Events

Bridging the Gap Between Designers and Devs

Hero image for event showing Tony Gines and Ology

When building websites and apps, the gap between design and development handoff can feel like a canyon, but there is one tool in particular that can narrow that distance significantly. Dev Mode in Figma provides a powerful way for the language of design to be translated into code, and it provides a bridge for design systems to be built and maintained by design teams. Join us to learn about how this powerful tool is used by Tony Gines and his team at Scribe. He’ll also discuss some principles for designers and devs to communicate more effectively.

About Tony

As the VP of Design at a software startup, Scribe, Tony has played a pivotal role in fostering the company’s design-centric approach. His focus lies heavily on brand development, user experience, and visual fidelity. He manages a team of four designers and collaborates closely with the engineering team to achieve pixel-perfect front-end output. With over 20 years of experience in web design, branding, animation, and front-end engineering, Tony and his team shapes user experiences that are both usable and delightful. He is always looking towards the future to see what technology holds. More on LinkedIn.

Event Sponsor

Scribe – Turn any process into a step-by-step guide, instantly.

RSVP & More Details

Please add your RSVP on the event Meetup page if you plan to attend. Thx!

Events

Sliders & Stories: Reconnect

Come join us on Thursday, October 5th at noon for a private room lunch at Island Wing Company on Market Street. It will be a casual time to reconnect, meet new folks, and learn what others have been working on. Lunch is Dutch treat. Hope to see you then!

Date, Time, and Location
Thursday, October 5, 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Island Wing Company
Please RSVP on our Meetup event page if you plan to attend.

Events

The Future of Collaboration

Working with others in remote and and hybrid environments has become the new normal for design and development, but putting together processes and tools to make this work is easier said than done. We’ve partnered with Startup Week Tallahassee to host Jacob Waites in a virtual discussion about how to collaborate more effectively. Among the topics for discussion are building design systems collaboratively, separating generative and reductive spaces, creative ritual design, and shifting an organization to decentralized tooling.

About Jacob Waites
Jacob is a visual and interaction designer who has worked with IDEO and Adobe (among others) to craft brand and product experiences with stories around them. He seeks to make others successful through experimentation with new technologies.

About Startup Week Tallahassee
Startup Week Tallahassee celebrates entrepreneurship and startups in our community. The week features innovative speakers and thought-provoking events with people who share a kindred entrepreneurial spirit. Startup Week Tallahassee 2022 takes place Nov. 14th – Nov. 18th at three locations and will cover 12+ tracks focused on different industries.

Details

Thursday, November 17, 2022, 1:30 – 2:30 PM

This is a hybrid event. We’d love to connect in person, but if you’re not able to make it to the Challenger Learning Center, we’ll stream the event remotely via Facebook & YouTube (links to come the week of the event).


Challenger Learning Cetner
200 S Duval Street
Tallahassee, FL 32301

Please RSVP on our Meetup page if you plan to attend.
This event is free, courtesy of Startup Week Tallahassee. Thanks!

Events

Remote Life + Innovation Hub Tour

Remote Life

Are you curious about what it’s like to work remotely? It continues to be a growing trend in our industry with no sign of slowing down. For our first meetup of 2020, we’re hosting a discussion at FSU’s Innovation Hub with Jason Beaird about his experience with remote life. He’ll dive into some of the most common questions and biggest misconceptions about what it’s like to work from home as a UX designer or developer. As a visceral bonus, Jason will be presenting by video conference from his home office in Orlando.

About Jason

Jason works remotely from Orlando as a UX Team Lead with Paylocity. As an experienced “player-coach,” he has worn the hats of product manager, designer, front-end developer, and user researcher. A few of his more well-known efforts include conceiving and evolving The MailChimp Pattern Library and writing The Principles of Beautiful Web Design. He also helps organize Orlando’s Downtown UX Meetup. Learn more about Jason on LinkedIn.

About FSU’s Innovation Hub

The Innovation Hub at FSU was built to foster a collaborative community founded on a culture of creativity and innovation that identifies issues, explores opportunities, and develops solutions using design thinking and emerging technologies. Located at the heart of FSU’s campus, the Hub includes a Digital Fablab, VR Lab, Design Lab, and a variety of collaboration spaces designed to support face-to-face interactive co-creation, design thinking-style, and remote collaboration using online tools.

