What makes a good cover letter?

I found this article on the Interaction design foundation that was very helpful when researching what would work best for making a good impression for future employers. Click here to read the article.

What are UX Cover Letters?

UX cover letters are short letters or emails that designers send with their portfolios and resumes to apply for jobs. These are personalized to introduce yourself and briefly explain why you are a good fit for the business. The cover letter will give the employer the first impression of you as a designer and whether or not you would be a good fit.

“A great, relevant cover letter can make me think twice even about weak candidates—think what it can do for strong ones.”

– Joel Califa, Senior Product Designer at GitHub

A Cover letter is a way to introduce yourself and support your portfolio and CV. A cover letter is a vital when having initial contact with any recruiter. It must pack maximum persuasion into the least space and in the right words to make the best first impression. As recruiters consider applicants for UX roles, they evaluate what they declare and how. In one page, you should convince a recruiter why you’re the best fit for:

1. The UX role offered.

2. Their organization overall.

When you bring your passion and dedication to life on your cover letter, you’ll help a recruiter envision how you might be the best candidate for that role and their team and working culture. Your UX portfolio and resume should reinforce that impression. While your portfolio will carry the most weight as recruiters consider your application, your cover letter is how you get them interested enough to do so.

How to Write a UX Cover Letter

Email generally suits most situations. However, judge how formal your approach should be when you research the organization, you should:

1- Personalize your letter.

It is always a good idea to personalize the cover letter and address it to the recruiter so when the time comes to applying to roles I could even call the company and ask who would be interviewing me so I can address it to them.

Don’t begin with Dear Sir/Madam. This sounds lifeless and gives the impression you’re applying to a generic recruiter in a scattershot approach. To prove a dedicated effort to reach that recruiter, find and use the name of the contact (typically in HR). Decide whether to use a title-and-surname approach (safer) or a first-name approach to access them in a friendly, professional way.

Match your tone of voice with the company’s personality. If your recruiter is trendy and bubbly, reflect that nature in your email. If it’s a more traditional organization, a formal writing style is better.

2- Keep it short and sweet.

Use one page. Recruiters are usually time-starved individuals who won’t handle lengthy letters. This puts pressure on you to fine-tune a concise message in which you show extensive knowledge about the company and role.

3- Show why you’re a good fit by explaining:

Why you want to work for their organization. Say what they have that attracts you: e.g., their values, teamwork style.

Why you want that UX role. Ensure you show you’d love it as a valuable next step in your career, rather than somewhere to escape to because you dislike your current situation.

How they will benefit from hiring you. You should declare your strengths and interests by showing how these can add value to a team. Flip your words around to hear how you sound from their side. Try to portray a proactive problem-solver who wants to grow with team-mates.

4- Read and re-read the job posting carefully.

Provide the materials they request. To filter out inattentive applicants, many recruiters include a question or prompt to mention a word/phrase.

5- Proofread, re-read and read it aloud.

One tiny typographical error will almost certainly ruin your application. So, use your spellchecking and grammar-checking software, re-read your letter and read it aloud until you’re sure about it.

Remember, your cover letter is critical to what happens next with your application. You have only moments to represent yourself to the recruiter through it—every word must count.

I really like how simple and clean this cover letter looks. It is easy to read and view.

 

This one I like but the content looks a bit too heavy.

While this one is nice I worry about adding a picture of myself. It feels a bit unprofessional.

Workplace etiquette

IXD302 – week 3 workplace etiquette

Menti.com 66680292

Considerations for the workplace:

  • show your work – be open minded
  • Keeping on top of tasks
  • Organisation
  • Time management

Basic rules for existing in the workplace:

