January 2016: Melissa Bernais on designing for TV

This month, Melissa Bernais joins us to provide a view into the world of designing for TV. We’ll learn that TV is TV is TV – except when it’s not.

For the past five years, Melissa has been documenting mental models and designing software used by TV broadcasters and service providers, and she’s learned that while roles and responsibilities may be similar from master control room to master control room, there’s wide variety in terms of goals, needs, workflows, business model, industry structure, technological standards, and even political concerns. And that’s just in North America; add the rest of the world into the mix, and… oh man.

Knowing what the end game is isn’t always enough. Understanding how a customer needs to get there is everything. The fun includes:

• exploring the differences between Canadian, American, Asian, Australian and European broadcast business models
• figuring out how to finesse the goals and needs that these models bring in on-site & remote customer engagements
• disseminating that information out to Product Strategy
• incorporating those needs into tools that can be sold worldwide

Melissa will share what happens when a small UX team champions the need for customer research to a multi-national company serving an International customer base. She’ll talk about everything from finding and gaining internal, organizational trust and locating customers that you can talk with, to the language barriers, cultural differences, opposing priorities, and product frustrations that come with consulting directly with the people who buy the things you design.

She’ll also look at what happens when you need to distill a wide range of competing needs into products that accommodate current use patterns, anticipate future needs, and can scale to new, unforeseen methods of connecting people with content — doing all of this for customers in very different situations.

About Melissa Bernais

In her own words:

“Practicing UX for over a decade, I’ve had a lot of job titles – architect, engineer, designer. And while none of them are wrong, they’re not quite right either. I draw boxes. I talk with people. I solve problems.”

“UX is my second grown-ass person career. Looking back on things, I can honestly say that what I do now has its roots in what I used to do, and what I went back to school for – connecting people with what they want in the easiest way possible. I’ve worked in the music industry in sales, licensing and publicity, trained to become a librarian, and spent time both agency and client-side as a UX practitioner. It’s all been pretty great fun.”

“I have recently added a broken finger tip to my list of self-inflicted, completely avoidable, accidental injuries. Just a little bit about me, y’all.”

When and where

Thursday January 21, 2016
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Communitech Hub
Atlas/Matrix Room
[View on Google Maps]

Please register for this free event

December 2015: What is beautiful software?

Throughout 2015, Matt Nish-Lapidus has been thinking deeply about what it means to be “beautiful” in today’s age of software. He has presented the results at events such as MidwestUX and CanUX — and now, he joins us in Waterloo to share his thoughts and lead a spirited discussion. Hope to see you there!

Thursday December 17, 2015
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Communitech Hub
Atlas/Matrix Room

Beauty doesn’t have to be just skin deep, and many of the best designs throughout history have shown that. The need to make beautiful things is as critical now as it was to designers and architects over the last hundred years, only our materials and outputs have changed dramatically. Beauty is more than a layer on top of the product, it’s not superficial and “nice to have”, it’s a critical part of the human experience.

Every era has a different sense of beauty, from the renaissance through pop-art. Each of these evolutions has accompanied changes in the world, technology, culture, and politics. As the work of designers changes, so does our need to understand beauty and how to make beautiful things to put into the world. Design’s traditional critical language doesn’t adequately account for the aesthetic properties of these new kinds of design outputs and practices. We will explore a frame for beauty that extends tradition and works to evolve how we think about, and do, design in the age of the network.

About Matt Nish-Lapidus

Matt holds a degree in new media art from Ryerson University and has a rich background as a practicing designer, musician, and artist. His work has included everything from the digital library catalog in use by the New York Public Library to enterprise software for hospitals, video games, and large-scale public installations. He spent the first few years of his career assisting international new media artists such as Stelarc, David Rokeby, and Haruki Nishijima, while developing his own art and design practice.

Matt is an independent designer and creative technologist in Toronto, Canada where he focuses on design practice development in for the 21st century, a deign instructor at Sheridan College and CIID, and is also the Vice President of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), a global organization dedicated to the advancement of the interaction design practice.

