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As a former teacher, I find it ironic that most companies  want the perfo ...
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Source: http://marybethraven.wordpress.com/feed/

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<title>Polar Beverages: Say no to NED</title>
<link>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/polar-beverages-say-no-to-ned/</link>
<comments>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/polar-beverages-say-no-to-ned/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mary Beth Raven]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Feb 2016 15:09:01 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://marybethraven.org/?p=275</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Dear Polar Beverages, I am disappointed that your company is supporting the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline, proposed by Kinder Morgan/Tennessee gas. You can find the text of your letter here: http://www.kindermorgan.com/content/docs/PB_SupportLetter.pdf Please reconsider your support for this pipeline. Please write a letter of OPPOSITION to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and please persuade the MA […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Dear Polar Beverages,
I am disappointed that your company is supporting the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline, proposed by Kinder Morgan/Tennessee gas. You can find the text of your letter here: <a href="http://www.kindermorgan.com/content/docs/PB_SupportLetter.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.kindermorgan.com/content/docs/PB_SupportLetter.pdf</a>
Please reconsider your support for this pipeline. Please write a letter of OPPOSITION to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and please persuade the MA food association to change their stance and oppose it as well. You can write to FERC using this web address <a href="http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/ecomment.asp">http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/ecomment.asp</a>. Please let me know when you have done this so that I can publicly thank you on various social media sites. I plan to BOYCOTT YOUR BUSINESS until you change your stance on this pipeline. I usually spend between $5 and $10 a week on your products.
Here is why I am asking you to oppose the NED pipeline:
NED Might not Help Reduce Cost: 
<ul>
<li>The pipeline might not reduce our electric costs. The MA food Association cited the cost of electricity as the main reason for supporting the pipeline. But the current proposal is that ratepayers will be assessed a tariff to build the pipeline, this initially increasing our rates. See this web address for more information: <a href="http://nhpipelineawareness.org/tariff/" rel="nofollow">http://nhpipelineawareness.org/tariff/</a></li>
<li>One reason for New England’s high electricity cost is Higher transmission fees than the rest of the country. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is currently investigating these high fees. The NED pipeline will do nothing to lower transmission fees. <a href="http://www.unionleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20160110/NEWS05/160119977" rel="nofollow">http://www.unionleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20160110/NEWS05/160119977</a></li>
<li>The MA Attorney General Maura Healy commissioned a study that found no new pipelines were needed. <a href="http://commonwealthmagazine.org/environment/healey-study-no-new-pipelines-needed/#.Vk0BOfaiek8.twitter">http://commonwealthmagazine.org/environment/healey-study-no-new-pipelines-needed/#.Vk0BOfaiek8.twitter</a></li>
</ul>
NED is NOT Environmentally Friendly
The MA food association support letter cited “cleaner” natural gas as a reason to support the Pipeline. However, NED is not more environmentally friendly than coal or other fossil fuels for these reasons.
<ul>
<li>The process of extracting Liquid Natural gas (LNG) involved Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking). Fracking uses a great deal of water, and can contaminate that water. For example,e radioactive waste has been found in fracking wastewater – see here: <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/radioactive-wastewater-from-fracking-is-found-in-a-pennsylvania-stream-351641/?no-ist">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/radioactive-wastewater-from-fracking-is-found-in-a-pennsylvania-stream-351641/?no-ist</a></li>
<li>There is evidence that Fracking produces more radioactive waste than nuclear power plants <a href="http://www.nofrackingway.us/2014/05/04/fracking-produces-more-radioactive-waste-than-nuclear-power-plants/">http://www.nofrackingway.us/2014/05/04/fracking-produces-more-radioactive-waste-than-nuclear-power-plants/</a></li>
<li>Bad air quality: There is also evidence that the air around gas sites is dangerously contaminated <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/10/141030-dangerous-chemicals-in-air-near-oil-and-gas-sites-study/" rel="nofollow">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/10/141030-dangerous-chemicals-in-air-near-oil-and-gas-sites-study/</a></li>
<li>A pipeline such as NED needs compressor stations to pump the product along the route. These compressor stations have many environmental issues, including increasing respiratory and heart health issues for people who live nearby <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/10/141030-dangerous-chemicals-in-air-near-oil-and-gas-sites-study/">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/10/141030-dangerous-chemicals-in-air-near-oil-and-gas-sites-study/</a> also see <a href="https://content.sierraclub.org/grassrootsnetwork/team-news/2015/08/what-health-conditions-are-associated-compressor-station-emissions" rel="nofollow">https://content.sierraclub.org/grassrootsnetwork/team-news/2015/08/what-health-conditions-are-associated-compressor-station-emissions</a></li>
<li>Last but certainly not least, the pipeline can leak and contaminate the water supply of the many towns it travels through. These pipeline have also been known to explode, creating an “incineration zone” of 1,000 feet. <a href="http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?cat=8">http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?cat=8</a></li>
</ul>
I hope that you take the time to better educate yourself on the pros and cons of the NED pipeline. Please use these references for more information:
<a href="http://www.nofrackedgasinmass.org/">http://www.nofrackedgasinmass.org/</a>
<a href="http://www.massplan.org/">http://www.massplan.org/</a>
<a href="http://dracutpa.org/pipeline/">http://dracutpa.org/pipeline/</a>
I am happy to have a meeting or call with you and/or your company representatives to discuss this further. The NED pipeline is a SERIOUS environmental issue. As a seller of healthy foods, I urge you to take the broader community health into account as you decide to oppose this pipeline.