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself – Eleanor Roosevelt

  1. the studio: be pleasant and enthusiastic – positive attitude, shield people from your negative thoughts. Get as much as you can out of placement and contribute as much as you can. Be on time – it shows respect. Dress appropriately – smart casual. Use headphones for music (at a volume that you can still hear people at) pay attention to your surroundings. Keep your own volume down. Don’t gossip. Be mindful. Don’t get caught up in other peoples grievances. Keep areas clean and help to keep the common areas clean – show that you are trying to help keep the environment nice, it can gain you respect. It shows you don’t have high opinions of yourself, that you are not afraid of the nitty gritty. Don’t bring smelly food in. Offer tea and coffee if you drink it. Don’t be afraid to ask questions – even the dumb ones. Remember your colleges are just people too, they also don’t have everything figured out, this can help you connect with them and will put things in perspective. Make sure you are organised and file your work properly, saving iterations and clearly labelling work. Chances are you will be saving to a server as others will need to access your work as well. Respect your coworkers space. When entering the workplace or someone’s space, acknowledge the person by using their name when you speak to them, make eye contact and ask to borrow things. No two studios are the same, just make sure you contribute as much as you can, as long as you pay attention you will find your way.  Prove you enthusiastic to learn and improve yourself. Prove you are willing to make an effort as they will notice and put effort into you also – like teach you.
  2. Meetings: with a client of third party – greet them at the door and introduce yourself if you’ve not meet before. Even if it’s not your meeting you can get them set up for whoever is running late. Offer them tea and coffee and get them settled in to the meeting room space. Excuse yourself to go and get the team if they haven’t already appeared. How these are conducted will change from firm to firm. Some may not even have designers in them and it’s unlikely as a junior that you will be conducting a meeting. But being helpful for those that do will be appreciated by the team. However, you should pay attention during these to gain confidence for when it’s your turn. Be on time for meetings, come prepared, take notes so you don’t forget vital information. Be mindful of your body language. Don’t zone out – focus at all time, this may take conscious effort at times. Don’t be afraid to contribute your ideas in a meeting, if you are in there as a designer or part of the design team, you are there because they want to hear from you, don’t speak over people though, make sure to choose an appropriate time. Watch and learn. Be natural but also professional and respectful (this will get easier). A meeting will often start with some casual conversation beforehand. If you are shy or not good at small talk then try practicing this or having some anecdotes prepared. Watch others to see how they handle it. Meetings can be great for dealing with a complex issue or covering a lot of ground. They are also good for getting to know people in a team or third party. They can be a nuisance though, so don’t suggest unnecessary ones. Work on overcoming nerves : whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t – you are right – Henry Ford.
  3. the phone: it’s not the same as phone calls in the real world. If the phone is ringing for a while just be the one to pick it up if you are free to answer it, be the person to help out. Say “hello””good morning” or “good afternoon” state that the company name. Say your name followed by “speaking”. If it’s not for you they will tell you who it’s for. Ask as a questions “Can I tell them who is calling.” Or so,etching to that effect. Then you can transfer it to the team member, tell them who it is and ask if they want to take it. If not go back on the line and tell them that your team member is unfortunately in a meeting/not at their desk etc. (Lie) and ask if you can take a message. Take a message and their number and leave it on their desk.
  4. Email: write a good subject line (make it about the email content, nothing generic in case they need to search it later). Sarcasm does not bode well with email. Choose the right tone, who is it that you are emailing? Someone you know well or someone you have never spoken to before? Don’t hit send prematurely (you can’t get it back) if in drought draft in a text editor first then paste it and send it. Spell check!!!! Address people by name before starting – never say “hey” if it’s first time email establish a connection how do you know them? If it’s a repeat email, ask them how they are or say you hope they are keeping well. Get to the point quickly. Keep it to only one topic/point per email. Be concise, no one likes lengthy email. No one likes one liners either. Use words like “glad” “excited” “intreaged” not emoji. Use paragraphs to break up length content or use heading if necessary. Clarify why you are asking for something or making a request. Sign off with something appropriate, this could be: many thanks, thanks, all the best, best regards, best, regards, best wishes, thanks again – if you alr3dy thanked them in the body of the email. Have your details in your email signature, maybe they want to follow up with a call, it never hurts to have your info easy to reference. Don’t forget to add your attachments and make sure they are a reasonable file size. Leave it an appropriate amount of time to hear back before following up. Design: don’t use crazy fonts. Just the basics here. System fonts will display best. Your footer can be designed but it can create attachments so a simple text version is best.

