Calgary User Experience Group

UE-Group Meeting - November 2005: World Usability Day Presentation - Morae

2005-10-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

Calgary UE November Meeting - World Usability Day Presentation - Morae

Presenters:

Arif Hirani, Director of Research and Analytics, Critical Mass
Jason Kumugai, Regional Manager, Alberta, Greenley and Associates
Mike Kujansuu, TechSmith

Date & Time: Thursday, November 3rd - 6:00 PM
Location: RM T107, Mount Royal College, 4825 Richard Rd SW
Parking: There is tons of pay parking at MRC
Map: Link to Mapquest: http://tinyurl.com/cc8yx

“Why doesn’t this work better? Why can’t this be easier?” World Usability Day is for all the people who’ve ever asked questions like these. For the first time in history, people around the world will be focused on the answer – usability.

On November 3, 2005 a worldwide series of events will promote awareness of the benefits of usability engineering and user-centered design. Events are planned in more than 70 cities in 35 countries. To help celebrate World Usability Day at Mount Royal College we are hosting a demonstration of TechSmith’s Morae – Usability Testing Software.

Morae is a single, collaborative software solution that gives you the power to test, analyze and understand the "why" behind customer experience:

Why users exited a Web site
Why users abandoned their shopping cart without buying
Why users were frustrated enough with a software application to make a costly call to the support team

With this information, you can make key design changes to enhance usability and improve user satisfaction, without the limitations of traditional usability testing.

Group Meeting - Oct: VR CAVE at ICT

2005-10-12T09:21:00.000-07:00

Calgary UE October Meeting - VR CAVE at the ICT Building
Date & Time: Wednesday, October 26th - 4:45 PM
Location: ICT Building - University of Calgary, 856 Campus Place NW, Calgary (see meeting instructions below)
Parking: There is a small parking lot on the north side of the ICT Building and other parking locations scattered around the campus.
Map: Link to Mapquest: http://tinyurl.com/bdq2a

Dr. Peter Dawson, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary and Dr. Richard Levy, Faculty of Environmental Design, will share their work in virtual reality and visualization and offer a tour of the University of Calgary's VR CAVE facility..

Dr. Dawson and Dr. Levy are involved in a unique collaboration involving the construction of 3D computer models of traditional Inuit architecture. "We have recently completed a virtual computer model of a Thule whalebone house from the Canadian Arctic. In order to accomplish this, we used laser scanning technology to scan a North Atlantic Right Whale skeleton on display at the New England Aquarium in Boston, MA." The result is a fascinating look at how virtual reality can be used as a visualization tool in humanities research.

Learn more here: https://webdisk.ucalgary.ca/~pcdawson/public_html/Web%20Page/index.html#Research_Interests

Following our visit to the CAVE, we're hoping to have a tour of the iCore Center at the University of Calgary.

RSVP: Given the nature of the facilities, we can only accommodate about 25 people. Please be sure to use your Evite to indicate whether you're planning to come.

Meeting Instructions: Please meet in the Food Court (near the Good Earth and Ploughboy) on the ground floor of the ICT building at 4:45 pm. We'll go to the entrance of the CAVE at 5:00 pm sharp, so please be on time.

Using AJAX for Creative Web Solutions

2005-10-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

For those not planning to attend World Usability Day activities, here's an excellent alternative - Alberta .NET User group is presenting the following:

AJAX is the latest buzz word in web development. With this seminar we'll cut through the hype and build some simple examples to learn how to apply AJAX for creative web solutions. The session will be focused on several coding examples including using AJAX with ASP.NET 1.x, ASP.NET 2.x, without a framework. In addition, AJAX related topics including usability, compatibility, pitfalls, and Internet Explorer 7.0 improvements will be discussed.

Pre-registration is required for this event

Presenter - Jade Ohlhauser, Product Manager, RPM Software - Jade has been the Product Manager and resident Web UI expert at RPM Software for 6 years. He leads a development team that has been using Microsoft .NET in a production environment since Beta 1. Usability and interaction are the focus of Jade’s application design. Prior to RPM, he was a freelance web development consultant, and has been a life-long coding enthusiast.

Date: November 3, 2005 @ 12:00 PM Add to my calendar
Duration: 1 hour (registration starts at 11:30 am) please come early
Venue: The Metropolitan Centre (Grand Lecture Theatre), 333-4th Avenue SW

David Sless at Mount Royal College

2005-09-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

"Usable and safe medicines need usable medicine information. Medicines are information-dependent products; without information, medicines are unusable and potentially dangerous. If medicines are to be used safely and appropriately, they must be accompanied by usable information. " (from an introduction to a paper by David Sless and Ruth Shrensky)

Professor David Sless is Director of the Communication Research Institute of Australia. He is a frequently invited speaker at international conferences in North America, Europe, and Asia. He is also author of over 100 publications. Don't miss this rare opportunity to hear this presentation on the importance of usable information design..

