What's the state of UX in Waterloo Region today?

Is it in its infancy? Is it maturing into a well-practiced and well-respected discipline? Is it all grown up? Is it all these things at once? Where is it going?

Come on out and talk with fellow UXers about your take on the state of UX in Waterloo Region. Bring some stories that shine light on your experience and that can help others better understand where UX stands.

This month we’ll be meeting on Thursday May 21 from 5:30pm–7:00pm in the comfortable upstairs lounge at Whole Lotta Gelata in Uptown Waterloo (120 King St S, Waterloo).

If you’re hoping to join us, please send an RSVP to Wanda Eby at Communitech, so we know how many couches and chairs to commandeer.

Hope to see you there!

UX Flicks Mix

UX Movie Night, from the back of the room

The UX movie night was a blast. We had popcorn, peanuts, and soft drinks, just like at a real movie theatre (thanks Wanda and Communitech!). The movies were all found online and provided laughs, insights, and even nostalgia. This lists below are almost certainly out of order, but provide a record of our evening of enlightenment.

Here are the videos that we watched:

• Paul Bennett: Design is in the details
• James Howard Kunstler: The tragedy of suburbia
• Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo
• Medieval helpdesk with English subtitles
• The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)
• Information R/evolution
• Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry: Unveiling the “Sixth Sense,” game-changing wearable tech
• Knowledge navigator
• The Future of The Web Part 1 of 4 Mozilla Labs Aurora Concept Browser Video by Adaptive Path
• Microsoft Surface Parody
• Microsoft iPod

And here’s a bonus list of movies that we didn’t get to:

• 10 Minute Mock Prototyping
• BumpTop Feature Walkthrough
• AT&T 1993 “You Will” Ads
• Talks  David Merrill: Siftables, the toy blocks that think

(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.

(February 2009) The Myths of Innovation with Scott Berkun

Wednesday February 25, 2009
5:00 to 5:30 pm: refreshments and networking
5:30 to 7:00 pm: Scott’s presentation
Research in Motion
RIM Theatre #4
Corner of Columbia and Phillip Streets in Waterloo
[View the RIM 4 entrance on Google Maps]

We’re shifting this month’s meeting to a different date to accommodate a special guest. Our thanks to Scott Berkun for adjusting his travel plans to pay us this visit. Thanks too to Communitech and Infusion Angels for covering the cost of this event, and to RIM for their generous donation of the RIM 4 Theatre due to a scheduling conflict at the Accelerator Centre.

You won’t want to miss this! Hope to see you there.

Event description

Much of what we know about innovation is wrong. Scott Berkun takes us through the history of innovation, dispelling the mythologies we’ve constructed about how we got here. This talk will help you to recognize the myths, understand their popularity, and how to use the truth of innovations past to help you in your work today.

About Scott Berkun

Scott is an author and public speaker for hire. He worked as a manager at Microsoft from 1994-2003, on projects including (v1-5 of) Internet Explorer, Windows and MSN. His work as a writer and public speaker has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired magazine and on National Public Radio. He has taught at the University of Washington, blogs for Harvard Business, and has appeared as an innovation expert on CNBC and MSNBC.

He is the author of two bestselling books, Making Things Happen (formerly titled The Art of Project Management) and The Myths of Innovation, a book about the true lessons we can learn from the masters on creativity and managing innovation. He’s an excellent speaker for hire, and frequently performs interactive talks, workshops, and courses for organizations, conferences and the occasional living room couch.

Scott grew up in Queens NYC, studied design, philosophy and computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, graduating with a B.S. in Logic and Computation (’94). He currently lives somewhere deep in the woods outside of Seattle, Washington.

RSVPs required

If you’re planning to join us, please send an RSVP to Wanda Eby at Communitech.

