April RUX Meeting- Accessibility is Not a Checklist

Accessibility is Not a Checklist: A UX Designer’s Guide to Creating Accessible Interfaces

Too often, people approach accessibility only when required to, and simply by looking at a checklist. That approach rarely works, or it does so only at great additional cost.

But accessibility is not a checklist; accessibility happens by considering it from the beginning, understanding industry best practices, and by taking a user-centered design approach. This means knowing how people with various disabilities will interact with products in ways that are successful. So what do user experience professionals need to know and do in order to improve the accessibility of the web and mobile applications that their teams design?

Jimmy Chandler will demonstrate several concepts and methods to improve accessibility that all UX designers can use right away. He will also share stories from people with various disabilities, including how they benefit from accessible products and struggle with inaccessible ones.

This session will include Q&A and take away materials.

Bio

Jimmy Chandler, aka @uxprinciples, designed his first accessible website in 2001, and conducted his first usability test that same year. Jimmy is a frequent attendee, volunteer, organizer, and speaker for Accessibility DC, IXDA, UPA, UXCamp, and other accessibility- and UX-related events in the Washington, DC area and nationally.

Jimmy has a B.A. in Government from the College of William and Mary and currently lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife @coolacctngchick (aka Nicole).

Wednesday, April 25, 6-8pm. Networking to begin at 6, presentation to begin at 6:15.

Where?
Snagajob
4851 Lake Brook Drive
Glen Allen, VA 23060


Infographic Awesomeness: A Night with Column Five Media

The Richmond chapter of the AIGA is sponsoring an event Thursday night, 13 October:

Infographic Awesomeness: A Night with Column Five Media: “Column Five Media has carved a noticeable niche as infographic, data visualization, and interactive extraordinaries.”

If you’re not coming to edUi (or you are, but you wanna blow off the reception at the Library of Virginia), check out this cool program!


ReDUX!

Did you miss out on all of the User Experience Summits in the Midwest this spring? Well, here’s your chance to get a recap from some of our very own community to had the chance to be there in person!

Come listen on 27 April 2011 as we get the rundown on what some of the hottest topics were at Interaction ’11, the IA Summit ’11, and Midwest UX ’11.

SnagAJob.com will provide food and drinks!

Meet and greet is 6-6:30, and the presentation/ discussion is from 6:30-8. Hope to see you then and there!

SnagAJob
4880 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA


Midwest UX Slides available

Last weekend the first Midwest UX conference took place. Held in Columbus, OH, it was a joint venture between two local groups: UPA Columbus and IxDA Columbus.

What an intensely incredible conference! More than 200 folks gathered from all over, including several countries. The preponderance of attendees were from the surrounding areas: Pennsylvania and Michigan and Indiana and Illinois and, of course, Ohio. Even our own Joe Sokohl attended (and presented).

Check out this great list of presentations you can browse. Also, set aside April 27 for a ReDUX of three conferences: IxDA, IA Summit, and Midwest UX. Place to be determined.


RUX February Meet Up

Meet and connect with fellow UX practitioners from Richmond’s vibrant user experience community. IxDA board member Joe Sokohl will share highlights from the recent Interaction 10 Conference. Admission is free. Pay only for drinks and food.

When:
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Where:
Barrel Thief
11747 West Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23233
(804) 364-0144

http://www.barrelthiefwine.com/shortpump

When:

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Where:

Barrel Thief

11747 West Broad Street

Richmond, VA 23233

(804) 364-0144


http://www.barrelthiefwine.com/shortpump

What:

Meet and connect with fellow UX practitioners from Richmond’s vibrant user experience community. IxDA board member Joe Sokohl will share highlights from the recent Interaction 10 Conference. Admission is free. Pay only for drinks and food.

About RUX:

We are a group of information architects, librarians, web developers, usability experts, user experience designers, and other like-minded people from the Richmond/Charlottesville area. Our events are designed to facilitate communication and collaboration among UX practitioners in a relaxed and informal setting. Meetings are free and open to all levels of experience. Students are welcome. Whether you’re a seasoned user experience professional or a newbie, please join us for stimulating conversation! Visit:
http://richmondux.com


Let’s Get More Agile for 2010!

If you missed Tom and Joe’s November presentation, here’s your chance to hear it as the Richmond User Experience Group teams up with Agile Richmond to present Agility for Agile Professionals!

Doors open at 5:30, presentation is from 6-7:30.

Date:
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Time:
5:30pm – 7:30pm
Where:
Apex Systems- 4400 Cox Road, Ste 100, Glen Allen

Description

Agile team professionals often find themselves working on projects with tight deadlines, tighter budgets, and unreasonably high expectations for success. Too often user research, usability, and design processes are compressed or even cut entirely for the sake of time, while development and business analysis time is increased. As UX professionals become more involved with agile development methods, we have discovered novel approaches to user-centered design that are adaptable to any budget or deadline.

This discussion will explore how user research, usability, IA and interaction design practices are adapted and thrive in agile projects.