In conclusions:

Watch and learn! Pay attention to what everyone is doing, not just the designers and why they do what they do.

The simple act of paying positive atttention to people has a great deal to do with productivity – Tom peters …..

Get comfortable being uncomfortable –  if you get comfortable with getting yourself out of the deep end or out of uncomfortable situations you will be able to do anything.

Task :

  • in breakout rooms: conduct meetings about the topics discussed today. You will each assume a role : note taker, meeting leader (raises points for discussions), dumb question asker, contributors (field questions/discuss points)

How it went

Meeting leader

HOMEWORK

Write a mock email in any of these subject areas (you can do it in pairs for exchanges)

  1. to manager keeping them up to date on a project progressions (use IXD301 work)
  2. To client requesting content that is past due and necessary to progress
  3. To a client who has requested info or files from you months/years after the job.
  4. Sending a link over to a manager/client to review work in progress.
  5. Asking for clarification on something you didn’t understand from a team member
  6. To request and arrange a meeting

Also continue your research blogs in the topics raised in class as well as familiarising yourself with companies of excellence and local industry – go into great detail.

IXD104 – Hand to mouse – Week 3

This course does not create illustrators but if  you are passionate about it then pursue it! Practice makes perfect.

Reminder:

Research 40% is all blog and backup work — Get on it!

Alex, Ethan, Georgia, Jessica —> IXD students to look up

What is illustration?

Anything. A visual material.

  • Marion Deuchars (traditional media) look up Samsung add
  • Dan Fern (Photocopier)
  • Love Fraud (short film) – Oliver Sax
  • Martin O’neill (Collage)

Now we have illustrating digital tools

  • Olly Moss
  • Jorge Colombo (Procreate) – Very architectural
  • Rogie King (Vectors) loads of icons, simple and clean.
  • Nigel Peake
  • Breno Bittercorp
  • Sarah Parmenter (UX/UI)
  • Veerle Pieters (UX/UI)
  • Von Glitschka (Linked in learning)

NI Illustrators

  • Oliver Jeffers
  • Peter Strain
  • Atto Partners
  • Jordan Henderson
  • Paddy Donnelly (IMD course student) Used textured papers and then digitally added elements onto them. Book covers.

Tools available

  • Pens, pencils, paper
  • photocopier
  • photoshop
  • Collage

Task

  1. Recreate the city scapes ( master apprentice exercise)
  2. Mind mapped ideas
  3. Sketching and wireframing
  4. Start creating your icons.

Tutorial with Paul

Need to ask:

  1. Is my bible app travel idea valid and explain it

Feedback:

Likes the idea.

make it so its a window into the event – time travel sort of situation.

tablet format instead of phone so its more appropriate – more kid friendly – maybe put it inside one of those tablets with the handles for kids.

Time travel taking kids to biblical locations.

cutitout.co.uk

IXD103 – Type & Wordmarks – Week 3

Great reads

  1. FontShop Meet your Type – They use romantic tone of voice to allude to falling in love with type (Book).
  2. FontShop (Website).
  3. Graphic design solutions (Book).
  4. Thinking with type (Book).
  5. Packaging design: Successful product branding from concept to shelf (Book).
  6. Fonts in use blog.

Why is type important?

Letterforms were developed as an alternative to the spoken word. It evolved from pictograms/ icons on cave walls to letterforms. Think of carved typography – eg in Egypt messages were carved into stone. These give a gravity to the message as they were literally carved in stone.

“Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form.” – Robert Bringhurst.

It enables information to be passed down from generation to generation. It communicates a message where the originator isn’t able to present it. It allows us to share information and knowledge worldwide.

It differs from culture to culture, eg think religion. Think of hand drawn bibles and how much time and effort it took to complete. This was important to them and it brought notice.

