(April 2010) UX Show and Tell

Monday April 19, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 (Then drinks afterwards if you’re interested!)
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

A chance to share our work and learn from each other

This month we’re hosting our first UX Show and Tell, an event that’s become fairly popular with other IxDA and UX-related groups around the world. It’s no wonder, as it’s quite a lot of fun and is a great way to learn from each other.

Bring examples of anything from your work: research artifacts, personas, sketches, wireframes, design comps, prototypes, documents… anything goes. Tell us a challenge you faced. Or show us a problem you solved. Bring a question you have, or simply show off something you’re proud of.

We’ll keep things brief, so please choose only one or two pages from that 5-pound design specification. 🙂

Do I NEED to bring something to show?

No, it’s not required that you bring something to show. But we certainly encourage you do so, as you’ll be surprised how much fun it can be. Remember, you don’t have to show a lot. Even a single screenshot can be plenty. And yes, you DO have something that others would find interesting or valuable!

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to attend, please click here to RSVP via Communitech. As usual, everyone’s welcome to join us, so spread the word!

Join us for informal drinks and chitchat afterwards

After the event ends at 7:00, we’re planning to get together at a nearby pub or restaurant. If this sounds like fun, just hang out for a few minutes afterwards while we see who’s interested and decide where to go.

Like Tabletop Interfaces? You can make your own!

In last Thursday’s March UX Group meeting, Dr. Stacey Scott spoke to us about the exciting projects that she and her team are working on with tabletop interfaces. She brought us through the history of tabletop interfaces and showed us that there has been a large amount of work that brought us from the earliest prototypes, to what we’ve seen with more mainstream products like Microsoft Surface and the SMART Table.

Imagine playing Risk, but on a tabletop interface!

This video shows some the amazing projects that Dr. Scott and her team in the Collaborative Systems Laboratory at the University of Waterloo have been working on. They are focussing on applications for tabletop interfaces in two main areas: 1) military command and control operations  and 2) digital board gaming. One day, the army or navy might be using these systems and we might be able to enjoy digitalized versions of strategy board games (like Risk and Pax Romana) on our own kitchen tables!

Want to build your own tabletop interface?

Well, if you can’t wait and want to try building your own interactive tabletop, you’re in luck! Contact Professor Michael Haller’s Media Interaction Lab in Austria, from which you can order the same kit that Dr. Scott’s team uses for their work. Order the special grid paper and pens, install a projector, set it all up on any table that you have lying around and voila… you’ll be able to tinker with your own tabletop interface!  If you have any luck, you can enter in the SMART Multitouch Application Contest and compete against other developers who are working on surface applications.

Join the new IxDA Waterloo site!

In other news, we have a new IxDA Waterloo site!  Check out the link to see more information, learn about other IxDA events, and gain access to more resources about design and user experience. While there, we encourage you to join IxDA (it’s free) and indicate your membership with IxDA Waterloo. We’re currently looking into ways to combine our current UX group blog with this new IxDA site.

Send us your ideas for future events

The UX group planning commitete brainstormed after last Thursday’s event and we came up with some great ideas for future events. We plan to continue the tradition of “UX drinks” after our monthly events, so we can get together to chat in a more social atmosphere. If you have any thoughts or ideas, please leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

(March 2010) Next Generation Tabletop Interfaces

Thursday, March 18, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

“One day, your computer will be a big-ass table.”

As the above parody so hilariously illustrates, we have yet see tabletop interfaces in every home. We’re at least a few years away from finding them in Best Buy or Future Shop. However, specialized markets for these devices are indeed emerging — and new applications are on the horizon. This month, Stacey Scott will overview some of the digital tabletop research being conducted in the Collaborative Systems Laboratory at the University of Waterloo. She’ll focus on two specific application areas: military command and control operations, and digital board gaming.

Even before Microsoft announced the Surface system in 2007, the Human-Computer Interaction community was actively researching digital tabletop technologies since Pierre Wellner proposed the DigitalDesk in 1991. Yet only recently have hardware and software advances begun to make digital tabletops a feasible technology for real-world markets. Innovations in operating systems (e.g., Microsoft 7), development environments (e.g., Windows Presentation Foundation), and input technologies (e.g., FTIR and TouchCo “multitouch” technologies) are enabling a move beyond proof-of-concept tabletop systems. We’re also well beyond simple demonstrations of new interface metaphors and interaction techniques for manipulating and sharing digital photos.

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to attend, please help us anticipate numbers by registering here RSVP’ing to Wanda Eby at Communitech. Thanks!