Thank you
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<title>Please help test this Android app for non-native US Citizens</title>
<link>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/please-help-test-this-android-app-for-non-native-us-itizens/</link>
<comments>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/please-help-test-this-android-app-for-non-native-us-itizens/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mary Beth Raven]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2015 01:29:35 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://marybethraven.org/?p=270</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Hi Readers, Can you please help out my daughter, who is a computer science major in her sophomore year? Her team and made an android app that’s supposed to help immigrants connect to other non-native US people and also help explain the citizenship process. So if you have an android, would you be willing to […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Hi Readers,
Can you please help out my daughter, who is a computer science major in her sophomore year? 
Her team and made an android app that’s supposed to help immigrants connect to other non-native US people and also help explain the citizenship process.
<div></div>
<div>So if you have an android, would you be willing to download <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=connectus.connectus&hl=en" target="_blank">ConnectUS</a>?</div>
<div><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=connectus.connectus&hl=en" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=connectus.connectus&hl=en</a></div>
<div>If you’d just play around with it for like a minute each day, then send her a quick email after you fiddle with it about your experience, I would super appreciate it.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Basic email format:</div>
<div></div>
<div>To: <a href="mailto:birdy@mit.edu" target="_blank">birdy at mit.edu</a></div>
<div>Subject: ConnectUS</div>
<div>I found [feature, use case, whatever] confusing.</div>
<div>I found [feature, use case, whatever] cool.</div>
<div>Anything else interesting you think about the app!</div>
<div></div>
<div>Thank you very much!</div>
]]></content:encoded>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<title>Designing for the most common use cases: sometimes the outliers really do bite</title>
<link>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/designing-for-the-most-common-use-cases-sometimes-the-outliers-really-do-bite/</link>
<comments>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/designing-for-the-most-common-use-cases-sometimes-the-outliers-really-do-bite/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mary Beth Raven]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:44:49 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://marybethraven.org/?p=266</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In my job as a software user interface designer, I try to design for the most common use cases — so that the most frequent (or most important) are the ones that are easiest to accomplish. Sometimes I really do decide that a user has to go to another screen make additional clicks to get […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[In my job as a software user interface designer, I try to design for the most common use cases — so that the most frequent (or most important) are the ones that are easiest to accomplish. Sometimes I really do decide that a user has to go to another screen make additional clicks to get a rare task completed.
With this in mind, I worked with the people installing our hot tub a few years ago. The Sales person recommended that we put it as close to the house as possible. “The closer to the house, the more often used” was his adage. So we decided to place it about 4 feet from the “human” (not car) garage door.
It worked well for several years. Our favorite time of year to sit in the tub is winter. We get a great view of the starts, and there’s nothing like sitting in the tub and watching light snowflakes fall.
Until this winter.
