Career Goals & Strategy

Career Goals:

Through my time at KCAI and my own personal experience freelancing as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator I have come to realize many things. I think the biggest one of these is the fact that I want to pursue a career as a interactive designer. I would like to primarily take over the role of preferably User Experience Designer or if necessary Visual Designer. I have discovered a strong passion designing for the screen. Be it iPhone, iPad, Web, etc. I believe that mobile is the future and at this point in time we are still able to transition from students to professions at an incredible time when there are no real masters of the craft and there is still room to make a big impact if you're willing to take the risk. I'm hopelessly addicted to technology from wireframing to implementation. 

Strategy: 

I will have interned at four locations: Design Ranch, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine Art, Mutual Mobile, and Propaganda3 by the time I graduate. Two of which I greatly hope will give me offers post graduation. I am currently in contact with my last internship location at Mutual Mobile in Austin, Texas which I really enjoyed is currently rolling out the Directory app I created and designed. I am also in contact with several employees of Huge Inc. in NYC. I have just applied for the Huge UX, and VD School that I hope I will be accepted to. If that two month crash course program goes well I will have a shot at transitioning into a full time employee. I also plan on applying to a hand full of other locations around the country. I am not against staying in KC if the job is right, but my adventurous side is calling me to move on to the next place. 

I would be happy to accept the role of Associate Visual Designer, more preferably Associate User Experience Designer. I would be willing to cut my teeth as a production artist if need be because I want to work my way up through a good company. If I start at entry level, I would like to transition from Associate Designer to designer in 1 year. I would like to jump from Designer to Senior Designer in another two-three years. The firms i'm looking at and talking with are growing fast enough that I believe that this would still be possible. 

Degree Project - Week 1

Key Articles Found: http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/going-down-the-right-path/

What is the problem:

There are so many social networks and supporting apps to keep track of these days it becomes difficult for people to keep tabs on the content and people they care the most about. 

What are the solutions (ie. explorations, ideas, experiments, speculations):

My solution: Is to create a supporting application that will automatically curate and organize  multiple mobile social networking experiences into one a single better user experience. *Ideally this would be accomplished in the background, but if needed fully editable by the user. 

"Something that can do its own thing in the background is great" - connecting the film

This can be accomplished through:

• Algorithm - ie. Facebook - Edge Rank, Google - Pagerank
• User Control - In app customizing. ie. selecting people within those networks and turning off and on what sites you want to see their work from. ie. Parent, wants to see their child's social networking activity more so than that of a friend they just talk to once and a while. Also the idea of grouping. ie. family members, etc. 
• User Centric Design - Focus on the wants and needs of the users based on my research. 
• Smart Design - How? Figure it out Eli. 

Research Moving Forward - (testing the validity of my RESEARCH assumptions): AKA bust out the sticky notes!

Dropmark Inspiration Folder

• Personally survey how many networks am I on? Where am I overwhelmed? What content matters most to me? What would I do differently?
• Creating a survey to pinpoint what content matters most to the social networking user. 
• Survey the usual paths/features that the social media app user uses daily?
• How would they group their friends together?
• How would they group their social networks together?
• What kind of options would they like to see? 
• What kind of options would they assume would be there? - Blind questions / Stickies game! - Focus on this later on. 
• Technological Audit of existing algorithms - how do they function and determine the order of importance of user information. 
• Technological Audit of social networks with apps that carry across multiple platforms. Is Windows 8 practical? If vector based, responsive design it should carry over. 
• Technological Audit of future technology that could be used by social networks. ie. seniors, connecting house hold devices, augmented reality, 

Personal Project Goals/Questions: 

• Future Proofing -  How can this still function 5-10 years from now?
• Ambition - Is this ambitious enough? What am I offering thats going to break the mold?
• Innovative - How can I create an innovative new experience? Is this through the concept? Through a new UX experience?

Design Concepts - (testing the validity of my DESIGN assumptions): 

• Responsive Design - Would allow for use across multiple platforms. ie. iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone, etc.
• Vector Design Standards - Moving into 2013, ideally dropping skuemorphic design would allow for a more neutral non-iOS centric style. 

Meeting Notes 1/30: 

Currently Active Survey

Audience Needs / Motivation / User Types

Create a meaningful description of my audience. 

Find different kinds of people.

When do they need certain kinds of content?

Pick some users!

Create a bad ass survey!

Don't hey bogged down on little details!

This is all prospective tech! SPECULATE!

Process Book Layout

My degree project is focused on people and how they can benefit from a well managed mobile social experience that functions behind the scenes. This of course can still be edited at any time by the individual. 

I'm looking forward to intensive research and wireframing sessions which is why my book has additional pages dedicated to those sections. 

Please keep in mind the folio is as such because I will be turning this into an interactive iBook to display in the future using an iPad. 

* This is a work in progress. 

* It will be awesome because it has to be. 

Degree Project Progress Book by Eli Brumbaugh

Degree Project Question

Project Code Name: Social Media Aggregator

What I Want it to Do:

Digest and break up the social media user's various apps / networks into an organized and curated experience. I want it to possibly use an algorithm like Google Search "Knowledge Engine" results or the Facebook "EdgeRank" algorithm to determine what content should be displayed. I want the user to be able to see these information once it has been gathered. The use should then be able to verify (accept) or correct the percentage in which each network is displayed. Perhaps in the form of a slider bar. I want it to be responsive, and work across smartphone, tablet, and desktop (in the form of a Windows 8 app). I want it to be capable of surviving rising and falling social networks as they come and go. Future proof. 5-10 years from now will this still be able to function? I want the user to be capable of organizing the content into group's like Marty has suggested (ie Moms, Friends, Design Students). 

Old Question: 

"How can an iPhone application allow the 18 to 34 year old social media app user to curate their mobile experience by selecting and combining only the content that matters most to them and their lives from people they care the most about into one application."

New Question:

"How can an app allow the social media app user to curate and organize their mobile experience through an intelligent algorithm paired with a user controlled adjustment system in which the user can highlight and combine only the content that matters most to them and their lives from people they care the most about into a single application?"

Next Step:

Auditing my classmates and other social media users usage, concerns, and desires. 

ie. problems, potential solutions: explorations/ideas/experiences/speculations. 

Massive Note to Self:

"This is an important time in which I can really push conventions. This is the time to explore and imagine how this could function in 5-10 years from now. Do NOT get bogged down by audience issues."

Previous Presentation: 

Eli Brumbaugh Degree Project / Senior Presentation by Eli Brumbaugh