Greetings from Maine!
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 by Susan DoranThere’s a growing UX community in Maine–that’s bringing together people interested in conversations with peers, convening around fun and skills-quickening professional events, and basically knowing who’s who and what’s going on in the great state of Maine. In service to that goal, an informal group called MaineUX is getting off the ground.
MaineUX is a community reflecting the “big-tent” of UX, usability, information architecture, design of many stripes — visual, interaction, UI, web, games, software, intranets, graphic, industrial — stretching across the frontiers of social networking, new media, collaborative tech, web 2.0, user-centric IT, search, findability, taxonomy/ontology, information design, creative content strategizy, SEO/SEM, online marketing and advertising, agile and nimble programming, library & information science, elearning, and more.
MaineUX welcomes everyone designing dynamic, memorable, and meaningful user experiences in Maine!
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KEY MAINEUX RESOURCES
maineux.org is a calendar of events in Maine and NH. Since we’re just beginning to think of ourselves in this way, there aren’t that many UX-specific events in Maine. The UX events we do have are awesome. The others are too: a hodge-podge of events we think may be of interest to the MaineUX community. We appreciate people throughout the state sending along events that should be on the calendar. In the future maineux.org may be one-stop shopping for events, job postings, announcements, discussions.
But in the meantime, we rely on its companion MaineUX Google Group as a forum for people to pose questions, compare notes, broach design conundrums, add 2cents to discussions, share cool articles and blog posts. Promote events, post, and hear about, job openings. Meet new people who actually get what we do for a living!
Every fall TechMaine (formerly the Maine Software Developers Association) holds an annual statewide IT conference. For the past several years, a track has been dedicated to Usability & User Experience—often featuring UX experts from Maine as speakers. In 2006 and 2007, as a volunteer to TechMaine, I organized the UX Track, and was wicked excited to bring in amazing speakers like Steve Krug and Carolyn Snyder, Tim Spalding of LibraryThing and John McGrath of wordie (both Maine start-ups), Gessica Silverstein from Molecular, Kyle Pero Soucy, esteemed luminary from NH, Beth Loring from Bentley Design & Usability Center, Sarah Bloomer, Cay Lodine, Ann Marie McCarthy, and more! (To promote the event, MaineUX created a separate mini-site for the UX Track)
Finally, the last Tuesday of every month is TechMaine’s UUUG meeting (User Experience & Usability Users Group). Held at TechMaine’s headquarters in Westbrook, it’s been a terrific focal point of UX activity in Maine! The meetings feature top-notch local UX practitioners and peers presenting on a topic of interest and relevance to the group, including:
- UX Clinic, inspired by World Usability Day’s staple usability expert review session for nonprofits
- Exciting presentations summarizing highlights from Cooper, Nielsen, and UIE conferences
- 10-minute topics - a semi-regular event - lightning fast and stimulating!
- UX in Agile vs User-Centered Design Environments
- Synergy: Usability and Accessibility
- Essential Fundamentals of Usability Testing
- Developing and Using Personas - highly interactive and session
You don’t need to be a TechMaine member to attend — and the meetings draw anywhere from an intimate 10 to 30+. Note: Registering ahead of time will get you entered into a drawing for an awesome O’Reilly book–given away at the end of every single meeting!
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Who knew that getting involved with MaineUX could mean building your professional library, building your contacts list, and building community in Maine! Join the discussion list, consult and populate the events calendar, come to UUUG meetings, check out MaineUX events, soon to appear in your part of the state — and stay in touch!
