May 2015: UX book club returns with Indi Young

Indi Young has become a bit of a UX celebrity around these parts. Her empathy workshop at the region’s premier UX conference, Fluxible, followed by a D2L sponsored lunch and learn left us all wanting more. So, we’ve decided to go get some more!

We’ve selected her latest book, Practical Empathy, as the topic for our May meeting. Anyone at all involved in developing a product needs to have a solid understanding of its users and empathy is a tool that can help develop that understanding. It’s a mindset that focuses on people, helping to reveal their thinking patterns and perspectives. The book focuses on how to gather and compare these patterns to make better decisions, improve your strategy, and collaborate successfully.

But wait — there’s more! We will discuss the book as a group for the first portion of the evening and then Indi will join us live from San Francisco for the last part. Come prepared with questions, or just come looking for answers.

There are many locations to buy this book, including Amazon.ca, or Rosenfeld Media. (Psst…if you came to Fluxible and *still* haven’t used your free ebook coupon for Rosenfeld Media, now’s a good time to redeem it!)

Hope to see all of you soon!

Thursday May 21st, 2015
7:00 to 8:30 pm
Boltmade Offices
Waterloo, Ontario

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January 2015: Design is kids play at UX BookClub

A new year is fast approaching, and with it comes new UX Book Club meetups, topics to discuss and colleagues to meet! We’re excited to let you know that our next UX Book Club meetup will be on Thursday January 15th, 2015.

To kick off the 2015 series, we’ve selected a fun read that focuses on something completely different from previous books: Design for Kids by Debra Levin Gelman (@dgelman).

Debra’s book discusses how design changes when your users are kids. How do they interact with and understand technology? What special considerations should you take into account when your product will be used by kids? How should you change your UX practice and methodologies?

Many of our interactions with children will have helped us form our own ideas about how to design for kids. Debra’s writings and our own anecdotal experiences should fuel an interesting and thoughtful discussion. We expect this will be a great one!

There are many locations to buy this book, including Amazon.ca, or buy a hardcopy or e-book from Rosenfeld Media. (Psst! If you came to Fluxible, now is a great time to use that free ebook coupon for Rosenfeld Media!)

Please register at Meetup.com for this free event

Remember, we’re now using Meetup.com to manage our monthly sessions. Join us there!

Thursday January 15, 2015
7:00 – 9:00pm
Boltmade Inc.
187 King St North
2nd Floor
Waterloo, ON
N2J 1R1

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