Someone once ruined a job opportunity for me by telling me I have no experience in interactive design. I wrote back a mostly cordial rant that I realized made a better cover letter than I ever wrote before. I tried to distill that into an actual cover letter. I’m sure I botched it and will never have the original spirit of the rant again. But this is my philosophy on design nonetheless.
Newspaper and advertising design is where I manifest my skills but print design is more than words and pictures on paper. As a news designer, I provide an interactive experience for readers.
Newspapers may not seem interactive because they are inert, dead trees but I believe people use a newspaper and experience information.
It’s not much of a leap to move from information on paper to information on a screen or in your hand. I know how to make information into a great experience because I understand how people use information.
I’ve spent the last two years working with people, such as IDEO, to brainstorm creative ways to connect to readers with editorial and advertising content. Now I am on the Innovation Team at my company, moving forward to change the way we operate. My most valuable trait in these conversations is an ability to approach problems from a different perspective. I ignore conventions and ask questions:
How do we make journalism more participative? Comments are not participation; they are people talking across a divide.
What’s the best way to design websites for Surfers and Drillers, two divergent types of users?
Then I seek to answer these questions.
Designers, I believe, are most well equipped to answers these questions because of their larger view of news products. We see and touch everything. Above all, we are mechanics. We fix things.
