Frequently Asked.
cirsh!?
I’m often asked what is cirsh?
What does it mean?
How do you pronounce it?
cirsh: “sir-shh”
When trying to think of how I might brand myself after leaving college (typical design grad). I wanted to come up with something that was short (for the URL), memorable and had some connection (at least tangentally) to me, for people to remember.
In playing with various different ideas I started dissecting different parts of my name.
Cervo, as many people know me already, had an established web presence and was taken. I didn’t necessarily want my work and personal life to be so entangled at the time, so it was somewhat of a blessing.
Fastforward 15-20 years, include a pandemic and here we are. The origins of cirsh are taking the letters from “chris” and reusing them to make something new. Still me, but from a different lens.
While the brand identity has changed over the years, I still like the simplicity in the name and how it sounds. Ultimately it represents my brand, which over the course of my life and career I will strive to make that mean something.
What is UX?
Short answer: User Experience. (ha ha!)
A longer answer would include: The prevention or elimination of risk while creating or updating virtually anything (new or existing, digital or physical) through the means of collecting data from intended users of the product or application.
User experience conducts experiments and research to validate (or invalidate) questions or concerns raised throughout the product lifecycle.
A user experience designer strives to create shared understanding across all stakeholders of a given project. They also evaluate the desirability of products, features or functionality.
What is an Intro-Graphic?
While working on a project with a co-worker under a tight timeline we needed a way to introduce our stakeholders to our potential users, but we couldn’t actually get access to users to interview or validate.
Utilizing quantitative data from a mixture of sources we compiled data anchored mini personas calling out various behaviors visualized in charts and graphs.
Due to it’s mixture of data across various specialty trades, synthesized into conglomerate patterns; it had the makings of an info graphic and a proto persona.
Half jokingly I dubbed it an “intro-graphic”. The name was catchy and intuitive enough to stick. It has become another tool that we utilize based on time, availability of user data and necessity.
