capchi-announce

capchi-announce TOMORROW: Tuesday, January 17, 2012: Think with your hands! Using Lego to capture user requirements

2012-01-16T04:36:30Z

Think with your hands! Using Lego to capture user requirements

Presented by Ellen Grove

Date: Tuesday January 17, 2012
Time: doors open at 6:00 pm; talk begins at 6:30 pm
Place: TheCodeFactory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa, ON, Canada

Abstract:
Let your hands be the search engine for your brain! LEGO® Serious Play® is a powerful thinking, communicating and problem solving technique that can help you and your team do serious work through structured play activities using a popular and playful 3D modeling toy. Through a facilitated process of building models that, storytelling and reflection, every person at the table is engaged and actively participating in the discussion, whether the topic is individual aspirations, team relationships, developing a new product or solving a wicked organizational problem. Everyone builds and everyone tells their story – all participants have equal opportunity to put their own points of view on the table, unlocking new perspectives and exposing the answers that are already in the room. LEGO Serious Play has been used successfully for team-building and problem solving in a variety of organizations, from NASA to RBC to academic settings and public utilities.

This presentation will provide a hands-on introduction to LEGO Serious Play, so that you can experience firsthand how using LEGO to do real work unleashes creativity and enables meaningful conversations in a very short time. We will explore how to use this playful technique to collaboratively elicit information about user requirements and strategic design issues using the open source User Requirements with Lego methodology developed by a team at the University of Lugano, Switzerland.

About the Facilitator:

Ellen Grove is an Agile coach who helps teams do better work through coaching them to create the circumstances in which they can work most productively and effectively. Her Agile coaching practice is founded in over 10 years experience leading software testing, development and implementation teams in global enterprises, a passion for exploratory software testing and user-centered design, and a background in community organization. She uses team-building and facilitation approaches to support the transition to collaborative Agile work practices at the team, managerial and corporate levels, and has conquered the challenges of extending Scrum roll-outs to off-shore development partners and multi-site project teams. Ellen is a StrategicPlay certified facilitator in Lego Serious Play methods.

When and Where:

This event will take place on Tuesday, January 17th, 6:00 pm at TheCodeFactory, located at 246 Queen Street, between Bank and Kent, (on the second floor) above the Green Papaya Restaurant. The doors open at 6:00 pm for networking and the talk begins at 6:30 pm.

Note: There is no cost for attending this event and prior registration is not required. Light snacks and refreshments will be served. An informal social gathering will follow at a nearby pub.

CapCHI (www.capchi.org) is a social and professional society of people who work as user interface designers, researchers, educators, software developers, web designers, graphic designers and human factors engineers in and around Canada’s National Capital Region. Founded in 1991, CapCHI’s goal is to bring together local professionals interested in how humans and computers interact, in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

capchi-announce Tuesday, January 17, 2012: Think with your hands! Using Lego to capture user requirements

2012-01-10T20:48:04Z

capchi-announce TOMORROW: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - Vision-based Human-Computer Interaction: Past Approaches and New Developments

2011-11-14T14:33:29Z

Vision-based Human-Computer Interaction: Past Approaches and New Developments

Presented by Ali Arya

Date: Tuesday November 15, 2011
Time: doors open at 6:00 pm; talk begins at 6:30 pm
Place: TheCodeFactory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa, ON, Canada

Abstract:
Using cameras to detect human motion has been a topic of research in computer vision research for decades. This research has resulted in a series of methods for human-computer interaction, which recently received a surge of more attention due to the success of vision-based game control systems, Microsft Kinect for Xbox and Sony Move for Playstation. In particular, Kinect and a couple of other similar 3D cameras have provided HCI researchers with significant new opportunities. This talk will review some of the more traditional computer vision approaches to HCI and also covers the new developments in this area using more recent technologies. Some future possibilities will be discussed based on these new technologies.

Speaker Bio:
Ali Arya received a B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Tehran Polytechnic, Iran, in 1990, and his Ph.D. degree in computer engineering from the Department of Elec. and Computer Eng., University of British Columbia, Canada, in 2004.

