Reality was indeed augmented at our last meeting

Daniel Iaboni delivered a wonderful intro to designing for augmented reality last week at our February meeting at Felt Lab. Thanks again to Daniel for traveling from Toronto to generously share his knowledge with us. Thanks, too, to REAP for hosting us at Felt Lab, a perfect venue for this particular event.

Daniel has made his slides available on slideshare for those of you who want to able to review them, or who missed the event.

See you next month!

February 2013: Intro to Augmented Reality with Daniel Iaboni

The last few years have seen augmented reality finally breaking into the mainstream. Designers have an exciting opportunity to create augmented reality interfaces. To do so, they need to consider not only the context of use, but also the environment in which the information is presented.

Daniel Iaboni is dedicated to creating and improving designs to provide an exceptional interaction among users, their environment and their tools. To do so, he draws upon extensive knowledge from the fields of engineering, computer science, psychology and anthropology. In this session he’ll walk us through important concepts in designing for augmented reality, including input and display technologies, current interaction techniques, and approaches to prototyping.

Daniel is currently Lead User Experience Specialist at Akendi, where he works on projects for a variety of clients.

Thursday February 21, 2013
5:30 to 7:00 pm
FELT Lab at Quarry Integrated Communications
1440 King Street North, St. Jacobs, Ontario
[Map]
Sign up now, as space is limited!

January 2013: Designing the restaurant experience

This month, we stretch our skills (and tease our taste buds) by getting an inside look at the role of design in the restaurant business. Many of the principles behind designing great experiences are universal, so there’s lots to learn by exchanging ideas with our compatriots in industries outside our normal fields of interest.

And as far as fields of interest go, it’s tough to knock great food & drink!

Jody Palubiski (Managing Partner) and Cindy Perri (Brand Guardian) of the Charcoal Group are hosting us at the newly-opened Beertown in Waterloo Town Square. Jody and Cindy will describe the goals, considerations, and challenges involved in designing the restaurant experience. They’ll cover ground such as the physical space, menus, logos and visuals, and more. Much of our time together will be open Q&A, so it’s a great chance to learn something new and to draw connections with your own design practice — regardless of the medium in which you work.

Come prepared to buy your own drink during this event, and there’s a strong chance you’ll find a nice selection of foods to accompany it…

Attendance is limited, so please register for this event!

Wednesday January 23, 2013
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Beertown Restaurant
(ask for UX Waterloo when you arrive)
Waterloo Town Square
75 King St. South
Waterloo, Ontario

December 2012 event: UX product potluck

For our December meetings we’ve featured a product potluck event in past years, and we’re resurrecting the beloved format for this month.

Our meeting on Tuesday December 18 will extend the potluck tradition with a relaxing and, almost certainly, enriching evening of conversation and bonhommie. Please join us 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.

Here’s what to expect:

• 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.

If you’re hoping to attend, please register for the event. This will help us make an appropriate reservation, as we’ll be meeting at a local pub or restaurant. Thanks! Everyone’s invited, so spread the word.

Tuesday Dec 18, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
McMullans On King
56 King Street North, Waterloo

November 2012 event: UX on agile teams

Our November event is special, in that we’re teaming up with Waterloo Agile Lean to explore how UX works in an agile environment. Working together, we’ll share our collective experiences and insights in wide-ranging discussion. Amongst the questions we hope to address:

• Are their alternatives to UX designers working an iteration ahead of developers?
• How can Agile cross-functional teams think more about user experience using tools like personas?
• How can can designers, developers and technical writer/content designer work as an integrated team?

We’re sure that you’ll have many of your own questions, and bring your own answers to the discussion. Don’t miss this great opportunity for UX stakeholders and development stakeholders to share ideas, stories from the trenches, and useful tips and strategies.

Note that once again we’re meeting on a Tuesday this month, rather than a Thursday.

Where and when

Tuesday November 27, 2012
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo

Sign up now to join the fun!

October 2012 event: Pub chat

Our uxWaterloo pub nights are very popular, as there’s plenty of opportunity to meet people, talk about UX, and generally relax in good company. Our October event plays to that popularity, and is a gathering at the Firkin at the Tannery. As usual,  there’s a shared love of user experience on tap, alongside the beer. Come on out and enjoy the fun!

Note that we’re meeting on a Tuesday this month, rather than a Thursday.

Where and when

Tuesday October 23, 2012
5:30 to 7:30 pm
Firkin at the Tannery
151 Charles St. W.
Kitchener, ON N2G 1H6

Sign up now to join the fun!

September 2012 event: Fluxible preview

As exciting as a monthly uxWaterloo event can be, the big user experience event in Waterloo Region in September is going to be Fluxible, which is happening on September 22 & 23. This very first Fluxible event features a great lineup of talks and workshops by UX experts from four continents! You may recognize speakers James Wu, Dan Szuc, and Whitney Quesenbery from uxWaterloo events. There are many more joining them for what organizers Bob Barlow-Busch and Mark Connolly describe as a UX party disguised as a conference. Plus, Fluxible has a theme song — how cool is that?

For this uxWaterloo meeting we’ll have a bit of a preview of Fluxible, with some special Fluxible guests joining us for a discussion around various UX topics. Hope you can make it out, and that you also consider registering for Fluxible.

Register for the uxWaterloo September meeting. Hope to see you there!

Where and when

Thursday September 20, 2012
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Communitech Hub, P2P Room
151 Charles St. W.
Kitchener, ON N2G 1H6

Sign up now to join the fun!

One more thing. As a special offer to uxWaterloo folks, you can register for Fluxible and receive a big $200 discount over the regular price. What a bargain! Register now!

August 2012 event: More casual chat in a pub

It’s still summertime and, as I wrote last month, the living is easy. The wireframes are jumping and the prototypes are high. Or something like that.

It’s still the perfect time to enjoy the more relaxed pace of uxWaterloo in the summer! Our August event is, once again, a gathering in a pub, where good conversation and a shared love of user experience are on tap. Come on out and enjoy the fun!

Where and when

Thursday August 16, 2012
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Firkin at the Tannery
151 Charles St. W.
Kitchener, ON N2G 1H6

Sign up now to join the fun!

Help use design to improve rural health care in Guatemala

Last month we held a design workshop to brainstorm designs for a software tool that supports rural healthcare workers. This was in support of Tula Foundation, a Canadian not-for-profit, and an organization it supports named TulaSalud.

Ray Brunsting, our guest from Tula, was quite happy with the design ideas that emerged and would like to go further. If any of you would like to continue with the design work that was started at the workshop, Ray would love to hear from you. Of course, this would be on a voluntary basis, but I can say from my own experience that working on a project like this is quite rewarding.

Can you help Tula on this design project? Please let us know, and we’ll connect you with Ray.

July 2012 Event: Casual chat in a pub

Yes, it’s summertime and, as the song goes, the living is easy. The wireframes are jumping and the prototypes are high. Or something like that.

It’s time to enjoy the more relaxed pace of uxWaterloo in the summer! Our July event is a gathering in a pub, where good conversation and a shared love of user experience are on tap. Come on out and enjoy the fun!

Where and when

Thursday July 19, 2012
5:30 to 7:30 pm
Firkin at the Tannery
151 Charles St. W.
Kitchener, ON N2G 1H6

Sign up now to join the fun!