Designing Through Adversity
As of late I have come across a fair amount of adversity. It started when I got home from the IA Summit back in early April, and has continued until this week. It can be fairly common for designers to come across adversity in their workplace, or at home in family life, but how do we continue to produce great work while working through the hard times. This video aims to provide 3 tips to help.
This week GameFly purchased the division of IGN that I work for. There were certain redundancies as far as design and product resources go, which led to my being laid off. Normally this would be a bad thing… but I knew that it was coming(for the most part) and was able to reach out and find a new opportunity. This next week I will be starting a Senior Product position at PixelFish. I will be able to design the experience of the products and work with the design and dev teams to deploy them.
I am excited for this new challenge that will still allow me to to geek out on the experience of products and sites, while taking my career in a new direction. pixelFish is doing excited things and recently acquired the fast growing start up Backyard.
I also mentioned in the video that I will be presenting at User Research Friday coming up in June. Check out their site for more info.
** Side note… if this video seemed shaky at times… My apologies as I am trying out a new tripod.
Congrats! Looks like we will be working together again.
Oh, and basketball is mandatory
Nice! I could use the exercise
Great sadness!!! From the Big Design Family, we will miss you. I wanted to introduce you to those nerds that I mentioned on Twitter.
Your marriage is more important, though. I guess that Adam Connor will have to fly solo.
15 years is a BIG number, too. I hit that milestone in about a year myself.
We will try to have a good time without you. We’ll hoist a cold on in your honor and for the sake of your anniversary, too.
Thanks,
Brian
Thanks Brian! There is always next year. I was very excited about presenting at Big D. Adam will do awesome though, he is a Stud!
Everything happens for a reason. It seemed like yesterday that I was just congratulating you on your transition. I am sure the next step will unlock tons of amazing work by you. Can’t wait to see what else you get involved with!
-Amara
Thank you for the kind words Amara
What an excellent opportunity for you, Aaron. Congrats! I can’t wait to hear more about this.
Thank you Lori, I am excited to see what these new adventures hold as well.
For me the timing of this video hit pretty close to home. I find myself trying to make some big changes for my career right now, and it was inspiring to hear that you found a way to get through all of it. I agree that it is necessary to step back at times, but like you said, sometimes that is easier said than done. Take care.
Hey Mark, Glad that sharing this video could be helpful to you. Best of luck with your career changes, would love to here how things play out.
I didn’t manage to talk to you at Collekt last week, but apparently that was my loss (I’ll catch you next time). Thanks for the open (video) letter to the community at large… it’s encouraging to hear your story and apply it towards the trials that we all inevitably get caught in. Life happens to the best of us, and it’s awesome to know there’s a support network around. Thanks again.
chad
Thanks for taking the time to watch the vid Chad…
I will be in San Diego this Friday for http://www.urfriday.com if you are around maybe we could catch up. If not there is always the next collekt
Great video, I know I’m totally late on this, but its really cool to hear your story dude
Thank you..:)
Such a refreshing video to watch – it’s good to hear how you’ve approached some of the challenges you’ve been facing – good advice! :->
Thanks! And thanks for taking the time to check out the video.