Thoughts on Getting Hired as a UX Designer
How do you define UX design?
User experience design (UX, UXD, UED or XD) is the process of enhancing user satisfaction with a product by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction with the product. User experience design encompasses traditional human–computer interaction (HCI) design, and extends it by addressing all aspects of a product or service as perceived by users. (Source: Wikipedia)
What’s your design process?
UX Design Process
What are some apps and websites that you love?
SEOMoz
How do you work with engineers/product managers and other designers?
Most organizations are structured in a way that designers work closely with Product Managers (PMs). They have an enormous say on how elements in a product function. They have the power to VETO a design decision or take a call on how a particular user-flow for a product is crafted. They are also completely involved in business needs and think about how the product has to be shaped to meet the above-mentioned needs. They think about how users interact with the product and analyze if the product meets the need of the intended target users. They help engineers prioritize the list of tasks that needs to be built. They are decision makers. They help build the roadmap and maintain/define the vision of the product.
These are a whole lot of responsibilities for one role, ain’t it?
In short, they are superstars who work in very high-pressure environments. At any given point, there’s always more on their plates than they can handle.
Designers need to work in tandem with the goals of a PM because at the end of the day, both these stakeholders have the same vision.
(Source: UX Design)
Who in the industry do you follow and read?
What’s the most interesting project you’ve worked on?
The majority of the projects I have worked on have been interesting. Each and every project presents its own set of challenges which in turn makes it fun at times, but frustrating as well too. Overall some of the most interesting projects are the one’s that require me to learn some form of new technology, such as; different forms of programming, a unique layout which differentiates from others and require teaching the new clients what they need to know or did not know. Another form of an interesting project is when you need to learn the industry from scratch and then apply what you learned to complete the project.
Do you prefer to work alone or with a team?
I have worked alone on almost all of the projects from start to finish. There are some examples where I have worked with Project Managers, designers and developers, but it was primarily done through the Internet only. I do not mind working with others as long as communication is sufficient and the goals can be achieved. Working with problematic people or people whom try managing to much of what you need to be doing can at times become very bothersome.
Tell me about a project that was difficult. How did you handle the situation?
Although I have worked on multiple projects through the years, one major project that stands out is the designing and developing of an online store with payment processing. This took multiple hours on end of reading and trial by error. Significant amounts of testing and finding solutions to areas of the project that had to be completed before continuing on the the next phase of the project.
Why do you want to work at [company x]?
There are several reason that one would want to work with a new company. Some primary reasons are a change of pace, financial gains, room for advancement, better benefits, meeting and working with new people, more opportunity to gain experience and increasing your portfolio.
Why should I hire you?
It is obvious that if you bring value to the table for a company you are to be considered a valuable asset for the company. Any individual that has been provided the opportunity for an interview in most circumstances has already potentially brought the chance of added value for the company conducting the interview. Although some companies require multiple levels of the interviewing process each phase is usually more challenging than the next phase. So if you made it through the initial stage of the preliminary interview you should start to prepare for the next round of questions.
Essentially you are trying to sell your skills and accomplishments to the company. Be tactful and explain what type of value you can bring to the company. Not a time to brag about what you have done. Try explaining it in a meaningful way that assures the interviewer you are the right person for the job.
Be descriptive about what type’s of projects you have accomplished. Layout in detail what it took to get the projects completed, what aspects were challenging that you had to over come and try explaining it in terms that the interview will understand. More than likely though the interview should already know what you are discussing, but that is not always the case.
“Make sure you prepare before the interview”.
How Does Google+ Social Signals Effect Websites and Posting’s?
Okay, recently there has been some discussion surrounding the Google Authorship and Publisher topic. So I figured what a great time to cover another article for the topic since it has been part of an update being done for some websites I am working on.
First off, there has been some more talk about the social signals being used by Google and whether or not it affects organic ranking or not. At this point there have been no definitive answers by most. The general census seems to point mostly to ranking not being effected by Google+ social signals. Which to me does not make much sense. Reason being, Google places social signal factoring in for other social websites such as FaceBook and Twitter.
So why Would Google not Place Emphasis on Their own Google+ System?
Well actually they do place emphasis on their own system. But the real question is whether or not it affects your main websites organic presence. Well, first of all, just getting those +1’s bring’s about more exposure because you are now connected to the individual who +1’d you. For instance, here is an example for a local SEO company in the area I have plus +1’d.