“Typographical design should preform optically what the speaker creates through voice and gesture so his thoughts” – El Lizzitsky.

For example we can not understand sarcasm through type as it relies heavily on tone and facial expressions.

Tone of voice

How do you visually represent it?

What are the elements of typography?

  • Fonts: a particular set of typeface. It’s what we use to make a typeface happen. (Spiekermann, 2010)
  • Typeface: Alphabet of letters, numbers, punctuation and diacritical marks that share stylistic elements. A typeface is what you see. It’s the design of a single set of characters unified by consistent visual properties; the properties then create the essential character of a typeface (Landa, R., 2018).
  • Weights: they can come in a range of different weights which facilitates their use in different areas, eg bios.
  • Cap height: it is the distance between the baseline and the top of a capital letter.
  • Baseline: Its an imaginary line where all letterforms sit.
  • Counter: The enclosed negative space within a letter.  (Glossary, 2021).
  • X height: The height of a lower case x or the height of lower case letters.
  • Ascender: The part of a lower case letter that rises above the X height.
  • Set width: Its the width of a character in relation to the height.
  • Descender: Its the section of a letter that hangs below the baseline.
  • Terminal: Its the end point of the letterform.
Created by Martin Silvertant
FontShop
Spiekermann, E., 2010. Meet Your Type. SI FONTSHOP INTERNATIONAL

Tasks

  1. The anatomy of type  —-> read FontShop Meet your Type  pages 9, 10, 13, 14
  2. Anatomy of type —> Select a typeface and write your name. Use this to identify elements of type and label them. Lay this up on an A4 page/digitally. My outcome is shown bellow.
  3. Complete the menti exercise for the typefaces: Didot, Helvetica, Times New Roman and Cooper Black.
    Didot
    Helvetica
    Times New Roman

    Cooper Black

My thoughts

I thought these tasks were a very great way to see what each type made the viewer feel, it conveyed a message just by its looks and not the information, I think it shows how perceptive humans area and how our jobs as designers is important as subconsciously we are analysing and in a way critiquing everything we see, hear and do. Typography is a vital component of user interface design – when done correctly they can help us establish a great graphic balance to the website and other graphic products, eg pamphlets, ads, etc…

Typography (when done correctly) can establish a very strong visual hierarchy and tone of voice for the brand. It also serves as a reflection of the brand as people will identify the typography chosen with the business. Some great examples of this would be Disney, Fanta, Lego, McDonalds, Pepsi, Vogue, Netflix, etc..

I need to research typography further before choosing which one will be used for my brand as I have learned what an important role they play in branding.

“Typefaces are to the written word what different dialects are to different languages” – Steven Heller


Appropriate type face selection

  • Determine who your audience is and articulate your language for them. Knowing what your audience wants can help you choose a typeface that will draw them and engage them. Also consider the application
  • Pairing typefaces together can be an option. eg one for headlines and one for text. These would have to be clearly stated in the brand guidelines.

Great resources

  1. Fonts in use
  2. Typewolf
  3. What The Font
  4. Typekit Practice

Type Foundries

Free fonts and fontshops

Kerning

It’s the space between the letters – it is especially important in Lettermarks. In typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result. It makes certain combinations of letters, for example, WA, MW, TA and VA fit together better.

In the image bellow you can see that without the kerning the k looks uncomfortable but once it is added it is much more visually pleasing.

(Brown, 2015)

In the image shown above the spacing between the ‘T’ and the ‘r’ is too big and the spacing between the ‘r’ and the ‘y’ is too small.  To fix this, the spacing was fixed as shown above.

Examples

Here are some bad kerning examples I found – they really helped me understand the impact that kerning can have on branding. The key is to use your eye, its about more than just assessing the distance between letters, but also if it ‘feels’ right. I need to apply this key skills when completing my wordmark. Kerning once done correctly will allow me to present myself not only to clients, designers but also employers in a more professional and competent manner. I also found that generally speaking larger type needs a tighter kerning to be applied.

