Presented by Mike Beauvais and Jacques Lowe, Thales Systems, Ottawa

Date: Tuesday May 15th, 2012
Time: doors open at 6:00 pm; talk begins at 6:30 pm
Place: TheCodeFactory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa, ON, Canada

Abstract:

This presentation will focus on describing key Command and Control (C2) applications within LCSS, the Land Command Support System for the Canadian Army. The suite of Command and Control applications is used in order to gain Situational Awareness as well as plan and manage operations on the battlefield. User Experience concepts covered include: User Engagements, Requirements, Features, Sketches, and Agile Techniques (Epics, Themes, User Stories). The current system began with a set of standard “best of breed” tools, like Google Earth, MS Outlook, Eclipse IDE, MS Windows Explorer, as inspiration, and we will show how these were used to provide UX designs.

The main mode supports different modes of operation – in a vehicle vs. at a headquarters. Perspectives then support both map centric and data centric activities. Areas within perspectives provide a sense of purpose. The map perspective has the Navigator, Overview, Tool, and Task areas. The browse perspective has Navigator, Results and Details areas which each contain a dedicated filter and action bars. Views live within areas and are as follows: Overview, Navigator (Current Situation, Plans, Maps), Tool Area (Default, Terrain Analysis), Task Area. Capabilities for specialists and generalists will be outlined and how they are supported within the UX.

Future work includes a Map Tool, for the ability to display at-a-glance the global state of the application; TableView, a concept showing how users could interaction with users, a table, pens and physical objects; and PDA, a UX Design to support dismounted soldiers attain Situation Awareness using a PDA.

Bio:

Mike Beauvais joined Thales in January 2011 as Business Architect specializing in Intelligence Systems, and he is Manager of both Requirements and UX Design Teams.  Mike is a retired Intelligence Lieutenant-Colonel with over 32 years military experience.  Recent appointments were Chief of Intelligence for Joint Task Force Afghanistan in 2009-2010, Commanding Officer of the Canadian Forces School of Military Intelligence 2007-2009, and Director of Intelligence Force Development 2005-2007.  He has a bachelors in Political Science and graduate of the NATO Defence College.  He currently serves as the President of the Canadian Forces Intelligence Branch Association.

Jacques Lowe is UX Lead, and Manager at Thales Systems, Ottawa Office. Jacques has worked both as an a UX designer, consultant and a UI developer in many industries such as Fleet Management (Gandalf, Arrowsmith, Thales), Content Distribution (Inktomi), Network Security (Mirage Networks), and Consumer Electronics (Bose).  Jacques graduated with a Master’s in Computer Science from Tufts University in Boston, and also has a HCI Certificate from Tufts University. He has over 20+ years of UX experience namely in early adopter and complex systems spaces.

When and Where:

This event will take place on Tuesday, May 15th, 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.

There are a few “Designer” tickets available for the Startup Weekend Ottawa event taking place April 27-29, 2012.

The Designer ticket ($99.00) applies to anybody with a background in design (graphics, UX/UI, etc.) Students: use code “STUDENT2″ and pay just $49. You will be required to show valid Student ID at the door. Others can use a code of ‘FRIENDSOFOCC’ – it will reduce the price to $75.

Startup Weekends are intense 54-hour events designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs.  Beginning with Friday night pitches and continuing through brainstorming, business plan development, and basic prototype creation, Startup Weekends culminate in Sunday night demos and presentations.

Participants create working startups during the event and are able to collaborate with like-minded individuals outside of their daily networks. All teams hear talks by industry leaders and receive valuable feedback from local entrepreneurial leaders. The weekend is centered around action, innovation, and education.  Whether you are looking for feedback on a idea, a co-founder, specific skill sets, or a team to help you execute, Startup Weekends are the perfect environment in which to test your idea and take the first steps towards launching your own startup.

For more information, and to register, please visit http://ottawa.startupweekend.org/

Presented by Judith Brown

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

Abstract:
How does identity enter into software creation work?  We studied collaborating interface designers and software developers engaged in multidisciplinary software creation work on novel software projects with significant user interface design challenges. Twenty-one designers and developers in 8 organizations were interviewed to understand how each specialist viewed their interactions with their fellow team members. We also shadowed most of these designers and developers for a week as they worked. The results of our analysis showed that designers and developers construct unique identities in the process of collaborating that are satisfying personally, provide meaning to their artifact-mediated interactions, and help them to effectively accomplish the work of creating novel software. Our model of interactional identities specifies a number of aspects of joint project work in which an interactional identity is expressed, such as project tensions. We suggest these identities are constructed to bridge a gap between how designers and developers were taught to enact their roles and the demands of project-specific work. We look at specific identities such as the “movie director” designer or the “binder” developer and show how these emerged as a direct response to past and present experiences, as well as touching on 19 others.  We show how people develop more effective interactional identities after about 10 years of experience in the field.  As part of this presentation we will launch a discussion on how practitioners can be encouraged to adopt more effective identities sooner.

