Refresh the Triangle

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

rPath is hiring Two UI Engineers

rPath is hiring two User Interface Engineers (as well as a Linux Distro Engineer, QA, and Windows Installer Engineer). If you are interested please contact elliot@rpath.com.

For all the job descriptions see http://people.rpath.com/~elliot/jobpostings
(I pasted the UI Engineer description below the cut.)

User Interface Engineers (X2)

rPath, Inc. is seeking two User Interface Engineers to join our team. We’re
changing the face of computing; for that we need your help.

We’re looking for two engineers to join our UI team and help us give our
best-of-breed technologies best-in-class user experiences with gorgeous
visuals.  Ideally, we’d like one person with experiences emphasizing UX and
visual design, and one person heavy on UI implementation, but if you have
skills in either/both areas, fear not—we’ll make the position fit the
right candidates, so apply now!

These positions are located in Raleigh, NC - if you’re not local, you must
be willing to relocate.

These positions may require infrequent travel. Still interested? You’ll
need to be able to say “yes” to the following:

o Solid experience with Adobe Flex preferred, but a strong ActionScript
3 or Javascript background would be acceptable, too.

o Experience with HTML/AJAX.

o Good “design skills”—being able to produce appealing and
intuitive interfaces is a big plus.

o Availability of online examples preferred.

o Comfortable in an entrepreneurial environment (prior startup
experience a plus).

In other words, if you’re the kind of person that looks at your cellphone’s
screen and says, “I could do better”—*and you can*—you could right
for this job.

Did we just describe you? If so, let’s talk! If you make the grade, you’ll
be working with some of the best and brightest the industry has to offer.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

jQuery Fundamentals Training

If you’re a designer or developer looking to add richness and interactivity to your websites, jQuery is a powerful skill to add to your toolbox. jQuery Fundamentals is a two-day class that will give you the knowledge you need to properly and effectively start integrating the popular JavaScript library into your projects. Over the course of 10 example-packed hours, you’ll learn the fundamental concepts of the language and the library to bring your sites to life.

Earlybird tickets are on sale for $389 until Aug. 21, and Refresh the Triangle participants can get an additional 10% off the ticket price.

This class is aimed at beginning jQuery users, but intermediate users may also benefit from the more formalized introduction to the library this class will offer. Attendees should have a solid grasp of hand-coding HTML and CSS.

The class will be held from 10-3:30 each day, with a break for lunch (provided).

About the instructor: Rebecca Murphey is a front-end architecture consultant based in Durham, NC. She is a regular contributor to JSMag, the magazine for JavaScript professionals, an active member of the jQuery community, and a contributor to the upcoming jQuery Cookbook from O’Reilly.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Announce: RTP Semantic Web Group

Announcing the formation of a new Semantic Web Interest Group in the RTP area.

Meet local people interested in the Semantic Web, an initiative by the W3C to make the web “one giant database”: The Web of Data.

This group will meet in and around Raleigh-Durham to address ways of implementing and learning Semantic standards, which include RDF, RDFa, RDFS, OWL, and SPARQL. We also talk about applications that help to develop or use linked data, NLP, AI, ontologies and controlled vocabularies or related topics of interest.

Please join if you are a practitioner or interested in the semantic web, semantic technologies or Web3.0.

http://www.meetup.com/RTP-Semantic-Web-Group/

Monday, August 03, 2009

Refresh 020 — Profitable Design

Durham, NC — Thur, Aug 27, 2009, 6:30-8:00PM

Web design should be seen as one more way to make your business more profitable, or your organization more successful. Many times when a website isn’t performing, a complete redesign is proposed, but so often that is a long, expensive and ultimately, unrealistic option. The trick is to know where design changes make a big impact, and where they yield only incremental improvement. We’ll look at some concrete examples of design techniques that guide customers into profitable behavior, without sacrificing usability or aesthetics. The goal of the talk is to identify a few areas where small design changes can have big impact, and build a small tool kit of profitable design techniques.

