(February 2008) Interaction08 Redux

Wednesday February 13, 2008
5:00 to 6:30 pm
Please note the DIFFERENT DATE AND LOCATION this month:
Terapath Inc. (That name is changing to “Primal Fusion”, as noted on the door sign)
258 King Street North, Waterloo
Unit #7 (upstairs from University Pharmacy and King Tin Chinese Restaurant)
Parking: in spots around the side and back marked Terapath, on nearby side streets, or in diagonal spots in front of the building next to the sidewalk
[Map]

Event description

If you’re unable to attend the Interaction08 conference starting February 8, never fear! At least three of our group’s members will be there and next week, right after their return, you’ll be able to experience the conference vicariously. Sandra Loop of Sybase, Navid Sadikali of Agfa, and Robert Barlow-Busch of Terapath will serve up a buffet of highlights, anecdotes, lessons learned, and practical tips gleaned from the conference’s many sessions.

Interaction08 is a landmark event. It’s the first annual conference of the Interaction Design Association, one of the organizations with whom our group is affiliated. The conference has attracted 250 designers from across the world, with keynotes from experts such as Alan Cooper and Bill Buxton (Go Canada!). Check out the conference website for a glimpse of the topics that Sandra, Navid, and Robert are likely to cover.

If you’re attending Interaction08 and would like to share your experiences too, please let us know!

As usual, this event is free and open to anyone who’d like to attend.

(January 2008) Eye-Tracking Forum: "What should we make of this?"

Thursday January 17, 2008
5:00 to 6:30 pm
Please note we’re NOT at the Accelerator Centre this month:
Quarry Integrated Communications
Brand Experience Lab (Ground Floor)
180 King Street South, Waterloo
[Map]

Event description

Has eye-tracking “crossed the chasm” from cognitive science to a mainstream
professional tool for understanding and improving user experience with
digital interfaces? Is it a god-send or a gimmick? And has the usability
field seen such a polarizing discussion since the bickering began on sample
sizes?

This informal event will begin with a brief presentation on how eye-tracking
is currently being applied in Quarry’s usability practice, followed by a
panel discussion including practitioners and academics on the potentials and
pratfalls of this technique.

Confirmed speakers

• Dan Skeen, Quarry
• Blair Nonnecke, University of Guelph
• Glen Drummond, Quarry

User Experience Design at Microsoft: Rescheduled to February 2008

Originally scheduled for November/07 but canceled due to weather, we’ve rescheduled Qixing Zeng’s presentation to February 21, 2008.

RSVPs requested for Roger Martin's visit on December 20

We’ve reconfirmed with Roger Martin that he’ll visit with us on December 20, so be sure to mark that date in your calendar. Roger will be speaking about “Design Thinking: The Next Competitive Advantage.” Click for more details such as directions and Roger’s abstract.Everyone is invited to this free event. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Wanda Eby at Communitech so we can gauge attendance and book an appropriately-sized room at the Accelerator Centre.

Seminar: Towards Usable and Useful Multi-Touch Systems

Thanks to Stacey Scott, Assistant Professor in Systems Design Engineering at UW, for the heads-up about this upcoming seminar.

Time and Place

Fri, Dec 14, 10:00-11:00amUniversity of Waterloo, J.R. Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall (RCH), Rm 309Speaker: Daniel Wigdor, University of Toronto

Abstract

In this talk, I will describe our early-stages work seeking to begin to move past the “wow” factor for multi-touch devices, towards systems which are truly usable by and useful to their users. I will describe our table-centric interactive space, and our efforts to apply the results and techniques of various fields of psychology to build a usable multi-surface collaborative environment. I will also describe a new paradigm for multi-touch, the two-sided input device, and our table and portable implementations of this class of system. Finally, I will describe the next steps of our project, including large display interaction for focused multi-user collaboration.

About the Speaker

Daniel Wigdor is a Ph.D. candidate at the DGP lab in the department of computer science at the University of Toronto, and a fellow at Harvard’s Initiative in Innovative Computing (IIC). Since 2005, he has worked at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (MERL) as part of the DiamondSpace project, working to extend tabletop collaboration through the addition of ancillary vertical displays.