Details

When: Friday, February 21, 2020, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

Where: FSU Innovation Hub (Florida State University, Louis Shores building, 142 Collegiate Loop, Tallahassee, FL 32304).

Parking: The closest parking is in the Traditions Way Garage and is free use for all after 4:30. When driving to The Hub, enter campus from Jefferson Street by the Sweet Shop. Don’t attempt to get to The Hub entering campus from Tennessee Street. You’ll get lost in one way and restricted streets.

RSVP: Please RSVP on our Meetup page if you plan to attend.

Donate

There’s no charge for the event, but donations are appreciated. Thanks!

Events

Hamburgers & Stories

Come join us for a casual backroom lunch at Smashburger in Village Square for a combination of catching up around the table as well as sharing projects we’re all working on.

We’ll have a laptop, WiFi, and a flatscreen monitor. Bring your appetite and a project to share (if you’d like).

Details
When: Thursday, October 10, 2019, 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Where: Smashburger, 1390 Village Square Blvd, Tallahassee, FL, 32312
Please RSVP on our Meetup event page if you plan to attend. Thanks!

Events

Tableau and Data Visualization

Data visualization is where the art of graphic design meets the science of data analysis. It is a way of organizing, translating, and communicating a complex myriad of documented moments into a simple and coherent story that enables others to learn and make better decisions. Of the many applications available for data visualization, Tableau is often regarded as the grand master of them all. Join us to learn more about this powerful tool and some principles for communicating data more effectively.

About Shaun
Shaun is data analysis veteran with over 10 years of experience extracting, organizing, interpreting, and visualizing data. Using Tableau as his primary tool of choice, Shaun guides companies through the process of letting their data provide insights for more informed decision making. Learn more about Shaun on LinkedIn.

Details
When: Friday, April 19, 2019, 7:00 – 8:30 PM
Where: Kyra Solutions, 3673 Coolidge Court, Tallahassee, FL 32311
Please RSVP on our Meetup event page if you plan to attend. Thanks!

Events

CodePen for Everyone

CodePen for Everyone
Within the realm UX, the orchestration of interactions and animations happens at the intersection of design and development. It’s a place where designers begin to learn more about coding and developers begin to learn more about visual communication. Among the tools available for creating interactions, CodePen shines as an environment for learning and sharing while designing and building usable code.


Format

  • An overview of CodePen
    • The purpose of pens: Learning, sharing, and documenting
    • The building blocks: Pens, projects, posts, and collections
    • Should I use a pen or a project?
    • Using your CodePen profile as a portfolio
    • Tips on how to get the most out of CodePen
  • Finding great pens related to UI problems
    • Using the CodePen editor
    • Forking a pen into something new
    • Building a pen from scratch
  • Show-and-tell for attendees already savvy with CodePen

Date & Time
Friday, Feb 8, 2019
7:00 – 8:30 PM*

Venue & Event Sponsor

Syntech

Syntech Systems
100 Four Points Way
Tallahassee, Florida 32305
* A tour of Syntech will be available afterwards.

Events

Tools for Ideation: A Design Thinking Workshop

Tools for Ideation

Design Thinking is the core problem-solving framework used by a wide variety of organizations around the world. The tools used in Design Thinking provide value to professionals who desire deeper insights, innovative ideas, and iteratively-refined solutions in any industry. In the realm of Design Thinking, everyone is a designer, no problem is too small (or too large), and this event is for anyone interested in learning this powerful approach to problem solving.

Tools for Ideation
In conjunction with Startup Week Tallahassee, we’ve partnered with AIGA Tallahassee to host Ken Baldauf, Director of FSU’s Innovation Hub to lead a 90-minute workshop providing hands-on experiences with some of the most powerful tools for ideation, including brainstorming, think different, think wrong, affinity mapping, and idea filtering. Come join us as we learn to apply these idea-generating techniques.

