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.

Call for Participation in Research on Work/Life Balance and Mobile Technology

Some of you may remember Sam Ladner’s presentation to UX Waterloo back in February, in which she mentioned a research project on mobile technology. Sam’s delighted to announce that she’s starting the recruitment phase of this project. More from Sam below.

Call for Participation in Research on Work/Life Balance and Mobile Technology

Are you a smartphone user? Do you want to know more about how this device is affecting our lives? We want to talk to you!

Ryerson University is seeking to recruit smartphone users to participate in a social research study on mobile technology. Hosted at the Ted Rogers School of Management, this project asks the simple question: what happens when workplace technologies like the BlackBerry come into the household? The research team is looking to recruit people who have used a smartphone for work and personal use for the last six months, preferably in the Greater Toronto Area.

The research will be publicly available. We will be sharing white papers and conference presentations with the community at large. Those interested in mobile technology will learn more about how individuals use their phones at home, the kinds of content they typically use, and what frustrates them about current software and hardware design.

All participants will remain completely anonymous.

Participants will be visited at home by a researcher, who will conduct an interview and will spend time visiting and observing the participant’s home experience with their smartphone. All participation is strictly confidential.

Recruitment will begin in April, with field work happening throughout the spring and summer. Participants from across the country will be considered, but those in Southern Ontario are preferred. The project is being lead by Dr. Sam Ladner, postdoctoral research fellow, and co-principal investigators Dr. Catherine Middleton and Dr. Ozgur Oturetken.

Learn more at mobileworklife.ca and on Twitter @mobileworklife.

(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

March Recap – Creative Thinking Hacks with Scott Berkun

Our latest event was an exciting success, bringing uxWaterloo attendees face-to-face with Scott Berkun for an unstructured and exciting lunch-hour dialogue on the theme of Creative Thinking Hacks. Scott is the author of two bestselling books, Making Things Happen (formerly titled The Art of Project Management) and The Myths of Innovation. The inspiring setting of Quarry Integrated Communications provided a backdrop for this event.

The format of the event was similar to Scott’s previous talk at uxWaterloo on The Myths of Innovation, where all of the content was based on questions from the audience.

Scott started the event off by giving a brief talk on who he was and what his opinions were on creative thinking, before opening the floor to questions from the audience. He gave advice and told stories about how creativity and ideas happen, and drew from his own experiences to entertain and teach.

Below is a selection of the many insights that Scott shared with the group.

Thanks to Scott, Communitech, and Quarry for making this event possible!

———–

Collecting, Developing, and Sharing Ideas

We all have ideas, but the difference lies in what we do with the ideas we have. As Scott described, epiphany is a consequence of thinking creatively. Maintaining creative habits makes those insights more likely and subsequently increases the likelihood of something being done with them.

Scott suggests that everyone carry around a notebook and write down their ideas when they occur. Later, you can look at those ideas and explore them further to help you understand which ones are actually good ideas.

You can also more easily develop your ideas by cultivating a group of individuals who act as good sounding boards for your ideas. They’ll be frank with you about your work, and will help you realize what questions need to be answered to fully flush out your ideas.

Creativity and Education

One of the discussions Scott led was about the focus on “right” and “wrong answers” in education.

If he could change the education system, Scott would put more control back in the hands of teachers so that experiences can be tailored to specific students and classrooms. For example, standardized curriculum levels the playing field but it averages out the high points and removes teachers’ power to do what they actually do best.

Scott also noted that education shouldn’t always be a means to a second goal (such as getting a job or getting a certain grade). We should focus on education and learning for their own intrinsic value and find places for there to be no “right” answer.

The Impact of Social Media on Innovation and Creativity

Asked what he thought the impact of social media (such as Twitter) was on creativity or innovation, Scott listed off significant inventions that somehow were invented without the internet or Twitter. We shouldn’t overemphasize the role of technology in innovation – it’s not essential, and sometimes keeps us from actually sitting down and being creative.