Author: Mark Connolly

Executive Director at Cycling Guide Foundation. Co-founder & co-chair of @Fluxible. Co-champion of @uxWaterloo. Husband & father & brother & son • Player of stringed instruments…
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Music is yet another reason we love Fluxible

A musician performs on a hurdy gurdy

Today I’m writing about yet another reason that we love Fluxible here at Zeitspace.

Earlier this year, Zeitspace sponsored the Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, for reasons that I wrote about when announcing our sponsorship. In short, it’s a great music festival that does innovative programming.

On Wednesday this week, Fluxible is presenting a concert at Open Sesame in downtown Kitchener. The preformers are Ben Grossman (hurdy gurdy) and Matt Brubeck (cello) in a duet performance, as well as JoJo Worthington (ukulele/voice/electronics). Ben and Matt both played at Fluxible Conference in 2016. In fact, Ben is also doing a presentation at this year’s Fluxible Conference on the user experience of playing instruments. JoJo is new to Fluxible, and its great that she’s playing this concert.

Now here’s the connection back to my earlier mention of Zeitspace sponsoring Open Ears.

Fluxible is presenting the concert as a fundraiser for the Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound. All proceeds from ticket sales (except for Eventbrite fees and HST) will go to Open Ears. And the concert is a “pay what you can” model, as Fluxible didn’t want ability to pay to exclude anyone from hearing this wonderful music.

So check it out, maybe even buy a ticket, and come here some great music at a cool venue.

This post originally appeared on the Zeitspace blog.

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Meet the Fluxible Schedule web app

A hand holding a mobile phone that shows a schedule for Fluxible

The whole Zeitspace team is excited about Fluxible starting this week. Many of us will be attending some combination of Fluxible Meetups, Fluxible Workshops, and Fluxible Conference. But that’s not the only reason that we’re excited. The Zeitspace team has created a Fluxible Schedule web app and we’re launching it today!

It’s a classic product launch origin: there wasn’t an easy-to-scan overview available showing all the events and sessions being presented during the weeklong Fluxible festivities. My Fluxible co-chair Bob Barlow-Busch and I had long seen that need. My Zeitspace partner Jeff Fedor and I were keen to help Fluxible meet that need. It seemed like a natural fit, so the Zeitspace team jumped right in and built Fluxible Schedule.

Fluxible Schedule is an MVP (minimal viable product) that does one simple thing: it keeps attendees informed about what’s happening each day.

It doesn’t support buying tickets to Fluxible Workshops or Fluxible Conference, as that can be done elsewhere (and you should go do it if you haven’t). It doesn’t provide any historical view of Fluxible events in years past, as that’s avaiable on the current Fluxible website. It doesn’t support conversations, or tweet streams, or other two-way engagement. Those are all things that we might (or might not) build down the road, but this MVP release is a great start.

In the near future the rest of the Zeitspace team will be writing more about our experience building this, and get into the details of the tech stack, how we approached the project, and future possibilities. Until then, do check out Fluxible Schedule if you’re at Fluxible (or even if you’re not). And consider attending Fluxible if you haven’t already. It’s a great experience!

This post originally appeared on the Zeitspace blog.

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Let’s all meet at Fluxible!

A person standing in front of a screen, presenting to a group seated in chairs

As I wrote previously, Zeitspace is sponsoring Fluxible, Canada’s UX Festival. UX is an important part of our work and our point of view at Zeitspace!

While the Fluxible Conference and Fluxible Workshops are major parts of the week, there’s more. Fluxible Meetups are happening from Monday through Friday, and feature a variety of topics and a variety of formats. And they’re all free!

Each day at noon there’s a UX Brown Bag Lunch session happening at the Communitech Hub. Topics include behavioural economics, ethical design, and UI design refactoring. There are also several site visits. Oracle NetSuite, D2L, and Shopify Plus are each opening their doors to a Fluxible Meetup on an interesting topic. What a great opportunity to meet folks at those places and see what they’re up to.

A perennial topic of interest for many UX folks in Waterloo Region is hiring (or getting hired!). Check out the panel discussion Perspectives on portfolios from the pros to sharpen up the way you think about portfolios.