<a href="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub1.jpg"><img data-attachment-id="268" data-permalink="https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/designing-for-the-most-common-use-cases-sometimes-the-outliers-really-do-bite/hottub1/" data-orig-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub1.jpg" data-orig-size="480,640" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4S","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1425823657","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.28","iso":"50","shutter_speed":"0.00028901734104046","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="hottub1" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub1.jpg?w=225" data-large-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub1.jpg?w=480" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-268" src="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub1.jpg?w=225&h=300" alt="hottub1" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub1.jpg?w=225 225w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub1.jpg?w=450 450w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub1.jpg?w=113 113w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a> <a href="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub2.jpg"><img data-attachment-id="267" data-permalink="https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/designing-for-the-most-common-use-cases-sometimes-the-outliers-really-do-bite/hottub2/" data-orig-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub2.jpg" data-orig-size="480,640" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4S","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1425823677","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.28","iso":"50","shutter_speed":"0.00025297242600557","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="hottub2" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub2.jpg?w=225" data-large-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub2.jpg?w=480" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-267" src="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub2.jpg?w=225&h=300" alt="hottub2" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub2.jpg?w=225 225w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub2.jpg?w=450 450w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hottub2.jpg?w=113 113w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
We just had too much snow. And no place to put it. I dreaded cleaning off the hot tub, and the reward of sitting it in almost did not make up for it.
I questioned whether I’d made the right decision to put it just behind the garage. Especially when snow from the roof fell on the path I had just cleared to the tub. This winter, the location was bad. And I was really annoyed. I had to pause and think about the other, less harsh winters and how we hand’t had such an issue. I am sure that many users of the software I’ve designed have felt similar emotions when they’d have to go to a different area for preferences, or find an “Advanced” button.
In the long run, the placement of the hot tub has been good compared to the 10 years that we’ve been using it. It was worth the annoyance of the snow this winter.
I hope that most of the users can understand that when it comes to an annoying moment or two when using software.
]]></content:encoded>
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<media:title type="html">bethyraven</media:title>
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<title>Innovation is Alive and Well in Education</title>
<link>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/innovation-is-alive-and-well-in-education/</link>
<comments>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/innovation-is-alive-and-well-in-education/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mary Beth Raven]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2015 00:54:46 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://marybethraven.org/?p=262</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Last night I had the opportunity to be a “UX Expert” at an “Expert-a-thon” arranged by the Boston area User Experience Professionals’ Association (UXPA) and LearnLaunch. What a fun evening! There were 8 education-related start-ups there, I got to choose 2 for whom to be a UX expert. That meant I heard their general pitch […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Last night I had the opportunity to be a “UX Expert” at an “Expert-a-thon” arranged by the Boston area<a href="http://uxpaboston.org/events/ux-expert-a-thon-special-event-2015/"> User Experience Professionals’ Association (UXPA)</a> and <a href="http://learnlaunch.com/">LearnLaunch</a>. What a fun evening! There were 8 education-related start-ups there, I got to choose 2 for whom to be a UX expert. That meant I heard their general pitch and then we talked about ways to improve various aspects of the user experience for their product.
I was able to spend some detailed time with <a href="http://www.authess.com">Authess</a> and <a href="www.ni-o.com">Ni-O toys</a>. Authess is interested in authentic assessment (beyond multiple-choice tests), and might focus first on university education, while Ni-O was at the other end of the spectrum, making hardware development kits for kids and leveraging 3-D printing.
<div data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_263" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-2.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-263" data-attachment-id="263" data-permalink="https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/innovation-is-alive-and-well-in-education/photo-2/" data-orig-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-2.jpg" data-orig-size="480,640" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4S","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1427314588","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.28","iso":"64","shutter_speed":"0.033333333333333","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="photo 2" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-2.jpg?w=225" data-large-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-2.jpg?w=480" class="wp-image-263 size-medium" src="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-2.jpg?w=225&h=300" alt="photo 2" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-2.jpg?w=225 225w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-2.jpg?w=450 450w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-2.jpg?w=113 113w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>CEO Paul Crockett of Authess</div>
<div data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_264" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-1.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-264" loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="264" data-permalink="https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/innovation-is-alive-and-well-in-education/photo-1/" data-orig-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-1.jpg" data-orig-size="480,640" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4S","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1427312796","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.28","iso":"80","shutter_speed":"0.05","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="photo 1" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-1.jpg?w=225" data-large-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-1.jpg?w=480" class="wp-image-264 size-medium" src="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-1.jpg?w=225&h=300" alt="photo 1" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-1.jpg?w=225 225w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-1.jpg?w=450 450w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/photo-1.jpg?w=113 113w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>CEO Nadav Liebermann and CPO Geut Gonen of Ni-O Toys</div>
About 30 other “UX experts” showed up as well, and I even got to re-connect with some former colleagues.
