Apprentice Program - Week of June 03, 2024 (WK23)
What’s on Julia’s mind these days?
I’ve been thinking a lot about community lately. As in how to create a sense of community. First we must define community: “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.” I think we have common goals here in the DIA community: a passion for UX, empathy, accessibility, helpfulness.
Is community created by visual interactions? Auditory? Physical? In this world of remote connections with virtual meetings and text based interactions are we losing the closeness of a physical community? I don’t know. Maybe it’s a personal preference for different people.
We’ve tried office hours and social hours in the past with very little attendance. AMAs and Topic talks seem to be better attended. We would love to have apprentices work together on a project. Julia is thinking of ideas…
“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much” – Helen Keller
Any suggestions are welcome. Please let Julia know of ill out this form.
#1: Apprentice Program Specific News
2024 cohort
Each apprentice mentor-pair has a shared Google Drive folder. Use this to take notes, share work, or anything else. There is a skill mapping spreadsheet in everyone’s folder to talk to their mentor about the skills they want to build during their apprenticeship. If you don’t have access to your folder, please reach out to Julia.
Continuing apprentices
More than half of the apprentices every year continue with DIA. Some of you are leading projects with our partner organizations (e.g. World IA Association, IAC, and EuroIA). Others are getting involved with client projects.
Don't be a stranger; there are plenty of ways to get involved. If you want to work on something with other apprentices, don't be afraid to share via Discord or email Julia to include something in the next biweekly update.
#2: Apprentice Wins and Celebrations
- Katia, one of our 2024 apprentices, got a job last month! Let’s congratulate her.
Share: Have any good news, life lessons, or need project help? Reply and let us know. We can share it in the next biweekly update.
#3: Events
3A - DIA Read Aloud Book Club
Book club is going on hiatus for the summer due to lack of sign ups and attendees. We’ll finish the book Storytelling for You starting in September.
3B - Game Club
The DIA Game Club is taking a break for June! We intend to use this time to rest and catch up on any jam entries we didn’t finish yet. Things are rough right now but we hope everyone is hanging on out there.
In the meantime, come hang out with us!
3C - Monthly AMA
June’s Monthly Topic is on Information Architecture and IA Research, presented by our very own Grace Lau! We encourage questions! Some examples could be how to specialize in IA, how IA relates to UX, or how to do IA research. Can’t wait to see you!
Based in Greater Los Angeles, Grace Lau is an information architect and designer with 15+ years experience working in the industry. She supports the information architecture community through events and mentoring.
With her specialty in information architecture, content strategy, and taxonomy, she has provided digital experience designs and strategies for high-impact brands and organizations such as Cedar-Sinai Medical Center, Disney, Dignity Health, PatientPop, and many others. She's currently a content designer at Blue Shield of California.
June 21st at 3 pm Eastern / 12 pm Pacific.
3D - Monthly Office/Social Hour
We’re shooting for a goal of two to three events a month in order to have a more community feel to the apprenticeship program. Come hang out and talk about anything! You can ask questions about UX, talk about your day, vent about job hunting, or explain a fun fact you learned about.
DIA Apprentice Social Hour is Friday, June 14th at 2 pm Pacific / 5 pm Eastern. Invite sent and Google Meet link here.
#4: Project Opportunities
World IA Cafe Social Media – We're looking for volunteers to help World Information Architecture Cafe develop a library of video clips -- creating short highlight clips from past event recordings.
- For details, email Grace grace.lau@worldiaday.org or Nehar nehar.sultana@worldiaday.org
- Subject: World IA Cafe Highlights for Social Media
- Timeline: On-going
World IA Monthly Newsletter - Looking for one apprentice to do some content development for the newsletter.
- For details, email Grace grace.lau@worldiaday.org
- Subject: World IA Monthly Newsletter
- Timeline: On-going
#5: Job Opportunities
We’re always on the lookout for relevant entry-level roles to share with our apprentices. They’re usually shared on Discord under Discussion > #jobsearch-opps. If you come across any, let us know! We'll be sure to share them here for everyone else.
- SportsRecruits is hiring a Product Designer (Remote) - https://sportsrecruitsllc.applytojob.com/apply/WDhmhOBoQc/Product-Designer-UIUX
- Rapptr Labs is hiring a Product Designer (Remote) - https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=f33f115986709909&tk=1hvbfvq58h1jf85o&from=serp&vjs=3
- Aescape is hiring a Junior Designer (Marketing team) - https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/aescape/a00dfc1b-3038-4632-a9a7-263062ffbfcb/
- Primacy is hiring an Associate Experience Designer (Boston, MA) - https://digitalunitedllc.applytojob.com/apply/job_20240523220431_9MMYJCPSMTACN0EH
#6: Volunteer
Need to find a project? Check out these volunteering resources and find your next gig! We’ll highlight a few organizations in every newsletter where you can look through and find something that interests you.
- Idealist - https://www.idealist.org/en/
- Smithsonian Digital Volunteers - https://www.si.edu/volunteer/DigitalVolunteers
- Economy of Hours - https://economyofhours.com/
- Catchafire - https://www.catchafire.org/
#7: Learning Resources
Did you know? Julia manages the Design Education Resources database. We’ve been managing this since 2022 and Julia keeps this updated. See the full list.
- This is HCD - https://www.thisishcd.com/
- Motion Design School - https://motiondesign.school/
- XPlane (courses and worksheets) - https://xplane.com/learning/
- UX Content Collective - https://uxcontent.com/
#8: Feedback wanted
Open rates are great, click through rates are alright. But how helpful is this newsletter really? Share with us why yet another newsletter was a good idea.
If you’re interested in past updates, you can login on the website and check them out. Login to comment or read past issues. Login is a magic link, no password needed!
As always, we’re around to chat. DM us on Discord, reply to this email post or schedule some time on our calendars:
That's all for now!