Speaker:
Ferol Vernon is currently the director of product development at ReverbNation, a venture-backed, web start up that provides marketing and distribution services for musicians. A proud geek, Ferol has always had an unhealthy passion for all things web/tech/design.  Ferol graduated from Boston University with a degree in ancient Greek and Roman history, and received his MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of business with a focus in technology and entrepreneurship.

Location:
The Solution Center
1101 Slater Road, Suite 200
2nd Floor, Brighton Hall
Durham, NC 27703

Thursday, July 30, 2009

TriUPA workshop—Modeling Concepts: New IA Techniques for a Web 2.0 World—September 8th, 2009

What: Modeling Concepts: New IA Techniques for a Web 2.0 World

When: full-day workshop: 9am - 5pm | Tuesday 9/8/09 | coffee & lunch included

Where: Council for Entrepreneurial Development in RTP

How: Capacity is limited—Register online now to reserve your spot!

Intended Audience

Senior User Experience Professionals, Information Architects, and Business Analysts.

About the Workshop
A staple in the information architect’s tool chest, the site map, approaches obsolescence faster and faster every day. The site map–a literal representation of every page on a web site–no longer adequately captures the structures behind today’s web sites. Information architects need a new tool.

A concept model can be that tool. While similar to the site map, a concept model avoids confining information architects to a specific framework for representing structures. It provides flexibility for accommodating a range of concepts and objects–not just web pages. It can represent a variety of relationships and easily incorporate contextual information. Modern web sites no longer are a collection of static HTML pages. Instead, they rely on templates, portlets, and complex interactivity. A user’s experience of such sites are hardly linear or hierarchical. Information architects need a visualization tool to capture the range of abstractions that form the foundation of modern sites.

This workshop 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. We will discuss the range of problems concept models can address and how to translate a model from an abstract representation of a site’s structure to concrete wireframes.

After providing an overview, the workshop will gradually walk participants through the process of creating a concept model. Working from a sample site, participants will learn and practice…

* gathering concepts
* compiling an initial model
* reviewing with “stakeholders” (played by the facilitator and other participants)
* revising the model
* adding a final visual polish, and turning the model into a screen design.

By the end of this workshop, participants will know:

* When concept models are an appropriate tool.
* How to create concept models to use in the gathering requirements.
* How to create concept models to use in the design process.
* How to design effective visualizations for concept models.

About the Speaker

Dan Brown is founder and principal at EightShapes, LLC, a user experience consulting firm based in Washington, DC that has engaged with clients in telecommunications, media, education, health, high-tech, and other sectors. Dan has been practicing information architecture and user experience design since 1995.

Prior to founding EightShapes, Dan consulted with organizations ranging from the US Postal Service, the World Bank, and the Federal Communications Commission to USAirways, FirstUSA, and Fannie Mae. From 2002-2004, Dan was a Federal employee, leading the content management program for the Transportation Security Administration. His portfolio includes work on public-facing web sites, intranets and extranets, and addresses most aspects of the user experience, from information architecture and content strategy to interaction and interface design.

Drawing on his expertise in communicating complex ideas and abstractions through high-quality visual documentation, Dan wrote a book on user experience deliverables: Communicating Design (New Riders, 2006). Amazon reviews call it “authoritative”, “practical, personal, comprehensive” and “a cool nerdbook”.  He’s written more than a dozen articles for Boxes and Arrows, an online journal dedicated to information architecture, on topics ranging from PowerPoint to the information architecture of home audio devices. He’s also written for UX Matters, the CHI Bulletin, and Interactive Television Today.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Gig: Joomla implementation

Gig: Joomla implementation for a history reference website.

Contact:
Marek McKenna—marek_mckenna@yahoo.com

Gig description:
I want to house the biggest collection of historical primary sources on one place.  There are several sites that house large collections, but they are maintained on institutional websites and as a result are not updated often and are incomplete.

