The Vostok blog

I receive emails like this quite often:

Hello Javier, I’ve always been passionate about interaction design. I have some notions and I’ve read many books but I don’t have any real experience so it’s hard for me to get hired as an interaction designer. I’ve thought studying a master on interaction design would help me. What do you think?

Interaction design is quite a young discipline and the entry gates are diffuse. Most of those who have been formally practicing it learnt the basics in a semi-selftaught manner. I myself have a background in sociology and new media communications but no formal training in design. All I know I learnt from colleagues, talks, books and articles. Well, and a lot of practice.

These days there are a few decent courses, degrees and masters on interaction design. The good ones are in northern European countries. Mediterranean countries are short of them; besides they usually lean towards the artsy-fashion side of design instead of focusing on what really matters.

So, what is my advice to those who want to enter the field but have no experience? Instead of putting 5000-15.000€ on a masters program, offer yourself as an unpaid intern for 6 months at a very good studio. Work part time there, learn from the experienced practitioners, get involved in whatever you can, get yourself inside meeting rooms and be quiet, listen, observe how designers use their tools, copy their work, ask many things and be helpful in whatever you can. Ask for advice on what to read and practice at home in the afternoons. Show your work to the senior fellows and ask them for guidance. Adopt one or two mentors (one for career issues and one for technical skills). Go have some drinks with them some time and again, listen more than you talk.

It is an investment, yes. You’ll be earning no money in 5 months. Live on a budget during these 6 months and it won’t cost you more than 10.000€. After that you’ll have experience and colleague recognition. Some great studio will be on your resumé, perhaps some nice work on your portfolio and if you are good, committed and sharp you may even get a full time job at that studio. You’ve sacrificed yourself and have demonstrated committment, a good boss will always value that.

I made a personal update to the Schematic Chart of Ideological and Design Changes from the 60s to the 80s by Massimo Vignelli. I decided to add a column named “internet times” suggesting that the internet is bringing a set of values to the way we understand creation, specifically designing and more specifically designing for the internet.

Mine is a personal interpretation of what that fourth column should be, if there should be a fourth column. I encourage you to make your interpretation too, filling the blanks with what you consider more appropiate. I’m sure there will be some common points.

Here is the original Schematic Chart of Ideological and Design Changes from the 60s to the 80s by Vignelli:

And here’s my interpretation. It’s a Fireworks PNG file for your editing convenience:

Now come and do yours, or at least help me out with rows 1 and 3.

FFFFOUND!

Search Engine Optimization is not a legitimate form of marketing. It should not be undertaken by people with brains or souls. If someone charges you for SEO, you have been conned.

Derek Powazek at Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists

This article is so clear, so well explained and so aligned with us that I am seriously thinking of translating it into Spanish.

Lately I have seen what I consider a trend among design consultancies. Many of them jump in the wagon of selling their process (the “how”) and not their result (the “what”). The keywords could go like this:

Design strategy, post-it notes, ethnography, cocreation, design thinking, iteration, methodology, big boards, flowcharts, innovation, moodcharts, multidisciplinary, cardboard prototyping, deliverables, ideas, process.

instead of…

Portfolio. Results. Ratios. Agile. Deliver. Design. Product.

Sounds to me like a late echo of what we used to hear from IDEO back in the late nineties. It was amazing to most of us: new and interesting methodologies for designing smart products. You could be a sociologist and end up designing cool sunglasses or high-tech medical equipment. What a promise… huh? Apparently many design consultancies (and I say “consultancies” with a bit of sarcasm) kept the methodology part but forgot about the delivery/product part.

I am not saying that methodology, etnography and all that doesn´t matter. It does. We do so at Vostok (sometimes, only if necessary). What I am trying to say is that it’s the result that matters, not the methods, not the concepts. It’s the product of your work, not the work itself. Show me what you’ve done, not how you do it.

All the crafty wadus-wadus is cool, the fancy videos, the whiteboards, the multidisciplinary meetings in rooms with pencils, paper and all… But that doesn’t make you a designer. It’s the product that makes you a designer. And if the result is good (both for client and user) who cares about how you got there… It’s not what you say what matters, not what you blog or what you tweet, not what you report or what you put on a 99 slide powerpoint. It’s what you do, what you finally create what matters.

From now all the crew at Vostok will post on this blog. Consequently, we changed its name to “The Cosmonauts”. Expect some interesting stuff from Mark, Sam and María (besides myself).

At Vostok we have added another cosmonaut to the crew, María Munuera. María is no stranger to Vostok, as she had been doing a great job working part-time for Planetaki.

María, a Journalist by formation (jack-of-all-trades in practice) brings serious communication and organization skills to the table, plus some design fire power for the ultra-cool projects lining up at Vostok for 2009. María lived two years in Turin, and speaks fluent Italian. She also claims to make a mean tiramisu. This, however, has not been personally verified by the rest of the team (hint hint).

Despite looking and acting vampirishly dark, María is the sunshine of the office. She has geeky sense of humor, and will laugh at almost any joke you make, no matter how dorky and stupid. Or probably she is just being condescending with us. In any case, we are extremely pleased to have a great talent and personality at the office.

