January 2015 – Connolly Design

January 28, 2015November 1, 2020

The Fluxible offseason is a busy one

Compared with the excitement around last September’s event, the Fluxible offseason may seem quiet. Behind the scenes, though, there’s plenty of activity as we plan for our September 2015 edition. We have dates and venues pretty much nailed down, if not announced, but there’s still much to do.

The main focus of activity for Bob Barlow-Busch and me right now is on finding speakers to bring to town. This is one of the most rewarding and fun parts of putting on our UX conference. We get to meet and talk with smart people who are passionate about UX, and who want to share their knowledge and experience. Recruiting continues, but we’ve already got some fantastic speakers lined up, with some terrific topics that they’ll be bringing to the event. There’ll also be a few surprising topics that are sure to delight attendees!

We’re pretty excited about how it’s shaping up. While it’s still a little early to be making any announcements, we’ll start doing that soon.

January 24, 2015November 1, 2020

Talking about about design artifacts

On Friday I visited the REAP Felt Lab to talk with a group of people about design artifacts.

It was a bit of an overview of some of the things used to communicate a design to the various stakeholders in a product development project. As time was limited, the focus was on representations of the user interface. That is, while they’re important, we didn’t get into such useful research artifacts as personas or scenarios or journey maps.

We did cover such obvious candidates as wireframes and prototypes in various levels of fidelity, exploring the different forms that they can take, and their strengths and weaknesses in different contexts. We also looked at sketches, which might have a more limited audience — maybe even just the designer in some cases — but which are something that I use on every design project. (As an aside, I’ve written before about pencils and how regularly I use them for sketching and more.)

The discussion was lively and the group was an engaging one. I always find it much more interesting to hear what other folks have to say, and welcomed the thoughts that everyone shared. My thanks to REAP for inviting me!

January 13, 2015October 31, 2020

Boltmade is hiring

The new year is well underway, and at Boltmade we’ve cranked up the hiring machine. We’re looking for developers to join our team.

Needless to say, I think that Boltmade is a fantastic place to work!

We have a diverse set of clients that range in size from “two people with an idea” to Fortune 500. All of our clients care deeply about their products and want Boltmade to help them deliver something meaningful to the world. To do that, we have a skilled and engaged team of software developers and designers who truly enjoy building software products. And we do it well.

There’s plenty of opportunity to learn new things, collaborate with smart people, and enjoy a level of autonomy that encourages both. And we do it all in the historic and beautifully restored Bauer Building on King Street in Uptown Waterloo, where fine food and other amenities are a short walk away.

In short, we have terrific fun doing what we do!

If Boltmade sounds interesting to you, then get in touch with us! We’d love to talk with you.