Here are two examples:

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html

So I think there will be roughly 10,000 documents when this project is completed.  So the database needs to be very robust.

The documents need to be easily organized under lots of categories with the capacity to cross reference.  For example—the 19th Amendment would be under women’s history and Legal History.

Currently a version of JOOMLA! DOCMAN was installed on the site. Perhaps it was not set up right. This might work, but the person that put the site together seems to be out of his depth. His reply to my push back—this is what you need. I uploaded two documents to the same category on docman and it crashed.  Obviously if this can’t handle two documents in the same category there is going to be a problem when there are 10k.  Plus I do not see how to cross reference documents in docman and it requires documents to be converted into pdf.

When uploading or updating the documents I want to copy and paste the document. I do not want to convert them to a pdf file before uploading them. I want my visitors to be able to click on a hyperlink and view the document like on the two sample sites listed above.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Web Designer / Front-end Developer

We’re hiring!
Do you find beauty in the right tool for the right job and well-written, semantic markup? Do validation errors make you bristle with righteous indignation? Do you believe responsible web design goes beyond pretty pictures and incorporates concepts like accessibility and progressive enhancement?

If you answer yes to these questions, then hesketh.com may be the team for you

Occupational Summary

As a Web Designer you will be responsible for visual design and translating that design online using HTML/CSS templating and framework development. You will have the opportunity to exercise your exceptional creativity and pragmatism while participating in the full life-cycle development of web sites and applications.
Key Duties and Responsibilities

1. Contribute to compelling user experiences. Establish and apply visual design based on client business goals and ideation in a collaborative team environment.
2. Create standards-compliant markup. Implement designs using HTML and CSS progressive enhancement markup strategies.
3. Participate in feature ideation and selection. Participate in cross-functional brainstorming sessions to determine Web site features and functionality based on business objectives and user research findings. Provide insights into feasibility, solution analysis, project scope, and execution.
4. Love your tools. Evaluate and know when to use third-party tools to achieve business goals.
5. Innovate. Assess new standards, technologies and trends, and formulate strategies and plans for future Web site and application enhancements. Demonstrate an eagerness to learn, patience to share, and ability to apply new skills and trends within a diverse, user-centered design.
6. Facilitate collaboration. Participate in a highly collaborative relationship and help bridge would be gaps between design and development.

Qualifications
Education

BA or BS degree or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
Experience

* Minimum three years of experience in Web development.
* Experience with large, complex, and dynamic Web sites.
* Portfolio that demonstrates expertise in both Web design and execution using HTML and CSS.
* Agency experience is preferred.

Skills
Required Skills

* Expertise in…
o Coding browser-independent, standards-compliant HTML and CSS.
o Coding around browser/device display differences.
o Content management systems such as Drupal, Wordpress, Moveable Type, and Expression Engine.
o Client-side web technologies: HTML, CSS, and AJAX.
* Working knowledge of the following software tools: Adobe Software (Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver).
* Insatiable thirst for staying on top of Web trends and emerging technology.
* Creativity and expertise in Web visual design.
* Ability to analyze, define, and complete tasks with minimal direction/supervision.
* Thoroughness and an eye for detail.
* Good written and verbal communications skills.
* Integrity, courtesy, and professionalism.
* Sense of humor.

Desired Skills

* Flash.
* Experience working within an agile process.
* Foosball.

Location

In-house, Raleigh, NC.
Relocation not covered.

Send resumes and salary history to careers@hesketh.com

Friday, June 26, 2009

Refresh 019 — Edward Tufte and Information Design Strategies for the Web

Durham, NC — Thur, Jul 23, 2009, 6:30-8:00PM

“Confusion and clutter are failures of design, not attributes of information. And so the point is to find design strategies that reveal detail and complexity - rather than to fault the data for an excess of complication.” --Edward Tufte.

