Hike Conference

A GIANT THANK YOU from Jason & Laura and the entire Hike board & volunteers.

Mandy Ani Messer is a UX designer at General Assembly in San Francisco who told us about her design background and philosophy. We enjoyed getting to know Mandy, and love having GA as an awesome sponsor!

What led you to become a designer?

I have a never-ending curiosity about people. I’m fascinated by people’s experiences. 

This applies to UX design in two ways. First, it fuels my passion to empathetically design interfaces for a user base.  And second, it fuels my interest in working as a team to design a project. I love optimizing on strengths of the team members.  And most of all, I think it’s magnificent when you experience how a healthy and collaborative team can produce a design that is stronger than a single individual could.  When your mind is open to the possibility of true collaboration and all members of the team are humble and generous with their ideas, then you can create work that is enjoyable and meaningful. 

That covers the emotional drive behind what I do, but it’s also a path that made sense because it aligns with my strengths.Everyone struggles after high school to figure out what direction to go in their career, and it was the same for me. During this time, I was intentional about trying to understand my strengths and weaknesses. The two talents that I saw were my ability to think analytically (I seemed to be pretty good in math classes) and my interest in creativity (I was drawn to crafts and music and art).  So, I thought “I’ll become an architect!”  Then I quickly realized that architecture had a rigid and defined career path.  So I pivoted and sought out something that was flexible enough for me to explore all sorts of interesting things: the design of digital interfaces.  

The tech design industry is so new that there is no set path. People take inspiration from all kinds of different places. There is no old school. We are all creating a new industry as we go. 

What do you value the most about design?

Collaboration and endless learning. As a designer, you must seek to ask questions and immerse yourself in the industry that you’re designing for.Thus, you’re always learning.  Additionally, as a designer, you must communicate your design decisions clearly and thus, your clients are always learning.  

I’ve spoken about how my passion for collaboration is fueled by my curiosity about people.  I also value hard work and creative problem-solving.  These are things that can be done individually or as a team, but the team element amplifies both.

I also find beauty in discovering the creative spirit that is inside of people. We have this drive to be creative as human beings, and a need to work together. I think it’s remarkable what a team can do together.

Healthy team dynamics don’t always happen—we’ve all been in teams that suck, frankly. But, when teams click, the rewards make up for any painful past experiences. You can only appreciate the good if you’ve experienced the not so good.

What is the most difficult part of being a designer?

The most difficult part of being a designer is when you also have to be an account manager! So, for example, a fabulous person in your life comes to you and wants to realize his or her dream of launching a project—be it a start-up, a business website, a nonprofit organization or any of the above.  You want with all your heart to help this person achieve their dream. And so you embark on a journey together.  Along the way, you realize that what they really need is business consulting, or design strategy, or a dev team double the size they have today.And maybe they discovery they need a full-on internal design team and perhaps an infrastructure that allows them to maintain the project. And what are we going to do about the leaking faucet in the new kitchen sink I just installed? So you find yourself acting as an account manager instead of a designer.  I’ve only recently realized that I need to ask for help when I find myself in these situations.  And I keep relearning the same lesson: Projects are never as simple as they sound.  When I engage in design work, it becomes clear that this will influence other parts of their business. Thus, as designers, we must embrace mess.   

What advice do you have for new designers?

For UX design in particular, I find myself saying a few things repeatedly to new UX designers:

1.  In this industry, you are interviewing the company more than they are interviewing you.  To do good work, it is critical to be in a company that values user-centered design and gives you the support and infrastructure to do quality work.

2.  Listen to everyone’s feedback, but don’t act on everyone’s feedback.  It’s your responsibility as a designer to determine what is actionable immediately, what is actionable in the future, and what needs to stay the same.  Many times you’ll need to defend your work.  

3.  If you’re going to do it, do it well.  That means you have toprioritize.  It’s your responsibility as a designer to prioritize the features you work on in the order that you think is best.  This prioritization can and should be informed by your team and the business funding it.  And also by your discretion for what the users need.

What accomplishment are you most proud of?

I would say there are three:

1.  Moving across the world to live and volunteer in Armenia.  This allowed me to do two things in tandem: seek understanding of my family heritage personally and build bridges in the nascent tech industry professionally.  

2.  Moving across the country from my native Michigan to San Francisco.  This allowed me to grow professionally and personally, and I wouldn’t trade this for the world.

3.  Teaching.  It’s been my dream to teach since I was a child teaching to all my stuffed animals in my bedroom.  I’m so honored to have the opportunity to do this in such a stimulating and rewarding environment at General Assembly.  

About Mandy

Mandy is a user experience designer who is inspired by a curiosity in people and learning new things.  She has designed for a range of mediums including responsive web design, mobile product design and video game system user interface.  Mandy has worked with a variety of brands and start-ups including PayPal, AAA, Sony, Hilton and Walmart.  

Mandy is passionate about empathetic design and incorporating user feedback into the design process.  As an individual, she strives to combine creative strategy, technical knowledge, analytical thought processes and personable communication.  But more than that, she strives to nurture the power of collaborative teams.