I also had the opportunity to meet and chat with Asad Butt, the Operations director of the LearnLaunch Accelerator. He gave me more background on how the accelerator is assisting education-related start-ups. I think this is really cool stuff. Asad mentioned that they are always looking for UX mentors. This could be a commitment of visiting the accelerator in downtown Boston a few times, or participating via web conference to provide feedback on product design. If you are interested, feel free to drop him a note at info@Learnlaunch.com.
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<title>Had Fun Being a “Guest Reviewer” in a Harvard Business School Class</title>
<link>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/had-fun-being-a-guest-reviewer-in-a-harvard-business-school-class/</link>
<comments>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/had-fun-being-a-guest-reviewer-in-a-harvard-business-school-class/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mary Beth Raven]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2014 14:50:50 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://marybethraven.org/?p=256</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Over the past 2 weeks, I had the opportunity to be a “guest reviewer” in Professor Tom Eisenmann’s product management class at the Harvard School of Business. The students had formed groups and come up with products ideas, and my role was to provide feedback on the design of their software product. Several other UX […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Over the past 2 weeks, I had the opportunity to be a “guest reviewer” in Professor Tom Eisenmann’s product management class at the Harvard School of Business. The students had formed groups and come up with products ideas, and my role was to provide feedback on the design of their software product. Several other UX designers had been invited, too, so that each team had 30 to 45 minutes to really do in detail into their product. Here I am with Professor Tom and one of the students:
<img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="257" data-permalink="https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/had-fun-being-a-guest-reviewer-in-a-harvard-business-school-class/harvard1/" data-orig-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard1.jpg" data-orig-size="640,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4S","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1415205244","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.28","iso":"50","shutter_speed":"0.025","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="harvard1" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard1.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard1.jpg?w=620" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-257" src="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard1.jpg?w=300&h=225" alt="harvard1" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard1.jpg?w=300 300w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard1.jpg?w=600 600w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard1.jpg?w=150 150w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
It was a lot of fun to hear about the product ideas and talk about their business models. Some teams had already fleshed out detailed interaction designs, complete with Balsamiq click-through demos for me. Others came with blank sheets of paper and we sketched as we talked.
The class took place in the Harvard Innovation Center, in a really cool room that was east to rearrange for small or large groups. (I wish i had a room like this for my team at work!).
I’d like to thank my former colleague Suzanne Livingston for this opportunity- she’s working with Professor Tom on this class and it was her idea to invite in some real-word UX designers to provide feedback. Great idea, Suze, and I’d be happy to do it again.
<a href="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard2.jpg"><img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="258" data-permalink="https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/had-fun-being-a-guest-reviewer-in-a-harvard-business-school-class/harvard2/" data-orig-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard2.jpg" data-orig-size="480,640" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4S","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1415211435","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.28","iso":"50","shutter_speed":"0.016666666666667","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="harvard2" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard2.jpg?w=225" data-large-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard2.jpg?w=480" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-258" src="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard2.jpg?w=225&h=300" alt="harvard2" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard2.jpg?w=225 225w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard2.jpg?w=450 450w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard2.jpg?w=113 113w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a> <a href="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard3.jpg"><img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="259" data-permalink="https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/had-fun-being-a-guest-reviewer-in-a-harvard-business-school-class/harvard3/" data-orig-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard3.jpg" data-orig-size="480,640" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4S","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1415211443","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.28","iso":"64","shutter_speed":"0.016666666666667","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="harvard3" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard3.jpg?w=225" data-large-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard3.jpg?w=480" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-259" src="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard3.jpg?w=225&h=300" alt="harvard3" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard3.jpg?w=225 225w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard3.jpg?w=450 450w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/harvard3.jpg?w=113 113w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
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<title>Reflections on Two years as a UX Director</title>
<link>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/reflections-on-two-years-as-a-ux-director/</link>
<comments>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/reflections-on-two-years-as-a-ux-director/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mary Beth Raven]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2014 00:59:02 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://marybethraven.org/?p=253</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Wow. Two years as a director of user experience at EMC. I am shocked that it appears that it’s been an entire year since I did a personal blog post! Yikes, how can this be!!?? This past year, my team and I blogged at our EMC UX design site: uxblog.emc.com, and from a personal perspective […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Wow. Two years as a director of user experience at EMC.
