With CanUX over, I found myself looking for all the links to templates and other information that were mentioned during the sessions. I thought I might as well share my list with others! Here it is (if you have something to add please let me know in the comments):
Web Form Design – Luke Wroblewski
UX Swimlanes – Yvonne Shek
A Better Method for Designing with Developers – Jerome Ryckborst
Sketchboards: Good Design Faster – Brandon Schauer
Visual Thinking in Practice – Dave Gray
Microsoft Surface – Dennis Wixon
Books
The next event from nForm will be the Web Strategy Summit, taking place in Calgary on May 4th & 5th, 2009.
If you’d like to read more about CanUX 2008, see my posts on Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3. I also posted some sketches here, and a list of attendees on Twitter here. My photos are here, and you can find other related photos on Flickr here.
Today was the third and final day for CanUX 2008 (you can read about day 1 here and day 2 here). I had a great time at the conference, and I’d highly recommend attending if you’re considering it for 2009.
We started off with a session on Sketchboards from Adaptive Path’s Brandon Schauer. He took us through his process of sketching and idea generation. It starts with a six simple sketches. From there you pick one to focus on and flesh out a bit. Finally, you take your finished sketch and add it to the sketchboard, which will contain all your sketches and inputs. It was pretty interesting! You can find slides, templates and more at Brandon’s blog.
Our next session was presented by Dave Gray before and after lunch, called Visual Thinking in Practice. He shared with us some simple techniques for drawing, and expressed his frustration at the common response, “I can’t draw!” Dave has made it his mission to change that outlook, and was quite passionate when talking about how visuals are important for effective communication.
Our final session of the day was from Dennis Wixon, a researcher at Microsoft working on Surface. Despite being right at the end of the day, everyone was captivated by the presentation. Dennis did a nice job of explaining how Surface, as a Natural User Interface (NUI), fits into computing history. He was hesitant to talk roadmaps or product features, but offered a number of insights into the design and importance of Surface. He confessed that the technology existed long before anyone at Microsoft knew how it would be useful!
I’d like to thank the nForm crew for putting together an excellent event! It was great to meet some of Canada’s User Experience community, and I learned a lot.
Just got back from day two of CanUX 2008. The schedule was packed, but it seemed to go quite quickly which means I wasn’t bored or overwhelmed. There was a nice balance of content and activities, and again, great food!
In the first session, Luke Wroblewski from Yahoo talked about web form design and why web forms suck. He spent some time talking about forms in general at the beginning, but devoted most of his talk to redesigning a Boingo form. He listed his ten best practices, and had clear and thorough reasons for each. I thought it was a good way to illustrate the concepts. Luke finished by advocating gradual engagement, and challenged everyone to consider whether or not a form is actually needed. I’ll definitely be picking up a copy of his book.
The second session was on UX Swimlanes, presented by nForm’s own Yvonne Shek. A UX swimlane is a document that provides a bird’s eye view of where you are in a project, by communicating a story or scenario. The document consists of vertically stacked lanes for different audiences, all illustrating the same concept. The executives have a lane with a comic strip, the UX/creative types have a lane with a workflow diagram, etc. It’s a neat concept, and I wish we had more time to explore it. You can find some comic panels to use here, and a Visio template for swimlanes here.
After lunch we had a long session on creativity, facilitated by the Banff Centre. We broke into three groups: one worked on collages, one explored drumming, and the group I joined focused on improv. Everyone seemed to enjoy the session! I found the activities we took part in were more applicable to leadership than to creativity, but I still had a great time. My favorite activity in the improv group was the last one. Working with a partner, you start off by saying “I have this great idea for a party…” and they follow with “yes, but…” and you keep going until the facilitator stops time. Then you switch, and do “yes, and…” instead. It’s incredible how wild the latter ideas became! Great tool for brainstorming.
The final session of the day was A Better Method for Designing with Developers. Jerome Ryckborst shared with us his experiences using the “Five-Sketches-Or-Else” method of getting developers and potentially other team members involved in design. It’s a really intriguing concept that I’m keen to try out. You can find most of Jerome’s presentation here.
After dinner was a “Show & Tell” reception where anyone could get out their laptop and show others what they are working on. It was neat to see some of the projects that attendees are focused on. Tomorrow is the final day of the conference, and the schedule is packed once again! You can read about day 1 here. I’ve been uploading photos here and I posted a few additional thoughts here.
I arrived in Banff this afternoon for CanUX 2008, the Canadian User Experience workshop. The annual event brings together a wide range of people who care about making things work better. CanUX is organized by Edmonton-based nForm Experience Consulting. One of the most appealing things about CanUX is the size – there are only about 80 people in attendance, and that’s on purpose. It makes for a more intimate type of event.
