Fluxible – Page 2 – Connolly Design

September 5, 2018November 1, 2020

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.

September 4, 2018November 1, 2020

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.

January 15, 2018November 1, 2020

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.

February 23, 2017November 1, 2020

Take a leap of faith and love Fluxible

A person on a stage in front of a sceen showing a presentation

Fluxible now has five past editions that we can look back on with pride and fond memories. From a two-day conference in 2012 to a week-long festival in 2016, the Fluxible experience has grown richer and deeper each year, with a large community of attendees having joined us along the way.

This year, we’re again presenting Fluxible as Canada’s UX Festival, with another full week of events in three streams. We’ll present a program of Fluxible Meetups (September 18–22), a day of Fluxible Workshops (September 22), and the crowning two-day Fluxible Conference (September 23 & 24). We’re back at the CIGI Auditorium for the weekend conference, and the Communitech Hub for workshops and many meetups. In addition to all the terrific food, presentations, conversations, workshops, music, and more that you’ve come to expect, we have a few fun surprises cooking that we’re sure you’ll love.

And we’re trying something different this year for registration.

We know that many of you start budgeting for conferences and events earlier in the year than we, in the past, have announced details of our program and tickets sales. That has made for some uncertainty in planning your year. For 2017, we have a new approach that we hope addresses that.

We’re introducing Leap of Faith ticket sales for Fluxible Conference.

Why Leap of Faith? Because we’re opening up ticket sales without having announced a single speaker! How could we possibly expect anyone to register for Fluxible Conference without knowing the details? Well, with five years of Fluxible Conferences to look back on, we think we’ve established a solid record of delivering great programming married to a great experience. We believe that in making the Leap of Faith and registering now you’ll be rewarded with another terrific conference. Plus, you’ll have done so at the best price, as we’re offering our lowest cost tickets for Leap of Faith tickets. But it’s for a short time only, as we close Leap of Faith ticket sales on March 17.

So show your love for UX in general and Fluxible in particular by making the leap of faith and buying your Fluxible Conference tickets now!

This post originally appeared on the Fluxible website.

November 14, 2016October 31, 2020

Sprinting in California

I’m in Mountain View, California, right now, attending the Google Developer Experts Summit, an annual gathering of, well, Google Developer Experts. (My expertise in this context is, as some readers may guess, in UX.) It’s a chance to meet and learn from the many people who are a part of this global group. One session on the program that I’m excited about in particular is the full day Design Sprint Master Academy that’s happening on day two of the summit tomorrow.

Design sprints have become fairly visible in the last few years, especially the approach used at Google Ventures as outlined in the book Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days. While many of the constituent parts have been well known to the broader design and software development communities for years, there’s a real value in the way that they’ve been pulled together into a coherent whole here.

The workshop/academy that I’m attending here is an immersion in the Google approach. It’s being run by Kai Haley, who spoke at Fluxible this past September and also ran a half-day workshop on the same topic. The workshop/academy promises to be good fun, and I’m looking forward to using what I learn here in design sprints with Zeitspace clients.

This post originally appeared on the Zeitspace blog.

September 15, 2016November 1, 2020

Fluxible Workshops may be full, but there are other options

Earlier this week I wrote about the broad range of Fluxible Meetups that start next Monday. It’s an exciting lineup!

I’m particularly happy to have added these events for 2016, since both of our Fluxible Workshops on Friday September 23 sold out weeks ago. No real surprise there, as Pam Havlicek and Kai Haley are terrific people who will be delivering enlightening and engaging workshop experiences. Pam’s is on How to Design for Happiness, while Kai’s is on Design Sprints., and both will be filled with practical nuggets.

I’m sorry that I won’t be attending them!

For those of you who didn’t get a spot, do check the Fluxible Meetups schedule for other events of interest. And, of course, both Pam and Kai will also be speaking at Fluxible Conference on the weekend, along with a great lineup of other speakers. So that’s another option for indulging in your passion for UX!

September 12, 2016November 1, 2020

Fluxible meetups start next week

The last few months have been busy ones of me. There have been a few side projects keeping me busy but that aren’t quite ready for the public eye.

And there is also, of course, Fluxible coming back for the fifth year. For 2016 we expanded our thinking to create a deeper and richer experience, and evolved into Canada’s UX Festival.

All the planning and work will pay off starting one week from today, with the first of our Fluxible Meetups. There’s a full week of these events happening, and it’s an exciting range of topics and formats. Best of all, most of these events are free! You should really check out the entire schedule, but here are some highlights.

On each day Monday through Friday we have a Brown Bag Lunch event at the Communitech Hub. These events cover hiring for UX, product management and UX, longitudinal user research, and a systems design approach to UX. My personal favourite, though, might be my friend David Jensenius talking about art and technology and UX in the arts. I love that diversity! For anyone who works nearby, it’s pretty easy to grab your lunch and walk on over for one of these sessions.