Please register for this free event

November 2015: Behind the Scenes of UX Research at Microsoft

Please note: For November only, we’ve shifted from our usual date in order to take advantage of a visit from special guests Kimberly and Kristen, from Microsoft HQ in Seattle.

Wednesday November 4, 2015
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Kitchener Public Library, Central Branch
Meeting Room C
85 Queen Street North, Kitchener
[View on map]

What to expect

Over the past few decades, UX research has come a long way from its roots in user acceptance testing and usability engineering. In this talk, Kimberly Tee and Kristen Warren will share what it’s like to do UX research in the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft, working with large teams to build the experiences that support Windows and Xbox.

They will describe some of the UX research methods used at Microsoft to discover, describe, and predict user behavior, and discuss ideas for how some of those could also work at smaller companies.

About the presenters

Kimberly Tee is a User Researcher in Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, working with the Microsoft Edge team on the new web browser for Windows 10. Prior to joining Microsoft, she was a UX Designer and Researcher at SMART Technologies. She completed her MSc in Computer Science and HCI at the University of Calgary, and her BSc in Computer Science at the University of British Columbia.

Kristen Warren is a User Researcher for the Xbox Ecosystem focusing on Social and Identity, including community health and women in gaming. Kristen completed a BA in Psychology at the University of Waterloo and a Masters in HCI from Carleton University. Kristen is published in several domains including Persuasive Systems Design, Bendable Displays, and Motivating Behavior Change through Computer Interfaces.

Note the new location

We’re getting together at Meeting Room C at the newly-renovated central branch of the Kitchener Public Library. This room is located in the basement, accessible through either the elevator or the stairwell adjacent to the main entrance off Queen Street.

Parking is available at meters on nearby side streets, on the surface lot next to the library, or in the library’s underground lot.

Remember that construction will snarl traffic at that time of day, so leave plenty of time to get there!

Please register for this free event

October 2015: UXtoberfest

September was a month packed full of UX events, making for plenty of intriguing ideas to discuss. Let’s celebrate that with conversation and debate over a beer or two (or whatever drinks you might prefer).

Happy UXtoberfest!

Please register for this free event

Thursday October 15, 2015
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Abe Erb Brewing
15 King Street South, Uptown Waterloo
Waterloo, ON

September 2015: A design case study from Christie

We have something extra special this month: our good friends at Christie Digital are hosting uxWaterloo at their Kitchener headquarters!

Christie is known for their leading digital projectors, used around the world in cinemas, offices, conferences, and more. And while the content that’s projected onto big screens is, of course, what’s of interest to most people — we’ll instead be digging into the question of how do you control the projected image?

Join Chris Kirby and Alan Woo from the Christie design team as they show how the team went about creating a remote control for a new projector. You’ll see and learn about:

• Examples of early to late-stage physical prototypes
• Their design process
• Incorporating user research into the project
• Many logistical details of bringing a design to life in a large organization

This uxWaterloo session is part of a full week of UX events in Waterloo Region, culminating in Fluxible, which is happening on the weekend. Celebrate UX in our community!

Parking and building entrance

Please click the photo below for a zoomed-in aerial view of where to park and enter the building at Christie.

RSVP required

Note that registration will be checked at the door. Christie does some amazing stuff, and they need to be careful with visitors to their facility! We manage our monthly events at Meetup.com, so please join us there and register for this free event.

Tuesday September 22, 2015
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Christie
809 Wellington Street North
Kitchener, Ontario

August 2015: Informal pub meetup

In the summertime when the weather is hot, you can stretch right up and touch the sky. You can also enjoy this August this August uxWaterloo session that features informal talk and drinks. We do a couple of these every summer and the laid-back atmosphere and conversations are a welcome addition to any summer schedule. Join us!

And, of course, count on hearing from Bob and Mark with an an update on Fluxible 2015.