He has worked as research engineer, system analyst, and project manager in different research centers and leading companies, including Tehran Cybernetic Arm Project, Iran, and Honeywell, Canada, and also as instructor and post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, both in Vancouver, Canada. Since August 2006, he has been with the School of Information Technology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada where he is an associate professor and coordinator of Interactive Multimedia & Design program. His research interests include interactive multimedia systems, human-computer interaction, social user interfaces, virtual worlds and virtual characters, computer graphics and animation, games and digital art and entertainment. His research project s are funded by NSERC, SSHRC, OCE, and industrial partners.

Ali is a senior member of the IEEE and a member of editorial board and technical committees of various journals and conferences including International Journal of Computer Games Technology, the Open Cybernetics and Systemics Journal, and the Computer Graphics International, EuroMedia, and Cybergames Conferences.

When and Where:
This event will take place on Tuesday, November 15, 6:00 pm at TheCodeFactory, located at 246 Queen Street, between Bank and Kent, (on the second floor) above the Green Papaya Restaurant.

Note: There is no cost for attending this event and prior registration is not required. The doors open at 6:00 pm and the talk begins at 6:30 pm. Light snacks and refreshments will be served. An informal social gathering will follow at a nearby pub.

CapCHI (www.capchi.org) is a social and professional society of people who work as user interface designers, researchers, educators, software developers, web designers, graphic designers and human factors engineers in and around Canada’s National Capital Region. Founded in 1991, CapCHI’s goal is to bring together local professionals interested in how humans and computers interact, in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

capchi-announce Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - Vision-based Human-Computer Interaction: Past Approaches and New Developments

2011-11-08T18:54:31Z

capchi-announce TOMORROW: Becoming The User: Adventures in Money and Blood

2011-10-17T16:41:12Z

Becoming The User: Adventures in Money and Blood

Presented by Andy Maloney

Date: Tuesday October 18, 2011
Time: doors open at 6:00 pm; talk begins at 6:30 pm
Place: TheCodeFactory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa

Abstract:
“You are not the user” is often presented as a [sometimes not-so-gentle] reminder to designers that usually you are not the one who is going to be using the results of your design. This implies that you need to somehow put yourself into their position to see things from their perspective. If you are dropped into a situation where you have to design and implement software for an expert in a field you know nothing about, how do you do it? How do you go from knowing nothing to becoming a subject matter expert?

In this talk we’ll explore how you might “become the user” to help guide your design decisions and how the in-depth knowledge of another domain can be combined with your expertise to lead to innovation. Andy will draw on his experiences designing and implementing a derivatives-trading system for market-makers and creating a bloodstain pattern analysis tool for crime scene investigators to jump-start a discussion.

This talk is aimed at anyone interested in user-centered design and anyone faced with the “oh no!” moment when you realize you don’t know anything about the field you’re about to work in. Please come prepared with questions and experiences to share!

Speaker Bio:
Andy Maloney has been a software guy since the dawn of the home computer age and likes learning new things. He completed a degree in Computing and Information Science, which turned out to be a Good Thing because it’s only useful when combined with other fields which means there’s a lot of opportunity to learn new stuff. He has worked on hard-core software engineering of banking software, designed and implemented a derivatives trading system in Europe, worked on game engine software for independent game developers, and created a bloodstain pattern analysis tool for crime scene investigators. He also likes coffee.

When and Where:
This event will take place on Tuesday, October 18, 6:00 pm at TheCodeFactory, located at 246 Queen Street, between Bank and Kent, (on the second floor) above the Green Papaya Restaurant.

Note: There is no cost for attending this event and prior registration is not required. The doors open at 6:00 pm and the talk begins at 6:30 pm. Light snacks and refreshments will be served. An informal social gathering will follow at a nearby pub.

CapCHI (www.capchi.org) is a social and professional society of people who work as user interface designers, researchers, educators, software developers, web designers, graphic designers and human factors engineers in and around Canada’s National Capital Region. Founded in 1991, CapCHI’s goal is to bring together local professionals interested in how humans and computers interact, in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

capchi-announce UXCamp returns to Ottawa on Saturday, November 5, 2011

2011-10-13T17:29:01Z

UXCamp Ottawa is returning on November 5, 2011. If you’re interested in User Experience, this might be a great way to spend a Saturday.
A bit about UXCamp: UXCamp Ottawa is for people who want to learn and share about user experience to make things work better for people. We’ll cover topics like design, usability, information architecture, user interfaces, service design, and anything and everything else about creating better products and better experiences.

