Last week we had a nice full event and some exciting announcements about new UX-related events in the works. Here's a recap!
THE TOPIC: *Campaign learnings of America for make benefit glorious movement of progress* Zack Exley and Josh Hendler of ThoughtWorks provided an introduction to the topic, along with some of the context of the Obama campaign's overall communication strategies. They highlighted the differences between Howard Dean's campaign in 2004 - in which small, mainly self-motivated groups used community-building tools to organize themselves - to Barack Obama's campaign in 2008, in which a framework for large scale community collaboration was put in place, providing a platform for groups to organize and extend their volunteer base. Then Billy Belchev and Paul Baker of Webitects described the methods they used to understand how campaign processes worked, from recruiting volunteers to sending them out to door-knock in neighborhoods. This presentation concentrated on how volunteers were being recruited, and volunteer events were organized. They conducted field design research in a variety of swing states, observing the use of several campaign tools. Billy and Paul watched volunteers adapt the tools available in order to make use of their strengths and work around their weaknesses. The information they gathered helped them identify areas of opportunity around data consolidation and usability, for use in designing better campaign tools in the future. A presentation note: Billy and Paul used mental models to present a "gap analysis" - representing the different steps of volunteer organization, and organizing their presentation of the results. For those who want to learn more on mental models, check out Indi Young's book "Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior." *ANNOUNCEMENTS* Since the Interaction09 conference is next month (and February is so short) we've decided to move the next large event to March. That March event will be a recap of the conference provided by some of the attendees from Chicago. We also hope to have some highlights to show by then, such as photos or video. For February's event, we'd like to have an open meeting for those interested in joining the IxDA planning committee. Planning committee members have an active role in developing the local IxDA chapter - membership involves attending a planning meeting once every three months, coordinating the occasional meeting (helping find people interested in providing a topic or venue), and actively discussing how we can make the Chicago IxDA a vibrant professional network. It's a fun way to network with your peers - and looks great on a resume! If you're interested in finding out more, please send an email directly to this address and let us know. We'll be getting together mid-February after work hours. At the event we also announced two exciting programs starting up: Gabby Hon is starting a UX Book Club in Chicago. The first meeting is February 26th at Fado, discussing "The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life" by Twyla Tharp. Here's the link to find out more: http://uxbookclubchicago.wordpress.com/ Rob Strickler announced the UX Mentorship program. Whether you're a mentor, a learner, or both, sign up for one-on-one sessions or group meetings here: http://tinyurl.com/ixdachicago-mentorship-program * JOB POSTING* INTERACTION DESIGNER This is a 3 month, possibly longer, contract job, onsite in Chicago (downtown). As one of the designers on the User Experience team for this major corporation with a very well-known brand, you will help define the online shopper's user experience, including visual concepts and ideation, presentation to stakeholders, and execution of the designs. Requirements: -- You must be into social networking, Web 2.0 and be able to critically evaluate these experiences in terms of brand and the future of the Web. -- High degree of creativity, interaction design and problem solving ability -- Uncanny drive to design the best user experience in the world -- Strong background in distributed content management and mashup approaches -- Ability to design widgets -- Ability to communicate one's ideas through their visual design -- Proven track record and a passion for designing compelling, award-winning user interfaces -- A great portfolio of work / samples of interaction design work is a must -- Expertise in visual design using tools like Photoshop, Illustrator is expected -- Prototyping skills using tools like Flash, Flex, Dreamweaver A formal education in Interaction Design, Product Design, Industrial Design, HCI, Architecture, or related field from NID / IDC or equivalent is desirable. If interested, please send resume/salary info to Judi Wunderlich at [email protected] ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