Please register for this free event

Thursday August 20, 2015
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Patio at The Barley Works
(upstairs in the Huether Hotel)
59 King St. North
Waterloo, Ontario

July 2015: Informal pub meetup

It’s time to savour that summer feeling with a July uxWaterloo session that features informal talk and drinks. We do this every July and August and the laid-back atmosphere and conversations are a welcome addition to any summer schedule. Join us!

And, as has become a yearly tradition, count on hearing from Bob and Mark with an an update on Fluxible 2015.

Please register for this free event

Thursday July 16, 2015
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Patio at The Barley Works
(upstairs in the Huether Hotel)
59 King St. North
Waterloo, Ontario

June 2015: UX Show and Tell

Have you ever wondered what others in our UX community are working on? What challenges they’ve wrestled with, and what accomplishments they’re proud of? Join us this month to satisfy that curiosity while connecting with your peers in the region.

Event Format

We’ll schedule a series of short presentations followed by round-table discussions with the whole group. Presenters will show examples of their work with the purpose of either:

• receiving useful feedback, or
• sharing effective solutions they’ve created to design problems.

If you don’t want to bring anything to show, you’re more than welcome to attend and contribute to the discussion.

Presenters

Presentation slots are open to anyone who RSVPs. We may not have time to accept all applications, so please tell us a bit about what you have in mind when you RSVP (Meetup will provide a place for you to do this). We’ll then select presentations to ensure a good variety that sparks interesting discussions.

Note that people of all experience levels are invited to participate: you don’t have to be a seasoned expert to show off what you’re working on!

What to Present

Feel free to show deliverables from your current work, old jobs, side projects, or anything else you need help with or think could benefit others.

Drafts, work in progress, and finished products are welcome from across the UX spectrum from research through design in all its flavours. All we ask is that you have something tangible to show and that it will be of general interest (in other words, your demo won’t require knowledge of a niche domain).

Examples include but aren’t limited to:

• Personas, scenarios, and other research artifacts
• Concept and mental model diagrams
• Journey maps
• Wireframes
• Visual comps
• Prototypes
• Finished products

If you have paper artifacts, we suggest capturing digital versions (even photos) so they can be displayed on a projector for all to see. Wireless internet will be available.

Please RSVP for this free event

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

Thursday June 25, 2015
5:30-7:00pm
Boltmade Inc.
187 King St North
2nd Floor
Waterloo, ON
N2J 1R1

[View on Google Maps]

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

[View on Google Maps]

April 2015: Design for the Network

Important note: This event has been rescheduled to April 16. The time of day and location remain unchanged.

For our March April session we’re delighted to welcome past Fluxible speaker Matthew Milan back to Waterloo Region!

For thousands of years, networks have played a growing role in the progress of human society. They are the hardware infrastructure that the software of culture runs on. Design has always been about creating culture; what’s different now is that the target of design isn’t just a user, a group or a market. We’re designing for the network.

Proposing a new target for design means that we need a new language of design. We need to consider a new aesthetic, new materials, and new methods, methodologies and mindsets. Perhaps most importantly, we need to reflect on whether the future of design should continue to be human-centered.

This talk will delve into the role of design in our connected world of networks, software and systems. We’ll explore approaches and perspectives that can help us become more networked-centered in our work as designers, and challenge some core elements of current design practice by asking what it means to “design for the network”.

About Matthew Milan

Matthew is the Co-founder and CEO of Normative, a software design firm headquartered in Toronto. Matthew is a design leader with 15 years of experience in the domain of emerging technologies, specializing in software design, innovation and product development. A veteran of startups in the areas of knowledge management, geospatial visualization and machine learning, Matthew excels at helping collaborators turn complex ideas and information into compelling and engaging user experiences.

A recognized voice in the areas of design and strategy, Matthew speaks regularly at conferences on a wide range of topics including interaction design, systems theory and wearable computing.

Please RSVP for this free event

We manage our monthly events at Meetup.com. Join us there!

Thursday April 16, 2015
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Atlas/Matrix room
Communitech Hub
Kitchener, Ontario

[View on Google Maps]