Refresh the Triangle

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

TriUPA workshop—Escape the Lab: Remote User Research and Usability Testing—October 1st, 2009

What: Escape the Lab: Conducting Remote User Research and Usability Testing

When: full-day workshop: 9a - 5p | Thursday 10/1/09 | coffee & lunch included

Where: Council for Entrepreneurial Development in RTP

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

Intended audience
Researchers, designers, and product managers who want to watch real people use technology from the comfort of their own desks. (While saving travel costs and the planet!).

About the workshop
Nate Bolt, one of the pioneers of remote UX research—and author of the forthcoming book, Remote Research—will lead this hands-on workshop covering the latest remote UX techniques and tools.

Give us a day and we can teach you all the rocket surgery you need to conduct qualitative studies the real-time, native environment way.

Learning Objectives

What we’ll cover…

* Strengths and weaknesses of remote ux research
* Study design & scripting
* Participant recruiting options
* Moderating in the remote environment
* Tools for screen sharing, recording, and communication
* What can go wrong and what to do about it

About the speaker
Nate Bolt, president of Bolt|Peters, is fascinated by the personal, social, and cultural role of technology, and how research and design can transform those roles. After pioneering and directing the User Experience department at Clear Ink in 1999, which included the construction of Natural Environment and Remote Observation laboratories, Nate co-founded Bolt | Peters. He now serves as el presidente, where he has overseen hundreds of user research studies for Sony, Oracle, HP, Greenpeace, Electronic Arts, and others. Beginning in 2003, he led the creation of the first moderated remote user research software, Ethnio, which is being used around the world to recruit hundreds of thousands of live participants for research.

Nate regularly gives presentations on native environment research methods in both commercial and academic settings, and is currently co-authoring Remote Research, a book on remote testing. Working with faculty at the University of California, San Diego, he created a degree titled “Digital Technology and Society,” which focused on the social impact of technology. He also completed a year of communications studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he was jailed briefly for playing drums in public without a license.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

TriUPA World Usability Day: Design Competition and Event

Would you like improve the sustainability of our world? Are you passionate about user centered design, graphic design, industrial/product design, engineering, human factors and/or psychology?

If so, then you should participate in our TriUPA World Usability Day design competition!

Participants will tackle a design issue where user centered design and usability is central to the success of a solution that drives sustainability.

Sounds great! What do I need to do?

1. Sign up to participate by September 23, 2009. 
2. Attend an Information Session: You don’t have to attend this session to participate in the challenge, but if you have questions or would like more information, please join us on September 17th (Thursday) at 6pm at Capstrat (1201 Edwards Mill Road, First Floor Raleigh, NC 27607). 
3. Pick a topic from our list of suggestions, or create your own! 
4. Present your design ideas, findings and solutions. 

Participants are invited to share their solutions during our World Usability Day event to be held November 12th from 6:00 - 9:00PM, at the SAS Auditorium. Presentations need not be formal and can be a poster, informal oral presentation or PowerPoint format. All participants should plan a presentation around 7 - 10 minutes.

For more information:
http://triupa.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=649261&module_id=62280

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

JSConf 2009 April 24 & 25 2009 Washington DC

Meet industry experts and learn how to use JavaScript to build cutting edge mobile, desktop, server, and web applications. This conference based in Washington DC is a must attend for any web designer, web developer, or JavaScript developer. The conference is digging deep into the vast world of JavaScript to expose how wonderful of a language JavaScript really can be. Did you know that you could build thick client desktop applications with JavaScript? Hows about that it is one of the only languages to bridge OO and Functional? Also it can be used for testing any web framework and is used everyday by people with all levels of programming ability. Some (myself included) would say its one of the most under appreciated languages around. Well it is time to change that and we are starting with JSConf by bringing together the brightest and most exciting JavaScript developers together. The conference admission price is right now $450 which includes 2 days with 16 speakers and a beer and wine tasting social event. There will be vendors seeking talented individuals for employment as well, it is the perfect networking opportunity for you. Sign up today before it sells out! For more details and registration see http://www.jsconf2009.com

