Anthony Viviano

Navigating the Job Market (Ann Arbor, MI, USA)

Join the Southeast Michigan Chapter of the STC for dinner and a presentation on Monday, May 19^th! Al Pizzurro will share his knowledge about writing resumes, job-searching, and staying positive in the process. This is a perfect program for those in the process of changing jobs, students, and those who just want to update their skills and resumes.

Program Description:

With today’s uncertain economy, it’s best to be proactive about your employment opportunities and marketing your talents. Whether you are just starting your career or making a change, Allan (Al) Pizzurro can offer advice to help you to deal with the ups and downs of job-searching and how to get back into the market. He uses his own experience in job-searching and as a manager to assist people in creating or improving their resumes, guiding them on how to search and apply for positions over the Internet, and providing insight on how to view every opportunity as a chance to network. He also assists people in interview preparation techniques and how to stay actively positioned in the face of negative thoughts especially from places you least expect.

Al Pizzurro has worked for IT and Automotive Companies such as Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Automotive Components Holdings, llc (ACH) and is currently working with Ford Motor Company as a Contract Specialist for Engineering Software.

Showcase your work!

In addition to the presentation, you’ll also have a chance to show off your talents to your peers, Bring your best work to show what you’re writing, creating, editing, or building.

Schedule:
6:30 pm-7:30: dinner and awards ceremony
7:30-8:30: presentation

Location:
Washtenaw Community College

Morris J. Lawrence Building

Room 105/121

4800 E Huron River Dr

Ann Arbor MI 48106-1610

Registration:

When you register, please indicate whether you will be eating dinner. The choices will include a vegetarian and meat option.

Note: Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate walk-ins for dinner. If you mail your registration late, please send an e-mail to registration to ensure we get you on the list for dinner. Thanks for your assistance!

Preregister by Sunday, May 11th and indicate whether you will be having dinner or not. Please register by email at register@stc-sm.org or by mail at:

Registration for May STC Program
22951 Thorncliffe
Southfield, MI 48033

Price with dinner and presentation:
$15 for STC members

$10 for students
$20 for nonmembers

Prices without dinner (Presentation only):

$5 for members and students

$10 for nonmembers

Directions:

http://www.wccnet.edu/aboutwcc/collegeinfo/directionsandmaps/directionstowcc.php

Campus Map:

http://www.wccnet.edu/aboutwcc/collegeinfo/directionsandmaps/campusmap.php

The Morris J. Lawrence building is “ML” on the campus map. There is plenty of free parking in front of the building (lot #1).

Posted in Ann Arbor, MI, USA | Calendar | Detroit, MI, USA | Local meeting
Tags: Resume | Southeast Michigan STC | Washtenaw Community College
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Spider Controls: A New GUI Paradigm (Farmington Hills, MI, USA)

The May meeting of the Michigan UPA features Stan Driskell and Spider Controls, a new paradigm for the design of graphic user interfaces (GUIs) based on a universal graphic that displays menu, list/combo box, toolbar, palette, and dialog box options in a common format. This universal graphic makes it easy to embed any type of control, including list boxes, spin buttons, radio buttons, and check boxes. Of the many innovations introduced by Spider Controls, the most consequential are:

• The ability to make menu and toolbar selections with less than 0.5 inch of total cursor travel.
• The ability to display any item from a list of up to 98 items with less than 0.3 inch of total cursor travel.
• The display of all options in easy to scan, vertical columns.
• The ability to frequently make two selections with a single cursor traverse.
• The ability to toggle a Spider display between single and multiple selection modes.
• A display that pops-up at a predictable location abutting but not obscuring the screen area of user interest.
• The availability of the unique “Navigation Center” to manage control manipulation.

A prototype version of Spider Controls imposed onto Microsoft Word has definitively shown that these features significantly increase user productivity. Spider Controls also promises to make extended periods of computer usage less painful and potentially less physically damaging. Although the simulation was unable to appraise user comfort, secretaries who participated in the focus groups overwhelmingly commented on reduced tension and strain.

