RUX August – Can I See Your Portfolio?
Posted: August 9, 2016 Filed under: events, meetings, presentations, training Comments Off on RUX August – Can I See Your Portfolio?
When: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM (EDT) Where: The Depot at VCU – 814 W Broad St, Richmond, VA 23220 – View Map
When thinking about hiring you for a web design or development job, Most managers don’t care where you went to school, what your GPA was, or even what “skills” you say you have. They don’t even really care that much about where you have been working the past few years. What they care about is seeing your portfolio. Whether it’s a resume sent by HR, an email from a friend, or a business card handed to them at a conference, they immediately look for that URL which will show your body of work.
Your portfolio is the key to any user experience job. If you don’t have one, then you need not bother to apply. You can have all of the fancy schooling available; you can know the entire Adobe Creative Cloud product line like your own family; you may have have even worked at Ogilvy while moonlighting at Frog, but if you do not show your design thinking process, you might as well go into chartered accountancy.
Jason has been hiring UX professionals for over twenty years, and will share some of the insights he has gained about what works (and does not work) when presenting your portfolio, whether it’s to a prospective employer, client, or other designers.
What attendees will learn
- Who is the audience for your portfolio
- What every portfolio has to have
- How to present your portfolio effectively
Agenda
- 5:30-6:00 – Networking
- 6:00-6:45 – Featured Presentation
- 6:45-7:00 – Q&A
- 7:00-7:30 – Discussion / Networking
About Our Speaker, Jason Cranford Teague
Jason designed the first web based magazine, Computer Mediated Communications, in 1994 and has been at the forefront of digital innovation ever since. He wrote the first book for designers on Cascading Style Sheets in 1996. He was the lead designer on WebMD when it launched in 1998. He built the first online interactive comic book reader in 2006. He wrote the first book on modern web typography in 2009.
Jason is the co-founder and lead creative at The CranfordTeague Group, which specializes in digital communication strategies. He is also working on Invisible Jets, a start-up company that wants to revolutionize how we trust each other online.
Jason is finishing work on a new book, The NEW Web Typography, with Stephen Boss (Spring ’16) and has written several other books and dozens of articles for print and online publications over the last 20 years. He’s lived in London (off and on), Charlotte, Atlanta, Durham, and DC (not necessarily in that order) with his 3 cats, 2 kids, but just the one wife.
Twitter: @JasonCT
Company: @CranfordTeague
Blog: www.medium.com/jasonspeaking-report
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpj0RrS4y8FLwY8ntwswn9KqzoE7rk7kz
RUX December – 2015 Year-End Event
Posted: November 23, 2015 Filed under: events, meetings | Tags: information architecture, interaction design, user experience, UX Comments Off on RUX December – 2015 Year-End Event
Get ready for our first annual year-end recap and networking event!
2015 was a banner year for Richmond UX, and on December 2nd we want to celebrate with as many of you as can make it. In addition to networking and getting to know each other better, we will recap 2015 and look ahead to 2016. As important, we want to hear from you. What’s been working, what could be improved, and how can we better fulfill our mission: to be the source for the theory and practice of user experience, research, design, and evaluation in the Central Virginia region; to promote the value of User Experience methods to businesses, schools, and other entities; and to cultivate a community of UX-related professionals through knowledge sharing, professional development, and networking.
What
5-5:30 – Networking
5:30-6 – 2015 Recap
6-6:30 – Open Forum
6:30-7+ – Networking
When
December 2nd from 5:00pm to 8:00pm
Where
Capital Ale House Innsbrook
4024 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060
We look forward to seeing you there!
RUX October – User Research in the Age of the Customer
Posted: October 15, 2015 Filed under: meetings, panel discussion | Tags: eye tracking, usability, user research, UX Comments Off on RUX October – User Research in the Age of the Customer
On October 28th, RichmondUX will be hosting and moderating a panel discussion on User Research. In addition to local UX and CX professionals from CarMax, CapitalOne, CapTech Consulting, and Singlestone Consulting, Richmond UX is proud to welcome Service Design expert Rebecca Horton to Richmond for our discussion.
Note: Eventbrite registration is required for this event. Earlybird tickets are $5; General Admission is $7 after October 25th; and tickets will be $10 at the door. Student tickets are free (valid student ID required).
Abstract
Given that User Centered Design seems to be common wisdom—if not always common practice—what is the state of user research and where is it heading? As early as 2011, Forrester Research has been touting the “Age of the Customer,” and has been entreating businesses to focus on the “Customer Experience.” But well before CEOs and CMOs were reading about user research in industry publications and attending CX conferences, UX practitioners were busy in the trenches observing, surveying, and working with users to understand their needs. During the discussion, we’ll dig into questions like:
- Who owns (or should own) user research in the organization?
- Is there such a thing as a UX process without user research?
- How much research is enough?
- What are the differences between market research and user research?
- What user research methods provide the most bang for the buck?
We’ll leave plenty of time for audience questions, so come prepared!
