(March 2010) Next Generation Tabletop Interfaces

Thursday, March 18, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

“One day, your computer will be a big-ass table.”

As the above parody so hilariously illustrates, we have yet see tabletop interfaces in every home. We’re at least a few years away from finding them in Best Buy or Future Shop. However, specialized markets for these devices are indeed emerging — and new applications are on the horizon. This month, Stacey Scott will overview some of the digital tabletop research being conducted in the Collaborative Systems Laboratory at the University of Waterloo. She’ll focus on two specific application areas: military command and control operations, and digital board gaming.

Even before Microsoft announced the Surface system in 2007, the Human-Computer Interaction community was actively researching digital tabletop technologies since Pierre Wellner proposed the DigitalDesk in 1991. Yet only recently have hardware and software advances begun to make digital tabletops a feasible technology for real-world markets. Innovations in operating systems (e.g., Microsoft 7), development environments (e.g., Windows Presentation Foundation), and input technologies (e.g., FTIR and TouchCo “multitouch” technologies) are enabling a move beyond proof-of-concept tabletop systems. We’re also well beyond simple demonstrations of new interface metaphors and interaction techniques for manipulating and sharing digital photos.

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to attend, please help us anticipate numbers by registering here RSVP’ing to Wanda Eby at Communitech. Thanks!

About the speaker

Stacey Scott is an Assistant Professor of Human Systems Engineering in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Scott received her Ph.D. in Computer Science (specializing in Human-Computer Interaction and Computer-Supported Collaboration) from the University of Calgary in 2005. She received her B.Sc. in Computing Science and Mathematics from Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS) in 1997. She completed two years of postdoctoral studies in the Humans and Automation Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA) from 2005-2007, where she developed awareness technologies to facilitate collaborative decision-making in time-critical military command and control operations.

Dr. Scott’s graduate research focused on understanding collaborative tabletop work practices with traditional media and developing interface design requirements for digital tabletop platforms. She is now combining this previous theoretical and high-level requirements work with the applied research experience gained in her postdoc to pursue the development of digital tabletop systems that support real-world collaboration in complex task domains. In general, her research interests include computer-supported collaboration, large-screen displays, interface and interaction design, and information visualization.

(January 2010) Is user experience becoming a commodity?

Monday January 18, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

In November, Kem-Laurin Kramer of Research in Motion (RIM) wrote a provocative article for JohnnyHolland magazine that opened with these words:

After 10 years in the field, I woke up one day to realise that my service as a UX practitioner had become a commodity. Usability had become the “in thing” and everyone could do it and show that their products were better than the competition. Usability as a buzzword, populated Product Lifecycle processes in many organizations. So it comes as no suprise when the general attitude of stakeholders these days is one of a shopper saying: “One McUser Experience with usability fries please.”

On January 18, Kem will lead us into a deep dive on this question of whether our practice has become commoditized. Are we producing goods or services that lack differentiation? Is it a problem that user experience is concerned with aesthetics? Can anyone do our job?

Hope you can join us for what’s sure to be a lively, perhaps even heated, UX Group get-together!

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to attend, please help us anticipate numbers by RSVP’ing to Wanda Eby at Communitech. Thanks!

(December 2009) Annual Product Potluck

Tuesday December 15, 2009
5:30 to whenever!
McMullan’s on Kin
56 King Street North, Waterloo (enter off Princess Street)
[Map]

‘Tis the season to share, admire, complain, laugh, eat, and drink.

Last year we held our first “product potluck”, a chance to swap stories and get hands-on with some fun and frustrating products. It was so much fun that we’ve decided to make it an annual December holiday event.

Please join us on December 15 for a potluck with a twist: instead of food, we’re asking you to bring a product. Make it a product that you either love or hate, because we’ll be sharing stories with each other about these products. And the juicier the story, the better!