Meet industry experts and learn how to use JavaScript to build cutting edge mobile, desktop, server, and web applications. This conference based in Washington DC is a must attend for any web designer, web developer, or JavaScript developer. The conference is digging deep into the vast world of JavaScript to expose how wonderful of a language JavaScript really can be. Did you know that you could build thick client desktop applications with JavaScript? Hows about that it is one of the only languages to bridge OO and Functional? Also it can be used for testing any web framework and is used everyday by people with all levels of programming ability. Some (myself included) would say its one of the most under appreciated languages around. Well it is time to change that and we are starting with JSConf by bringing together the brightest and most exciting JavaScript developers together. The conference admission price is right now $450 which includes 2 days with 16 speakers and a beer and wine tasting social event. There will be vendors seeking talented individuals for employment as well, it is the perfect networking opportunity for you. Sign up today before it sells out! For more details and registration see http://www.jsconf2009.com

Come to this conference if you love JavaScript, come if you hate it, come if you don’t even know how to program. Whatever drives you to come, you can be sure of one thing, there will be a lot of exciting and invigorating discussions to be had. After all, we are talking about JavaScript here and its used by every web framework.

We are trying to conduct this conference in such a manner that it addresses the core issues of the community as well as announcing cutting edge technologies in a language that often gets overlooked. The content and conference style will be different from most other conferences, not barcamp-style and not multi-track style, but somewhere between the two.

We are trying to make something different and we are trying to do it with JavaScript.

Friday, January 09, 2009

The Triangle microISV Group

A microISV (Independent Software Vendor) is a small software shop, usually with between 1 to 10 people, which is focused on growing organically (not through venture capital) and handles all business tasks (development, sales, PR, etc.) itself.

Are you running or part of a microISV in the Triangle? Or maybe interested in starting one or hearing from those who have? If so, the group is for you. It’s getting started on January 21 in Durham, so check out details on the microISV Group Meetup page and come on out.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

TriUPA Workshop — Reboot Your Work: Modern Methods for Productivity, Sanity, and Control

When: 9am - 4:30pm, Monday 1/12/09 or Tuesday 1/13/09
Where: Council for Entrepreneurial Development
How: Register online (Cost is $50 - $195)

Start the year by freeing up your brain so you can think clearly, do more, and work creatively!

In this fast-paced full-day workshop, you will learn modern techniques to juggle and prioritize all the information constantly coming at you: dozens of projects, round-the-clock demands for your attention, and the perpetual overload of email and IM.

You’ll apply the concepts using hands-on exercises at the individual, small group, and large group levels. You’ll leave with a solid system for doing your job more productively, with less effort, and a greater sense of control.
Find out more.

Friday, October 31, 2008

World Usability Day Celebration 2008

When: 6pm - 9pm — Thursday, November 13th 2008
Where: Ruvane Auditorium at GSK
Cost: Free to all!  Food and drink will be served!  Please sign up so we have an idea of how big the crowd will be.
How: Register at http://triupa.org/2008WorldUsability (if you’re a TriUPA member, be sure to click “Login to Register” once you get to the RSVP page)

About the event:
TriUPA will celebrate World Usability Day this year on Thursday, November 13th, at GSK. We have created a program that centers around UPA’s theme of transportation. We are fortunate to have three speakers who have worked in the transportation field and can enlighten us about the usablity challenges in products and services in that area. We have organized a Design Challenge, in which three teams are applying user-centered design to transportation problems. The teams will be presenting their results at WUD. You cannot afford to miss this year’s WUD, so please sign up now!

6 pm - 6:45 pm: Dinner and socializing
Make sure to check out our UX trading card game. Everyone who builds a complete set of cards will be eligible for a raffle!