Site Strategics – Erin Sparks
As you will notice it shows me and one other person as being a person who +1’d this website. Since these individuals are socially connected and have +1’d the website, the search result shows it as being +1’d. Now, one thing you need to take into account, is the fact you are signed in and viewing it as a private result. Reminder, this only shows the +1’s if you are in a private session – signed in. If you set the session to a not private result then you no longer see the +1’s on the search results listing.
Now, let us take a look at the next example of a Google+ posting that was +1’d by me. It is of an ad on Groupon the client has placed for his business. The ad was posted on my profile and +1’d by me. It then appeared in the search results as an actual posting on Google+ and is not the actual website the ad was posted on. Of course this is also in a private session mode as well.
Downtown Boot Camp – Todd Beattie
Now as you can see in this example a url to Google+ is showing. When you visit the Google+ page it shows you the posting and then has a direct link to the Groupon page where the original ad is posted by the client. Now if I were to +1 the page it would then display me as +1’ing the Google+ posting. This is a direct correlation between Google and preferential treatment of social signaling in the search results.
So in my mind Google gives direct social signals to certain +1’ing but only when viewing in private sessions to this point. When shutting off the private viewing the organic ranking for the first example, the result drops one organic position, from 3 to 4, while the second example disappears completely off the front page. So this still leaves room for interpretation on whether or not Google gives more organic placement to websites that have been +1’d or not. This is behind the scenes and probably will not be told to you by Google because they are guarding their secret. More less, it is an unproven theory by most individuals.
So What Does it do for you?
Well if you are signed in all the time the major significance will be the displaying of websites or posting’s you are connected with socially on Google+. Secondly, those individuals will be gaining for sure organic placement right in plain view because you have privately connected with those businesses or individuals. So sending out social signals on Google+ is beneficial, another words ranking is effected – just depends on the viewing mode, which is the debate.
Conclusion
It is in my opinion that Google protects their algorithm with the highest regards and does not make it easy for you to determine certain parts of the algorithm. I personally believe social signals from Google +1’ing does affect organic ranking no matter what viewing mode you may be in. Yes, I am sticking my neck out there on this one, but what the heck. My research points to it does affect search ranking no matter what viewing mode I am in. If it does not, it will for sure someday be a ranking factor. I would bet most say it does not effect organic ranking. Since this topic covers a wide area of discussion, you might find the next post important as well. It covers Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Hope you enjoy it as well.
“Remember, this is my personal opinion”.
Our SEO Blog in Review for 2013 – WordPress
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,600 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
How to Create Video Sitemap Code to get Better Video Results
Video Sitemap
Well, let me start off by saying thing’s have been busy since the last post back in early November. Most of my time and focus has been spent updating websites to HTML5 code. So my apologize for the long delay of writing. There is still plenty of updating to complete so it could be a few before the next post.
XML and Video Sitemaps
I first started this post with the introduction to XML sitemap creation and then posted a second post about adding images to a sitemap; along with sitemap submission. So if you have not read those, you might want too. This is the last and final part about adding XML code to a sitemap for video’s.
The code resembles the same as the other XML code for the most part and is not really that difficult to add. There are several websites that will help you along with the process if you do not have the access or skills to add the code yourself. You should consult a webmaster if you are not sure of how to go about it. One would be me of course.
Video Sitemap Resources
There are plenty of resources available for video sitemap creation online. Since I do all the coding myself and do not like paying for services I do not know what some of these paying resources can provide other than from online post and reviews. This is supposed to be a good one for video sitemap creation. This is a pretty fancy piece of software to make getting the job done easily. The A1 Sitemap Generator provides multiple options and can produce the flawless code with ease.
The second resource is one I have mentioned before which is a paying service as well. You can get a complete video sitemap generated by using XML-Sitemaps. It is capable of doing any type of sitemap or a combination of different XML sitemap code. It is relatively cheap and robots.txt file compliant.
Video XML Sitemap Code
The first step when completing the XML code on your own is to locate the XML file and open it up in your favorite editor such as DreamWeaver or whatever is clever. Once you have located the sitemap.xml file you will need to add this code to the top of the file in order for it to be namespace compliant.
<!–?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9“xmlns:video=”http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1“>
If you look at the code above it shows the namespace link for the sitemap. With out this code your sitemap will not be correct and will not validate correctly.
Second, start my locating the page your video’s are located on. Your video’s can be on your own website server or be video’s located on another website.
Video Sitemap Required Fields
There are only five required fields for a video sitemap you must add for the video’s to be indexed correctly. Of course there are several other tags of which can be added to make the video sitemap improved but are not necessary. Here are the five required fields.
