JDB here, guestblogging! Watch out for the footnotes…
I’m the newest Interaction Designer1 at TBWA\Chiat\Day, largely in thanks to La! I met La over at our previous agency and a couple months after Lali was born, La put in a good2 word for me. It was a tough thing to do – leave the only agency I’d ever known, an agency that plucked me out of hundreds of other scared, jobless almost-graduated kids at a recruitment fair and taught me everything I know about my current career path. But I did, and now I’m a Pirate. In one of those highly-coveted yellow stacked cubicle things. Doing my small part in building up Chiat’s interactive prowess. And I’m damn excited about it.
Today was the first time since we’ve both been at Chiat that La and I have gotten to work together again! And since Li is getting ready to get hitched and my cube buddy/boss had something unfortunate happen to her eyeball3, I joined La and worked from Li’s desk today4!
Between site-mapping5 for my alma mater and fixing wireframes6 for a bunny, this is what happens when LaJacq7 gets back together: video chatting each other from the same cube. And since we do have other friends, we tried to videochat Hobart McKinley Birmingham III. You’d think for someone with a name of near royalty and the title of Senior Art Director, he’d be a pretty smart guy. Too bad he couldn’t figure out how to activate his sound8. Oh, and we also Face-timed with our schmancy new iPhone 4s. Quite the productive day.
videochatting from the same cube
But in all seriousness, it’s awesome getting to work with La again, especially when it’s for something rad like an iAd9 and may involve giving away free donuts10. I’m stoked to be here, learning from crazy smart mentors, honing my skillz, creating something new everyday, meeting interesting people, and… this is getting mushy. And long. I’m out.
Xo lali,
jdb
facetiming from the same cube. doesn't lauren look sexy when she's facetiming me?
Footnotes:
1 Sometimes known as a User Experience Architect or Information Architect. In the simplest terms, I make sure that anything a user interacts with digitally (i.e. websites, iPhone apps, Facebook apps, microsites) are functional, efficient, and easy to use so that users (that would be you) don’t get frustrated when using the product. I collaborate with the creative team to ensure the concept, visual design, and functional design all work together seamlessly. The Interaction Design team over here at Chiat\Day could give Lali a serious run for their adgirl-power-money. We got 2 fierce female IxDs (just recently we were 3 til we lost a love to San Francisco) PLUS two equally as fierce female pups, Coco and Maya.
2 More like great!
3 Won’t describe the gooey details here. Kathrin, I hope you’re doing better!
4 Thanks, Li! Lots of people were calling me Lindsey. They think they’re soooo clever. I’d obviously make a terrible pin-up girl. =)
5 A flowchart (essentially boxes and lines) that diagrams all the pages of a website and how they are connected to each other.
6 After the sitemap is completed, we design the blueprints for all the individual pages called out in the sitemap. I figure out how each nibbly tidbit works – all the navigation, the basic layout, every single button, link, freckle, and sneeze. Attention to detail to key.
7 The best we could come up with. And the Jacq part should be pronounced like Jacques Cousteau, so we’re like, French, or something.
8 But I’m sure your skills at being a date to a wedding and an LCD Soundsystem show far outshines your user error tendencies.
9 Wish me luck! The last iAd I worked a bajillion hours on got killllllled. But hey, that’s advertising for ya. The idea dies, but you live. That sounds like a pretty decent deal to me.
10 NO ONE is against free donuts.
lali adverts 