News

Disbanding UXnet

Friday, June 18th, 2010 by Louis Rosenfeld

On behalf of UXnet’s board of directors, I have a bit of difficult news to share: we are disbanding UXnet.

UXnet simply is not structured to achieve its goal of building a sustainable network of UX people. We don’t have the ability to tackle or pay for the kind of development work that such a goal requires. We’ve tried hard for eight years, but it’s time to recognize that our approach isn’t the right one and move on.

The good news is that much of this good work–developing the infrastructure for speeding the development of user experience–has been taken on by individuals and projects that are not associated with UXnet. That’s fine by us–as long as it’s happening. It’s not important for UXnet to continue to exist for its own sake. We just want the community to grow and flourish by whatever are the best means available, and we’re thrilled to see the progress and success of other initiatives that support the UX community.

Although we’ve never quite fulfilled all of our goals–all ambitious, and many of which have been a bit ahead of the curve–it’s important to recognize that we have had some successes. Perhaps most importantly, as one of the early facilitators of social networking for the user experience community, we’ve helped UX people connect at a local, often in-person level–stuff that doesn’t show up on the radar, but is the point of a network. All in all, it’s been worth it, and we have no regrets.

And that we’ve gotten this far is testament to the many volunteers who’ve put in impressively generous amounts of hard work and, in many cases, have contributed their own money. Speaking on behalf of our board, we are impressed, grateful, and proud of the contributions that UXnet volunteers have made over these past eight years without compensation and with minimal recognition. The UX community owes them a debt of gratitude.

If you are one of those volunteers, such a local leader, and would like to stay in touch with other UXnet volunteers, we suggest that you join this group. There can you share information with others who are interested in continuing to volunteer to further some of the past goals of UXnet.

We look forward to the community’s continued growth and vibrance; thank you!

Post-graduate in User-Centered Design

Thursday, February 18th, 2010 by Érico Fileno

I’m coordinating a post-graduate in User-Centered Design into Universidade Positivo in Curitiba - Brazil.
The course brings the experience of designers and engineers of CESAR, professionals/researchers from Curitiba and brings a professional discuss for the area of interaction design and user experience.The path chosen is the user-centered design, the same used by renowned companies such as IDEO, CESAR, Apple, Intel, IBM, Nokia, Adaptive Path and any others.
Classes will to start in March 2010 and will be fortnightly (Friday and Saturday).The course is intended for the training of professionals involved in the process of developing new services and technology products. The gap is to apply theory and practice in a balanced and focused on research, development, prototyping and testing with users.
Presentation of post-graduate: http://www.slideshare.net/efileno/psgraduao-design-centrado-no-usurio
More information: http://www.posup.com.br/curso.asp?id=258
Cheers!
Érico Fernandes Fileno, M.Sc.
Interaction Designer
http://ericofileno.wordpress.com
http://www.slideshare.net/efileno
@efileno

Reflecting on the Interaction10 conference

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 by Experientia
Interaction10 Both Jon Kolko (frog design) and Rob Tannen (Bresslergroup) reflect on their experience at the Interaction10 conference that took place last weekend in Savannah, Georgia.

Jon’s thoughtful analysis starts with a reflection on why he thinks the profession of Interaction Design reaching a critical divide.

“The divide seems to break down around two forces of gravity, loosely identified as:
A. Design, as a discipline. A locus of study, similar to science or art in breadth and depth, and focused on criticism, behavioral change, craft, empathy, humanism, and reflection.
B. UX, as a form of applied design in the context of marketing, and focused on consumption, speed, innovation, and often, apparently, compromise.”

Rob on the other hand emphasises the retrospective nature of this year’s conference.

Reflecting on the Interaction10 conference

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 by Experientia
Interaction10 Both Jon Kolko (frog design) and Rob Tannen (Bresslergroup) reflect on their experience at the Interaction10 conference that took place last weekend in Savannah, Georgia.

Jon’s thoughtful analysis starts with a reflection on why he thinks the profession of Interaction Design reaching a critical divide.

“The divide seems to break down around two forces of gravity, loosely identified as:
A. Design, as a discipline. A locus of study, similar to science or art in breadth and depth, and focused on criticism, behavioral change, craft, empathy, humanism, and reflection.
B. UX, as a form of applied design in the context of marketing, and focused on consumption, speed, innovation, and often, apparently, compromise.”

Rob on the other hand emphasises the retrospective nature of this year’s conference.

Live at Interaction’10: day 3

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 by Experientia
Interaction10 Niklas Wolkert & Brad Nunnally round up their reporting on Johnnyy Holland on the Interaction10 conference in Savannah, Georgia – this time focused on the third and final day.

This review covers presentations by Jeffery Blais, Cindy Chastain, Gretchen Andersson, Kel Smith and Dan Hill.