I visited the website Welcome to Method of Action and completed the kerning game to improve my skills, here is how I did:

Ligatures

It means “connection”. When referring to the appearance of type, a ligature is made from two or more letters, which appear connected. In handwriting these connections are created all the time. It’s the union of two or more characters (Cullen, 2012). They create a single character out of two (Spiekermann, 2010).

Ligatures can be:

  • Stylistic: They are used to resolve unwanted character collisions that happen when some letterforms combine. They give aesthetic refinement. Bellow is a great example of Stylistic ligatures (Cullen, 2012).

  • Lexical: They represent composite vowels like aesc and ethel (Cullen, 2012).

  • Discretionary: Many typefaces contain these. They add stylistic grace with ornate/historical nuance (Cullen, 2012).

  • Ampersand: It symbolises the Latin word et – means “and” (Cullen, 2012).

 

Hierarchy

Its the rank or order of importance.

This is a key tool for designers and when done correctly it makes the viewer look where and when you want them to look. When this is not present is can cause the viewer confusion and frustration. One can emphasise by using size, weight, colour, style and placement. (Spiekermann, 2010)

Leading

This refers to the amount of horizontal space between two lines of text. It’s measured from baseline to baseline. When the distance between the leading and the point size is applied correctly, it makes the text look great.

Letterspacing/Tracking

This refers to the overall spacing between letters in a block of text. The larger the type, the less letterspacing is required.

Type distortion

It’s important to avoid widening, outlining or shortening the type selected; the designers who created them have created them with the ideal proportions, it it doesn’t fit, its better to change type than to try and force it (Spiekermann, 2010).

Special characters

These can add a little bit of character and quirkiness to your work when done correctly.

  • Ligatures
  • Numbers
  • Smart quotes
  • Swash characters

Wordmarks

These can come in many forms:

  • Script/Calligraphic

  • Typographic

  • Personal brands

  • Custom type: This is a great option when an accompanying symbol doesn’t fit the style; the wordmark logo must then be made distinctive by applying appropriate design distinctions. Like for example: Colour, size, serif, san serif, lower case, upper caser, weight, etc…

To make the wordmark logo more readable using lower and upper case is useful as the human eye distinguishes the letterforms more easily.

  • A twist: Giving your wordmark a distinctive look using a simple tweak to customize the mark is a great way to have a more recognisable brand. It could be done by adding a ligature, a notch, a colour difference, playing with positive/negative space, kerning, letterspacing or really any twist that makes it unique and different from the standard typeface.

“Words have meaning. Type has spirit. The combination is spectacular” – Paula Scher.

I tried doing this using Procreate to strengthen my typography skills, here is how I got on:

I had loads of fun making these; I did four different versions of the word ‘slice’ as I kept trying to improve it and push myself. My favourite ones are the word play on ‘charge’, ‘umbrella’, ‘Moon’ and ‘Drip’.


References

  1. Brown, T., 2015. Caring about open type features. [online] Practice.typekit.com. Available at: <https://practice.typekit.com/lesson/caring-about-opentype-features/> [Accessed 9 February 2021].
  2. Cullen, K., 2012. Design elements, typography fundamentals: A graphic style manual for understanding how typography affects design. Rockport Pub.
  3. FontShop. 2021. Glossary. [online] Available at: <https://www.fontshop.com/glossary> [Accessed 8 February 2021].
  4. Klimchuk, M.R. and Krasovec, S.A., 2013. Packaging design: Successful product branding from concept to shelf. John Wiley & Sons.
  5. Landa, R., 2018. Graphic design solutions. Cengage Learning.
  6. Lupton, E., 2014. Thinking with type: A critical guide for designers, writers, editors, & students. Chronicle Books.
  7. Spiekermann, E., 2010. Meet Your Type. 1st ed. [ebook] SI FONTSHOP INTERNATIONAL, pp.7 – 11. Available at: <http://104.236.43.209/pdf/fsfinalbook_single.pdf> [Accessed 8 February 2021].