This is a presentation that I gave to my son's 3rd grade class where I was supposed to explain what I do for a living to them - the challenge is to explain user experience without any jargon to 3rd graders without embarrassing my son.

1. by Tyler's Dad MY JOB MY JOB

3. From 1924 – 84 years ago

8. “ Hardware”

9. “ Hardware” “ Services”

10. “ Hardware” “ Software” “ Services”

11. “ Hardware” “ Software” “ Services” This is me

12. There are lots of different kinds of designers.

13. There are lots of different kinds of designers. People who design cars…

14. There are lots of different kinds of designers. People who design cars… … and music players …

15. There are lots of different kinds of designers. People who design cars… … and music players … … and chairs …

16. There are lots of different kinds of designers. People who design cars… … and music players … … and chairs … … and ice cream scoops …

17. There are lots of different kinds of designers. People who design cars… … and music players … … and chairs … … and ice cream scoops … … and houses. Taliesin West by Frank Lloyd Wright

18. Tyler’s mom is an Interior Designer , which means she designs rooms…

19. Tyler’s mom is an Interior Designer , which means she designs rooms… … like Tyler’s room which has castles and a full suit of armor.

20. I’m a Software Designer User Experience Designer Human Factors Engineer User-Centered Designer Interaction Designer Human-Computer Interaction Usability Engineer What does that mean?

21. What if your job was to design a house for someone?

22. What if your job was to design a house for someone? 1 Talk to the people buying the house – find out what they like and don’t like.

23. What if your job was to design a house for someone? 1 Talk to the people buying the house – find out what they like and don’t like. 2 Draw pictures of how you think the house should look and show the pictures to the people buying the house.

24. What if your job was to design a house for someone? 1 Talk to the people buying the house – find out what they like and don’t like. 2 Draw pictures of how you think the house should look and show the pictures to the people buying the house. 3 While the house is being built, take the people to the house to make sure it looks like the pictures.

25. What if your job was to design a video game for 3 rd graders?

26. What if your job was to design a video game for 3 rd graders? 1 Talk to the 3 rd graders – find out what they like and don’t like in their video games.

27. What if your job was to design a video game for 3 rd graders? 1 Talk to the 3 rd graders – find out what they like and don’t like in their video games. 2 Draw pictures of how you think the video game should look and show the pictures to the 3 rd graders.

28. What if your job was to design a video game for 3 rd graders? 1 Talk to the 3 rd graders – find out what they like and don’t like in their video games. 2 Draw pictures of how you think the video game should look and show the pictures to the 3 rd graders. 3 While the video game is being built, ask 3 rd graders to test the game to see if they like it.

29. What if your job was to design a video game for 3 rd graders? Video games are software ! 1 Talk to the 3 rd graders – find out what they like and don’t like in their video games. 2 Draw pictures of how you think the video game should look and show the pictures to the 3 rd graders. 3 While the video game is being built, ask 3 rd graders to test the game to see if they like it.

30. I don’t design video games.

31. I don’t design video games. I design software that runs huge websites for really big companies.

32. We call this “User Research” 1 I talk to the people who use our software to see what they like, how they do their jobs, and who they work with in their jobs.

33. We call this “Prototyping” 2 I draw pictures of what the software should look like and I show the pictures to our customers.

34. We call this “Usability Testing” 3 While the software is being built, I ask our customers to use it and see if they can figure out how it works.

35. How do you become a Software Designer? Middle School High School College Graduate School Elementary 6 years 3 years 4 years 4 years 3-5 years Get good grades! Study “Psychology” or “Computer Science” Study “ Human-Computer Interaction”

36. Questions?