Read full story

Microsoft Research Social Computing Symposium 2010

Monday, February 8th, 2010 by Experientia
Microsoft Research Social Computing Symposium For the past four years, Microsoft Research (MSR) has sponsored a symposium on social computing that “brings together academic and industry researchers, developers, writers, and influential commentators in order to open new lines of communication among previously disconnected groups.”

The theme of the 2010 symposium, held at ITP at NYU, was “The city as platform”, which revolved around various sub-topic such as urban informatics, the city as a social technology, pervasive games and government infrastructure/data.

Participants included Genevieve Bell, Julian Bleecker, Ben Cerveny, Tom Coates, Anil Dash, Russell Davies, Alexandra Deschamps-SonsinoAdam Greenfield, Liz Goodman, Usman Haque, Tom IgoeNatalie Jeremijenko, Steven Johnson, Matt Jones, Jennifer Magnolfi, Mike Migurski, Nicolas Nova, Ray Ozzie, Clay Shirky, Kevin Slavin, Molly Steenson, Linda Stone, Alice Taylor, Anthony Townsend, Duncan Wilson and many more.

You can read elaborate and well-written symposium reports by Nicolas Nova (LIFT Lab) and Dan Hill (City of Sound / ARUP).

By the way, do also check Dan Hill’s urbanistic take on the iPad.

Microsoft Research Social Computing Symposium 2010

Monday, February 8th, 2010 by Experientia
Microsoft Research Social Computing Symposium For the past four years, Microsoft Research (MSR) has sponsored a symposium on social computing that “brings together academic and industry researchers, developers, writers, and influential commentators in order to open new lines of communication among previously disconnected groups.”

The theme of the 2010 symposium, held at ITP at NYU, was “The city as platform”, which revolved around various sub-topic such as urban informatics, the city as a social technology, pervasive games and government infrastructure/data.

Participants included Genevieve Bell, Julian Bleecker, Ben Cerveny, Tom Coates, Anil Dash, Russell Davies, Alexandra Deschamps-SonsinoAdam Greenfield, Liz Goodman, Usman Haque, Tom IgoeNatalie Jeremijenko, Steven Johnson, Matt Jones, Jennifer Magnolfi, Mike Migurski, Nicolas Nova, Ray Ozzie, Clay Shirky, Kevin Slavin, Molly Steenson, Linda Stone, Alice Taylor, Anthony Townsend, Duncan Wilson and many more.

You can read elaborate and well-written symposium reports by Nicolas Nova (LIFT Lab) and Dan Hill (City of Sound / ARUP).

By the way, do also check Dan Hill’s urbanistic take on the iPad.

Live at Interaction’10: day 2

Sunday, February 7th, 2010 by Experientia
Interaction10 Niklas Wolkert & Brad Nunnally provide their second report on Johnnyy Holland on the Interaction10 conference in Savannah, Georgia – this time focused on the second day.

“After a night of some great parties, and even better conversation, the second day of Interaction 10 began with a preview of the new IxDA.org website redesign. The team doing the redesign covered all the great new features that are coming, and went into detail on how local groups will be able to leverage the new site for their own networks and events. The excitement from yesterday was easily carried over, and people were pumped to see what the presenters had in store for us today.”

This time they review presentations by Ezio Manzini, Shelly Evenson, Timo Arnall, Ben Fullerton, Kevin Cheng, Steve Baty, Chris Fahey, and Paola Antonelli.

Read full story

Live at Interaction’10: day 1

Saturday, February 6th, 2010 by Experientia
Interaction10 Niklas Wolkert & Brad Nunnally report on Johnnyy Holland on the first day of the Interaction10 conference in Savannah, Georgia.

“If one thing had to describe the overall theme of the first day it would be the importance of providing meaning in the work that we do. Below are recaps of the opening and closing keynotes, as well as some of the sessions from the day.”

Check their review on presentations by Nathan Shedroff, Dave Gray, Nate Bolt, Matt Cottam, Kendra Shimmell, Nicolas Nova and Jon Kolko.

Read full story

Stowe Boyd: outdated UX metaphors are holding us back

Monday, February 1st, 2010 by Experientia
Stowe Boyd Stowe Boyd arguest that the metaphors of computing user experience are holding us back from new ways of structuring our interaction through computers.

“the thing that is blocking us from moving forward, to a better user experience centered on social interaction and not physical data, are the existing metaphors of OS’s. Since we are living in a world of general purpose computers running Unix, Mac OS, and Windows — and we need to have them interoperate — we seem stuck in the 90’s.
To have a break with the past, and to make the past a platform, we have to push it under and not pretend that its constructs are desirable. We need to push files, folders and the notion of a desktop under the surface of a better user experience, and keep it under. Let a new generation of user experience shield us from that drudgery and detail.

The only way forward is to build a new user experience on top of the physical hardware and software that form a platform for it, and conceal it’s nasty details from us.

This is one aspect of the genius of the iPhone and iPad generation of devices: we don’t need to know about the files and folders. We don’t need a desktop with data bundles lying in piles.”

But, he says, “This break with the past is made faster and less difficult if the new system is closed.”

Read full story