Last week my first post as a guest blogger on the Women in Technology site went up. In Seeing IT Through a Different Lens: User Experience, I write about how being in technology does not mean you have to code, manage projects, be an analyst or know hardware. I’m hoping that this post opens up some eyes about what it means to be a techie. Take a read and let me know what you think in the comments below.

As some of you may or may not know, I have decided to take some time off to recharge and relax. As part of this time off, I decided to take the Circle Line tour yesterday. For those of you that aren’t familiar, the Circle Line is a sightseeing company that runs boat tours in NYC. There are several different tour types and lengths that the company offers, and I chose to go on the 3 hour full island sight seeing cruise. Yes, I went on the 3 hour tour, 3 hour tour (don’t worry I made it back in one piece).

Besides the fact that Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs are full of history and are intriguing to look at and take in, the tour was an awesome experience! One of the things that made the tour so great was the tour announcer. This man knew his NYC history. But not only that, his information set crowd expectations as well as answered questions before they were asked. The announcer knew, probably from both experience and research, what the crowds would want to hear about (for instance showing us where flight 1549 touched down and explaining how it was a successful rescue).

The announcer basically knew his audience, knew the things they would want to know about, knew the questions they would have, and knew how to direct them throughout his experience. This guy was a UX pro if I’ve ever seen one. I would highly recommend the Circle Line for both locals and tourists, and plan on going again one day. Maybe next time I’ll ask the announcer for some great UX tips!!

I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be appearing on the Women in Technology blog from time to time as one of their guest bloggers. WIT is a site that is committed to keeping women informed and knowledgeable about technology in order to fulfill their site goal, which is to increase the number of women in the IT field. My focus for guest blogging will be to inform women about the profession of User Experience and share my experiences being a women in the UX field. Hopefully, knowing more about UX and how it fits into the IT world will help more women feel enabled to build their careers in technology. I’d love to hear ideas for posts from all of you, so if you have them please leave them in the comments.

If this is a topic that you are interested in, be sure to check out the Women in Technology blog as well as follow @womenintech on twitter. Currently, Women in Technology is focused in the UK, but I’m sure that having their site up and running will influence women across the globe.

A big thank you to Michele Marut for surfacing this opportunity to me! Wish me luck on this new writing venture, I can’t wait to get typing .

You know the old Eagles song (Take it eassssssssyyyyyyyyy, take it eassssssssssssyyyyy… ok enough singing). That is what I’m about to do for a little while. I’ve just about finished up a wonderful project that I’ve been working on all summer, and while sitting and thinking about what I want to focus on next the only thing that came to mind was: Nothing.

All I want to do is relax, enjoy life, and be inspired to be great. It’s been almost 2 and a half years since I moved to New York from San Antonio, and I don’t think I’ve really ever taken a break since. From working fulltime, to starting my own thing as an indie, I’ve been constantly on the go… and loving it! But the time has come to follow my own advice and find balance.

So, for the next few weeks that is what I’m going to do. A whooooole lot of nothing, or at least nothing that I would normally do. Oh and getting more sleep, that is on the list. I might be writing more, I might be writing less so if you don’t hear from me in awhile don’t fret. I’m also wanting to reflect on and talk about my doing nothing experience when I’m doing something again, so look out for that.

Lastly, I’d love to hear thoughts about things I should do, or places I could go (cheap or free) in NYC and the surrounding areas to find more inspiration and to just enjoy myself so feel free to leave any ideas in the comments. Wish me luck!

In the past I’ve written a couple of posts that tie together the roles of UX Designers and Therapists. You can read How User Experience Designers are like Therapists and Another Way that UX Designers are Like Therapists to see these previous posts. So, imagine my joy when I was watching super UXer Whitney Hess on the Big Web Show and she said “A lot of times, I become more like a therapist.”. Yes! Whitney was right on with my thinking, and I’m sure she’s not the only one. You can check out Whitney’s whole interview here, and be sure to check out minute 25 around second 40 to see what I’m referring to.

Whitney calls herself “like a therapist” in relation to the idea that most of the time we as UX designers are brought on to a project to do something tactical. For example, marketing wants a landing page or product management wants a new microsite. As a great UX Designer you wouldn’t simply just start designing the item that they are seeking, but you would question the needs and wants behind the request and really try to understand what solution makes sense in regards to these needs and wants. In this way of questioning and probing, you are bringing the client/business person along with you through the logic and reasoning. You are then helping to make clear to both of you the real need that they have. After making the need clear, you both can work on the solution. Thus as a UXD you are more of a facilitator of need discovery and solutions as opposed to a solution creator or someone that just gets the work done.

In therapy, a therapist will not often have you come in and talk for 5 minutes then say “you are a high anxiety person, and this is the solution to what ails you”. If they do, you need to find a new therapist. Instead, what a good therapist will do, is talk with you through the twists and turns in your life. They are helping you to see your problem yourself, and then they ensure that it is you who is the first to say out loud what it is that ails you. This is the therapist’s problem & needs discovery part. So, after talking with the therapist and them asking you the right questions, you would be the one to say “you know what maybe I’m just an anxious person.” From there, the therapist will help you to facilitate the solution to your problem. But the important part is that they brought you along with them and by doing so have ingrained in you their thoughts and line of questioning, at least to some extent. When you leave therapy, you should not only have a better understanding of yourself, but a better understanding of internal reflection and the ability to look inward to improve what comes out.

Being a great UXD is no different. By bringing our clients along with us in the problem discovery phase we are helping them to look inside of their business and really understand what their needs are. We are also helping them to be able to do so without having us there. We are leaving a piece of our knowledge with them, thereby improving there business both internally and externally. From there we work with them to facilitate a solution to their need. When the project is finished, the client should have a better understanding of their business and the ability to look inward towards it instead of looking outward only (an example of looking outward for solutions is a business person saying, so and so has a twitter account so should we). By helping our clients and business partners to become more aware of themselves, we are ensuring that the experiences that are created are more user focused… which is what it all comes back to.