UX Social Event, Thursday Nov 29

Since last week’s presentation was canceled due to bad weather, we’ve decided to organize an informal get-together for anyone interested in talking about User Experience over a drink or snack.

Join us this Thursday, November 29 at 5:30 pm at:

Wildcraft
425 King Street North, Waterloo
885-0117

We’ve reserved a table in the lounge/bar area, so look for the rowdy group getting all worked up over product design, marketing, usability, and so on…

November 2007 event CANCELLED due to weather

We’re being hit by the season’s first pseudo-winter-storm today and, as a result, have decided to cancel today’s talk on “User Experience at Microsoft.” Our presenter, Qixing Zheng, needs to travel from Mississauga, which is a dicey proposition given today’s weather.

We’ll reschedule Qixing for January or February. In the meantime, mark December 20 on your calendar for our visit from Roger Martin.

Still interested in getting together during November?

We could arrange an informal UX Cocktail hour at a local bar or restaurant. If you like this idea, please fire a note to the group coordinators at uxgroup@gmail.com and we’ll announce plans should they be made.

Slides from October's event "The UX Design Process: Unplugged"

Had a visit recently from an appliance repair technician? If so, you’ll appreciate how even this profession has gone digital, with devices for ordering parts and processing invoices from inside customers’ homes. At last week’s event, Sandra Loop of Sybase iAnywhere led a discussion about the process of designing for the user experience. And to make things interesting, she grounded our discussion in a case study: design the user interface of a new mobile device for appliance repair technicians.

Below, you’ll find Sandra’s slides. They include a list of UX-related activities that we identified and discussed (some at length) during the presentation. Thanks again for a fun and very interactive session, Sandra!

[slideshare id=143142&doc=ux-design-process-unplugged-1193147903555623-4&w=425]

DesignCampWaterloo on November 8

November 8 is World Usability Day. If you’d like to participate locally, look no further than DesignCampWaterloo on the UW campus from 2:00 to 7:00 pm. Details follow.

What is DesignCampWaterloo?

DesignCampWaterloo is an informal, open-forum opportunity for student, professional and academic enthusiasts to gather, talk, and show off their work to like-minded folks. If you’ve got digital designs – web, interface, or graphic – we want to see ‘em. If you don’t, we still want to see you! Being an open forum event, DesignCamp is as much about the audience as it is about the presenters.

This year, DesignCamp is proud to be hosted by World Usability Day 2007 and to welcome WIHIR as our Design Challenge presenters.

DesignCamp is a great opportunity to show off innovative work, get feedback from the audience, and connect with fellow designers. Plus, it’s a great chance for students to meet potential employers from some of Waterloo’s best companies.

When is DesignCampWaterloo?

Thursday, November 8, 2007
2:00 pm – 7:00 pm
University of Waterloo
Student Life Centre

How much does DesignCampWaterloo cost?

Nothing! DesignCampWaterloo is free and open to everyone who is interested. (Really! Everyone!)

8th Annual Human Factors Inter-University Workshop

The region’s hopping these days with UX-related events. Aside from our own monthly events, there’s Design Camp Waterloo on November 8 (planned nicely to coordinate with World Usability Day) and now the Human Factors Inter-University Workshop at UW. Here are the details as provided by Jennifer Jeon of the Advanced Interface Design Lab (AIDL).

Description

We would like to invite you to join us at the 8th Annual Human Factors Inter-University Workshop hosted by the University of Waterloo. This workshop is an informative yet informal event held yearly, bringing students and researchers together from local area institutions to share research progress and ideas in human factors engineering.

Date and location

November 17, 2007
9:30 am to 5:30 pm
Centre for Environmental and Information Technologies
EIT Room 1105
University of Waterloo

Registration

Registration for this full-day workshop is free! You just need to register by sending an email to iuw2007waterloo@gmail.com with your name and affiliation by October 12, 2007.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship opportunities are available. Please contact us by email if your company is interested in sponsoring this event.