Bio:

Judith Brown is a post doctoral fellow at Carleton University in the Human-Oriented Technology Software Research Lab. Judith recently received her PhD in Psychology/Human-Computer Interaction as a result of her field studies of collaborative work on software teams. She is currently engaged in a project for creating team room software for large displays to be used by software teams, another project to enable collaborative security work in data centres, and another to look at how large displays can enable analysis work. Judith was a professor in Computer Science and Software Engineering for 15 years and has many publications in software engineering and HCI. She has 6 years of experience as a developer in the field of telecommunications.

When and Where:

This event will take place on Tuesday, April 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.

Presented by Emil M. Petriu, University of Ottawa

Date: Tuesday March 20th, 2012
Time: doors open at 6:00 pm; talk begins at 6:30 pm
Place: TheCodeFactory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa, ON, Canada

Abstract:
For a long time, engineers have built upon mathematics and natural science principles from mechanics, electricity, and chemistry in order to develop an ever growing variety of more efficient and smarter industrial artefacts and machines, including computers. The time has now arrived to add biology and more specifically, human anatomy, physiology and psychology to the scientific sources of knowledge for engineers to develop a new, bio-inspired, generation of intelligent machines. Advocating this emergent trend, this presentation will discuss a number of relevant issues such as human-robot interaction for symbiotic partnership, bio-inspired neural networks, techniques that enhance human natural capabilities, as well as moral, ethical, theological, legal, and social challenges in a soon to come cyborg-society world.

Bio:

Emil M. Petriu is a Professor and University Research Chair in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa. His research interests include: soft computing, intelligent sensor systems, robot sensors and perception, and human-computer symbiosis http://www.eecs.uottawa.ca/~petriu/.

When and Where:

This event will take place on Tuesday, March 20th, 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.

Presented by Ellen Grove,
Agile coaching & training,
Organizational transformation,
www.profluence.ca,
masteringtheobvious.wordpress.com (blog)

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.

We need a Web Accessibility Expert for a private company in Ottawa, Ontario. This person will be responsible for leading client website evaluations. This person must be a self-starter and able to lead and work within a team. An individual with a developer background who now focuses on Web Accessibility.

Join a growing and dedicated team by contacting jennifer@newfoundrecruiting.com (613-435-6607 x 106)

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead web site accessibility audits
• Utilize web access testing tools
• Lead a project team in the preparation of documents required by customers

QUALIFICATIONS:

• 3 year diploma in Computer Science
• Needs to be self starter and be able to work independently
• Experience with W3C WCAG 2.0 guidelines, ISO 32000, US Section 508, Canadian Government Common Look and Feel Standards
• Experience with HTML / XHTML and Drupal
• Experience with HTML 5
• Experience with Web Evaluation tools (HiSoftware, Deque, etc.)

DURATION: Permanent

CLEARANCE: Must be Eligible for Government of Canada Enhanced Clearance

The Senior Interaction Designer with 6+ years of experience must be self-motivated and able to work both independently and in conjunction with team members and product groups. Drive, enthusiasm and flexibility to work on a variety of projects are necessary, as well as the ability to rapidly acquire new domain familiarity.

Responsibilities will include:

• Task analysis
• Information Design / IA
• Wireframes
• Interaction Design
• Prototyping skills an asset

Education: degree in one of the disciplines below:

• Computer science
• Design
• Human-Computer Interaction

We’re looking for someone that has deep knowledge of current interaction design trends, research, theories and methodologies (especially user-centered design), and an intuitive feel for how specific interaction design activities provide unique value added throughout the product development lifecycle.

Please send your resume to humanresources [at] akendi.com

Thank you to all applicants, but only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

With 6+ years of experience, a self-starter and able to work both independently and in conjunction with team members and client groups. Drive, enthusiasm and flexibility to work on a variety of projects are key, as well as the ability to rapidly acquire new domain familiarity.

Responsibilities will include:

• User Needs Assessment
• Persona & Usage Scenario Research / Task analysis
• Contextual Inquiries
• Information Design / IA
• Heuristic evaluations
• Usability Testing

Education: degree in behavioral science, computer science or closely related discipline including:

• Human Factors,
• Human-Computer Interaction (Computer Science)
• Psychology (Cognitive or Experimental)

We’re looking for someone that has deep knowledge of current usability research, theories and methodologies (especially user-centered design processes), and an intuitive feel for how human factors activities provide unique value added throughout the product development lifecycle.

Please send your resume to humanresources [at] akendi.com

Thank you to all applicants, but only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

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.

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

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