The day started at 9am with the UX Bootcamp, a preconference workshop to get attendees up-to-speed on user-centered design. The conference officially began after the Bootcamp at 3pm. Each attendee received a tote bag with two books inside: Subject to Change by adaptive path and Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug.
The first session of the conference was called Design Slam. A group from the University of Lethbridge led the session as “BestJet”, a fictional airline not unlike the real WestJet. We broke into groups and were tasked with designing a strategy to help BestJet grow its market share and reduce customer frustrations. It was a fun exercise, and served as an ice-breaker without feeling forced! Most groups came up with some sort of airline profile, so that passengers could save preferences for future flights. Almost everyone said the planes should be upgraded to contain touchscreens.
The design work and presentations for Design Slam were split by dinner, and followed by the opening night reception. It was great to meet a bunch of new people today, and I look forward to the rest of the conference! I’ll be blogging about it here and on my own blog, and uploading photos to this photoset at Flickr. You can also follow along on Twitter!
The novaNAIT Centre for Applied Research and Technology Transfer is running a new competition for local entrepreneurs. The novaNAIT Technology Commercialization Challenge aims to introduce and generate interest around applied research. Any Edmonton-area resident 18 years of age and older can submit a business idea for the chance to win up to $10,000 worth of services.
NovaNAIT is the new technology transfer arm of NAIT, much like TEC Edmonton is the technology transfer arm of the U of A. The goal is to help inventors and entrepreneurs get their ideas into the marketplace. The challenge is novaNAIT’s way of introducing itself to the community, and was inspired by an internal challenge held for NAIT staff in December 2006.
When I first came across the challenge, I noted that it seemed similar to TEC Edmonton’s VenturePrize. I asked David Burry, Coordinator of novaNAIT’s Prototype Development Program, about the similarity and he told me that he feels the competition compliments VenturePrize. The prizes for the novaNAIT Challenge aren’t quite as big, but they are tailored to the specific needs of the winner. Also, the competition is open to everyone whereas VenturePrize focuses on high-tech and fast-growth sectors. Burry said both competitions share the goal of “assisting in small business development and enhancing the entrepreneurial culture” in Edmonton.
If you’d like to participate in the novaNAIT Challenge, you need to submit an entry form (pdf) no later than 4pm MST on November 21st, 2008 (a week from today). Those entries will be judged and successful entrants will be invited to give a five minute presentation on their idea to a panel of judges on December 11th, 2008. The winner will be chosen and announced the following day.
The judges will evaluate entries on how innovative they are, the commercial and technical viability of the idea, the marketability of the solution, and the potential for economic impact in Alberta. The initial submission should not contain confidential details, but the presentations in phase two can (judges will sign a non-disclosure agreement). Entrepreneurs who choose to participate retain full ownership of their ideas.
I think we could use more competitions such as this one. Having participated in VenturePrize myself, I know how much work goes into a submission, and I think it turns many people away. The novaNAIT Challenge seems more accessible, and is a good way for local entrepreneurs to get some practice articulating their ideas to others in the community.
For more information on the novaNAIT Challenge, visit the website or contact David Burry via email or at 780.378.6187. If you’re planning to participate, I’d love to hear about it!
The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology is a leader in technical training and applied education designed to meet the demands of Alberta's... [more]
One way to look at cloud computing is in layers. The lowest layer is the physical infrastructure, the computing power and Internet bandwidth that makes it all possible. An example of this layer is the 4WEB.ca data centre that I wrote about in September. Look one layer up, and you'll find the applications and services that add value to the infrastructure. An example of this layer is Edmonton's Nirix Technology.
Founded in 2001 by Steven and Stanford Hsu, Nirix provides IT utility services to other organizations. They make it possible for a business to completely outsource technology operations. The company has grown significantly since their runner-up finish at the VenturePrize business plan competition in 2007, and they’ve become a little more focused too. Their primary offerings are Managed Backup, which enables businesses to securely store their data on Nirix’s infrastructure, Managed Email (hosted Exchange), and Managed Office (hosted Microsoft Office).
Nirix is the only company in Edmonton providing this kind of service, so it's no surprise that most of their customers are shocked to find that they don't need to look across the border. About half of Nirix's customers are local, with the other half spread across Canada. When they started, Nirix spent a lot of time finding and educating customers. Now, customers increasingly come to Nirix. Steven told me that there are a number of advantages to being located in Edmonton; there's very little chance of natural disasters, but still good access to power and other services. Some organizations have policies that specify their data must be kept in Canada too.
