{"628232":{"#nid":"628232","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Welcome to Walmart: Digital Media Alum Ricky Yu Shares His Student Experience","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EReferring to the Digital Media Graduate Program as a \u0026ldquo;good starting point to my career,\u0026rdquo; Fangxiao \u0026ldquo;Ricky\u0026rdquo; Yu (\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/penlab.gatech.edu\/theses\/ricky-yu-the-grand-palace\/\u0022\u003EDigital Media MS. 2019\u003C\/a\u003E) does not see any endpoint in sight. And nor would he want to.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I really love my job because I\u0026rsquo;ve always wanted to work in a creative environment,\u0026rdquo; Yu says. \u0026ldquo;This is also my first design job, so it\u0026#39;s really like a dream come true.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFollowing graduation, Yu was hired as a User Experience Designer at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.walmart.com\/\u0022\u003EWalmart\u0026rsquo;s\u003C\/a\u003E Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas, where he designs user interfaces for internal-faced applications that can improve associates\u0026rsquo; work experience.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Basically, our team focuses on research-led design,\u0026rdquo; he explains. \u0026ldquo;I, as a designer, need to closely work with UX researchers to find the best solutions to the user problems and validate my design to match with users\u0026#39; mental models.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile he spends most of his time sketching wireframes and prototyping in Invision, Yu finds that communication skills are also deeply important to his day-to-day work routine. The humanities-centric curricula of the Digital Media (DM) Graduate Program prepared him to understand user needs from a collaborative standpoint.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Something I really like about the DM program is that it heavily focuses on critiquing technology from a liberal arts perspective,\u0026rdquo; Yu says. \u0026ldquo;I think this is something strongly needed at this point in time. It teaches a designer to think beyond technology and use their skills to bring a larger social impact on the world.\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EEntering the program from a media-intense background, Yu was excited at the potential to expand both his mind and his skill sets. Getting the chance to work with a variety of media types, like virtual reality and augmented reality, introduced him to design spaces that he had never encountered previously.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/murray\u0022\u003EDr. Janet Murray\u003C\/a\u003E was very inspiring and motivating throughout my time at Tech,\u0026rdquo; Yu explains. \u0026ldquo;She constantly gave me feedback and helped me grow. Her class about simulation design and VR storytelling was very informative and eye-opening.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/nassim.lmc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EDr. Nassim Parvin\u003C\/a\u003E was another professor who strongly influenced the way I perceived the world. Her class about feminism approach opened a new world for me and made me reflect on lots of things that I had never thought about in the past.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAlong with the inspiring faculty and courses, Yu also commends Georgia Tech for the availability of resources for research opportunities. While he mainly focused on polishing his design skills in class projects, he affirms that the research courses helped him \u0026ldquo;understand how to use research data to back up my design decisions.\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd as for \u003Cstrong\u003E#MakingWithMeaning\u003C\/strong\u003E? He continues to do so outside of Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I would say my design work actually helps a lot of people both improve their working efficiency and solve their problems,\u0026rdquo; he says. \u0026ldquo;That\u0026#39;s how I make with meaning everyday.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EView some of Yu\u0026rsquo;s recent project on his \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.yufangxiao.com\/\u0022\u003Eportfolio\u003C\/a\u003E or connect with him on \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/fangxiao-yu\/\u0022\u003ELinkedIn\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003EApplications for the Digital Media Graduate Program are accessible\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/grad.gatech.edu\/apply-now\u0022\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E, and information for prospective Master\u0026#39;s students can be found on\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dm.lmc.gatech.edu\/admissions\/application\/ms-applicants\/\u0022\u003Eour applicant page\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EDr. Janet Murray is the lab director of the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/penlab.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EPrototyping eNarrative Lab\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and Dr. Nassim Parvin is lab director of the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/designstudio.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EDesign and Social Interaction Studio\u003C\/a\u003E. Both directors often lead project studio courses for graduate students during the Fall and\/or Spring semesters. To learn more about the labs available to students in the program, visit our \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dm.lmc.gatech.edu\/research\/labs\/\u0022\u003Eresearch page\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Referring to the Digital Media Graduate Program as a \u201cgood starting point to my career,\u201d Fangxiao \u201cRicky\u201d Yu (Digital Media MS. 2019) does not see any endpoint in sight. And nor would he want to. "}],"uid":"35104","created_gmt":"2019-10-29 13:46:28","changed_gmt":"2019-11-13 17:51:19","author":"mmargarella3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2019-10-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2019-10-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"628229":{"id":"628229","type":"image","title":"Digital Media M.S. Alum Fangxiao \u0022Ricky\u0022 Yu","body":null,"created":"1572355136","gmt_created":"2019-10-29 13:18:56","changed":"1572355136","gmt_changed":"2019-10-29 13:18:56","alt":"","file":{"fid":"239234","name":"Square headshot.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Square%20headshot.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Square%20headshot.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":669692,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Square%20headshot.jpg?itok=QQ3e1yRB"}}},"media_ids":["628229"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/dm.lmc.gatech.edu\/admissions\/application\/ms-applicants\/","title":"Digital Media Master\u0027s Information"},{"url":"https:\/\/dm.lmc.gatech.edu\/admissions\/prospective-students\/ph-d-applicants\/","title":"Digital Media PhD Information"}],"groups":[{"id":"275211","name":"Digital Media Program of the School of Literature, Media, and Communication"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"506","name":"alumni"},{"id":"124","name":"Digital Media"},{"id":"182847","name":"digital media alum"},{"id":"182679","name":"alumni stories"},{"id":"3925","name":"janet murray"},{"id":"182848","name":"Nassim Parvin"},{"id":"182849","name":"pen lab"},{"id":"85431","name":"project studio"},{"id":"182850","name":"user experience design"},{"id":"7928","name":"Walmart"},{"id":"182851","name":"user interface design"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMaria Elena Margarella\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003Emargarella@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGraduate Research Assistant, Digital Media\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}