I am shocked that it appears that it’s been an entire year since I did a personal blog post! Yikes, how can this be!!??
This past year, my team and I blogged at our EMC UX design site: uxblog.emc.com, and from a personal perspective I note that instead of blogging, I tend to just post longer personal updates on my facebook page. I am sure there are media pundits, sociology researchers, and philosophy gurus who can explain why that is so….
The team and I also posted in our EMC <a href="https://community.emc.com/community/products/vipr">community space</a>.
I am still struggling with the low levels of community participation from our customers (compared to my experiences at SolidWorks and IBM)
My second year was a challenge in some different ways than my first. I’ll admit that one of the biggest was that I had to let people go in the beginning of the year. It was excruciating (though Len Conte still wins the excruciating prize because I had to lay him off on his first day at FTP back in the 90s).
During this past year, our “Advanced Software division” merged with another to become the “Emerging Products Division”.
Many things are changing, and in general I feel that it’s all change for the good.
We are still growing our Design Partner programs for various products, and still growing our usability test participant database (if you want to test EMC Products, sign up here!! http://www.emc.com/usability
This year we had a new approach at our yearly conference — EMC World. We partnered with the designers of EMC.Com to have one combined booth. It was a lot of fun!
We also still had our usability lab, as you can see below, where JoAnne is conducting a test of ViRP SRM with a customer.
<a href="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/joanne-pointing.jpg"><img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="252" data-permalink="https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=252" data-orig-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/joanne-pointing.jpg" data-orig-size="1224,1632" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4S","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1399370904","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.28","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.05","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="joanne pointing" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/joanne-pointing.jpg?w=225" data-large-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/joanne-pointing.jpg?w=620" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-252" src="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/joanne-pointing.jpg?w=225&h=300" alt="joanne pointing" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/joanne-pointing.jpg?w=225 225w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/joanne-pointing.jpg?w=450 450w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/joanne-pointing.jpg?w=113 113w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
And we had a terrific time doing “Gorilla” usability testing!
<img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="254" data-permalink="https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/reflections-on-two-years-as-a-ux-director/gorillamb2/" data-orig-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/gorillamb2.jpg" data-orig-size="480,640" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.4","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 4S","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1399381486","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.28","iso":"250","shutter_speed":"0.05","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="gorillamb2" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/gorillamb2.jpg?w=225" data-large-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/gorillamb2.jpg?w=480" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-254" src="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/gorillamb2.jpg?w=225&h=300" alt="gorillamb2" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/gorillamb2.jpg?w=225 225w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/gorillamb2.jpg?w=450 450w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/gorillamb2.jpg?w=113 113w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />
Overall, year 2 has been a challenge. I still need to learn more about the products, but I feel like I’ve made good headway into understanding where the EMC portfolio fits into a data center or a CIO’s overall plan.
AS I write this, I have a job opening for a UX designer (located in Hopkinton, MA, Nashua NH or Montreal Que!), which is great because it indicates that EMC has some level of appreciation of UX. My mission here is to really change the EMC culture to be more user-centric. It is a challenge, but as my friend Patti has observed about me, I love a challenge. So bring on year 3!
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<title>Reflections on One Year as a UX Director</title>
<link>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/reflections-on-one-year-as-a-ux-director/</link>
<comments>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/reflections-on-one-year-as-a-ux-director/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mary Beth Raven]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 09 Oct 2013 02:16:21 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Advanced Software division]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[customer visit]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://marybethraven.org/?p=246</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Congratulations to my team for enduring me for a year! It has been an eventful year for me at EMC. I started as the director of User Experience Design in the ASD (Advanced Software division) one year ago today – with lots of plans to increase customer input and to leverage social media to inform […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Congratulations to my team for enduring me for a year! It has been an eventful year for me at EMC. I started as the director of User Experience Design in the ASD (Advanced Software division) one year ago today – with lots of plans to increase customer input and to leverage social media to inform the design of products.
We have made some good progress. I have one designer who said she worked here for 9 years and had not done a customer visit. Within 3 months of me starting – she had done a customer visit, and has done several since then as well! I have another designer who I pushed to really partner with the field, and she has, and she says she really has a much better understanding of how people use our products!
