Monday September 29, 2008

Work hard and be nice to people

by Matt Donovan in Article

1 comment

Last night I attended a Refresh Dallas meeting where 404 alum Garrett Dimon shared some thoughts on interface design. During the Q&A time, the woes of working as a UX professional in a corporate environment were expressed repeatedly by the audience. Garrett has the luxury (and the burden) of working for himself while the vast majority of us not only have bosses to appease, but clients as well – many of whom don’t see the value in spending time and money on good design.

Of course, we have an arsenal of answers for them. From accessibility to usability, from legibility to brand-ability, there are innumerable arguments to unload on design skeptics. However, I’ve found that none of my logic, pragmatism, or business sense matter one bit if I’m not already liked and respected by the client, boss, or colleague who I find in opposition to my sensibilities.

Gaining rapport with our colleagues is just as important as doing good work and when I think about the people I tend to listen to, they have a couple things in common.

1. They are incredibly helpful. People gain my trust when they help me out of a bind or point me to a new tool or help with some heavy lifting on a project. I tend to trust people who are there for me.
2. They work really hard. I tend to respect people who work harder than I do. I’m not talking about people who put in longer hours, but people who accomplish a lot.

I’m fortunate to know a lot of people who fit this description and when they talk, I listen. I don’t always agree with them, but I always consider what they say because I trust that they are trying to help and I can count on them to put their money where their mouth is.

While I’m fortunate to work with a lot of people who value good design, I certainly encounter plenty who don’t. Of those skeptics, the people I make an effort to be exceedingly helpful to often come around – some more than others for sure, but most people start trusting me once they know I’m there for them.

Comments on “Work hard and be nice to people”

1. Arun said:

   Matt,
   Nice Article. I’m a UX Designer, i’m also facing same things which you are facing, i guess as designer we need digest such garbage :-) Yes, some people they really help, coz we will sitting in front of the computer designing, we tend to overlook somethings but other person points it out, that really helps, But some of them they really piss me off, discourage & demotivate, they come stand behind me, start making pointless comments and non-sense design suggestions.

   I like you idea of Working Hard and Being Nice to people.