Month: October 2014

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Join in on some monthly UX fun with uxWaterloo

A group of people enjoying the uxWaterloo event with Giles Colborne

While much of the UX community activity that I engage in is Fluxible-related, I’m still involved in organizing monthly meetings of uxWaterloo, the local chapter of IxDA, as well as a Communitech P2P group. Bob Barlow-Busch and I have been doing it for many years, and it’s a fun opportunity to learn and to meet folks and talk about UX. We have designers and researchers attending, as well as UX stakeholders like developers and technical writers. We have professionals and academics at all career stages as well as students looking ahead to entering the work force.

If you haven’t attended, come and check it out. We’ve been having some great events recently, with author and Fluxible speaker Giles Colborne joining us for a UX Book Club session in September, Caryn Humphries presenting a wireframing workshop in October, and a talk coming up in November from Kuyler Neable on intellectual property for designers.

On a logistical note, from now on uxWaterloo will be using Meetup to connect people to our monthly events. If you haven’t already done so, go get signed up and don’t miss any of our coming events!

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Open Ears event: If volcanoes could sing

I’ve mentioned previously that I’m on the board of Open Ears. It’s a great organization that presents some pretty amazing musical events in Waterloo Region. Our next event is If Volcanoes Could Sing on Wednesday, November 12, 2014 at the original Princess Cinema.

Things get started with a screening of the documentary film Intangible Asset Number 82, and is capped off with a live performance by Bae Il-Dong and Kim Dong-Won. It’s an evening of traditional Korean music that promises to be powerful and inventive.

“If volcanoes could sing, then they would sound like Bae Il-Dong. The Korean’s voice has such breath that it not only fills physical space like a lava flow, but seems to stretch back across time.” — John Shand, ABC Jazz

Should be a wonderful experience. Hope to see you there!

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Words of wisdom at the Oktoberfest parade: Vote and be heard

Kitchener’s ‘Vote and Be Heard’ float in parade

In past posts (here and here) I’ve written about how much I enjoy the annual Oktoberfest Parade (and related events) here in Waterloo Region. This year was fun despite a little rain, and my youngest son made for great company. (As did my oldest when he finally joined us, having declined to head over to the parade route early in the morning!)

I don’t really have much to say that I haven’t said in previous years, other than I love that the City of Kitchener included a “Vote and be heard” float in this year’s edition. What a great place to remind people that they can make a meaningful impact by voting in the municipal election on October 27.

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Muscle memory rules parts my world

I recently bought an iPhone 6 to replace my iPhone 4S.

(As an aside, my wife will now use that iPhone 4S, and we’ll finally retire my original iPhone 3G from daily use!)

I’ve enjoyed it so far, and the new iOS 8, but there are a couple of instances of muscle memory that I’m still working on overcoming with the new device.

First, Apple has moved the sleep button from the right side of the top edge to the upper right edge of the device. The move makes sense given the larger size of the iPhone 6, but after a few days of use I still automatically reach for the top edge to put the phone to sleep.

Second, the iPhone 6 includes Touch ID, which uses the home button to detect my fingerprint. Again, after a few days of use I still press the home button and then swipe to wake my iPhone, even though a button press plus a lingering finger on the home button will engage Touch ID and get me into the device.

At a more minor level, the larger screen size is taking a little getting used to. It’s not uncomfortable, but my hands haven’t yet adjusted to the jump in size from the iPhone 4S.

It’s kind of fun to notice this stuff as it happens.