"Designing Health Information for People: The Art, Science, and Craft of Getting it Right"

When: Thursday, October 13th, 2005 - 7:00 to 8:00 pm

Where: Leacock Theater, Mount Royal College

Admission is free.

Contact: Milena Radzikowska for more information ( mradzikowska-at-mtroyal.ca )

2005 Calgary UE Opening Social

2005-08-31T16:39:00.000-07:00

Please mark this in your calendars:

Calgary UE Opening Social
5:30pm, Wednesday, September 21st
Location: TBD
Activities:

Bring a friend or colleague new to Calgary UE
Enjoy a drink and some snacks with other UE professionals
Discuss this year's upcoming events
Talk about the CANUX 2005 in Banff
(Volunteer to host an upcoming event?)

The location is still outstanding - if anyone had a preference or a suggestion for a good location that offers some refreshments and is conducive to conversation on Wednesday night, please drop me a line. We'll probably take up a collection for snacks to share.

I'll follow-up with an another invite when we have location selected.

Potential 2005 / 06 Program

2005-07-11T16:07:00.000-07:00

Brian Traynor and I got together for lunch on Friday to discuss some programming ideas for next year.

As for the program, we discussed how we might balance between those of you who enjoy socializing and those who want more formal presentations. Over a ten month period, we're suggesting:

5 presentations from local presenters or local facility tours
2 workshops / presentations involving speakers from outside Calgary
3 social evenings

Before we move ahead with the program, we'd like to hear from your thoughts on a couple of things:

Feedback - are any of these activities appealing to you?
Assistance - we came up with a much more ambitious plan than we originally expected. If you feel strongly about an activity, can you help us organize it?

Feel welcome to use the "Comments" link below this post ....

Here are the preliminary suggestions so far:

* Local Presentations

Tour of iCore Facility
Location University of Calgary - Theme: Visualization
Calgary UE will try to set up a tour of the iCore facility at the University of Calgary, including their 3D visualization and the virtual reality cave.

World Usability Day Panel
Location: Mount Royal College Videoconferencing Facility - Theme: Usability and Usefulness
We're discussing the potential of collaborating with Mount Royal College and Capilano College to set up a professional panel to discuss a theme related to UPA's World Usability Day on November 3rd. We're hoping to engage user experience professionals and educators from both Vancouver and Calgary.

Mobility Tour
Location: TBA - Theme: Mobile Devices and Interface
Calgary is the home to a number of successful mobile device developers. Calgary UE will try to set up a tour of a local mobile device company.

Open Slots - We've left two open slots for local presenters with interesting ideas ...

* Workshops / Presentations

Collaboration in Interactive Media Videoconference
Location: Mount Royal College Videoconferencing Facility - Theme: Interdisciplinary Collaboration
We're discussing the potential of collaborating with Mount Royal College to set up a professional panel, involving a recognized cross-disciplinary team, to discuss collaboration between the user experience, visual design and technical disciplines. If there's interest, Calgary UE will approach Chris Colburn, Kris Kiger and John May-Smith from New York's RGA to participate in the videoconference.
Admission will be charged for this event unless sponsors are identified.

Information Architecture Summit Redux
Location: TBA - Theme: TBA
If there's sufficient interest, Calgary UE will arrange to host a repeat of one or two of the pre-conference workshops from the 2006 Information Architecture Workshop, to be held the last week of March in Vancouver, BC.
Admission will be charged for this event

* Social Evenings:

Kick-off Social / Bring A Friend Night
Location:TBA
Meet for friends and colleagues for a social evening and a preview the coming year's activities. Bring a friend or colleague who's new to Calgary UE!

Design Slam and Christmas Social
Location: TBA - Potentially The Loft at Big Rock Breweries (Admission Required)
Get together for cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and an opportunity to compete in a rapid fire design challenge. What's a design slam? It's a realistic business design problem presented by "real clients" ( courtesy of some role-playing by the organizers) followed by a panicky design and presentation session (by the participants). Following the format of the enormously popular IA Slams held at the Austin and Montreal Information Architecture Summits, it's a great way to work with new people under even more ridiculous deadlines than normal.
More information: ( http://www.iasummit.org/2005/conferencedescrip.htm#69 )

End of Year Patio Social
Location:TBA
Close off the year with a social on one of Calgary's more popular patios.

Activities Survey Results In!

2005-07-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

Results from the activities survey are in. We didn't purchase the "premium" version that allows us to share the results, but I can send a screen shot of the results for those interested.

