(July 2011) BrewUX! Free beer, free pizza, and priceless conversation

We’ve got something special on tap for UX Waterloo this summer. In both July and August, we’ll be meeting at the Red Baron Lounge, located on-site at the Brick Brewery in Uptown Waterloo. Our thanks to Brick Brewery for sponsoring this event! It’s a private gathering just for us, in which you can sample just about everything the brewery has to offer.

We’ll have a few brief presentations about UX happenings around town. And plenty of time for meeting new faces, talking shop, and raising a few glasses together.

Where and when

Tuesday July 19, 2011
5:30 to 7:30 pm
Red Baron Lounge at the Brick Brewery
(Entrance at the side of the building near the front)
181 King Street South
Waterloo, ONT
[Map]

RSVP required

You must RSVP to attend, as this is a licensed event. We’ll be checking names at the door. Sign up early before it’s sold out!

Please thank our sponsor!

Many thanks to Brick Brewery for sponsoring UX Waterloo this summer. Please visit Brick on Facebook and “Like” them. Maybe even drop a comment to let them know you appreciate their support!

June recap- Pixels Everywhere with Bob Rushby

In our June event, the uxWaterloo group had Bob Rushby speak about Digital Light.  From the Google office in Kitchener, Bob took us through the concepts that are possible when pixels are everywhere!  Digital Light is a vision of the future, where the entire world becomes a canvas for expression. 

Five years from now, Bob predicts that lighting will be transformed.  Lighting will no longer simply illuminate, but it will be turned into cheap pixels.  Pixels have already been used so you can dial from a keyboard that is projected onto your hand, doctors can see the veins of a patient, and customers can order from menus that look like they are part of the table they are sitting at!  Bob really showed us through his examples that the possibilities are endless and you can let your imagination run wild.  Check out the videos on the Baanto website to see how they have used pixels to allow multiple users interact with the same display and use this interaction with pixels as a social opportunity.

“Twists and Turns” on the Uniqa Tower, Vienna

The Uniqa Tower is a great example of how architecture can be used as art and signage.  Take a look at this video, where it looks like the tower itself is bending and turning.

Find out more about Digital Light!

Thanks again to Bob for sharing his thoughts and ideas with us.  Bob retired from Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc. in February 2011 after an exciting career leading talented teams in the creation of ground-breaking high technology products. Christie is a global leader in projection and electronic display products and has the world’s largest installed base of digital cinema projection systems. Bob is currently involved with several exciting university entrepreneurship initiatives — in particular, the University of Waterloo REAP program and the Ryerson University Digital Media Zone. He is also writing a book on the theme of Digital Light… pixels everywhere.  To find out more, please contact Bob or check out the following sites.

• Bob Rushby- @bobrushby and bob.rushby@pixelizedlight.com
• Blog: http://www.pixelizedlight.com/
• Website: http://www.pixelseverywhere.com/

May Recap- Designing for iOS devices at Monolith Interactive

In our May uxWaterloo event, Simon Woodside shared the “single screen” approach that he’s used at Monolith Interactive when building iOS products.  He believes that your users will thank you for using a single screen approach, as they will find it more discoverable and that all objects will be easily related to each other.   Popovers are useful in designs that use a single screen approach.  A popover will allow for the rest of the screen to be used, even while it is open.

During the hands-on workshop portion of this event, we received client specifications for an iPad application.  We worked in groups to come up with a single screen solution that would meet the client’s needs.  When our groups showed our wireframes and talked through our designs, we were impressed by the many different ways each group interpreted the specifications!  Then, seeing how Simon’s team designed their solution truly showed how a single screen approach can work effectively, on both mobile or tablet applications.

Thanks to Simon for sharing with our group and facilitating this fun and informative workshop!

Remember that our June event, “Pixels Everywhere!” by Bob Rushby, has been moved to the Google office.  

Hope to see you there next week!

Next event- Pixels Everywhere– Thursday June 16, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Google Waterloo
151 Charles Street West, Suite 200
Kitchener, ONT

Update: June 2011 event location changed to the Google office

The location for our next event, “Pixels Everywhere!” by Bob Rushby, has been moved to the Google office. If you haven’t yet visited The Hub, here’s your chance to check out this amazing new space!