<loc></loc><video:video></video:video><video:thumbnail_loc></video:thumbnail_loc><video:title></video:title><video:description></video:description>
With these fields in place on your video XML file you can begin to gain greater results in the search engines and on YouTube. The more fields you add to the video XML sitemap, the more information and control you can have of your video’s. Here is a complete list of different fields you can have for your video sitemap provided by Google.
Final XML Video Sitemap Code
Your video sitemap is now complete. Look at this code if you are not sure of who it should appear. Once again this is the simplest form for adding video’s to your sitemap.
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9“xmlns:video=”http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1“>
<loc>Page the video is located on</loc>
YYYY-MM-DD Format
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<video:video>
<video:thumbnail_loc>Thumbnail location</video:thumbnail_loc>
<video:title>Title of video</video:title>
<video:description>Video description</video:description>
</video:video></url>
</urlset>
Conclusion
I hope this was a helpful edition to the two previous tutorials already created. Here you can find those resources to create a combination of the of sitemap creation for image, video and pages. All an all, the delay between post has been tough due to keeping up with current changes in the SEO industry and of course Google. Plus, I know the benefits for clients is going to be worth while in the long run. Furthermore, having to convert HTML5 will no longer be needed since all website created by Link Worx Seo will be coded in HTML5 from the get go.
“Stay tuned – more to come, just a matter of when”.
Looking for the Best SEO Directory Inclusion Services for Your Website?
Directory Inclusion Service :
Directory Submission Prices
A large percentage of the world is using the internet for a variety of thing’s nowadays. Because of this a large number of directories have been created in effort to generate revenue and localization for websites to be categorized into easily searchable databases that list different websites.
Search engines have made use of these directories almost as if the directories are large Yellow Pages that make it easy to find websites. These directories are indexed by the search engines and then segmented into different sectors in effort to make it easier for the search engines to provide quick results for a person searching for something.
These directories can aid in the popularity of a website by increasing online exposure when a website is listed in a directory. This link popularity has been a proven tactic for gaining higher rankings in the search engine results pages. These directories are most advantageous when the directory has a high reputation and is considered an authority site by a search engine.
Submission to these online directories can help generate a high value of back links in the search engines link networks. When listing a website in one of these many directories a specific category can deem the link submission relevant when placed into the correct category within the directory. Relevancy of a link no matter where it is has been proven to be a significant factor in determining a ranking for a website. It boils down to the more relevant your link the more significant it is to the search engines.
What to Look for When Hiring
When hiring a SEO Company to generate directory submissions for your business make sure your back links are to reputable directories of the highest quality. This will definitely help your website, since all the links that are established through these directory submissions will improve your website rankings if the directories are of reputable value and quality.
Your website should be submitted into the most acceptable category in the online directories. This can most definitely increase the chance’s that online users will find your website within the directory under the proper category. A proper directory listing can dramatically increase the chances that an online user will visit your website and use the service that you offer or purchase the products that you sell. Directory submission is a highly effective strategy for the majority of websites online who are trying to get a leg up on the competition.
Consider this as food for thought, directory submissions are result oriented and a very cost-effective way of expanding a website’s link network and popularity. If you are driven to make your online business highly effective in order to stay ahead of tough competition, the inclusion of our directory submission services will be a cost-effective SEO strategy that can bring an added value to your investment. The online directories we use are of highest quality. All submissions are done manually to ensure all the submissions are approved with no complications expected during the process.
SEO Services on Sale
Furthermore, doing these directory submissions manually eliminates being red flagged by the search engines. Now a day’s search engines frown upon automated software when doing submissions of any sort. All submissions no matter what the service is, need to look natural/organic to the search engines. So if you are being offered submission services and these are not done manually it will look non-organic to the search engines which in turn will cause your rankings to drop. Even manual submissions should be done over a specified amount of time to remain natural/organic to the search engines.
Monthly SEO Reports
Other than obtaining high quality services from Link Worx Seo you will be provided reports on the progress of your services. You can log-in the administrative section of our website to view your progress reports. Along with being able to view your progress reports you are also able to view your paid invoices for services and completed orders as well.
If you are looking for quality directory listing services, look no further. We offer competitive pricing and the highest quality services in the SEO industry available. Link Worx Seo has a reputation and we urge you to ask around about or services. We stand behind our work 100%. If at anytime you feel the need to ask questions or would like us to contact one of your clients ; we will be more than happy to assist you. Thank you for choosing Link Worx Seo for all your SEO needs.
Link Worx Seo 
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