Mark MacKay is officially a member of Vostok. He joined us a few days ago and is currently involved in several ultracool projects we are working on right now. It’s good news for me, since I’ve wanted to hire him for some time now but he seemed to prefer the warm lattitudes of Cancún. Besides, he is a weirdo and I have a secret crush for that type.

Mark is half Canadian half Mexican (bilingual), he holds a degree in Information Design (something pretty rare) and has a very good eye for design (you can see that from the picture). His Spanish blog (Duopixel) is probably one of the best I know when it comes to design, although he will never mention it.

Welcome aboard the Vostok spaceship!

A must read if you are somehow thinking about location independent living (in any of its flavours): 24 Things We Wish We’d Known Before Becoming Location Independent

NOTE TO NON-SPANISH-SPEAKING VISITORS:
This post is in Spanish because it’s about my decision to blog in English. I could do that in English too but some would consider it a provocation

¿Por qué ya no posteas en español? Me han hecho la pregunta doscientas veces desde que volví a escribir en inglés- Y digo volví porque sí, este blog empezó siendo en inglés. Este fue el primer post. Y después le siguieron otros con algo más de chicha como este o este otro.

Fue en el Reboot. Como algunos recordarán, me impactó y volví con algunos pensamientos. Los posteé. El primero de todos decía:

1. There is a world out there, go reach it.

Esa es la gran razón por la que posteo en inglés. Pero si hace falta la desgrano en varios motivos e intentando contestar a algunos argumentos para que siguiera escribiendo en castellano.

Volvamos al Reboot. Allí conocí a un puñado de gente excepcionalmente interesante con la que me hubiera quedado hablando semanas. Quiero poder seguir intercambiando con ellos. En Dinamarca me quedó una sensación tremenda de “cuánto me estoy perdiendo por no poder dialogar con esta gente”. Decidí tomar la vía pragmática y escribir en inglés. No veo otra vía mejor. Y aprender danés, sueco y alemán, posteando cada cosa en varios idiomas no es una alternativa realista.

Si el argumento es que no soy fiel a mis raíces, entonces quizás ya no lo era antes, porque mi lengua “materna” es el catalán y nunca he escrito sobre diseño en catalán. El hecho de escribir en castellano ya era instrumental y nadie me dijo nunca nada.

Si el argumento es que dejo de aportarle al gremio de aquí, diría que me importan un bledo los gremios regionales. Yo no estoy en esto para fortalecer ninguna comunidad regional (alguna vez lo estuve, ya no). Tampoco creo que tenga sentido hacer patria mediante el ejercicio de una disciplina donde los mimbres son casi siempre universales. Además, no acepto más presión que la de hacer bien mi trabajo, y mi trabajo es diseñar. En eso no tengo responsabilidad con ningún grupo ni comunidad, asociación o país.

Entre mis colegas hispanohablantes los hay que hablan bien inglés y los hay que no. Pero hay muy pocos que no sean capaces de leer en inglés. Y sinceramente, si no saben (o no quieren) leer en inglés tampoco me interesan como lectores porque están renunciando a una parte inmensa de los conocimientos necesarios para entender lo interactivo. Sería ingenuo pensar que todo lo que hay que saber está traducido al español.

Es evidente que usar el inglés favorece a quienes la tienen por lengua materna. Les favorece un poco. A mi eso me trae al fresco por dos razones: a mi también me favorece usarla (mucho más, de hecho). Y además me cansa esa visión tan maniquea de que el mundo es USA vs. el resto. Creo que como refugio está bien (te da una causa por la que luchar), pero poco más.

Mi entorno profesional más cercano es directamente angloparlante o bilingüe (especialmente con la próxima incorporación a Vostok). Y me encanta que sea así. Me hace sentir que no hay limitaciones fronterizas a los proyectos que podamos hacer. Y como este blog es parte de mi proyecto profesional tiene que estar acorde con esa realidad.

No soy malo escribiendo en inglés. Puedo mantener el nivel sin problemas y hacerme entender. Tuve la suerte de vivir en EEUU y algo de fluidez me queda. Se me escapa algún gazapo que otro y alguna vez me falta vocabulario. Pero mantengo el tipo muy dignamente. Además, a los guiris les suele importar mucho más lo que tengas que decir que tu nivel de inglés. Pero claro, eso sólo lo sabes si te atreves a hacerlo.

No tenía pensado justificar mucho la decisión, al menos públicamente. Sin embargo, David de Ugarte escribió el otro día un post titulado Por qué no publico ya en inglés ni comento la agenda cool en cuyos comentarios se me alude directamente. Y como la opinión de David y sus lectores sí me importa, pues me he lanzado. Pensé que contestar desde mi blog era mejor que hacerlo en los comentarios porque así podía extenderme un poquito más.

Por último, estoy muy contento de no ser el único de aquí que escribe en inglés. Lo está haciendo gente interesantísima como Juan Leal o Jorge Correa. Ahora puedo citarles y que la gente no hispanohablante se perdiera lo que ofrecen. Ojalá pronto sean muchos más.