About the speaker

Stacey Scott is an Assistant Professor of Human Systems Engineering in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Scott received her Ph.D. in Computer Science (specializing in Human-Computer Interaction and Computer-Supported Collaboration) from the University of Calgary in 2005. She received her B.Sc. in Computing Science and Mathematics from Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS) in 1997. She completed two years of postdoctoral studies in the Humans and Automation Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA) from 2005-2007, where she developed awareness technologies to facilitate collaborative decision-making in time-critical military command and control operations.

Dr. Scott’s graduate research focused on understanding collaborative tabletop work practices with traditional media and developing interface design requirements for digital tabletop platforms. She is now combining this previous theoretical and high-level requirements work with the applied research experience gained in her postdoc to pursue the development of digital tabletop systems that support real-world collaboration in complex task domains. In general, her research interests include computer-supported collaboration, large-screen displays, interface and interaction design, and information visualization.

(September 2009) Design Interactionary: Get hands-on and have crazy fun with a series of extreme design challenges!

Thursday September 17, 2009
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

In February of this year, we enjoyed a visit from Scott Berkun, who filled the RIM Theatre for a lively discussion of the myths of innovation. This month, Scott’s with us again in spirit as we kick off the 2009-2010 season with a fun event that he first imagined almost 10 years ago: the design interactionary.

What is a design interactionary?

In a design interactionary, small teams of typically 4 people work together on solving a design problem. The catch? You have only 10 minutes. The pressure of producing a completed design concept in only 10 minutes is, as you might guess, quite insane. But it’s also insanely fun!

This event was originally designed to take place on-stage during large conferences. Audience members could witness design teams work through their challenges live, one team after another. Judges would score each team’s efforts and declare a winner. If you’re curious to learn more, check out this essay on Scott’s website.

How we’re adapting the interactionary format

We’re changing the event format slightly, to make it more suitable for a smaller group in which everyone can participate. Our plan is to form teams of 3 or 4 people. We’ll still get only 10 minutes per design challenge, but the teams will work simultaneously. There’ll be no scoring and we’ll have no judges aside from other participants, since we’ll be presenting our final work to each other.

We hope to complete at least 3 design challenges. They’ll be fun and won’t require any specialized knowledge, so everyone is welcome to participate!

Want to suggest a design challenge?

If you’ve got a great idea for a design challenge, please email it to uxgroup (at) gmail (dot) com. We’ll keep the challenges secret until the last minute!

RSVPs requested

If you’re hoping to attend, please help us anticipate numbers by RSVP’ing to Wanda Eby at Communitech. Thanks!

Video of Scott Berkun's February 2009 talk in Waterloo

Last February Scott Berkun was in Waterloo and gave an entertaining talk to a full house of designers, developers, and anyone else interested in hearing about Scott’s experiences. The result was a talk in which the audience engaged in a wide-ranging discussion with the speaker. UX Group stalwart Henry Chen has uploaded a video of the event. Enjoy! (Sorry about the lack of embedding. Couldn’t seem to make it work!)

[Vimeo http://vimeo.com/6249357]

(September 2008) "Innovation in Action" co-hosted with the Infusion Angels

We’re kicking off the 2008 UX season with a bang! Join us on September 30 for an event co-hosted with the Infusion Angels — where you’ll not only hear first-hand about Microsoft’s redesign of Office, but will get several chances to win over $3000 in prizes. Seating is limited so be sure to RSVP soon.

Tuesday September 30, 2008
4:30 to 7:30 pm
Accelerator Centre
Main foyer
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

Event description

Poster for the Innovation in Action event

Get inspired by two case studies of innovation in action:

• First we’ll hear from Jensen Harris about the thinking and design process behind Microsoft’s new Ribbon user interface, introduced in Office 2007. Jensen is Group Program Manager of the Office UX Team and was a key designer of the Ribbon, so he’s able to speak from personal experience about what it was like to design something that’s now used by millions of people.
• Next, the creative design team at Infusion Development takes the stage to talk about their work with Microsoft Surface, the interactive table that ushered in a new wave of commercial development in multi-touch (or NUI) devices. They will present demos of Surface applications they’ve built for clients in hospitality, retail, and government, discussing their designs and the challenges in building usable interfaces for this relatively new technology.

RSVPs required

Given the cool topics, the free food, and the great prizes, we’re likely to have a full house at the Accelerator Centre. Please RSVP if you plan to attend. To RSVP, send an email to Kayla Spiess at Infusion Angels.

(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.