Thursday June 16, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Google Waterloo
151 Charles Street West, Suite 200
Kitchener, ONT
[Map]

June 2011: Bob Rushby explains why pixels will soon be everywhere

Bob Rushby thinks that pixels are about to escape the bounds of their current display devices. As the recently-retired CTO of Christie Digital, he knows something about throwing pixels around, and in this month’s uxWaterloo session he’ll discuss the convergence of lighting and information display and the major effects it will have on architecture, graphic design, communications and how we live and work.

Electric lighting is used everywhere around us. It’s so ubiquitous that we are almost unaware of it. Yet the way we think about lighting is about to fundamentally change. No longer will lighting merely illuminate our desks, our walls and our buildings. Whether at home, in our workplace, or in public spaces, lighting is about to be transformed — it will communicate with us, interact with us, and help us see the world with new eyes. Pixels will be everywhere and this will have profound implications on our lives.

Bob retired from Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc. in February 2011 after an exciting career leading talented teams in the creation of ground-breaking high technology products. Christie is a global leader in projection and electronic display products and has the world’s largest installed base of digital cinema projection systems. Bob is currently involved with several exciting university entrepreneurship initiatives — in particular, the University of Waterloo REAP program and the Ryerson University Digital Media Zone. He is also writing a book on the theme of Digital Light… pixels everywhere.

Thursday June 16, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Google Waterloo
151 Charles Street West, Suite 200
Kitchener, ONT
[Map]

RSVP

(May 2011) Designing for iOS devices at Monolith Interactive

iOS devices like the Apple iPad and iPhone represent a new paradigm for interacting with powerful computers. Designing for them presents a set of exciting challenges that we’re only starting to explore.

Simon Woodside and his company, Monolith Interactive, have been building iOS products for some time now. He believes that a “single screen” approach is a the way to build successful iOS products, and he’ll share his thinking through real-world examples and a hands-on workshop. This is a chance to see and understand how Simon approaches the challenges and to learn about designing for a truly engaging mobile platform.

Thursday May 19, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo

RSVP

March Recap- 7 Minute Soapbox on User Experience

 In our March 7 Minute Soapbox event, we had uxWaterloo members share their ideas in an open format!  The only catch was that they had 7 minutes on the podium.  Our volunteers braved this challenge and shared some great insights with our group!   Notes from each session have been posted below and thank you to all of our volunteers for sharing their ideas.

 We hope to see you at tonight’s uxWaterloo event, where Tammy teWinkel shares her insights from working in usability at RIM!  For more information about tonight’s event and to register, please visit: Confessions of a qualitative girl in a quant-filled world at RIM.

Mark Connolly

 Mark shared information about the usefulness of realistic data in UI mockups.  He explained that the right time to move away from fake to realistic data in your designs all depends on the project and the audience.  Sometimes you move onto realistic data early on, to get more feedback from users in testing.  But, be aware that there is some overhead with doing realistic mockups in HTML, CSS and JavaScript. 

 Sandra Loop

 Sandra showed us how she has used PowerPoint to explain concepts.  This has been a useful technique for her, as it’s very easy to share files with team members and it is a fast way to explain a concept to a development team.  She proved that the animations that are built in with PowerPoint allow you to explore a new or unusual design problem and to work on showing possible alternatives. 

 Karen Cecile

 Karen shared a story about her parents’ adventures with technology.  She emphasized that when designing for the general market, we should always keep seniors in mind.  Seniors often have unique needs and conducting a quick interview may help you quickly understand ways to tailor a product or design to them.  

 Tom Robinson

 Tom shared his journey through his personal experiences in usability.   He explained that during school, he focused on development.  As he worked in various positions and throughout grad school, the purpose of usability became clearer and he gravitated toward a user-centered approach.  While discussing, the group agreed with Tom and thought that having usability courses available in design/development course curricula would help promote usability.

 Robert Barlow-Busch

 Bob based his talk off of Jane McGonigal’s book, “Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.”  This book outlines that real life can be changed into games.  For example, Prius has a fuel monitor that shows your fuel economy.  People change their driving behaviour and become better drivers because of this game.   Other examples of games are Runkeeper, which changes running into a game, and Chore Wars, which turns chores into quests. Overall, we should consider how games motivate us and can help us become better people!

