Many are the SF friends who have said I’d get a lot out of a conversation with interaction and web designer Emily Chang. And they’re right: the UI expert (whose worked with the likes of MIT, IDEO, and GigaOm) is disarmingly knowledgeable about social software and apps. Her ideas about sculpture as a way to working on the web and the relevance of design education are shared here.
SF: Your work combines user interface design, wearable art and documentation of hot web apps and ideas. How did that develop?
EC: I got my start on the web while I was getting my Masters of Fine Art degree in grad school. At the time, the commercial web was just starting and I happened to get a graduate assistantship in the Electronic Media department at the University at Buffalo, where my then-boyfriend (now husband, Max Kiesler) was also a graduate researcher. Once I started on the web, I was hooked. Growing up, I was always interested in technology and computers (went to computer camp when I was 10) and studied art and literature in college. The complexity of creating on the web captured my attention and I found the iterative process somehow similar and as satisfying as the process-intense techniques in sculpture. With the graduate assistantship, I started as an information architect and later became the first interface/interaction designer on the team. My background in art and humanities was a good fit for organizing information and creating user interfaces.
You partner with your husband as Ideacodes. Who else’s opinions matter to you?
Having a community of peers is really important, whether they’re colleagues, clients or other designers. I like working with multidisciplinary teams: CEOs, developers, marketers and writers—people who have interest in creativity as a whole and a passion for new technologies and processes. I find that broad exposure to be helpful and critical to learning and achieving solutions.
Two side projects, eHub and PicoCool, have taken a lot of your time. How did you decide to start them?
PicoCool started as a side blog of mine to explore subcultures, trends and cool finds on the web that were bubbling out of social and peer networks. I love toy culture and wanted to build off of the idea of things that are very small (pico). After about a year, I started to get lots of submissions to PicoCool from various readers and I decided to remake the next version of PicoCool as a community site so that others could join and submit their own cool finds. At the time, there were a slew of coolhunting blogs, but no community sites where you could easily submit items across art, design, architecture, tech, fashion, and culture. PicoCool has grown quite a bit and developed its own niches and subcultures. There’s a group of younger designers that post exciting illustrators and photographers; several groups of creatives from Asia that uncover fashion trends, new products and gadgets; to a group of older women that are exceedingly great at finding subtle handmade and craft-oriented pieces, such as the World’s Smallest Postal Service. It’s fantastic to see people really digging into the one thing they love.
eHub started back in 2005 just as Web 2.0 was beginning. It began as my daily list of new apps and services that I was trying and grew to include reviews, feature articles and over 70 interviews with the founders of startups and web apps. The first interview was with Writely, which was later purchased by Google and became Google docs. What started as a side hobby became a major source of information for readers around the world. I was really focused on providing a platform for new ideas and giving small bootstrapped startups/services some exposure. It also became a way for many new clients in the startup space to find me and my company, Ideacodes. These days, eHub is still going strong and updated daily with the help of a few great editors that look for new and notable web and mobile apps and services.
How do you know which clients will be a good fit for Ideacodes?
I want to make things that people really want to use. At Ideacodes, we focus on building memorable experiences online. People who are willing to adjust things as they go to make that possible are intriguing to me, and the best clients are those who want to take risks and are open to learning as they go.
What’s your advice for young people interested in web design and unsure what path to pursue?
I would recommend considering what about the web is most intriguing for you. For me, with my background, I knew I wanted a combination of visual design and programming, which is why being a web/interaction designer was so perfect. It’s a hybrid of left/right brain. For those in my generation, we didn’t have the option to study interaction design in school as a formalized program (like the new MFA in Interaction Design at SVA) so it was more a combination of liberal arts with your own mix of experimentation. More interdisciplinary programs were better for me, and I think that if you do well at liberal arts—which are theoretical, practical, hands on, and collaborative—you’ll do well on the web. I would look at examples of work that you have a passion for and examine how it’s made. Be willing to experiment—if you see something that really excites you, download the code and try to replicate it.
Of course, there’s a wealth of information online now through blogs and resource sites. It’s also a lot easier now to connect online with peers or mentors. Seek out your community and get involved in it, whether that’s locally or globally. Start a meetup, collaborate at Barcamp, ask questions, go to industry conferences (or volunteer at one if you can’t afford it) and just become active and involved in the areas that interest you. Also, don’t forget to hone your skills and study the field of design. Dedicate your free time to getting proficient with design patterns, code, and user experience approaches. The web is still in its infancy and there’s so much opportunity for growth.