On the other hand, I am very disappointed in the fact that our use of social media, such as our UX blog (at <a href="http://Uxblog.emc.com" rel="nofollow">http://Uxblog.emc.com</a>) does not have very many views and even fewer comments. This is very different than when I worked on Lotus Notes and my very first blog post got over 70 comments! Maybe Storage admins are not social. Maybe we need to figure out how to involve them in other ways.
If you are an EMC customer, I welcome any suggestions you have about how to get feedback from YOU. (Don’t forget! you can register to be a usability test participant here! <a href="https://emcinformation.com/146505/REG/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000.ashx" rel="nofollow">https://emcinformation.com/146505/REG/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000.ashx</a>
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<title>Looking for a good prototyper – I have a fun job for you!</title>
<link>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/looking-for-a-good-prototyper-i-have-a-fun-job-for-you/</link>
<comments>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/looking-for-a-good-prototyper-i-have-a-fun-job-for-you/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mary Beth Raven]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jul 2013 19:49:24 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://marybethraven.org/?p=243</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I have an open Requisition for a user interface prototyper, and I’m so excited that I can’t wait for the recruiter to get it on LinkedIn, so I’m posting it here. Please share with people whom you think would be a good fit! Interested parties can send reply here with a link to their LinkedIn […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[I have an open Requisition for a user interface prototyper, and I’m so excited that I can’t wait for the recruiter to get it on LinkedIn, so I’m posting it here. Please share with people whom you think would be a good fit! Interested parties can send reply here with a link to their LinkedIn profile or web site, or send resumes to EMCUSabilityTesting at EMC dot com.
The EMC User Experience Design team is dedicated to optimizing EMC’s products for the entire product life cycle, from up-front design to usability testing. (Plus, this team is pretty FUN!) We provide deep insight and understanding into user behavior, needs, and motivation throughout all phases of the design process from project conceptualization, to implementation and development. We work with customers, product managers, marketing, documentation, and product development teams to research and design usable and productive user experiences. We also help to create common user experience standards across EMC products and/or within product domains.
The Prototype Designer will work with a team of subject matter experts, interaction designers, visual designers, product managers and developers to create wireframes and prototypes for a variety of software products and solutions, and communicate them effectively in a fast-paced agile environment. 
You will create high-fidelity user interface prototypes to be used for advanced customer feedback, usability testing, and for socializing the UX design to development for implementation.
You must demonstrate a strong understanding of EMC’s customers, products and user goals and behaviors in a complex enterprise domain, and contribute to interaction concepts that enable seamless, fluid, relevant and engaging experiences for users. You will also provide visual designs and large data visualizations for the products.
You will also drive the effort to create UI standards and toolkit components that embody those standards based on HTML5 and CSS, and work with brand guidelines to ensure designs are not only user friendly, but remain consistent with the rest of the products and EMC’s brand framework.
You will work with the UXD team to communicate and validate designs by creating wire frames and prototypes, and participating in the creation of usability test scripts and in usability testing. 
You must exert significant latitude in determining the objectives of an assignment, anticipate change, and direct or redirect efforts accordingly. You must be able to employ the application of UXD principles, theories, and concepts and may contribute to the development of new theories and methods.
Required Skills 
• Communication and presentation skills 
• Ability to influence others to achieve results 
• Ability to execute and deliver key objectives in a timely manner 
• Ability to work in a team environment 
• Solid understanding of the competition 
• Takes initiative 
• Ability to prioritize projects and/or deliverables 
• Customer focused 
• Project management skills 
• Strong background in visual design 
• Advanced expertise with visual design and prototyping tools, including Photoshop, Axure, etc. 
• Expertise in HTML5 and CSS technologies, including experience with one or more toolkits such as Dojo, Sencha EXT JS, Twitter Bootstrap, etc. 
• Experience with data visualization techniques for big data
To see more of what we do, check out <a href="http://uxblog.emc.com" rel="nofollow">http://uxblog.emc.com</a> ! 
We’d prefer people who could work in Hopkinton, MA, or Nashua, NH, but we will consider others.
