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It is my journey as how I became a UI trainer from developer and the lessons I learned along the way... When I look back, it is always a satisfying experience.
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The story
of A UI
trainer
Summary of personal experience and learning as a UI trainer…
Who am I?
UI developer, trainer & writer
Who am I?
UI developer, trainer & writer
Who am I?
What do I teach?
UI developer, trainer & writer
Who am I?Mostly UI
technologies like HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript,
jQuery & other JS frameworks
What do I teach?
How it
all
started?
One fine day, I get request from
training team to check if can take
up an HTML5 training scheduled five days ahead…
One fine day, I get request from
training team to check if can take
up an HTML5 training scheduled five days ahead…
Since, it is something new & challenging, I am immediately ready for it.
But then,
But then,
Problems…
1. Only five days time frame
2. Presentation or material required
for training not ready
3. Current project commitments
4. Training would be in city where I
had never gone before
1Managed project deliverables & waiting for flight, night
before the training.
2 8:30 PM flight four hours late and I reach my hotel at 3:00 AM morning.
1Managed project deliverables & waiting for flight, night
before the training.
2 8:30 PM flight four hours late and I reach my hotel at 3:00 AM morning.
I can either take notes or little 4 hour rest. Whole idea of making few notes totally washed away.
1Managed project deliverables & waiting for flight, night
before the training.
3
4Next day at new office. Training starts with 22
attendees & me without any training material and sleep.
5Within an hour or two I realize that I must cover prerequisites needed for HTML5 not
intended to be part of training.
4Next day at new office. Training starts with 22
attendees & me without any training material and sleep.
5Within an hour or two I realize that I must cover prerequisites needed for HTML5 not
intended to be part of training.
4Next day at new office. Training starts with 22
attendees & me without any training material and sleep.
I spend whole day. Now I must cover complete training in remaining 3 days.6
7Back to hotel, in the evening, I decide to
create few presentations.
8I cannot; standing up all day & running to everyone’s machine for queries take its toll on me. I feel back pain.
7Back to hotel, in the evening, I decide to
create few presentations.
8I cannot; standing up all day & running to everyone’s machine for queries take its toll on me. I feel back pain.
7Back to hotel, in the evening, I decide to
create few presentations.
9Again no material, notes or presentation. I just relax and
read little for next day.
On 2nd day, I try to accelerate to make up for yesterday’s time.
10
At the end of the day, I get feedback that I am moving too fast. I should slow down a bit.
On 2nd day, I try to accelerate to make up for yesterday’s time.
11
10
At the end of the day, I get feedback that I am moving too fast. I should slow down a bit.
On 2nd day, I try to accelerate to make up for yesterday’s time.
This evening, I deliberately skipped the presentation idea.
11
10
12
Similarly, 3rd and 4th
days are over with new problems & challenges.
13
Network infrastructure issues; while other times, me stumbling
upon some concept & much more…
Similarly, 3rd and 4th
days are over with new problems & challenges.
14
13
Network infrastructure issues; while other times, me stumbling
upon some concept & much more…
Similarly, 3rd and 4th
days are over with new problems & challenges.
But at the end, I receive very positive feedback.
14
13
15
From then on, I never looked back
From then on, I never looked back
Regular trainings both in company & outside
H O W E V E R ,
H O W E V E R ,
I t i s n ot m y day to
day e x p e r i e n c e b u t
w h at I l e a r n e d i s
a l l t h at m at t e r s
1 A l w ays H av e so m e
b u f f e r t i m e .
Anything can happen; delayed flight, network & infra
issues, not enough time for creating notes and materials,
etc. Always keep some buffer time especially when
training schedule is more than a day.
Don’t let this happen
2D o n ot t i e
t h e goat
ar o u nd th e
p r es e ntat i o n .
Perhaps, my prejudice from college days where lecture cannot by delivered without
presentation or OHP. Trainer and his interaction skill keep audience glued.
Nothing is more boring than some bullet-point slides.
Don’t let this happen
Use presentations as supplementary for
storytelling, illustrations, graphs, diagrams, etc.
Use it for this
3D o n ot t ry
to t i m e t h e
tr a i n i n g .
You can never complete each and everything. People
ask questions that are related but outside of
scope. Try to be realistic and honor the time. Finish as much as you can and
not as much as you want.
Don’t try to finish everything. It does not bring good to anyone.
