Mannings on the Move

You may or may not have heard of the LDS Church's User Experience Group, northtemple, but I have decided that it is my destiny to work for them. Something that Kristin loves about the idea is it will keep our family in Utah. Some of the things I love about the idea of working for them are as follows:

• northtemple only hires LDS members, so I would be working with people that share my values.
• northtemple designers go to the temple together once a week. Where else can you do that with your co-workers?!
• Improving the layout, function and usability of any software/website would be rewarding, but being able to do so for my Church would be really cool.

I just contacted northtemple today, and was really surprised to get a response back within twenty minutes. John from northtemple told me the following:

We often discuss interaction design as containing 3 major components: 1) Business Analysis, the ability to understand, organize, and work within business processes and constraints. 2) Graphic/Interface Design, the designer needs to understand visual design principles, typography, layout, color, aesthetics, etc. 3) Programming, the designer needs to know how to put all of these together using the tools of the trade (HTML/CSS/Javscript).

The area of emphasis that I've been studying has probably had more to do with the business analysis portion of interaction design, but I am laying a foundation of all the things he mentioned as I trek through my classes. It is great to learn that I am basically on track to being a viable candidate for working for the Church at northtemple. It will keep my family planted in Utah, close to family and in a community where we would be happy to raise our children.

Don't worry, more baby news will follow!