This year, the conference welcomes Dana Chisnell of UsabilityWorks as the keynote. Her presentation, Democracy is a Design Problem is a story about how a simple change in type size on a commonly used form led to two major wars and a world wide economic crisis. Design matters.

We also welcome a number of other UX speakers including Gabor Vida from Ottawa’s own Teknision speaking on DeviceUXD: From RIM’s Blackberry Playbook Tablet to Kinect-enabled Kiosks. There’s also a new lightning round series: short 7 minute talks on various user experience issues and case studies.

Registration is $40 and is open and the web site is http://ottawa.uxcamp.ca/ .

Date: Saturday, November 5, 2011
Time: 9am – 4pm
Location: University of Ottawa, Lamoureux Building, Room 122

UXCamp is also on twitter: @uxcampottawa

capchi-announce Tuesday, October 18, 2011, Becoming The User: Adventures in Money and Blood

2011-10-08T12:26:12Z

capchi-announce TOMORROW: September 20th, Web Experience Toolkit (WET): Improving the Web Through Collaboration

2011-09-19T15:04:42Z

Web Experience Toolkit (WET): Improving the Web through collaboration

Presented by Paul Jackson, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Government of Canada

Date: Tuesday September 20, 2011
Time: 6:00pm
Place: TheCodeFactory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa

Abstract:
The Web Experience Toolkit (WET) is a collection of open source tools and solutions that enable web developers to create and maintain innovative Websites that are accessible, usable, and interoperable. WET is collaboratively developed and maintained by both Government of Canada (GC) departments and external Web communities.

This session will focus on the solutions developed through WET as well as the license model, processes, and collaboration framework that make it all possible. It will also cover how WET helps to improve Web sites by building solutions that address Web Accessibility (WCAG 2.0 AA and WAI-ARIA) and how these solutions are now evolving to address Web usability and Web interoperability.

Speaker Bio:
Paul Jackson (@pjackson28), WET project lead, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Government of Canada

When and Where:
This event will take place on Tuesday, September 20, 6:00pm at TheCodeFactory, located at 246 Queen Street, between Bank and Kent, (on the second floor) above the Green Papaya Restaurant.

Note: There is no cost for attending this event and prior registration is not required. Light snacks and refreshments will be served. An informal social gathering will follow at a nearby pub.

CapCHI (www.capchi.org) is a social and professional society of people who work as user interface designers, researchers, educators, software developers, web designers, graphic designers and human factors engineers in and around Canada’s National Capital Region. Founded in 1991, CapCHI’s goal is to bring together local professionals interested in how humans and computers interact, in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

capchi-announce Tuesday September 20th, Web Experience Toolkit (WET): Improving the Web Through Collaboration

2011-09-13T18:19:35Z

capchi-announce TODAY Tuesday June 21st, Seductive Interaction: The Psychology of Adoption, Amanda Holtstrom of non~linear creations

2011-06-21T03:21:23Z

Seductive Interaction: The Psychology of Adoption

Presented by Amanda Holtstrom, Consultant, non~linear creations

Date: Tuesday June 21, 2011
Time: 6:00pm
Place: TheCodeFactory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa

Abstract:

You’re probably already familiar with design tricks to encourage the user behavior that you want — bigger buttons, color choice, font choice, and so on. There are other strategies, however, that rely on the tools of human psychology to motivate and shape behavior. This session explores tunneling, credibility, motivation, social proof, and more as techniques that you can integrate into your project toolkit. These can be used as part of a more holistic approach to designing for adoption that includes the interface, help, training, and communications strategy.

Speaker:

Amanda Holtstrom, Consultant, non~linear creations.

When and Where:

This event will take place on Tuesday, June 21, 6:00pm at TheCodeFactory, located at 246 Queen Street, between Bank and Kent, (on the second floor) above the Green Papaya Restaurant.

Note: There is no cost for attending this event and prior registration is not required. Light snacks and refreshments will be served. An informal social gathering will follow at a nearby pub.

CapCHI (www.capchi.org) is a social and professional society of people who work as user interface designers, researchers, educators, software developers, web designers, graphic designers and human factors engineers in and around Canada’s National Capital Region. Founded in 1991, CapCHI’s goal is to bring together local professionals interested in how humans and computers interact, in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

capchi-announce This Tuesday June 21st, Seductive Interaction: The Psychology of Adoption, Amanda Holtstrom of non~linear creations

2011-06-19T09:45:30Z