Techsmith was kind enough to give us a copy of their usability testing product so we could give it away at CanUX 2006. So we interviewed people to see who wanted it the most.
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September 22nd, 2006
Jess, David and I would like to thank everyone who attended this year’s CanUX for making it a spectacular event.
Please keep checking us out as I hope we will have videos of some of the talks and other goodies hitting the site soon.
Bryce
Check out the photos on Flickr
September 20th, 2006
Bryce Johnson has coordinated many rides already. Thanks Bryce!
Details about the Banff Centre shuttle are available on the travel page. Shuttle reservations are required. If you’d like a ride, or can offer a ride, please post in the comments here.
3 comments September 13th, 2006
I’ve talked with a few participants who’ve struggled on how to pronounce CanUX. Here’s the official pronounciation guide - CanUX = Canucks. It is the Canadian User Experience Workshop, after all ;-)
3 comments September 12th, 2006
The current weather report for Banff is cold and wet. We suggest bringing layers, like a sweater or fleece and an outer rain shell. Hats and gloves are also recommended for folks from warmer cities.
Update: As far as dress code for the conference, casual is good. Jeans are fine, though you’re welcome to dress up if you really want to. See the pictures from last year for a sense of the conference.
3 comments September 12th, 2006
Here’s how our schedule looks right now. I’m so excited to have our outstanding cast of speakers leading sessions at CanUX.
| Start | End | What’s Happening | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday Sept. 14 |
|||
| 3:00 | 3:15 | Welcome | |
| 3:15 | 5:30 | Design Slam | |
| 5:30 | 7:00 | Dinner | |
| 7:00 | 8:30 | Slam Presentations | |
| 8:30 | 10:00 | Opening Reception | |
| Friday | |||
| 9:00 | 10:00 | Opening Keynote - Gene Smith, Learning from Massive Failure | |
| 10:00 | 12:00 | Session - Liz Danzico, Content 2.0 | |
| 12:00 | 1:30 | Lunch | |
| 1:30 | 3:30 | Session - Banff Centre, Creativity | |
| 3:30 | 4:00 | Break | |
| 4:00 | 5:00 | Session - Cambrian House, Rapid Development | |
| 5:00 | 5:45 | Betsy Weber, Morae Demo | |
| 5:45 | 7:00 | Dinner | |
| Saturday | |||
| 9:00 | 10:30 | Session - Kevin Cheng, Creating Conceptual Comics | |
| 10:30 | 11:00 | Break | |
| 11:00 | 12:00 | Session Continued - Kevin Cheng | |
| 12:00 | 1:30 | lunch | |
| 1:30 | 2:30 | Session - Joey Benedek, Microsoft Vista | |
| 2:30 | 3:30 | John Bristowe, Microsoft Expression Demo | |
| 3:30 | 4:00 | Break | |
| 4:00 | 5:00 | Closing Keynote - John Morkes, Joy of Use | |
September 12th, 2006
Liz Danzico, Editor-in-Chief of Boxes and Arrows, will be speaking at CanUX this week. We had a chance to ask her a few questions about her current work, what’s happening with B&A and her CanUX presentation. Enjoy!
AIGA is the largest and oldest professional design association with more than 18,000 members. These members are as passionate as they are diverse, ranging in discipline, geography, and skill level. It’s my responsibility to craft the experience that people—both members and nonmembers—have with AIGA’s content. And for the work I do, this means something different just about every day.
This summer, for example, I’ve been working with Happy Cog to redesign the national website; working with Winterhouse Studios to develop the first Design Writing & Criticism Awards for young writers; and am developing a design taxonomy for our 100 years of content.
In two months, I’ll be onto something new. It changes as frequently as people’s needs change. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I wish I could take credit for the consistent quality of the writing, but honestly (and maybe I shouldn’t reveal this), it’s everyone but me. For five years, we’ve received more article submissions that we can keep up with, each one thoughtful in its own right. We saw it slow down only once around the end of 2001, which is, I believe, the last time our editorial staff caught its breath. Ever since, we’ve been looking to the authors, tracking down stories, and interviewing seminal thinkers in the community who all volunteer their time and ideas.
What’s always been fascinating to us is the interaction of the authors and the readers. Back in 2001, we were surprised to find the comfortable dialog that developed online with each article published. Authors and readers—refining, arguing, developing ideas further. This year, we launched a feature that leverages this natural tendency, allowing this dialog to take place before the article is published. People can work out ideas before they get published, the idea being that this will further refine the quality of the writing, and we suspect, give people content that they need.
Editors (who, by the way, are just about the most dedicated group I know) take these pre-refined ideas and work directly with authors to prepare them for publication. From thought to publication, the process takes about 8-12 weeks when all goes smoothly, longer when our day jobs take over.
So, the short answer is: The readers themselves keep the quality high. We just provide the framework to allow them to do so. (more…)
September 12th, 2006
Cambrian House, the crowdsourcing startup, is going to offer a workshop talking about how they use agile methods to produce great products and great user experiences. The CH folks have some very interesting approaches, and I’m looking forward to learning more about them and seeing how it improves my own practice.
September 7th, 2006
In 2004, Gene Smith blogged an email conversation about folksonomies - social classification from the likes of Flickr and Del.icio.us. That was the first time ‘folksonomy’ reached the world wide web, and it sparked a storm of conversation about social classification, tagging, and the practice of information architecture. That fall, Gene presented his ideas about changing technologies like Rich Internet Applications and RSS in his Beyond the Page presentation in Monterey, CA, discussing concepts that helped define Web 2.0.
Whether it turns out to be a wildfire meme or not, I’m excited to hear what Gene’s got in store for us this year…
September 7th, 2006
See the Flickr photos from last year and this year
Canux is the annual Canadian User Experience workshop. Canux is a non-profit grassroots event that brings world-class instructors together with practitioners for hands-on learning. It's a small gathering, limited to 75 participants, with a focus on practical skills for user experience professionals - designers, information architects, interaction designers, front-end architects, usabilitistas, and anyone else who's passionate about making things work well for people. It's coming soon, so register early to ensure your spot.