4 W h e n i t co m es
to p eo p l e ,
n oth i n g i s
o bv i o u s . H av e
n o e x p ectat i o n .
Assume means “ass-u-me”. When you assume, you
generalize. When you generalize, you cannot pay
attentional to individuals unique needs. Attendees
vary by their skill, background, experience.
Anyone can ask anything.
Assumptions is very dangerous thing.
5 P r act i c e ,
p r act i c e a n d
p r act i c e .
Knowing a concept and understanding a concept
are two different things. You cannot teach
something unless you thoroughly understand it. I have found myself in this situations in early training
days. The only escape from this is ever on-going
practice.
To be expert like him, practice is the only way.
6K n o w yo u r
au d i e n c e .
Teaching a novice
want to get things done.
Cook food for 5 minutes.
They want result oriented instructions. They need how.
They focus on results.
Teaching a novice
want to get things done.
Cook food for 5 minutes.
They want result oriented instructions. They need how.
They focus on results.
Teaching an experienced
want to know why to do things certain way.
Why cook food for 5 minutes only?
They already know how. They want to understand the reasoning behind. They focus on optimizing things.
vs.
Teaching a designer
Very little or no programming background
Generally prefer small and discrete example for each
concept during training. Often interested in knowing technical
possibilities & limitations.
Teaching a designer
Very little or no programming background
Generally prefer small and discrete example for each
concept during training. Often interested in knowing technical
possibilities & limitations.
Teaching a developer
Very good with logic and programming.
Generally prefer one concrete example that help them build system step by step & correlate all concepts together.
vs.
An interesting class of 10 developers and 7 designers.
An interesting class of 10 developers and 7 designers.
A designer asks me “what is server?”
An interesting class of 10 developers and 7 designers.
A designer asks me “what is server?”
An obvious thing for developer, how do I make sure that I explain it to designer while
keeping developers interested?
An interesting class of 10 developers and 7 designers.
A designer asks me “what is server?”
An obvious thing for developer, how do I make sure that I explain it to designer while
keeping developers interested?
Well, I try to make it more interactive. Let other developers answer it instead of me.
7E m b r ac e
s i m p l i c i t y
There is always an urge to try and showcase some crazy idea. Never do it.
Always remember that, the training is for its
attendees, it is not your playground. Use very
simple, clear and constructive illustrations.
Present for your audience & not yourself.
8U I t r a i n e r i s
n ot j u st a
U I t r a i n e r
As I dig deeper and interact more with
attendees, I come to realize that,
People don’t attend UI training to learn some JavaScript library API.
they can simply Google it & learn anywhere freely
on net.
They are there for something more…
They wish to understand the technical implications of
choosing a certain JS library.
They wish to understand the technical implications of
choosing a certain JS library.
They wish to understand the architectural guidelines for UI development
They wish to understand the technical implications of
choosing a certain JS library.
They wish to understand the architectural guidelines for UI development
They attend training to share & find solutions to their real
world problems.
They wish to understand the technical implications of
choosing a certain JS library.
They wish to understand the architectural guidelines for UI development
They attend training to share & find solutions to their real
world problems.They want ideas to organize their messed up CSS.
They want to know why the performance of their
application is significantly low
They want to know why the performance of their
application is significantly low
There are developers who want to learn web design so that they can work without a dedicated designers
They want to know why the performance of their
application is significantly low
There are developers who want to learn web design so that they can work without a dedicated designers
They just don’t want to develop. They want to engineer
true products and solutions.
They want to know why the performance of their
application is significantly low
There are developers who want to learn web design so that they can work without a dedicated designers
They just don’t want to develop. They want to engineer
true products and solutions.
And the list goes on…
And honestly, UI trainer is not just UI trainer,
because at one point in time I was asked questions
like…
1. What is the effect of having high replication to client heavy
application? (I still fail to understand this question)
2. Why twitter moved from client side rendering to server side
rendering? And why did they switch to Scala from Ruby?
3. How does Google track my data across different applications?
4. How does Python compares with Ruby?
5. How many programming language should I learn? (Fresher’s favorite)
6. Does cloud computing has any future?
7. What is the difference between SAAS, PAAS & IAAS?
Finally, today I find myself teaching things I possibly
never imagined:
- Product design & thinking
- Web design for developers
- Designing for usability
- Typography principles
- Art of writing content
- Definitive presentations
But in the
end the
experience is
amazing
Harshal Patil
@softHarsh
http://definitelysimple.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/hapatil
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