Things have been going well for Nirix. The company is cash-flow positive and grew 40% in the last fiscal year. A few weeks ago, Nirix was named as a finalist in the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Owner of the Year Award for 2008.
Where does Nirix see this going? Steven says that ten years ago, a common question for businesses was “are you online?” but now, the question to ask is, “are you in the cloud?” Nirix thinks it can help businesses answer “yes” easily and cheaply. The company is looking to expand aggressively. They're looking for $2 million in funding to target specific markets and increase their staff from twelve employees to twenty. Nirix also intends to increase the capacity of their storage area network (SAN) to a whopping 800 TB. The SAN is a focus, Steven says, because “everything needs storage.” Isn’t that the truth!
I think a big challenge for Nirix going forward will be convincing customers to choose them over similar services offered by Amazon, Microsoft, or Google. Certainly Nirix has the local advantage and can offer personalized service and support, but it’ll be hard to compete with the prices that the big players should eventually be able to offer. Nirix will have to continue to improve their service offerings, to give customers something they can’t find elsewhere.
You can learn more about Nirix and the services they offer at http://www.nirix.com.
Nirix Technology is the next generation IT utility company or Utility Service Provider (USP). Founded in 2001, located in the heart of Edmonton,... [more]
Here are some tech events taking place in Edmonton over the next two weeks:
EMUG November Meeting
Wednesday, November 12th at 6:00pm
WC112 HP Centre, NAIT Main Campus – map
Introduction to SQL Server 2008. More information & registration here.
Edmonton Web Design November Meetup
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 7:00pm
Good Earth Cafe, 8623 112th Street - map
More information here.
Visualization Users Group Meeting
Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 10:00am
#315, General Services Building, University of Alberta - map
Dr. Pierre Boulanger will give a talk on his visualization research and the Advanced Man-Machine Interface (AMMI) Laboratory. More information here. RSVP required.
Tonight was without a doubt our best DemoCamp ever here in Edmonton. With six fairly solid demos, nearly 150 people in attendance, and no technical glitches in sight, it’ll be hard to top DemoCampEdmonton4 but we’re certainly going to try! It’s just amazing to see the community grow like this – thanks to everyone who came out.
Tonight we had six demos:
It wasn’t planned at all, but all of the products that were demoed tonight seemed really polished. The interfaces were all slick and professional looking!
I think my “demo of the night” goes to ODIL’s Surveyor. I really like the interface, and the application itself seems pretty solid for something so early-stage. ElectionBuddy and Edistorm also had great demos, and have lots of potential. I think PureInbox could have been a great demo, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of the app itself. The History Books was entertaining, but as I said on Twitter, it seemed like something that came out of a few late night domain name purchases. Grant did a wicked presentation, showing us eight different projects that his Flash design firm has been involved with. He was definitely the most captivating presenter.
Tonight was also the first public announcement for Edmonton Code Camp! It’s going to take place on Saturday, November 29th at the MacEwan campus downtown. You can find more information here, and the domain will be http://www.edmontoncodecamp.com (working through some DNS issues currently). We’ll share more details soon.
The venue worked well again this time, and once again I had Free Wifi going (though it could have been a bit more reliable). I live-twittered the demos, which you can find at Twitter Search along with updates from others in attendance.
I think lots of people like DemoCamp just for the networking opportunity afterward, and again we had a full house at The Windsor Pub. Was great to see a bunch of new faces in the crowd too! Thanks to Smibs for sponsoring tonight’s event.
If you’d like to be notified about future DemoCamp and BarCamp events in Edmonton, sign up for the mailing list here.
See you at DemoCampEdmonton5!
If you were trying to find something to do before DemoCamp Edmonton 4 tomorrow evening, look no further! Digital Alberta will be hosting an iPhone networking event and Kelly Marples, an Applications Consultant from Rogers, will be on hand to talk about:
The presentation starts at 5:15pm in common's area in the Computing Sciences building at the U of A. the same room as DemoCamp. Here are all the details:
Digital Alberta iPhone Presentation
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 at 5:15pm
Computing Sciences Building, University of Alberta
DemoCampEdmonton4
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 at 6:30pm
E1 017, ETLC, University of Alberta - map
Come learn about the iPhone, then find out what local entrepreneurs are up to. More info here.
I know there are a few events taking place at the same time (VenturePrize Seminar Series, for instance) so if you’re unable to make it to DemoCamp, don’t worry! We’d still love to have you out for “beers and cheers” after. Check Twitter to see where we’ve gone. See you then!