And a cool old tradition returns as Fluxible teams up with uxWaterloo for a presentation by Google’s Meagan Timney at their Kitchener office. Though based in California, Meagan is originally from London Ontario, so having her back in Southern Ontario is pretty great.

There’s more, so be sure to check out all the Fluxible Meetups for details. There ought to be something for just about eveyone.

This post originally appeared on the Fluxible website.

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Fluxible Conference shouldn’t be missed

A crowd of people leaving an auditorium

As I wrote yesterday, Zeitspace is sponsoring Fluxible, Canada’s UX Festival. UX is an important part of our work and our point of view at Zeitspace, and Fluxible is such a wonderful mix of UX events and activities that it’s a natural fit for us. The Fluxible Workshops that I mentioned yesterday are only a small part of this amazing festival, though.

The main attraction this year, as it is every year, is the event that started it all back in 2012. Fluxible Conference remains the highlight of the week, wrapping things up with two days of presentations, food, music, and more. The program this year features a diverse range of topics and speakers and promises a few surprises as well. I’m excited by all of it— as I’m Fluxible co-chair, that shouldn’t be a surprise. But I’m particularly looking forward to hearing from Stephen Fitzgerald on designing a bicycling experience, Ben Grossman on the UX of musical technology, and Farai Madzima on bias in multicultural teams.

But really, all the talks will be fantastic. Plus there will be plenty of opportunites to talk with fellow attendees and speakers, and dig into the topics raised over the weekend.

Oh, and the amazing food! And the awesome beer from TWB! And the superior coffee from Matter of Taste!

Fluxible Conference really is a grand experience an shouldn’t be missed by anyone with an interest in UX.

This post originally appeared on the Zeitspace blog.

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Here comes Fluxible

A crowd of people leaving an auditorium

As some of you might know, I wear multiple UX-related hats. The big three are probably co-chair of Fluxible, Canada’s UX Festival; co-organizer of uxWaterloo, our local chapter of IxDA; and partner here at Zeitspace.

As we did in 2017, Zeitspace is sponsoring Fluxible this year. Given my roles, it’s probably pretty obvious that UX is important to us at Zeitspace in the work that we do for our clients. But let me draw attention to some specific things about Fluxible that we think are pretty awesome.

Each year, Canada’s UX Festival (yeah, I like to type that) presents half-day Fluxible Workshops featuring amazing UX professionals. This year is no different.

First up, Peter Morville is delivering a morning workshop on Planning for Strategic Design. Check it out! If you have any interest in delivering great UX for products, this workshop is for you. By the way, Peter is co-author of the industry classic Information Architecture For the Web and Beyond (now in its 4th edition). Wow!

Next, Margot Bloomstein is delivering an afteroon workshop on Building a Brand-Driven Message Architecture. Do you ever use words in the UX work you do? Well of course you do! And Margot can help you do that more effectively — she’s been shaping content strategy both as a practice and an industry for almost two decades. How about that!

And it gets better. Both Peter and Margot will be delivering presentations at Fluxible Conference. More on that tomorrow.

This post originally appeared on the Zeitspace blog.

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Thanks to Open Ears for another great festival

A stage filled with the musicians of Studio Dan

As I wrote a few weeks ago, Zeitspace is a sponsor of the Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, which wrapped up on Sunday. We’re proud to have been associated with the 20th anniversary edition of the festival. This post isn’t a review, though this year’s edition was an amazing musical experience. Instead, here are a few highlights that capture the breadth of intent for Open Ears.

Studio Dan, from Vienna Austria, create an amazing mix of jazz, classical, rock, and more. Last week they came to North America to perfom in just two cities: Philadelphia, and Kitchener as a part of Open Ears. At Open Ears it’s important to bring gifted musicians from around the world to perform in our region.

On Sunday morning there was a debut of a new piece of music by Katerina Gimon in which musicians performed in small groups in various locations at Victoria Park before moving to the island gazebo for the finale. At Open Ears it’s important to foster and showcase emerging composers by commissioning and performing new works.

Music for percussion quartet and string quartet were featured in the Night at the Museum concert, which was also a part of the downtown Kitchener festival presented as a part of Communitech’s True North event as well as QuartetFest. At Open Ears it’s important to build new audiences for the music and build bridges between communities.