Focusing on their experiences at Agile 2009 in Chicago this past fall, they will discuss:

  • How to provide timely and valuable UX support to stressed web development teams
  • How to let go and modify research/design/development dogmas
  • How to advocate for users when time for user research and usability are unavailable
  • How to balance rigor, quality, and speed

Exciting Workshop at TriUPA in Raleigh

Dan Brown will be hosting a workshop in Tuesday, Sep 8, 2009, 9:00 AM until 5:00 PM in Durham, NC. The workshop, Modeling Concepts: New IA Techniques for a Web 2.0 World, will help participants adopt concept modeling into their own processes. Besides introducing the deliverable and providing advice on how to create them, the workshop will help participants understand where and when concept models are appropriate to use. Learn more at TriUPA.


RUX Bookclub in July!

Join us for the next installment of the RUX book club! Our July meeting will be a discussion of Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability.”

Whether you’re brand new to usability or an experienced professional, this easy to read book is relevant to anyone involved in web design and development.

Look forward to seeing you there!

When: July 28, 2009, 6-8pm

Where: Ellwood Thompson’s new coffee bar, http://www.ellwoodscoffee.com


June RUX Meeting!

What: Join us at Ellwood Thompson’s new coffee, beer and wine bar in the Fan for a RUX happy hour. We’ll lead a discussion on what you’d like to get out of RUX in the coming months, bookclub picks and possible upcoming events.

When: Wednesday June 24, 2009, 6pm – 8pm

Where: Ellwood Thompson

http://www.ellwoodscoffee.com/

Admission is free.

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Looking forward to seeing you there!

Best, The RUX Planning Team


Call for proposals: EdUI Conference w/ Jared Spool, Michael Wesch, Molly Holzschlag and others

Colleagues,Please excuse cross postings.

===== CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, EDUI 2009 CONFERENCE =====

* Have you completed an innovative Web project at your institution that you want to tell others about?
* Are you enthusiastic about introducing new technologies and techniques to other Web professionals?
* Do you want to share your ideas about user experience design and development for higher education or other large institutions?
* Are you ready to add something cool to your CV or resume?

Then we invite you to help make the EdUI 2009 conference a success! Submit your presentation proposal by July 1 2009.

– About the Conference –

The University of Virginia (U.Va.), in partnership with User Interface Engineering (UIE), invites presentation proposals for EdUI 2009: Remaining <strong>, to be held September 21–22, 2009 in Charlottesville, Virginia on the U.Va. campus.

Economic times might be lean, but professional growth has never been more important. EdUI 2009: Remaining <strong> will provide an opportunity for Web professionals in higher education and local and regional businesses to share ideas about the opportunities and challenges surrounding web user interaction, interface design, and development. The conference will be particularly useful for:

* Web Designers
* Web Developers
* Webmasters
* User experience and interaction design professionals

We are delighted that our speaking lineup so far includes Jared Spool, founder of User Interface Engineering, as keynote speaker, with Michael Wesch, Dana Chisnell, Derek Featherstone, Molly Holzschlag & Dan Rubin as headliners. Jared, Dana, Derek, Molly, and Dan are some of today’s top authors and speakers in web design and development. Michael Wesch, featured in the most recent issue of National Geographic magazine, is widely known for his popular Youtube videos on the social and cultural impact of new media.

Find out more about these fantastic speakers at:

http://www.uie.com/about/


http://www.google.com/profiles/mike.wesch


http://www.usabilityworks.net/


http://boxofchocolates.ca/about


http://molly.com/about.php


http://superfluousbanter.org/about/

Keep up with the conference:
Email –
http://eduiconf.org/joinlist

Twitter –
http://twitter.com/edui2009

Facebook – search for “Edui 2009″ and join our group

– Be a Part of It –

Please join us for this exciting conference. We seek dynamic speakers willing to share their knowledge and expertise about user experience design and development through case studies, workshops, tutorials, and poster sessions. Preference is given to presentations that offer practical methods and ready-to-use techniques and tools.

Possible topics may include:

* Innovation and change in higher ed or large institution web sites
* Web strategies
* User experience design / interaction design
* Graphics workflows
* User testing
* CSS tips & techniques
* Web standards
* Web accessibility
* Reusability in web development
* Web applications frameworks
* Interaction & web applications testing
* Use of social media

Conference sessions will be 40 minutes long with a 5-minute question and answer period. Longer topics can be proposed to spread across two consecutive sessions in a “Part 1, Part 2″ format.

– Submission Guidelines & Important Dates –

If you would like to be considered as a speaker, please submit your ideas online at
http://eduiconf.org/proposals/
by July 1, 2009.

The Conference Committee will review all submissions. Notification regarding acceptance will be made by July 22nd. If your proposal is selected, the primary speaker will receive a gratis registration to the full conference, including lunches and a reception. Conference organizers are not responsible for speakers’ travel and accommodation costs.

We look forward to receiving your ideas and suggestions by July 1, 2009.



Best wishes,
EdUI Conference Organizers

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