6:45 pm - 7:45 pm: Transportation and Usability

* Talk by Graham James, Professional Transportation Planner
* Talk by Beth Mcgough, Human Factors Engineer, JCI, Michigan
* Talk by Alex Hussain, Design Engineer, HumanCentric

7:45 pm - 8 pm: Break and dessert

8 pm - 9 pm: Presentations by teams competing in the Design Challenge

* Modular design system for bus stops
* Wayfinding and information displays for bus travel
* And one more… (topic TBD)

Presentation of prizes for UX Card game winner and Design Challenge winners.

Thanks to TriUPA’s sponsors for making our World Usability Day celebration possible:

* Lulu
* GSK
* BlueCross BlueShield
* Insight
* Lenovo
* Hesketh.com
* Capstrat
* User-View
* SAS

Monday, September 08, 2008

TriUPA Training Series #2: Dr. Deborah Mayhew presents “Designing for Efficiency”

We are excited to announced the second event in TriUPA’s new training series!  These events will provide cutting-edge, industrial-strength, knock-your-socks-off UX training in TriUPA’s four focus areas: usability testing, user research, interaction design, and information architecture. This 1-day course is aimed at anyone (developers, user interface designers, usability engineers, information architects, graphic designers, software end-users and end-user managers, marketers, trainers, etc.) who has an interest in helping their organization achieve end user productivity (i.e., efficiency) through the design of software tools. Find out more.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Todd Warfel’s full-day workshop on effective prototyping

Durham, NC — Mon, Sept 15, 2008, 9:00AM-5:00PM

Are you interested in making prototyping a key part of your design process?  Or do you currently practice prototyping and need some fresh ideas?

This highly detailed, practical, and hands on workshop will provide a framework for creating and testing prototypes. We’ll discuss what prototyping is, when to use it, when to use other methods, and what to expect.

This is the first event in TriUPA’s new training series.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

SocialCarolina.org Launched

Events about technology of some kind happening in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. Check it out at socialcarolina.org.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Refresh 002 — Fortified Web Projects: Fundamentals for Security

Durham, NC — Thurs, Dec 6, 2007, 6:30-8:00PM

Clinton Nixon will share a high level view of common security risks and suggest some very practical approaches for protection. Clinton is a enthusiast for test-driven development, esoteric computer languages, and kittens. He serves humbly as a senior web developer at Viget Labs.

Location:

Shoeboxed
Brightleaf Square, 23D
905 West Main Street
Durham, NC 27701

Thursday, October 18, 2007

World Usability Day 2007

Durham, NC — Nov 8, 2007, 6:00-9:00pm
Join UX professionals from around the Triangle area for an Interactionary (a live design competition), keynote speech, food, drink, and fun! More at www.triupa.org.

Monday, October 15, 2007

RubyConf 2007

Charlotte, NC—Nov 2-4, 2007
We hope you’re as excited as we are by the schedule for RubyConf 2007. This year’s event will be even bigger than last year’s, and for the first time in the history of RubyConf we’ve made some changes to the event format. More at http://www.rubyconf.org.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Chapel Hill Startup Weekend

Chapel Hill, NC—Nov 2-4, 2007
Startup Weekend is an idea, an experiment, a chance gather the tech community and create a company over one jam packed weekend. More at http://chapelhill.startupweekend.com/.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Raleigh.rb October Meetup

Raleigh, NC—Oct 16, 2007, 7:00pm
Clinton Nixon will be sharing some Rails goodness with us this month: Building Applications as Plugins. More at http://ruby.meetup.com/3/calendar/6385025/.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Raleigh-Durham Web Design & Mark-Up Group

Raleigh, NC—Oct 9, 2007, 7:30pm
Check out the topic and location for this month: http://webdesign.meetup.com/36/calendar/6340480/
This group appears to be pretty active and has a reliable monthly meeting. I’m hoping to make it this month for the first time. Is anyone else a member of this group or planning to attend this month’s meeting?