Some guidelines and tips:

• You’ll have a few minutes to introduce your product and describe what you love or hate about it.
• If the product you want to share isn’t something you can physically demonstrate at the event (like a particle accelerator, a Wankel rotary engine, or a table saw), then bring something that helps you talk about the product. If you’d like to share software or a website, a laptop would be best, but a printed screenshot will do the job if technology is scarce.

This year, we’re meeting at McMullan’s on King — because what’s a potluck without food! (Note the UX Group is volunteer-run and without a budget, so plan to pick up your own tab.)

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to attend, please help us make an appropriate reservation by RSVP’ing to Wanda Eby at Communitech. Thanks! Everyone’s invited, so spread the word.

(October 2009) Personas: Love them or hate them, but at least understand them!

Thursday, October 15, 2009
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Please note the special LOCATION this month:
Primal Fusion Inc.
7-258 King Street North, Waterloo
Need to park? You may park in any spot around the building, regardless of whether it’s marked “Primal Fusion” — and yes, that includes the bizarre diagonal spots by the sidewalk!
[Map]

Personas in product design

Personas are a type of user profile that have become a common tool in the product design process, although you’ll find both advocates and skeptics of their value. Done well and at appropriate times, personas can galvanize teams around a product’s vision. Done poorly, they are little more than an exercise in creative writing.

In this session, Robert Barlow-Busch (Twitter @becubed) will share case studies and stories from the trenches to illustrate how to get the most from personas. What exactly is a persona? When are they useful — and not? How do you actually create them, and what do you do with them afterwards?

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to attend, please help us anticipate numbers by RSVP’ing to Wanda Eby at Communitech. Thanks!

(September 2009) Design Interactionary: Get hands-on and have crazy fun with a series of extreme design challenges!

Thursday September 17, 2009
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

In February of this year, we enjoyed a visit from Scott Berkun, who filled the RIM Theatre for a lively discussion of the myths of innovation. This month, Scott’s with us again in spirit as we kick off the 2009-2010 season with a fun event that he first imagined almost 10 years ago: the design interactionary.

What is a design interactionary?

In a design interactionary, small teams of typically 4 people work together on solving a design problem. The catch? You have only 10 minutes. The pressure of producing a completed design concept in only 10 minutes is, as you might guess, quite insane. But it’s also insanely fun!

This event was originally designed to take place on-stage during large conferences. Audience members could witness design teams work through their challenges live, one team after another. Judges would score each team’s efforts and declare a winner. If you’re curious to learn more, check out this essay on Scott’s website.

How we’re adapting the interactionary format

We’re changing the event format slightly, to make it more suitable for a smaller group in which everyone can participate. Our plan is to form teams of 3 or 4 people. We’ll still get only 10 minutes per design challenge, but the teams will work simultaneously. There’ll be no scoring and we’ll have no judges aside from other participants, since we’ll be presenting our final work to each other.

We hope to complete at least 3 design challenges. They’ll be fun and won’t require any specialized knowledge, so everyone is welcome to participate!

Want to suggest a design challenge?

If you’ve got a great idea for a design challenge, please email it to uxgroup (at) gmail (dot) com. We’ll keep the challenges secret until the last minute!

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to attend, please help us anticipate numbers by RSVP’ing to Wanda Eby at Communitech. Thanks!

(August 2009) Summer fun on the patio

Thursday August 20, 2009
5:30 pm to… whenever!
Huether Hotel 3rd floor patio (cash bar)
59 King Street North, Waterloo
[Directions on the Huether’s website]

Join us for drinks and conversation

We’re keeping things casual for August, lounging in the (hopefully) warm sun on the Huether’s patio. If you’re interested in design or user experience, come hang out with folks who share your interest and we’ll talk shop.

RSVP required

We’ll be making a reservation under the name “UX group”, so please RSVP if you hope to attend by sending an email to Wanda Eby at Communitech.

I am IxDA. You are, too. So please support IxDA during this week's fundraiser!