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<media:title type="html">bethyraven</media:title>
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<title>Preparing for the big annual user conference</title>
<link>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/preparing-for-the-big-annual-user-conference/</link>
<comments>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/preparing-for-the-big-annual-user-conference/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mary Beth Raven]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:32:10 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://marybethraven.org/?p=233</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I am in charge of the User Experience Design (UXD) presence at our big annual conference – EMC World, which starts in a week, in Vegas. I am certainly no stranger to user conferences, having attended/presented/done usability tests at 15 Lotusphere conferences and 1 SolidWorks conference. But I’ve never been in charge of the entire UXD presence […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[I am in charge of the User Experience Design (UXD) presence at our big annual conference – EMC World, which starts in a week, in Vegas. I am certainly no stranger to user conferences, having attended/presented/done usability tests at 15 Lotusphere conferences and 1 SolidWorks conference. But I’ve never been in charge of the entire UXD presence before.
EMC has several different divisions, and we all get together to create one unified UXD presence at EMC world. I’m the director of one of the divisions – Advanced Software Design – and it has been the division that coordinates the UX from other divisions, so we’re continuing that this year. We have a booth on the trade show floor (aka the pavilion), and a separate usability testing session room. This is new for me – I’ve almost always only had a usability testing session room.
I’m really excited about the booth in the pavilion. In past years it’s been used mainly to get people to fill our surveys. This year, we’ll have a “comment wall” that asks about mobile use, and we’re doing persona validation – we’ll have big posters of our personas and we’ll ask people to read and react and provide additional info on how THEY work – to make our personas more “real.” Here’s a mock-up of what we think the persona exercise will look like in the booth:
<a href="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/personabooth.png"><img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="234" data-permalink="https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/preparing-for-the-big-annual-user-conference/personabooth/" data-orig-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/personabooth.png" data-orig-size="718,384" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="personaBooth" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/personabooth.png?w=300" data-large-file="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/personabooth.png?w=620" src="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/personabooth.png?w=300&h=160" alt="Picture of persona exercise" width="300" height="160" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-234" srcset="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/personabooth.png?w=300 300w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/personabooth.png?w=598 598w, https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/personabooth.png?w=150 150w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>
I’m hoping to leverage social media to drive traffic to the booth. It seems to me that the EMC crowd is not as active in user groups as the SolidWorks customers… nor is the EMC crowd as active on twitter or Facebook… so we’ll see. When I worked for IBM, tweeting and blogging drove a lot of traffic but, I was working on products ABOUT social media and collaboration… and now I am not. So we’ll see how it goes.
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<media:title type="html">bethyraven</media:title>
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<media:content url="https://marybethraven.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/personabooth.png?w=300" medium="image">
<media:title type="html">Picture of persona exercise</media:title>
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<title>Performance appraisals written and delivered….</title>
<link>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/performance-appraisals-written-and-delivered/</link>
<comments>https://marybethraven.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/performance-appraisals-written-and-delivered/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mary Beth Raven]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sun, 28 Apr 2013 02:25:19 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://marybethraven.org/?p=229</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A few months ago I blogged about writing performance appraisals for people that I hardly know. I felt a little uncomfortable writing these appriasals since I’d only known my staff for 3 months. But certainly, I have often been on the receiving end of such reviews myself over the years. Luckily, my predecessor had left […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[A few months ago I blogged about <a href="http://marybethraven.org/2013/01/15/my-transition-to-ux-director-writing-appraisals-for-people-i-hardly-know/">writing performance appraisals for people that I hardly know</a>. I felt a little uncomfortable writing these appriasals since I’d only known my staff for 3 months. But certainly, I have often been on the receiving end of such reviews myself over the years.
Luckily, my predecessor had left written drafts of the reviews. But, as luck would have it, my employer decided to change the format of the reviewes this year, so it was a little harder for me to fit the info I had into new categories. My folks did a great job at writing up self-reviews (I do admit I really developed an appreciation for people who write well and can make cogent points…).
So I wrote, I submitted, and then had to deliver all 14 reviews. Most went well, others less so. I like to be able to provide specifics – and since I’d only worked with these folks for 3 months, I was not always able to do that. So, in my one on one meetings with each person now, I’ve decided to keep detailed notes on what each person is doing and their various projects . Of course, the mere fact that I’m around this year will give me more info.
As a former teacher, I find it ironic that most companies want the performace ratings to be a bell curve. In US education over the past few years there has been a big push on “no child left behind” and “mastery for everyone” … yet these concepts do not seem to have taken hold in the workplace much .. yet… Course, we’ll see how I feel at review time next year.. assuming, of course, that *I* make it to next year <img src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/twemoji/2/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />
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