RUX May – The Ethics of User Experience: Empathy or Exploitation?

Posted: May 14, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: book club, events | Comments Off on RUX May – The Ethics of User Experience: Empathy or Exploitation?

Date: Wednesday, May 28th, 2014, 6 PM to 8:00 PM
Location: Water Coastal Kitchen, 3411 W. Cary Street, Richmond, VA (map)
As usual, please RSVP via our Meetup page for this event.

This month, we are trying something new: a book club without a book. There will still be a reading assignment, and we are still planning on a lively and engaging discussion, but we will be asking you to read a few articles rather than a book. To give credit where it’s due, we are adapting this idea from IxDA Boston’s April event on ethics and UX (we have kept two of their articles but added our own).

The Ethics of User Experience: Empathy or Exploitation?

Given our empathy for and understanding of the user for whom we are designing, how do we leverage that knowledge responsibly? Can we design experiences that generate value for our stakeholders while still serving the best interests of their audience? Is there really a dilemma?

At our May meetup, we will discuss the ethics of user-centered design and the User Experience. As food for thought, we ask that you arrive having read the following four articles:

Read the rest of this entry »

Book Club

Posted: January 2, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: book club | Comments Off on Book Club

Join your fellow RVA UX enthusiasts for the first Richmond UX meeting of 2012, a book club! Come discuss “100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about People” by Susan Weinschenk. Get your copy now–in fact, why not shop local and buy the book at Fountain Bookstore?

Also, if you have UX books you want to trade, bring them as well. Maybe you have an old edition of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web or The Design of Everyday Things that you’d like to pass on. Think of it as a UX bookswap!

Details

January 25, 2012

Barrel Thief at Patterson and Libbie

6:00-8:00 pm

RSVP: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2661740337

Book Club in January…No, Really

Posted: December 19, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: book club | Comments Off on Book Club in January…No, Really

You’ve still got time to read Susan Weinschenk’s 100 Thinks Every Designer Needs to Know About People.

Join us January 25 at Barrel Thief (Patterson & Libbie location). RSVP here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2661740337

It’s gonna be fun!

Next meeting: Book club

Posted: October 28, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: book club, meetings | 2 Comments

For the next RUX meeting, we’re doing a book club! The book is Susan Weinschenk’s 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about People. The date is December 7…the place is to be determined.

Why not support local business and buy the book from an indie bookstore, Fountain Bookstore in Shockoe Slip: bit.ly/u7XnzU

Some Design Studio and Other Resources

Posted: November 18, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: book club, general | Tags: | Comments Off on Some Design Studio and Other Resources

After the meeting on Wednesday, several people expressed more interest in how the time-honored design studio method is being used in UX design. Here are some thoughts and references:

Design Studio

The design studio concept is discussed in Todd Zaki Warfel’s book Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide (use code MOJOGUZZI for 25% off this & any other RM book)

Also, take a look at Todd’s right way to wireframe video (and design studio starts at 1:06 and goes through 1:39). In fact, here are all four RWTW videos.

Here are some slides from his Web 2.0 presentation.

Lane Halley has detailed this concept in this presentation.

Another interesting approach is here.

UX Team of 1

Here’s one of the great Leah Buley’s UX team of 1 stuff. And here’s her book site.

About Russ

Many thanks to Russ Unger, co-author of A Project Guide to UX Design, for appearing last night.
Bio page
Book page (with downloadable templates & content)
Follow him on Twitter: @russu

Rosenfeld Media UX Books Discount

Posted: May 3, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: book club, tools & methods | Comments Off on Rosenfeld Media UX Books Discount

Thanks to the generosity of Rosenfeld Media, RUX members get a huge discount on their books! Just go to the Web site, order books. Then use the discount code UXBOOKRICHMOND at checkout. It is now active for 30% off RM products through May 15, 2010.

Many thanks to Rosenfeld Media (follow then at @rosenfeldmedia on Twitter).

RUX Bookclub in July!

Posted: June 26, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: book club, events | 2 Comments

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

popular ux books

Posted: June 14, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: book club | Comments Off on popular ux books

Louis Rosenfeld just posted a nice list of popular UX books for UX bookclubs. Bring your top choices to next month’s meeting where we’ll vote on our next bookclub book!

In light of our last meeting about selling user experience…

Posted: March 30, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: book club | Comments Off on In light of our last meeting about selling user experience…

Selling Usability: User Experience Infiltration Tactics, a new book, just came across the IAI list and looks to be interesting. Let us know if you’ve read it and/or think it would be a good book club candidate.

Reminder RUX Book Club Next Month!

Posted: March 26, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: book club | Comments Off on Reminder RUX Book Club Next Month!

Join us for our first RUX book club next month!

For April’s discussion, we’ll talk about the book Subject to Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World from Adaptive Path.

Format: (from UXBookClub.org)

A UX (User Experience) Book Club is a get-together in which people interested in the area of user experience come to discuss a book relevant to the discipline.

A UX Book Club would operate as follows:

  • Everyone who attends should try and read the nominated book (you won’t be barred from entry, but it helps everyone get more out of the night);
  • Everyone needs to jot down and bring along: 2 things in the book that really struck a chord; and 1 thing they either hated, disagreed with; or don’t understand.
  • The book would be within the practice of user experience, which might include books like Indi Young’s Mental Models; Dan Saffer’s Design Gestural Interfaces; Todd Zaki Warfel’s forthcoming Prototyping; and classics such as The Design of Everyday Things; Don’t Make Me Think; The Inmates Are Running the Asylum; etc.
  • The book should not be arduous to read!
  • We’ll vote on next month’s book at the current meeting.

In keeping with the book-club theme we will meet somewhere like a wine bar or a bookstore. The important thing is that the noise level has to be low, and be able to accommodate a group of 15-30 people.

We’ll keep the book club updated via the UX Book Club site:  http://www.uxbookclub.org/doku.php?id=richmond_va

When:

Wednesday April, 29, 2009, First Book Club Discussion Group
6pm – 8pm
Location: TBD
Book: Subject to Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World from Adaptive Path (http://tinyurl.com/cgzffc)

Looking forward to seeing you!
The RUX Planning Team