SPEAKER:

Stan started professional life with six years as an economist in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Sierra Leone lecturing and researching. After a year at the University of Durham in England he then spent six more years as Research Economist with USAID-funded projects in Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. Between teaching assignments he designed, managed, and analyzed five separate questionnaire surveys of rural households and developed software that generated questionnaires and subsequently detected error in resulting survey data. His experiences convinced him that the design of materials used by modestly skilled people must maximize comprehension while achieving low error rates.

To better understand challenges faced by computer users caused by complex computer technology, Stan returned to graduate school (University of Michigan – GO BLUE!). His UMich studies encompassed human factors with focus on applying minimizing calculus to Fitts’ Law. This led to what Stan calls the Physical Effort Metric (PEM), which he validated via two formal experiments. After completing his PhD, Stan wanted to utilize the PEM to improve computer usability. He hit upon a graphic configuration of intriguing possibilities that eventually morphed into Spider Controls (SC). To make SC easily and inexpensively available Stan spent the past year designing the Spider Controls Toolkit (SC/Tk), which, aside from other employments, will be used to “Spiderize” major applications of Microsoft Office.

WHEN:
Thursday May 8, 2008 6:00-8:30PM
(Food and networking at 6, program begins at 7)

WHERE:
Cengage
27500 Drake Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535

COST (includes food and beverage):
$5 Students, $10 UPA members, $20 all others

REGISTER: Please RSVP to events@miupa.org

See Michigan UPA for more information.

Posted in Ann Arbor, MI, USA | Calendar | Detroit, MI, USA | Local meeting
Tags: | GUI | hci | interface design | Michigan UPA
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Wizard of PowerPoint (Southfield, MI, USA)

Featuring: Corinne Stavish, humanities professor at Lawrence Technological University

Description: Corrine Stavish, a professional storyteller and speaker, will discuss how and when to use PowerPoint effectively and when not to use it.

Date: Monday, April 21
Time: Networking and light snacks: 6:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Program: 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Where
Lawrence Technological University
Technology Building
Lear Auditorium (T429)
21000 West Ten Mile Road
Southfield, MI 48075

Price: Program Fees
$5 – STC-SM Chapter Members
$10 – Nonmembers
$5 – Students (members and non-members)

Register and pay by using any of the following methods:

• E-mail—register@stc-sm.org and pay at the door (cash or check)
• Mail—fill out and submit the registration form (http://www.stc-sm.org/register.htm) and send your registration with payment (cash or check) to:Registration for April STC Program
  22951 Thorncliffe
  Southfield, MI 48033

Driving Directions:

• Directions
• Campus Map

Posted in Ann Arbor, MI, USA | Calendar | Detroit, MI, USA | Local meeting | STC
Tags: Lawrence Tech | LTU | Michigan | Program | Southfield | STC-SM
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Demo Night (Ann Arbor, MI, USA)

By: Deborah @ 6:42 pm on the Refresh Detroit blog.

Where: Ann Arbor District Library, 343 South Fifth Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 (map). Parking is available in the library parking lot. We’re meeting in the conference room on the third floor. At the third floor stairs lobby, go through the double doors, turn right, and look for the first door on the right to enter the conference room.

When: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 6:30PM-8PM

Join us for demo night on April 23, 2008 at the Ann Arbor Public Library, as meeting participants will demo their latest websites, designs, applications, tools, and products. Each person has five minutes to present and answer questions.

Demo night is a great opportunity to share your work, see what others have been working on, and get feedback on works in progress.

Interested in demoing your work? RSVP by commenting below with your name and application/design/tool/product, so we have an idea of how many people will be presenting.