About Ken
Ken directs FSU’s Innovation Hub which is designed to support students from all disciplines to utilize the latest technologies and Design Thinking to confront the demanding and complex problems of our day. Ken has authored several textbooks, produced a weekly tech news podcast and has worked with Cengage Learning to design an online learning framework for Intro Computer courses. Learn more about Ken on LinkedIn.

More Information
Date: Thursday, November 8, 2018
Time: 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
Venue: CoLab @ The Pod

Space is limited to 30 attendees. Sign up and register for the workshop at the Tallahassee Startup Week site.

Events

Web Animation Techniques Workshop by Val Head

Motion design is quickly becoming a necessary skill for anyone working on the web today. Designers and developers across the web are embracing the the power of web animation to engage and communicate.

This workshop will get you started with the essentials of web animation. It covers the basics of motion design theory as it applies to the web, and how to use animation to improve the user experience. In addition to the theory, we’ll use hands-on exercises to explore the similarities and difference of animating with CSS, JavaScript, and SVG. You’ll leave knowing how to bring your work to life with motion in meaningful ways and which web animation tool to use to get it done.

This workshop is for front end developers and web designers looking to dig into the code side of web animation while making quality motion design decisions for their work.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Animating in CSS vs JavaScript
Using hands-on code exercises we’ll look at what animation tasks each of these are best at, how to choose between the two and how they can work together.

Animation and performance
Animation can have both real and perceived effects on performance. We’ll cover which properties browsers can animated most efficiently and how to improve perceived performance by adding animation.

Where animation can improve UX
A quick look at the specific design problems animation can solve through providing feedback, exposing causality, orientation, showing relationships and demonstrating.

Classic animation techniques worth stealing
The “12 classic principles” and other useful animation techniques. We’ll look at the short list of ones matter most and how they translate to UX and the digital space.

Principles of interactive animation
There is more to consider than just the classic principles for interface animation. Animation should never get in the way of the task at hand. Val will show you how to be sure you’re animations are interruptible, non-blocking, and appropriately timed for interaction.

SVG Animation Basics
We’ll animate SVG via CSS and Greensock and cover the most foolproof ways to animated SVG despite differences in browser support.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED FOR THE WORKSHOP

No prior experience with web animation is required, but a solid foundation in HTML and CSS is recommended. Familiarity with JavaScript is helpful but not required.

A laptop with a text editor and a current version of Chrome or Firefox will be needed to participate in the workshop exercises. A (free) Codepen.io account will also be helpful. We’ll be using that for the exercises and demos.

ABOUT VAL HEAD

Val Head is a web animation expert, author, and Design Evangelist at Adobe. She is the author of Designing Interface Animation, published by Rosenfeld Media, teaches CSS Animation on lynda.com, and curates the weekly UI Animation Newsletter.

REGISTER TODAY

Get your ticket on our Eventbrite page today. Early Bird pricing is $75. The event is a full-day workshop, and will be held at Domi Station on Thursday, Nov 16.

Anyone who signs up as an “Early Bird” will also be entered into a drawing to win a signed copy of Val’s Designing Interface Animation book. Also, we’ll have coffee and snacks on hand before the workshop starts and lunch provided during the afternoon break.

Events

An Evening with Frame

Frame: A Production Company

UPDATE: We’ve changed the venue to Proof Brewing Company in Railroad Square, and instead of a more “official” presentation, we’re going to have an informal chat with Patrick Gines (Frame’s Creative Director).


The estimates are in: by 2019, video will account for 80% of all internet traffic. When it comes to communicating content on web and mobile apps, video is king. But not all video is created equal.

On September 21, Refresh Tallahassee and Frame invite you to join the discussion and learn how you can leverage video in your projects. Frame is a team of filmmakers from across the country, brought to Tallahassee because of the FSU Film School. Gifted content creators, Frame makes commercials, brand films and documentaries. Frame believes in creating national quality content while keeping the talent here, in Tallahassee. Join us to learn how you can use video to capture the attention of your audience, to connect with them, and to move them to action.

Date: Thursday, September 21, 2017
Time: 7:00 – 8:30 PM
Location: Proof Brewing Company in Railroad Square
RSVP: Visit our Meetup page to RSVP. Thx!