the right. Ask yourself: How often is someone going to be interacting with the dictionary? Probably not as much as the actual book. Most people are right handed, so to change pages using your design, they'd have to awkwardly reach over to the left half of the screen and the right half becomes dead space. It's almost never interacted with (why would you need to touch a definition except if you wanted to copy and paste it?) and things would be much simpler if you swapped the two areas. I admit that I sound really harsh here (and I'm probably a lot off-topic), but it frustrates me when people going into UX design and they completely ignore actual usability. I have no degree in UX design or anything like that (and to be clear, I have zero degrees whatsoever; I'm in high school), but it's people like me that will be using the products. And unfortunately, people like me would be frustrated by the issues that I raised up there. Looking at your resume, I see that you're pretty smart. You just need to start thinking outside of what's already been done and at the same time, finding a way to make it practical and useful.

mrwangkai 16y ago
Hi gareim, Thank you for your feedback as well. I do apologize for any grammatical error that might have been left unchecked, I'll look into revising them. And yes, I'm not an American by birth - as you might have read from my About page, I was born in China, grew up in Singapore and now studies in the States. Your comments on each of the design (and the whole portfolio in general) is definitely helpful in not only reiterating them, but for me to revisit my design thinking. Points taken, thanks. I definitely agree with you that actual usability/practicality should not be ignored in UX design, which seems like a majority of the field's existence. Thanks again for taking the time to go through my portfolio site and writing up this response. Don't worry about sounding harsh, it is what it is.

mrwangkai 16y ago

Hi Anthony, Thank you for your feedback and your encouragement. There are definitely room for improvement in the portfolio to better represent myself as someone from the field of HCI. And I will continue to work on that. The personal project is a good idea that I'm now starting to be more courageous to step into as well. An example will be making more prototypes or just plainly making stuff in general. (Coincidentally, I did tried to redesign Amazon's rating system last year - no code just design). In terms of prototyping, I have recently, after finding out the Flip will be discontinued, made a couple of rapid paper prototype of the device to get a look/feel to decide which one of the lineup I should purchase before they are all sold out. My main reason for seeking out an UX intern is to get a feel of working in the field and to practice what I've learnt so far. The above answer may sound generic, but coming from a different field of study in my B.S, I think the prospect of applying the different theories/methods/practices I have learnt (so far) in a real world setting will be an amazing experience for me. Thanks again for your feedback. The plain sight of someone replying is gratifying enough. I will definitely go back to the drawing board and continue reiterate my portfolio.