No matter how sophisticated the technology nor pleasing the design, your Web visitors are really interested in one thing. (No, not that.) They’re after great content like your essay, your photo, your widget, your tutorial. It’s what makes the Web so great: exploring, learning, and sharing what we know. And the task of a designer - whether of user interfaces, graphics, data or type - is to present this information appropriately and elegantly; to remove obstacles to understanding, not introduce them.

In this presentation, Nathan Huening first presents an overview of the work of information design expert Edward Tufte and then discusses concrete applications and examples for applying his principles of analytical design to the Web. Selected themes include: contrast and meaning in design, avoiding “chartjunk” and “computer administrative debris”, clarity and clutter, the value of aesthetics, and simplicity vs. minimalism.

Edward Tufte is Professor Emeritus of statistics, information design, interface design and political economy at Yale University. In addition to his touring workshops, Mr Tufte has written four books on the display of information and analytical design: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (1983), Envisioning Information (1990), Visual Explanations (1997), and Beautiful Evidence (2006).

Speaker:
Nathan Huening is a principal at Sprocket House, a creative firm based in Chapel Hill that specializes in Web and print design. When he’s not writing client copy or puzzling over UI design, he enjoys making messes in the kitchen and falling off his unicycle to the bemusement of curious onlookers.

Location:
Rigsbee Hall
208 Rigsbee Avenue
Durham, NC 27701

Monday, June 15, 2009

Refresh 018 — Everything You’ve Been Told About Entrepreneurship is Wrong!

Durham, NC — Thur, June 25, 2009, 6:30-8:30PM

We’ll be joining forces with Startup Drinks and North Carolina Startup Blog this month, so you’ll hear a short bit from Marc DeWalle on those efforts. Also, be sure to follow in the Startup Drinks tradition and BYOB. Light snacks will be provided.

For the main presentation, Robbie Allen will share how his experience as an entrepreneur runs counter to much of the conventional wisdom in the startup community. He’ll talk about starting StatSheet and what it has been like to build a web startup from scratch in the Triangle.

Robbie is the sole founder and developer of the StatSheet Network, a collection of websites that do interesting things with sports stats.  He’s authored or co-authored a dozen books with O’Reilly Media on a variety of topics and has degrees from MIT in Information Technology and Engineering Management.

Location:
Viget Labs
202 Rigsbee Avenue
Second Floor
Durham, NC 27701

jQuery Fundamentals Class

Announcing jQuery Fundamentals, a two-day class at Carrboro Creative Coworking (July 29-30) that will give you the knowledge you need to properly and effectively start integrating jQuery, the popular JavaScript library, into your web development projects. Over the course of two days, you’ll learn the fundamental concepts of JavaScript and jQuery and tackle real-world exercises to solidify your understanding of the language and the library.

In my work with jQuery beginners, I often find that the library is so easy to learn that it’s possible to skip over the fundamentals of JavaScript. With that in mind, we’ll start the class with a high-level overview of key JavaScript principles, including concepts like logic, objects, variable scope, and closures. From there, we’ll move on to a thorough overview of the jQuery library—selecting, traversing, manipulating, effects, events, XHR (Ajax), and plugins. Throughout the class, we’ll focus on best practices for writing and organizing jQuery code for easy reuse and refactoring. Participants will leave the class as upstanding members of the jQuery community, armed with a solid understanding of the concepts of both JavaScript and jQuery, and ready to start leveraging the library in their projects.

This class is aimed at beginning jQuery users, although intermediate users may also benefit from the more formalized introduction to the library this class will offer.

If you have any questions about the class, drop me an email at rebecca@rebeccamurphey.com, and I hope to see you there!

Friday, May 22, 2009

JSMag May 2009 now available

The May 2009 issue of JavaScript Magazine - JSMag - is now available at http://jsmag.com/latest.  Topics include JavaScript Mashups, jQuery Custom Events, Testing with Windmill, Flex/AJAX Bridge “Gotchas” and more.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Senior User Experience Designer, EMC/RSA

Saw this opening for a Senior User Experience Designer with EMC (RSA) in RTP and I thought I’d share it.

