October RUX meeting details!

Destroying the Box: Experience Design Inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright

“When we said we wanted a house at Bear Creek,” client Lillian Kaufmann said to Frank Lloyd Wright, “we didn’t imagine you would build it ON the creek!”
To which Wright replied, “In time you’d grow tired of the sight of creek…but you’ll never grow tired of the sound.”
And he was right. Fallingwater stands as the most recognized house in architecture. yet it’s not just a landmark…it was a home. The Kaufmanns’ loved it.
Similarly, owners of other Wright-designed buildings may have struggled with the architect, the implementation may have had flaws, the builders and other constructors may have gone behind Wright’s back to fix perceived design flaws… but they all loved the buildings. The architect’s vision remains inspiration to this day.
This presentation looks at three Wright landmarks— Fallingwater in Ohiopyle, the Pope-Leighy house in Alexandria, and Taliesin West in Phoenix— and the experience architecture inspiration they hold for experience designers.
I also believe that, through Wright’s examples, we can learn elements that take our approaches to experience architecture to newly useful and inspiring levels for our clients and the users of our work.
During this presentation, we’ll take a look at pictures and principles from these three sites. We will explore analogs to our practice through these elements:
• Context: How does the site selection integrate with user needs and desires?
• Clients: What do Wright’s relationships with his clients teach us? Where did he innovate, and where did he fail?
• Connection: How does the architect connect the lives of the clients with the results of the design? Expect an interactive, question-and-answer format. And lots of pictures.

Presented by Joe Sokohl of Regular Joe Consulting

When: Wednesday, October 26, 6-8pm

Where: Snagajob
4880 Cox Rd, Ste 200
Glen Allen, VA 23060

Hope to see you there!

RUX September: Sophisticated Web Design

Join us as Wren Lanier gives us a sneak peek of her edUi Conference presentation, Sophisticated Web Design:

What makes a great design better than a good design? How do award-winning sites achieve the polish that sets them apart? This session will review a variety of visual design practices that elevate sites beyond the ordinary. You will leave armed with tools to delight users with a sophisticated style and better user experience on every site that you build.

Time
Wednesday, September 28 · 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Location
INM United
201 West Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23220

August RUX meeting- Lean UX presented by Jeff Gothelf

Please join the Richmond User Experience group for a special presentation by Jeff Gothelf, Director if User Experience at TheLadders.com.

Lean UX: Getting Out of the Deliverables Business

Traditionally User Experience Design has been a deliverables practice. Wireframes, sitemaps, flow diagrams, content inventories, taxonomies and “The Spec” defined the practice of UX Designers (IxD, UX Design, whatever, etc). While this work has helped define what UX Designers do and the value our work brings to the business, it has also put us in the deliverables business – measured and compensated for the depth and breadth of our deliverables (instead of the quality and success of the experiences we design). Enter Lean UX. Inspired by Lean Product and Agile development theories, Lean UX is the practice of bringing the true nature of our work to light faster, with less emphasis on deliverables and greater focus on the actual experience being designed. This talk will explore how Lean UX manifests in terms of process, communication, documentation and team interaction. In addition, we’ll take a look at how this philosophical shift can take root in any environment from large corporation to interactive agencies to startups.

Jeff Gothelf is a user experience designer based in metro NYC. He has spent his career designing engaging experiences for clients big and small. He is currently the Director of User Experience at TheLadders.com where he helps executive jobseekers and recruiters make meaningful connections with each other. Previously Jeff helped shape the designs of AOL, Webtrends and Fidelity. Jeff publishes his thoughts on his blog (www.jeffgothelf.com/blog) and on Twitter as @jboogie.

Where: Snagajob
4880 Cox Road, Ste 200
Glen Allen, VA 23059

When: Wednesday, August 31
6-8pm, doors open at 5:30

This guest speaker is generously sponsored by Regular Joe Consulting. Refreshments will be provided!

We’re expecting a large turnout, so please rsvp to candace.nicolls@snagajob.com by Monday, August 29. Hope to see you there!

June RUX meeting- happy hour!