The music of composer Jason Doell was the focus for a concert featuring the Nü Ears Ensemble, which includes some of the our region’s best musicians. The concert also launched a new album (in both physical and digital media forms) of Jason’s music. At Open Ears it’s important that local musicians be able to perform new music by renowned composers.

Onion Honey are a local group that make “folk music” and who played at an after-event gathering at TWH Social. In addition to their usual repertoire they inclued some lovely surprises for Open Ears folks, including covers of Laurie Anderson’s O Superman and Terry Riley’s iconic In C! At Open Ears, it’s important to create opportunities to mix and mashup musical genres.

Things that are important to Open Ears clearly align with things that are important to Zeitspace. As I wrote earlier: “Open Ears has been a consistent presenter and instigator of innovative programming that extends the boundaries of what a musical experience can be. Given the work that we do at Zeitspace designing and building great experiences for our innovative clients, Open Ears seemed like a natural fit for us.” This year’s festival was a wonderful affirmation of that.

This post originally appeared on the Zeitspace blog.

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Zeitspace is Sponsoring Open Ears

A person holding a hurdy gurdy while manipulating hardware controls on a table top

The Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Twenty years of delivering something of value is a substantial achievement in any endeavor. In the tech ecosystem here in Waterloo Region it’s not often seen among companies — Zeitspace, for example, is not even two years old yet. And in the arts community, it’s also an organizational milestone that isn’t easily reached.

Zeitspace, at some level, reflects the interests of our still-young team. Given that, it’s perhaps not surprising that Zeitspace is sponsoring Open Ears this year. Some of you, of course, may be asking why that is.

In past years, Open Ears has been somewhat associated with Fluxible, which I co-chair, and where various Open Ears associated musicians have delivered wonderful musical performances as a part of the Fluxible Conference program. (That’s a relationship that will continue this year, by the way, with more details to come.) As well, I’ve been on the board of directors for Open Ears for several years now, doing what I can to support an organization whose mission and activities are meaningful for me.

Open Ears has been a consistent presenter and instigator of innovative programming that extends the boundaries of what a musical experience can be. Given the work that we do at Zeitspace designing and building great experiences for our innovative clients, Open Ears seemed like a natural fit for us. Sponsorship is an easy way for us to support what Open Ears is doing, providing some of the resources they need to do their work.

I think that it’s fair to say that there’s a tension between two thriving communities in Waterloo Region, with each of the large and diverse arts and tech communities not necessarily having a good understanding of what the other is, and what the other brings to our region. My own view is limited by my own experiences, of course, but I’ve been fortunate to have some visibility into each community. And the arts and tech communities each make Waterloo Region a place where I want to live and work.

The programming for the 2018 edition of Open Ears will be, as it is for every edition, amazing. Check it out, and then get yourself a festival pass.

And, finally, if you have any kind of influence where you work, please consider having your company sponsor Open Ears as well. The impact will be huge, and you’ll be able to say that you helped deliver world class music to our very own region. If Open Ears isn’t your thing, there’s plenty of other creative activity happening here. Consider sponsoring or otherwise supporting any of the other arts groups that help make Waterloo Region such a wonderful place to live and work. And please share with us — and others — your thoughts on the arts groups that you care about and that you think people should know about.

This post originally appeared on the Zeitspace blog.

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Make the Leap of Faith for Fluxible Conference 2018

A crowd of people leaving an auditorium

It’s been quiet here at Fluxible headquarters over the last few months — almost too quiet — with little in the way of announcements. But that doesn’t mean we’ve been inactive, and now it’s time for us to share!

For our first public disclosure of 2018, we’ve decided to be just like your favourite cool band and drop a new album with absolutely no notice. Well, not literally a new album, of course, though it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that we’ll do that one day.

No, what we’re doing instead is announcing that Leap of Faith tickets are now on sale for Fluxible Conference 2018. What, exactly, does that mean? It means that you can register at the lowest possible price, but you’ll need to do so without us having released any information about our 2018 program.

We’re able to provide a little context, though. Fluxible 2018 is happening from Monday, September 17 through Sunday, September 23. As with last year’s exhilarating presentation of Canada’s UX Festival, there’s plenty going on.