This week, the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) is asking its members to chip in with a small donation to the organization. Well, that’s us folks! Please take a moment to learn about the goal of this fundraiser and then, most importantly, to make a small contribution. Through the support and generosity of IxDA (and of course Communitech, our local sponsor), the UX Group has grown from an initial experiment two years ago to a community of over 200 people — at absolutely no cost to our members.

Contributions are needed to upgrade IxDA’s technology infrastructure

This blog post by the IxDA board explains the goal of this fundraiser in detail. Here’s an overview:

For the price of a cup of coffee you can help IxDA deliver our next-generation platform to serve the needs of the interaction design community. We can’t do it without your help.

Since its inception as a mailing list in 2003, IxDA now supports over 10,000 discussion list subscribers, 80 IxDA Local Groups from around the world, an annual conference (with a regional conference on the way in South America), several budding community initiatives and over 12,000 people affiliated via LinkedIn. Despite our ambitions, our current technology infrastructure is no longer able to support our needs, nor expand to meet our future ones.

Please chip in! Visit IxDA’s website to make your contribution. It takes only a few minutes.

(June 2009) From Concept to Production: Prototyping with Expression Blend 3

Thursday June 25, 2009
5:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

See SketchFlow in Action

So, you’ve got a great design idea for your project. But how do you quickly turn conceptual design ideas into rich prototypes that are ready for production? Additionally, how do you share your design ideas with others effectively at each stage of the design process?

Come hear Qixing Zheng from Microsoft introduce a new component in Expression Blend 3, called SketchFlow. It’s a fun, flexible, and powerful way to sketch and prototype rich and dynamic interactivity in your applications. Learn how SketchFlow allows you to quickly iterate on your designs and share them with your colleagues for feedback. Previous knowledge in Expression Blend is not necessary.

About Qixing Zheng

Qixing joined Microsoft Canada as its first User Experience Advisor. In this role, she talks to schools, design communities and companies about Microsoft’s investment in UX, and finds design heroes and design stories from the community. More importantly, she works with many outstanding IT professionals to consider how user experience can impact the technology we deliver today. She graduated from UBC at the end of 2005 with a Masters degree specializing in Human-Computer Interaction.

Registration is required for this event

This event is being hosted by the Infusion Angels Innovation Centre. If you plan to attend, please visit their website and submit your registration. It’s free. Thanks, Infusion Angels!

(April 2009) UX Movie Night

Wednesday April 22, 2009
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

Movie night!

The famous "Minority Report" gestural user interface

At this month’s event, we’re turning down the lights and rolling out some munchies. Join us for an informal screening of a variety of movies about our relationship with the tools and technologies that surround us — either as designers, or as end users. We’ll view clips from commercial films as well as a good variety of online videos from sources such as YouTube.

Suggest a movie

Seen something that inspired you professionally? That got you thinking? That had you Rolling On The Floor Laughing? Bring your suggestions and we’ll get them on the playlist. If you can’t make it but have something great to share, please let us know by leaving a comment to this post.

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to join us, please send an RSVP to Wanda Eby at Communitech, so we know how much popcorn to pop.

Hope to see you there!

(March 2009) Books and Brewskies

Thursday March 19, 2009
5:30 to ~7:00 pm
The Duke of Wellington
(back room near the dartboards)
33 Erb Street West, Waterloo (Near King & Erb)
[Find the Duke on Google Maps]

Event description

Time for a laid-back, social get-together! Join us after work on March 19 for drinks, food, and lots of talk about user experience and product design. Have you read a UX-related book lately? Been to a conference? Help grease the wheels of conversation by sharing some of the ideas that have stuck with you.

Note: As you know, we’re a volunteer-run group that offers free events. In other words, please come prepared to cover your own expenses for food & drink.

RSVPs requested

If you’re planning to join us, please send an RSVP to Wanda Eby at Communitech. We have a reservation at the Duke of Wellington, so let’s do our best to get the numbers reasonably accurate.