Find out what you missed at last month's Product Potluck

Qixing Zheng has just posted a summary of last month’s Product Potluck over on the UX Connection Blog. Gordon Varney penned the summary and photos were provided by the people whose products were mentioned. Thanks, everyone! Here are a few snippets from the summary:

Books have been around for so many years that the kinks have universally been worked out. Attempts to “improve” the classic norms are generally disastrous: we expect page numbers to be on the outside edge, for example…

These frames are made from spring steel and are incredibly flexible and apparently virtually indestructible. They have no hinge per se and can be easily twisted apart and restored (with a practiced flick of the wrist.)…

The design’s affordances communicated well what you should do to fasten or unfasten it. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was that the clasp itself is very small…

Talk then moved on to a sushi knife, side tracked to Apple and Steve Jobs, and somehow ended up with a demonstration of the latest RIM Blackberry…

Want to learn more about Agile Development and User Experience? Head to Toronto…

Last November, we had a full house for Declan Whelan’s talk on the intersection of Agile and UX. If you’re hungry for more, check out these two upcoming events in Toronto. Thanks to @meredi, coordinator of the Toronto IxDA group, for bringing these to our attention!

January 19: IxDA Toronto Discussion Panel on Agile & UX

For the latest information, monitor IxDA Toronto’s Google Groups forum.

January 20: Agile Methods and User Centered Design: The Common Denominators

8.00am – 9.30am
Tuesday 20 January 2009
Park Hyatt Toronto Hotel
4 Avenue Road
Cost: FREE
Learn more and register

ThoughtWorks’ User Experience Expert, Dave Robertson, and senior business analyst, John Johnston, will discuss the subject of marrying Agile and User Centered Design best practices.

One of the most important ways to create valuable software is to empower people. Agile practices empower development teams and their customers to create software that delivers real value for the business. User centered design (UCD) practices empower designers to create useful, usable and compelling experiences for people who use software. Agile and UCD are highly complimentary, yet many practitioners still struggle with integrating these practices and there is a common impression that agile and UCD donít work well together. Too many agile projects produce poor user interface and too many user experience projects run over time and budget.

There is a better way. Agile methods and UCD share goals and values — a commitment to iteration, value and quality are examples of common denominators that form a foundation on which designers and developers can integrate these practices successfully. But they must be willing to challenge preconceptions about their methods, deliverables and roles to succeed.

(January 2009) Product Potluck Reloaded

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

Event description

Last month, just before Christmas, a few brave souls ventured out to the Accelerator Centre despite the beginnings of a major snowstorm. We swapped stories and got hands-on with some fun and frustrating products — and had such a good time that everyone agreed we should repeat the event in January.

So if you missed December’s get-together, please join us on January 22 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 moments to introduce your product to everyone and describe what you love or hate about it.
• Be prepared to provide a few words or short phrases that describe your experience in using the product. We’ll collect these words throughout the evening and produce a Wordle tag cloud to illustrate the themes that emerged in our potluck.
• If the product you want to share isn’t something you can physically bring to the event (like an airplane, or a printing press, or a website), then bring something that illustrates the product. If you’d like to share software or a website, consider printing a screenshot. Alternatively, a laptop, projector, and Internet connection will be available.

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to join us, please send an RSVP to Wanda Eby at Communitech. This helps us to better anticipate turnout and plan accordingly.

Hope to see you there!

(December 2008) Product Potluck

Thursday December 18, 2008
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

‘Tis the season to share the joy — and even (gasp!) the grief

Join us on December 18 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!

A few guidelines and tips:

• You’ll have a few moments to introduce your product to everyone and describe what you love or hate about it.
• Be prepared to provide a few words or short phrases that describe your experience in using the product. We’ll collect these words throughout the evening and produce a Wordle tag cloud to illustrate the themes that emerged in our potluck.
• If the product you want to share isn’t something you can physically bring to the event (like an airplane, or a printing press, or a website), then bring something that illustrates the product. If you’d like to share software or a website, consider printing a screenshot. Alternatively, a laptop, projector, and Internet connection will be available.

A potluck without food? Well, hopefully not.