For our seventh edition in 2018 we’re presenting a week-long user experience festival, this time made up of four parts. There’s the Fluxible Conference, which is the core of the festival, happening the weekend of September 22 & 23. There’s a day of Fluxible Workshops on Friday September 21. There are Fluxible Meetups happening from Monday September 17 through Friday September 21. And finally, there’s the Fluxible Education Summit, happening in partnership with Wilfrid Laurier University on Friday September 21.

And now you have a little context in order to make that Leap of Faith.

And, in case you didn’t have enough incentive to buy early, this offer is at our lowest rate, but it’s only for a limited time. Sales close on February 14 — Valentine’s Day — so why wait another minute? Get your Leap of Faith Ticket right now. And if you don’t do it for yourself, do it for someone you love! You’ll thank us later for having made your Valentine’s Day such a great success.

This post originally appeared on the Fluxible website.

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Growing the Zeitspace team

A pile of random stuff including a pencil, sicky notes, power bar, guitar pick, and more

As I’ve written previously, our stated business at Zeitspace is designing and building great software products for our clients. And we’re also designing and building a great company, one where we all learn and grow as individuals and as a team. We want an environment where exploration, discovery, and craft are important for our project work, but also for our individual and company progress.

In support of those activities, Zeitspace has been busy! We’ve done some project work for great clients, run some Zeitspace Sessions for the community, and done some good along the way.

We need help doing all that, though, and to that end we’re growing our team. If you’re a designer or developer who is passionate about learning new things and working together on exciting problems, then we’d like you to consider joining our delightfully inclusive team. Check out our career opportunities, and get in touch with us.

This post originally appeared on the Zeitspace blog.

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Making time for SHORE Centre

Two people moving sticky notes on a wall

It’s an exciting day here at Zeitspace, as yesterday one of our projects launched in a very public way.

SHORE Centre is a Kitchener-based not-for-profit that has provided judgement-free sexual health information and support to people in our community for decades. Zeitspace worked with SHORE to create a web app called Choice Connect, a new way to access their abortion provider referral service. We designed and developed this software app, which provides trusted referrals to clinics and hospitals for women who need them. Moreover, we provided our design and development services to SHORE Centre free of charge, though for us that’s the least interesting part of this story.

Why did we decide to work for SHORE this way? There are a few reasons.

What they’re doing is important. Abortion remains a controversial subject in Canada. As a result, access to one is needlessly difficult in Waterloo Region, adding stress to an already stressful situation for any woman who makes the choice to get one. SHORE has a simple mission is “to promote choice through accurate sexual health education and confidential pregnancy options support”. As human beings living in the Region, we find that pretty compelling.

Lyndsey Butcher, the Executive Director of SHORE Centre, impressed us tremendously. She’s smart, articulate, and a passionate advocate for the work that SHORE does. And when we met she had definitely done some homework in defining what SHORE needed in order to support providing referrals for women to abortion providers; she had recently gone through the Fierce Founders program at Communitech. She’s also persuasive!

We realized that our work would have a big impact on an under-resourced organization and the people it serves. When we understood what Lyndsey was hoping to create, we realized that Zeitspace could help. We started by creating a prototype to help SHORE Centre raise money to build the real thing. When funding didn’t materialize we then decided to just go ahead and build the real thing. Neither the design and creation of the prototype nor building the real application would be burdensome for us — we would do the work during breaks in our regular project work. And we knew that the impact would be immediate, direct, and big, as SHORE could never have done this on their own.

But the impact wasn’t just on SHORE and its stakeholders.

Our experience helping SHORE had a direct impact on how we think about Zeitspace, the work we do, and our place in the world. As a young company (we celebrated our first birthday this past Hallowe’en) we’re still finding our way and figuring out how to work and be a part of our community/communities. The experience of working with SHORE provided us with a viable model for doing good work in our community, while applying our craft and doing what we love to do. And now that we know how the model could work, we’re going to continue to refine it and engage with organizations for whom we think we can make an impact. We’ve embraced the notion of devoting our “excess capacity” to have an impact on our community.

This post originally appeared on the Zeitspace blog.