Agenda
4:30-5:00 – Networking & Announcements
5:00-5:45 – Panel Discussion
5:45-6:00 – Q&A
Location
The Depot (VCU)
814 W Broad St
Richmond, VA 23220
Sponsors
RUX September – The 3 Es of a Scalable Content Strategy
Posted: September 16, 2015 Filed under: events, meetings, presentations | Tags: content strategy, UX Comments Off on RUX September – The 3 Es of a Scalable Content Strategy
On September 24th, RichmondUX is excited to welcome Colleen Jones, author of Clout: The Art & Science of Influential Web Content, to Richmond! The venue is the Capital Ale House at Innsbrook, and will be a bit more social and casual in nature. Come ready to meet folks and network, before and after Colleen’s presentation!
Abstract
Today, business is digital. That makes content critical. A new report from IBM finds CMOs now plan to spend more on content than on advertising (Marketing is a (Buyer) Journey, Not a Destination). Content also is the substance of the user experience for digital products and channels.
So, you might have enjoyed some success with implementing a content strategy for a single product, channel, or marketing campaign. Now, imagine repeating that success. How do you make your content strategy scale across products, brands, channels, markets and more?
It’s a question that often brings up many, many, MANY more questions for midsize and enterprise organizations. This session will help you answer them with 3 useful principles to scale your content strategy.
Agenda
4:30-5:00 – Networking & Announcements
5:00-5:45 – Featured Speaker
5:45-6:00 – Q&A
6:00-6:30 – Socialize/Network/Exchange Social Media Profiles
About Colleen
With nearly 20 years of experience, Colleen (@leenjones) has led strategic initiatives for Fortune 50 companies, government agencies, and boutique brands. She regularly consults with executives to improve their strategy and processes for content and has reached thousands more people through the cornerstone content book, Clout. Colleen also cofounded our content evaluation platform, ContentWRX and is the publisher of Content Science Review.
Over the course of her career, Colleen has held leadership roles at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and Cingular Wireless (now AT&T). At Cingular Wireless, she won several executive awards for leading an interdisciplinary team to improve the customer experience across channels including web, IVR, mobile, and point-of-sale applications.
With an M.A. in technical communication from James Madison University, Colleen is an active member of American MENSA, American Marketing Association, International Association of Business Communicators, and the Association of Computing Machinery. She also founded Atlanta Content Strategy and is a past chair of the executive board for the Atlanta chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery SIG on computer-human interaction.
UX Futures Summit (Wednesday, November 5th 9 AM at Gather – 409 E Main St #200)
Posted: October 30, 2014 Filed under: conferences, events, meetings Comments Off on UX Futures Summit (Wednesday, November 5th 9 AM at Gather – 409 E Main St #200)Rosenfeld Media and Environments for Humans bring together some of the Web’s most notable experts for an all-new, one-day-only online conference, the UX Futures Summit 2014! You may have already seen the announcement and been preparing to watch alone at your desk, but why not join your Richmond UX colleagues and watch the all-day conference together?
After a month of amazing nearby opportunities for UX professional development, RUX is proud to be hosting the Summit viewing at Gather RVA on November 5th. We will meet at Gather’s co-working space in the main conference room starting at 9am, with coffee and refreshments. From 10-1, we will watch the morning sessions together, with a lunch break from 1-2.
Schedule:
10am Andy Polaine: Design to the Power of Ten
11am Abby Covert: A World Made of Information
12pm Steve Krug: What if it turns out Steve Jobs wasn’t an alien?
1pm Lunch break
2pm Nathan Shedroff: Interaction Design Lessons Literally From the Future
3pm Margot Bloomstein: Democratized Publishing: Expanding our Expectations of ‘Everyone’
4pm Jesse James Garrett: UX: The First 50 Years
5pm Prizes!
After the last session we will be raffling off some terrific UX-related prizes, including the Grand Prize: the entire Rosenfeld UX library in digital format to one lucky winner!
Your cost to join us at Gather: just $20. On your own, this event would cost $179—with no discussions, door prizes, or networking. To attend an event of this caliber outside Richmond would be an even great investment of time and money. Only a few seats remain…
Thank you to our event sponsors: Snagajob, CarMax, and CapTech!
RUX Design Studio Meeting Notes
Posted: September 1, 2014 Filed under: meetings, tools & methods Comments Off on RUX Design Studio Meeting NotesWe used our August 27 session to Define RUX (note the capital D in define) using the Design Studio approach. We walked through and agreed upon who RUX serves, how RUXers want to be served, and what those programs might be. All notes below.
Please let us know if we have missed anything.
The next steps will be to revisit these thoughts and formulate a plan. Passionate about the direction of RUX and want to be part of the planning process? Let us know!
RUX Design Studio NOTES:
Who we Serve
People who…
• Make digital sh!t
• Create
• Want to learn
• Seek a Job
• Want to meet similar people
Also,
• Teachers
• Students
• Geeks
• Collaborators
And to a lesser degree …
Designers, beer drinkers, people who want speed, brainstormers, anthropologists, people who want to know what’s going on, people who want to be challenged, people who want to overcome obstacles, people who want to share insights, stay current; futurists, job offerers, product owners, business owners.