This year we have some fine site visits to Waterloo Region companies that are doing some great product work: D2L, TD, Shopify Plus, and MUSIC will all be opening up there spaces to share the ways that they work and look and some cool products that their teams have created. And all of them are definitely excited about hosting and event and sharing their work with the community.

We’ve partnered up with several organizations in Waterloo Region this year. Hacking Health Waterloo, Girl Geek Dinners Waterloo Region, Design Chats, UX Book Club KW, and Communitech all have their own UX-themed events happening. I’m thrilled that these organizations are on board this year, and love what they’re doing to build community!

Finally, we’ve decided to present a concert this year. Why? Well, music has been an integral part of Fluxible from the very first edition. We’ve featured a stylistically diverse range of performances as a part of each year’s conference. It felt natural to try a concert, just for fun. To that end, we’re presenting Stealth in a concert at the Communitech Hub on Thursday.

And all these events are just one stream of Fluxible 2016!

June 30, 2016November 1, 2020

Check out Fluxible, Canada’s UX Festival

Somewhat belatedly, it seems appropriate to mention here that the Fluxible 2016 program has been announced, and that earlybird tickets are now available. The program for this year has been expanded into a weeklong celebration that we’re positioning as Canada’s UX festival. And what a week we have lined up!

Fluxible Meetups starts the festival on Monday September 19, and features multiple events each day through Friday September 23. We’ll be revealing more events in the coming weeks and months, but we already have a stellar schedule to share. There’s a daily brown bag lunch series happening at the newly expanded Communitech Hub. We’ve lined up on-site events at some of the region’s technology companies: D2L, Clearpath Robotics, TD 55 Technology Centre, and Shopify Plus. And we’re launching a set of dinner events on Friday that will give out-of-towners and locals alike a chance to enjoy conversations about UX with old and new friends over good food and drink.

Fluxible Workshops continues the festival at the Communitech Hub on Friday September 23 with a pair of half-day pre-conference workshops that provide deep dives into timely topics. Pamela Pavliscak will lead a morning workshop on How to Design for Happiness, while Kai Haley leads an afternoon workshop on Design Sprints. Pamela and Kai are both on the Fluxible Conference program as well, and Pamela will be a special guest at UX Book Club KW — they clearly have plenty of knowledge and expertise to share with the Fluxible community.

Fluxible Conference is the main course of our festival meal this year. As many of you will know from our previous announcements, the conference features an amazing group of speakers in a single track program that means you won’t miss a thing. They’ll be enlightening us on a range of UX topics, along with our now-expected presentations on unexpectedly relevant topics from other disciplines. Fluxible Conference opens on Saturday September 24 and runs for two days at the CIGI Auditorium, a new venue for this year. Check it out, and start making your plans to attend.

This post originally appeared on the Fluxible blog in a slightly different form.

April 15, 2016October 31, 2020

State of the City of Kitchener

State Of The City presentation by the Mayor

I had the honour of attending the City of Kitchener’s annual State of the City event on Wednesday, representing Fluxible along with friend, colleague, and long-time collaborator Bob Barlow-Busch.

The event was held in the magnificent industrial space at 41 Ardelt Place, and featured Mayor Berry Vrbanovic delivering a State of the City address to a large crowd.

Make It Kitchener was the theme, and it was fun to hear the details. There are six opportunities identified in the strategy:

Make it Spark
Make it Start
Make it Grow
Make it Urban
Make it Vibrant
Make it Connect

It’s exciting to see “Support professional development in user experience” identified as one of the ways to get “Make It Spark” to happen. I’m delighted to help drive that through Fluxible!

January 28, 2016November 3, 2020

O’Reilly Design Conference

Last week I attended the inaugural O’Reilly Design conference, along with my Fluxible co-chair Bob Barlow-Busch. As with last fall’s trip to the CanUX conference, I’m always watching to see what works at a particular conference and thinking about how we might apply it to Fluxible. There was a level of logistical sophistication here that reveals O’Reilly’s years of experience running similar conferences and events.

The program touched on user experience, industrial design, and graphic design, with standard mix of keynotes and breakout sessions. Highlights for me included a briskly paced vision of design from Erika Hall, a primer on effective critique from Adam Connor, and a call from Bob Baxley to bring more people into the design profession.

The venue was Fort Mason Centre, with the main program happening in a cool warehouse space on a pier over the bay, and breakout sessions also happening in what appeared to be old army buildings. It worked well for me, even with a long and steep staircase to climb between buildings!

Beyond the program, of course, there were many fine conversations with friends old and new.