Come join your fellow RUX members for some drinks and fellowship! We’ll be talking about upcoming meetings and looking for ideas, so we’d love your input!

When: Wednesday, June 30
6-8pm

Where: Xtra’s Cafe
3322 B W. Cary St
Richmond, VA 23221

Everyone is welcome!

May RUX Meeting

Just Do It! How Making Something Every Day Will Make You a Better Designer

In June 2007, designer Noah Scalin decided he would make a skull out of orange paper. This simple creative act turned out to be the first step in a long journey of discovery and craftsmanship. Noah made a skull every day for a full year. Every day. And then kept going.

In this talk, Noah will describe the process, commitment, discipline and joy of making a something every day. This engaging and inspiring presentation is filled with practical lessons that designers at all levels can apply to their own life and work.

After the presentation:

• Q&A
• Buy a copy of Noah’s book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life!

Richmond User Experience (RUX) hosts informal monthly meetings to help local designers network and facilitate discussions. Recent topics have included: UX conference recaps, design critique, prototyping, Agile/UX, personas, and book discussions. Meetings are free and open to practitioners at all levels.

When

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Where

Affinion Loyalty Group

7814 Carousel Lane
Richmond, VA

(Near the intersection of Parham and Broad)

Cost

Free!

November RUX meeting- Book Club!

Join us on November 17 for the next installment of the RUX Book Club! We’ll be discussing A Project Guide To UX Design (http://projectuxd.com/) by Russ Unger, who will be joining us via Skype at 6! This is a great chance to interact with one of most well known User Experience authors as well as your local UX community!

If you don’t already have it, you can purchase the book locally at http://www.fountainbookstore.com/book/9780321607379 (paperback or ePUB)

Where: Snagajob, 4880 Cox Road, Ste #200

When- Wednesday, November 17
Since we have a guest dialing in, we’ll begin promptly at 6

Hope to see everyone there!

October RUX meeting- Cookin’ Personas

Cookin’ Personas: Improvising a Successful Recipe

Join us Wednesday, October 27 at 6pm for this fun and informative session on how to make your personas better!

When: Wednesday, October 27 from 6-7:30pm

Where: Ironworks Consulting, 10900 Nuckols Road, Ste 400, Glen Allen (please note- this is the NEW Ironworks office, not the old location on Cox Road)

Who: UX designers and researchers for web at all experience levels

Project managers

Web designers

Developers

Presentation Overview:

Creating personas is like making a meal for a crowd. The UX researcher must discern the organization’s overall appetite for understanding users, the project’s nutrition needs, and the team’s willingness to try something new (some developers are picky eaters). Finding good recipes and fresh ingredients come next. Cooking takes time, but shouldn’t take too long. Presentation is important. The goal is to serve up personas that are meaningful, authentic and helpful. They should also be nutritious and tasty.

Tom Illmensee, information architect at SnagAJob.com, will describe a personas process used at his company. The talk provides practical advice and shares hard lessons learned on interviewing users, data analysis, synthesis and storytelling. Following the format of TV cooking shows, the presenter will demonstrate the full personas process with handouts and photos.

By the end of this session you’ll have a tested recipe you can use to create a new process or compare with your own personas methods.

Presentation will begin promptly at 6pm- we look forward to seeing you there!

Richmond User Experience Meeting- August book club

Please join us for the RUX book club as we discuss The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. This is an informal, laid back conversation around this easy to read book that parlays our interest in user experience as it relates to the world around us.

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0385267746
Anyone who designs anything to be used by humans–from physical objects to computer programs to conceptu…al tools–must read this book, and it is an equally tremendous read for anyone who has to use anything created by another human. It could forever change how you experience and interact with your physical surroundings, open your eyes to the perversity of bad design and the desirability of good design, and raise your expectations about how things should be designed.

When: Wednesday, August 25 from 6-7:30pm.
Where: INM United, 201 W. Broad St., at the corner of Broad and Jefferson. Folks should park on the street on Broad, Grace or Jefferson. The conversation may even continue over beers at Popkin Tavern next door!