Senior Experience Designer EMC (RSA)

Contact Mitch Schneir at RSA ( mschneir@rsasecurity.com ) for more information.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Merge Records looking for Content Management Internship (1-2 days a week)

Content Management Internship (1-2 days a week)

Merge Records, founded in 1989, is an independent music label based in downtown Durham. The label releases approximately 30 albums (in LP, CD, and digital formats) each year, representing artists from the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

We are looking for a Type A personality to update, edit and organize much of our digital content including band information, video assets, and catalog items. This individual must be self-motivated and have an eye for detail. This is an unpaid internship (with free music and admission to various concerts) and reports to the IT manager. This is an opportunity to participate in the day-to-day operation of an active e-commerce website.

Responsibilities include:

* coordinating with publicity team to update all artist pages on mergerecords.com (e.g. making the language current, removing outdated information, incorporating news.)
* proofreading descriptions of all online catalog items
* converting and uploading old video formats to Merge Record’s youtube collection.

Minimum Requirements:

* individual must show experience using computer software other than MS Office applications
* candidates must have a B.A. / B.S. or be currently enrolled toward the pursuit of a B.A. / B.S.

Please send you resume to Thomas Nickles thomas@mergerecords.com. Emails without attached resumes will not be considered.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

TriUPA workshop—Sketching for Interaction Design—June 24th, 2009

What: Sketching for Interaction Design

When: A full-day workshop: 9am - 5pm | Wednesday 6/24/09

Where: Council for Entrepreneurial Development in RTP

How: Capacity is limited—Register online now to reserve your spot!

Intended Audience

The course is geared towards people who are practicing interaction
design and other user experience professionals, but can be beneficial
for anyone who is trying to apply core design thinking methods into
their personal and business practices. No previous experience with
drawing or sketching is required.

About the Workshop

Are you looking for new ways to bring design thinking and design
practice into your daily practice as a user experience professional?
Do you want to learn how great designers of all types get to that
“new” idea without having to wait for divine inspiration? Do you think
that “sketching” is only a tool left to those who have been formally
trained to draw?

“Sketching for Interaction Design” is a 1-day seminar and workshop
created to teach people what sketching really is all about, why it is
powerful and how you can bring it into your daily practice as a User
Experience Professional. In this class you’ll learn how the great
organizations of design and innovation use sketching in their daily
practice. You will also gain practice in sketching and see why it is a
distinctive tool from prototyping geared more towards idea generation
than for testing and communication. It is both a tool for personal
use, and a tool for group collaboration.

The course will contain these units:

Defining sketching as something similar to but different from prototyping
Placing sketching in the context of a larger design process
General practice using drawing as a communication tool
Class project working in teams
Communicating concepts in interaction design
Review period of team work
Take away lessons, and next steps for people wanting to apply
sketching to their practice
The course is geared towards people who are practicing interaction
design and other user experience professionals, but can be beneficial
for anyone who is trying to apply core design thinking methods into
their personal and business practices. No previous experience with
drawing or sketching is required.

About the Speaker

David Malouf is currently a Professor of Interaction Design in the Industrial Design Department of the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). Before taking this position, David was a Sr. Interaction Design for Motorola Enterprise Mobility where he designed software, webware, and hardware interactions and interfaces. Motorola was the last in a 15-year journey of practicing interaction design, information architecture, UI design, project management and other roles and positions working almost exclusively with thin client technologies.

David is also one of the primary founders and the first Vice President of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). David’s passion for evangelizing and teaching interaction design, came to a climax in 2008 when he co-chaired the first Interactions conference, Interaction 08 | Savannah.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

JSMag April 2009 available

The April 2009 issue of JSMag is now available at JSMag.com.  This issue features the ‘Object Literal’ pattern, Profiling JavaScript with either Firebug or YUI’s Profiler, the JazzRecord JavaScript ORM library, and more.  RefreshTheTriangle members can redeem coupon code jsrf10 for 10% any purchase.