It's Cool to be a Nerd

Citrix hosted a Career Day for a group of girls from the Queens Foundation, which is a non-profit org empowering young girls to be leaders in their careers and communities. I was asked to speak about my career as a UX designer and the path I took to get there. UX is such an abstract concept that it's hard enough to explain to adults let alone a younger audience, but this presentation really help me distill the explanation down. I was most impressed with the really great range of questions they were asking.

Transcript

1. nerd. It’s cool to be a
2. Michelle… …is a nerd.
3. Nerds like to solve Problems.
4. Michelle is a User Experience Designer.
5. Huh? You’re a what?
6. User Experience Designer I design the experiences people have using the web, tablets, and smartphones.
7. How can I make this experience better for someone? A B
8. Here’s real life
9. We work with others to make this happen A B User Experience! Designer! Engineer! Visual! Designer!
11. How did I find this career?
12. Graphic designer = fun I wasn’t solving problems.
13. Quality assurance tester = problem finder I wasn’t solving problems.
15. “Usability”
17. What about you?
18. Embrace your inner nerdiness; you can do great things! Maybe you like solving problems, too.