We’re aiming to make this a fun and informal event. Nothing loosens up a crowd like tasty treats, so feel welcome to inject a bit of traditional potluck into this event by bringing along a food item to share. Now, to be clear, food contributions are not required! Please don’t hesitate to join us if you’re unable to bring anything edible. Everyone understands this could be a challenge, given that we’re meeting at the end of the work day. But if you are able to bring something… well, can you imagine a better way to make new friends? 🙂

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to join us, please send an RSVP to Wanda Eby at Communitech. This helps us to better anticipate turnout and plan accordingly.

4 tensions between Agile development methods and User Experience Design

In last month’s workshop on Agility and User Experience, Declan Whelan identified four tensions that teams may struggle with when integrating agile and UX. The crowd split into groups to discuss these tensions and explore some ideas for managing them.

Many thanks to @ericamhc for taking the following notes from each group’s brief presentation — and for sharing them with everyone here.

Tension 1: Advocating for users vs. stakeholders.

First recognize that stakeholders = users. Each are important and must be satisfied to achieve business success.

Investigate and express people’s assumptions about business goals and user goals. Connections will be clearer when both of these elements are understood well.

Explicitly connect user needs to business goals. Avoid advocating for user needs that don’t serve business goals, because they won’t be considered valuable. This doesn’t mean that “usability” should be sacrificed: it means that we need to express the value of improved usability in terms of business goals.

Consider employing user stories (and other methods such as personas) to represent users as “real people”. While you need not formalize these tools, you can sketch them up to help the team connect product and feature ideas back to the needs of users.

Encourage stakeholders to observe usability tests. This brings to life how important usability is to customer satisfaction — and ultimately to metrics such as return on investment.

Tension 2: Balancing technology vs. usability

Take inspiration from popular and effective interfaces that demonstrate strong technology and usability. Our example was Google Maps: while your interface need not mirror these examples directly, they can provide ideas and concepts of what works well and what can be improved upon.

Make key functions simple, especially when constraints of budget and time exist. Focus on the most important and most often-used tasks to ensure they are as simple as possible.

Make interface methods transparent and instinctive. Strive to reduce cognitive load by understanding how people think. Resources: Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things and Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think.

Encourage developers to observe usability tests. This can be a valuable feedback loop in the agile process. Usability tests are excellent for highlighting the impact of interface design issues.

Tension 3: Designing up front vs. just in time.

When considering whether to produce documentation at the beginning of a project or just-in-time as you go, consider drafting high-level mock-ups broken into smaller components. Components should be easy to edit and update in response to changing priorities and lessons learned. Take advantage of existing frameworks or tools, even low-fidelity choices such as whiteboards and magnetic interface elements.

Keep teams in physical proximity so discussions are easily joined by other members. This encourages frequent communication and collaboration, which is essential when up-front deliverables aren’t provided. Consider using Skype or other web meeting tools in case you cannot physically be close.

Try building low fidelity mock-ups and prototypes. Consider what tools will meet your needs in the simplest and quickest ways. Paper prototypes and quickly-sketched personas can be very effective, even if they’re never formalized as artifacts. Consider whiteboard sketches, Post-Its, JavaScript frameworks… whatever you think will work. Some people feel that wireframing tools such as Visio may be too detailed and not creative enough for exploring exciting new interface ideas, so don’t let your tools restrict you.

Tension 4: Specifying what to build vs. how to build it.

Keep the vision of what you’re building in mind: focus on the Cathedral, not the bricks. Define the “what” at a high level before deciding upon details of “how” (technologies, designs, etc.). If possible, complete the vision for your Cathedral before the Agile development process begins.

Open communications right from the beginning and make an effort to keep those communications open. Camaraderie is key. Team-building exercises can be instrumental in helping members to communicate, whether they’re designers or developers.

Consider use cases, user stories, and other very lightweight deliverables. However, spending time on them too early or making them specific in terms of tasks can prevent team members from learning as they go throughout the process. These must not restrict you or take up too much time. Jeff Patton suggests a tool called story maps, which can help teams keep their sights on the bigger picture even as they get busy with bringing the details to life.