These people might most often have the following roles:
• Interaction designers
• UX researchers
• UX
• Usability specialists
• Web teams of One
• Product Management
• Information Architects
Though sometimes they might also be:
• Digital Strategists
• UX coaches
• Coders
• Analysts
• Librarians
• Information Geeks
• Content People
• Marketers
• Recruiters
• Business Owners
• Business Development
• Communications Specialists
• Social Media people
• Technical Writers
These people would most like to get from RUX:
Enablement, collaboration, problem solving, exploration, shared passion, new ways of thinking…
Learning, education, mentoring, immersion…
Trends, pushes, challenge to norms…
Entertainment…
Commiseration, leadership, inspiration, affirmation…
Means for social impact…
Community, network, friends, peers, access…
Promotion of my trade, means to make RVA great, regional recognition, strengthening of the profession…
And after exploring who RUX serves, and what RUXers want, we came up with two areas of programming. Its just a start, but there are some fantastic ideas here!
PRINCIPLE AREA : “Live & Learn”
Top programs/activities that we brainstormed include –
• UX workshops to solve UX problems together
• Forum to share UX challenges and insights
• Demos of great user experiences
• UX Job Announcements
• UX People Hub
• Computer program training seminars
• Feedback on designs
• Getting a look at various RVA digital businesses
• Internships and finders
• Beginner to expert workshops
• Demos of great (and terrible) user experiences
• Feedback in designs in which everyone comments!
• TLDR book clubs (that is, too long didn’t read)
(Other Live & Learn ideas included conference takeovers, conferences, scholarships to conferences, official mentor programs, connecting newbies to pros, feedback circles, learning to transfer learning, image sharing network, speakers, expert panel discussions)
SECONDARY AREA : “Push & Give”
Top programs/activities that we brainstormed include –
• Tool or process demos
• Training on UX
• Case studies
• Failure stories
• What’s cool email
• Case studies
• Design Jams on real ideas
• Projects that give back
(Other ideas on Push & Give included video game competitions, games, code or game design jams, charity events, create a product events, finding help for UX (find me a UX person!), startup weekends for concepts, coordinated UX research, transferrable skills into the field, “know your users” (bring projects here to get feedback together), UX Q&A, Live usability sessions with audience participants, design appreciation training or games, teaching and promoting research methods)
RUX February: Designing for Real Time Communications
Posted: February 11, 2014 Filed under: events, meetings, presentations Comments Off on RUX February: Designing for Real Time CommunicationsWednesday, February 26, 2014, 6 PM to 7:30 PM
SnagaJob, 4851 Lake Brook Drive, Glen Allen, VA (map)
Web design is changing as the browser transitions from a static medium to a fully interactive experience complete with video chat, text, and data communications built directly into the browser. Arin and Mariana will go over the new HTML5 standard WebRTC that allows for video, audio, and data channels in the browser, with no plugins required. This new level of interactivity brings with it new UX patterns, and we’ll share what we’ve learned so far.
Arin Sime is founder and CEO of AgilityFeat, a custom software development shop in the US and Latin America which focuses on web and mobile development for the real time web. Mariana Lopez is AgilityFeat’s UX lead and will join us via video chat from Costa Rica. Mariana holds a Masters degree in Human Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon, and Arin holds a Masters in Management of IT from the University of Virginia. Arin and Mariana have teamed up to design real time applications for clients in logistics, IT consulting, and online training industries. The AgilityFeat team also edits a weekly newsletter on real time technologies and WebRTC at RealTimeWeekly.com.
Please RSVP via our Meetup page for this event.
More to come in 2014!
Erin, Tom, Candace, Hope, Mark, and Joe
UX Cocktail Hour at Selba in the Fan, 8/28
Posted: July 29, 2013 Filed under: meetings Comments Off on UX Cocktail Hour at Selba in the Fan, 8/28When: Wednesday, August 28, 2013, 6 PM to 8 PM
We’ll be camped out on the bar side.
What projects are you working on? What UX problems are you trying to solve? What new techniques have you tried? What questions do you have about customer or product development? What’s new in your bag of tricks?
Connect and talk shop with your faithful tribe of Richmond UX makers after work with a delicious beverage in your hand (there will be snacks, too). This is a great opportunity to hang out with the good folks in the Richmond user experience community – designers, strategists and researchers. Don’t miss it.Space is limited to @ 40, so please RSVP.
Hope to see you there!
Tom, Erin, Candace, Wren, Hope and Joe
RUX June: What we talk about when we talk about UX
Posted: June 6, 2013 Filed under: meetings Comments Off on RUX June: What we talk about when we talk about UXWednesday, June 26, 2013
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Dominion Digital, Inc.
4101 Cox Road, Glen Allen, VA (map)
What approaches and terminology do we use to talk to others about our day-to-day and long-term user experience work? How do we sell ourselves and get buy-in for our activities? Is there such a thing as too much transparency? A panel of UXers from corporate, non-profit, startup and educational worlds discusses lessons learned from communicating UX work to internal stakeholders as well as clients.
Get more info and RSVP at Meetup.com.
Richmond UX 