 Maryam Ashoor

 Maryam let us know that when she was visiting the Google China site, she found that she could no longer navigate back to the www.google.com site.  She also mentioned that you should test to see if your webpages are translated by search engines.  You should take cultural factors like colours and text into consideration when building a webpage that will be globally accessible.

(April 2011) Confessions of a qualitative girl in a quant-filled world at RIM

In recent uxWaterloo events we’ve heard from Adam Baker on how Google uses large-value sampling to drive design decisions and  heard Sam Ladner discuss the merits of qualitative vs. quantitative methods. Now, come and experience some of Tammy teWinkel’s reality at RIM in trying to deliver qualitative user experience insight to quantitative-based communities. Can qualitative data be used with quantitative data? What works; what doesn’t – for the corporation? What works, what doesn’t – for the user experience group? Ultimately, what works for the user?

Tammy is a user experience researcher, currently enjoying professional life as a User Experience Architect at RIM. Tammy has been with RIM for three years, but before that has had the opportunity to work in a number of different environments including software development companies, agencies, and, as a consultant with small interaction design firms. That experience has provided the opportunity to practice user experience across a wide variety of applications, services, and technologies providing deep insight into the practice and process of making software more usable for people.

Tuesday April 19, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo

RSVP

(March 30, 2011)- Design Meets Efficiency in Waterloo Mixer

uxWaterloo’s very own Robert Barlow-Busch is going to be speaking at next week’s  Design Meets Efficiency in Waterloo Mixer!
 
Pivot Design Group is hosting this event and it will be a great chance to discuss discuss how we as designers can really begin to think about designing more efficiently. Network among colleagues and friends in the Waterloo area and share in open discussions with industry professionals. With 5 ideas and 5 images, prominent, local speakers will discuss the idea of Efficiency in Design as it relates to design in the 2010’s.

Please check out the details for this event and we hope to see you there!
 
List of speakers & Registration: http://designmeetsefficiency.eventbrite.com/
 
When: Wednesday, March 30,  5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Where: Caesar Martini’s – 140 University Ave. W, Unit 1A, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

(March 2011) 7-Minute Soapbox on User Experience

Tuesday March 22, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

An evening of bite-sized ideas

This month, we’re harking back to our roots to repeat one of the very first events we held in 2007: the 7-minute soapbox. At this fast-paced event, we’re giving people a chance to share ideas about UX — for no more than seven minutes each.

If you prefer simply to take it all in, you’re welcome to participate as an audience member. But of course you’re sure to have the most fun by stepping onto the soapbox yourself!

Format

You get up to seven minutes on the soapbox to talk about anything related to user experience. At seven minutes: BZZZZZZT! You’re done. After each soapbox talk, we’ll spend a few minutes in discussion or Q&A.

Visual aids are not required, but feel free to use them if you’d like. We’ll have a laptop hooked up to a projector and speakers. If you have a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation, bring it along on a USB drive or email it to uxgroup@gmail.com in advance. The laptop will also be connected to the Internet if you’d like to demonstrate something online. Available browsers include Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.

Topics

Anything goes, as long as it’s related to user experience. Obvious choices might include design (product, Web, interaction, industrial), usability, and information architecture, but please don’t feel limited by those examples. Our field draws from so many disciplines that we couldn’t possibly list them all.

Want some ideas? Here’s a short list to get you thinking:

• Question something you’ve read recently.
• Make observations about current trends.
• Predict the future.
• Share a design problem you’re facing.
• Rant about a device you don’t like.
• Effuse about your favorite product.
• Show some results from a usability test.
• Relate an experience from work.
• Ask the crowd for advice on improving something.
• Perform an interpretive dance on applying game mechanics to enterprise software. (Someone please do this, it’d be a real crowd pleaser.)

No sales pitches, please!

Besides the 7-minute time limit, that’s our only other rule. Please do not sell anything. The goal of this event is to share ideas.

You’re welcome to demonstrate something you’ve worked on. In fact, we love hearing from each other in this way. But please do so in the spirit of teaching or sharing ideas: use your work to illustrate a more general theme or issue about UX.

RSVP and grab a soapbox timeslot