As of April 3, 2008, the following people are planning to present their work:

• Julie Van De Water
• Nick DeNardis
• Vince Chmielewski

Posted in Ann Arbor, MI, USA | Calendar | Detroit, MI, USA | Local meeting | Toledo, OH, USA
Tags: ann arbor | applications | designs | presentations | products | refresh detroit | tools | websites
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[MOCHI] Sean O’Driscoll - Social Media: If you could only leverage what your customers know

Please join us next monday for a very special event. We will be
hosting former Microsoft Community Support expert, Sean O’Driscoll. Details of the talk below. All are welcome and light snacks/drinks will be provided during the event.

This will be hosted at the UofM’s School of Information.
Venue: West Hall Rm. 411 (Erlicher Rm.)
http://uuis.umich.edu/cic/buildingproject/index.cfm?BuildingID=163

Abstract: Web 2.0, social media, Marketing 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, communities, transparency, virtual worlds, social graphs??? Like most new trends, there’s no shortage of buzz words, but there’s a big gap between the enthusiasm for this “new media” and what it means to a business. This sessions will try to address the following fundamental questions designed to inform a business on how to get started:

• What is Social Media?
• What is Social Media Strategy?
• Why does it matter to a business?
• Who are the “influencers” who make these social spaces thrive?
• How do you measure it?
• What is the social graph…and why should I care?

About the presenter: Sean O’Driscoll is a 15 year Microsoft veteran who recently left to form his own strategy consulting business focused on Social Media, community and influencer initiatives. In his most recent role at Microsoft, he was the general manager of community support services, where for the past 5 years he was responsible for leading the Web 2.0 strategy across Help and Support, focused on influencer engagement, user generated content, and integration with customer listening systems.For a bit more, visit his blog here: www.communitygrouptherapy.com

Posted in Ann Arbor, MI, USA | Calendar | Detroit, MI, USA | Local meeting | Toledo, OH, USA
Tags: enterprise 2.0 | Lecture. UofM | marketing 2.0 | MOCHI | Social Media | Web 2.0
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Live Web Site Evaluations (Livonia, MI, USA)

The Michigan Usability Professionals’ Association, Refresh Detroit, and Perficient, Inc. team up for “Live Web Site Evaluations: Branding, Message, Content, and Usability.”

Why is Web site usability important? When have we adequately translated the brand image to a Web site? How clear is the marketing message? Let Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus help you count the ways in an informative and entertaining way. Come and experience live evaluations of a number of web sites that have been submitted by attendees. This session provides you with a rare opportunity to see it live, experience the interactions with the stakeholders and designers, and, time and bandwidth permitting, discuss YOUR site directly with Dave.

Call it ‘extreme UX’… call it what you will. This interactive session will reveal both areas of excellence and opportunities for improvement, and it will focus attendees on what’s important for design or improvement of the web sites they are responsible for. Attendees will walk away with a clear understanding of what constitutes user experience issues and roadblocks. They will immediately learn about redesign options that may fix, improve, or enhance each web site experience.

Dave began conducting these sessions in 2005 and continues to do them several times each year. This session, as all previous ones, will cover a new set of web sites based on attendee submissions.

Giving back to the community: Dave will be focusing this evening session primarily on web sites for non-profit organizations.

See Michigan UPA for more information.

Posted in Calendar | Detroit, MI, USA | Local meeting | Refresh | UPA
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New Detroit Ambassador Introduction

I’m happy to introduce myself (Anthony Viviano) as the new Detroit Local Ambassador. UXers are doing interesting work in interactive marketing, corporate websites and intranets, and software. I hope to create a forum where we can collaborate and connect while growing the local User Experience network. Keep your eye on this blog for local UX happenings.

So, who am I? You can get all the gritty details at http://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyviviano, but I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version … I’m currently working as an Information Architect at a financial institution … on Monday, I join the exciting world of Interactive Marketing as an Experience Planner. In previous lives, I worked as a Technical Writer, Project Manager, and Business Analysts. It’s been an interesting and fun ride so far, and I’ve loved meeting quirky UXers along the way.

Feel free to link with me on linkedin or email me at anthony dot viviano at gmail dot com.

Posted in Detroit, MI, USA
Tags: LocaleWelcome
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