Chad Garrett – UX and Content Research and Design

Frequently Asked Questions of Intent

What is this?

‏This is an e-portfolio created in order to fulfill degree requirements for the Master of Science in Information Studies (MSIS) at the University of Texas at Austin. I needed to display three examples of my work in the program, my resume, and statement of intent (what you are reading).

I have an existing writing e-portfolio, as well as examples of UX research and design and content strategy work available upon request.

Isn’t information kind of an undefinable thing?

That depends on whom you ask, what you read, and how badly you want to strain your brain. Put simply, I have spent most of my adult life working with information. For many years and in my first master’s degree, I focused on writing, specifically technical writing and trying to make obtuse technology information usable by non-technical people. In that vein, the words I wrote, the concepts they represented, and the shared meaning created between the writer and reader all comprise information. Do I have a handy definition of information that I can spout at parties to impress people? Nope, I don’t and haven’t yet encountered one.

Um, “Information Studies”?

Yes, I think it’s an odd-sounding degree, but it’s a common one in the field. Comparable degrees include Master of Library Science and Master of Library and Information Science. It’s a degree accredited by the American Library Association, which credentials programs that graduate professional librarians.

Did you say you had another master’s degree? Why two?

I love technical writing, and in the first half of my adult life, I was immersed in doing it and teaching it. As I progressed, though, I found myself wondering whether what I had written and information I had designed worked for the intended purposes and audiences. And that is UX. UX aims—through iterative, collaborative, and empathetic methods and processes—to understand users and their goals and to design and test experiences (products, interfaces, workflows, etc.) against those goals.

In addition, during my prior career (see resume), I fell in love with making resources from libraries, archives, and special collections discoverable, engaging, and approachable by a variety of users. Information, after all, is power.

Oh, so you’re going to be a librarian and work with books?

Maybe. I love libraries, archives, and special collections, particularly academic libraries and national cultural heritage organizations. Informed citizens are critical to sustaining a modern civil society, and these types of institutions play fundamental and inextricable roles throughout society. These degree programs are quite diverse, and my coursework has focused on user experience (UX) research and design.

I believe that good user experiences play a central role in making sure people can discover, evaluate, and use information, and I want to use my UX specialty to make the world of information easier to “do,” whether that is in libraries, archives, or the private sector.