Here's a quick breakdown:

Activities:

Continuing to hold activities was heavily endorsed
Most popular types of activities: Presentations from Recognized Authorities (followed by Formal Presentations from Members)
Least popular types of activities: Networking Events (followed by Informal Cocktail / Social Nights)
Suggested activities included: Member contributions to the blog, conference reports and "mindful review of non computer based user experiences"

Costs
Paying for activities was heavily endorsed
69% said more than $40 for the right event (followed by $10 to $20)

Contact Methods
46 % preferred the listserv while 23% preferred an informal e-mail once in a while
Using RSS was suggested fro those employing a news aggregator

Frequency of Meetings
38% said 4 times a year while another 38% said monthly
Suggestions included a monthly social and quarterly programmed sessions, "less than monthly, more than quarterly", "8 times a year?"

Preferred Venue
38% said they didn't care while 30% opted for Meeting Rooms
Suggestions included: "No smoking; not too loud ", "Depends on the event", "Meeting room, classroom or lounge, depending on the type of activity", "pub and classroom - depending on need"

Location Suggestions
Most respondents suggested "Central", "Downtown" or at MRC, SAIT, or U of C

Comments included the following:

I think this is a great group and I want to encourage you to keep it going. Sometimes the effort seems difficult, but there is a lot of benefit just from the existence of such a group and its occasional event.
How about an activity on World Usability Day (Nov 3)? I'd like to have something for students during the day and possibly an evening activity for professionals.
I'd like to see us holding events to educate users on getting into the field and training the less experienced. We could be offering talks of classes for people looking to integrate UX into their companies and processes.
I think we should try to expand our reach into those practicing UE design as part of their discipline (e.g. design) - also 'Bring a Friend' night?
Do our best to keep it true to innovative practice rather than a political network of practitioners. Develop values specific for the group but avoid being a 'club' be expansive and inclusive

Brian Traynor has agreed to help with planning activities next year. We'll get together to discuss the results and suggest a plan in the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, let us know who you think you like to see as a "recognized authority" or whether you have a subject that you might like to talk about next year.

Thanks!

Dave

Reminder: 2005-06 Activities Survey / Program Volunteers

2005-06-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

Survey Closing: The survey regarding next year's UE group activities will be closed on Sunday. If you haven't completed the survey and want to offer your opinion, please take a moment to complete it:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=965901161679

Planning for Next Year: If anyone would like to help review the results and begin to plan next year's activities, please drop me a note and we'll get together sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks!

Dave

Design Conference 2005

2005-06-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

The biennial AIGA Design Conference is the largest design conference in the world, bringing together 2,500 designers from all disciplines of design. AIGA, as the oldest and largest design association in the

United States

, provides thought-provoking programming that stimulates thinking about new boundaries of design for professionals and the value of design to society and business.

The conference spans two and a half days, with main stage presentations as well as smaller sessions involving nearly 100 presenters. The conference content celebrates design excellence and creativity, while reinforcing the sense of community among creative professionals. Our host presenter throughout the conference is John Hockenberry (author and correspondent), who has hosted the AIGA Design Conference for nearly a decade. A few of the main-stage speakers who are confirmed include: Ellen Lupton, Paula Scher, DJ Spooky, Ze Frank, Stefan Sagmeister, Errol Morris and Massimo and Lella Vignelli.

http://designconference.aiga.org/content.cfm?Alias=dc_home

Sign Up for Calgary UE-Group's Listserv!

2005-06-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

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Calgary User Experience Group: Resuscitation!

2005-06-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

Folks,

Now that I've settled into my new job at Symantec, I hoping to have a little more time to work on the Calgary User Experience group.

It's been an interesting year for user experience people here in Calgary. If hiring is any indication, the amount of user experience work has probably trebled since this time last year. The information architecture group at Critical Mass is the largest it has ever been, and Neteller is in the process assembling a equally large user experience team. Symantec Calgary commissioned a new position here for its DeepSight product this winter, and nForm.ca has been busy with work for Atco. Rumor has it that a major telecommunications company here will be recruiting here soon, too.

It's clear that Calgary's community of interaction designers, information architects, writers, researchers and usability people is expanding as the demand for our skills continues to grow!

This fall, I'm personally planning to make a bigger commitment to organizing a regular forum for you to get together outside of work to talk and to learn about user experience. But, in order to be successful, I need your input (and if you're willing, your assistance as a volunteer - but we can talk about that later!)

We held a number of successful UX meeting nights in 2004 and I think we'd like to arrange more for the fall and winter of 2005 / 2006. Before I do this, I'd like to get everyone's opinion on what they would like to see happen. If you have a few minutes to complete the following survey, please complete the following survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=965901161679

Please feel welcome to pass this survey along to others who might be interested in the Calgary UX group, (but please forward their e-mail addresses to me so that we can send them invites in future!)

Thanks, Dave