I started Form & Future in early 2012 as my senior thesis project during my last year of undergrad at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. When I asked myself what was most meaningful to me in regards to design, I realized mentorship had been an integral part of my practice up to that point. The more I talked with classmates about it, the more I realized that finding mentors can be difficult. People are often shy or afraid of looking stupid by asking questions, but being a beginner is all about being stupid! On reflection, I knew that I became a better designer by not just practicing, but talking with more senior designers than me.

The project began as long-form interviews in which I asked designers to tell me who they are, how they became designers, and their advice for beginners. I've had the pleasure of asking some of my heroes and friends about what makes them tick. The interviews are conversational and were a treat for me to participate in.

“I think its a positive attribute to never be really self-satisfied, so long as it doesn't stymie your work.” – Daniel Burka

In late 2012–soon after I moved to San Francisco–Rena Tom of Makeshift Society reached out and asked if it would be beneficial for me to take F&F offline and in front of an audience. I was delighted and said yes. Being new to SF, I recognized the opportunity to connect with the creative community on a different level. Wanting to get out of the design bubble, the live series turned its focus to self-starters related to design but just outside of it: chocolate makers, a Vietnamese pop-up restaurant, designers who started their own companies. The series turned into an exploration of collaborative partnerships.

Running a side project that was both online and offline became impossible to handle alone. Publishing the online interviews slowed to a halt while I was busy planning local events. Beyond that, I was dreaming of bigger events for the future. I started asking friends to help me find collaborators to contribute to the project. When I met Jason Schwartz through our mutual friend nickd, I had a hunch that we could work well together. I pitched him the conference idea and luckily he said yes.

As a side project, Form & Future's focus has changed from mentorship to leadership. I started the project by simply asking questions. Two years later, I'm starting to share more answers than questions. It feels both scary and wonderful to be in a leadership position in this capacity. Asking questions is always good, but sometimes the best way to learn is by doing.

Announcing our 6 free Hike Con SF ticket winners courtesy of MailChimp!

HikeCon: The 6 free Hike SF tickets are…

@JackMaize @whiskeyfoxxtrot @thejulielogan @thegreattiny @MattQuirk @CMYKelsey http://t.co/SFgKlVGeuu

If you weren't selected we will be giving at least 2 more tickets away in the next 2 weeks, but don't wait on chance to win one. We only have 36 tickets left, they will sell out.

Win one of 6 free tickets to Hike Conference San Francisco courtesy of our friends at MailChimp.

Entering is easy:

1 - Create a tweet using (but not starting with) the @hikecon Twitter handle, the hashtag #6freetix and a link to this article about the free tickets on Tumblr http://bit.ly/1i1SDRf

2 - Share the tweet on Twitter by 11:59pm Wednesday 3/12.

Sample tweets:

I just entered to win a free @hikecon ticket for San Francisco at Adobe HQ on April 5. Fingers crossed. http://bit.ly/1i1SDRf #6freetix

Fingers crossed to win a free San Francisco @hikecon ticket for Adobe HQ on April 5. Pick me! http://bit.ly/1i1SDRf #6freetix

"Help a poor student out. Looking to win that free San Francisco @hikecon ticket. http://bit.ly/1i1SDRf #6freetix

When I first started going after my first job in 2001, having recently graduated with a BFA from University of Illinois, I had an extraordinarily hard time finding my way.

The internet really wasn't at a great point to inspire and definitely wasn't at a place to guide employment decisions. At the time, the major channels were still word of mouth, the White Pages and and lists of creative agency phone numbers you could come across. It was a different time back then.

I called every single agency I could find information for (I even ended up calling a few gravestone designers accidentally) trying to figure out how to get an interview. Sometimes I was excited to learn about the agency, sometimes I had no idea what I was getting into.

I went on interview after interview being ill-prepared and honestly "blurry" about what I really wanted to be doing with my life. It worked out in the long run for me, but took me a good 2-3 years to get the correct information about skills I needed to possess and cool places to work.

Since this was incredible hard, I wanted to make sure that graduating designers had a resource to connect with to help guide the transition from student to professional. 

Originally concepted with Antonio Garcia of gravity tank and Will Miller of Firebelly, The Secret Handshake was born as a college-circuit lecture series.

After personally doing about 30 lectures, I realized students from the early events were reaching back out with great stories about how they took the advice to heart and how it changed their career path.

The mission of The Secret Handshake has always been to help, inspire and answer the unanswered questions. I'm thrilled to be doing 2 events this year with Laura Winn of Form and Future with the potential to speak directly with 450 young designers in both San Francisco and Chicago.

I can't wait to see how Hike helps and inspires.

Pretzel Crisps are a new take on a classic snack. With 15 different flavors, Pretzel Crisps somehow manage to satisfy both sweet and salty cravings all at once. 

Who's ready for some tasty snacking at Hike? Be sure to bring your appetites.

A Book Apart publishes short books for people who create and develop websites. They realize that there is always a problem that needs to be solved and needs to be solved quickly. With this in mind, A Book Apart keeps their online books short- about 100 pages- and make sure to give you all the details without taking up too much of your time.