Web Design Conferences: just expensive blog posts?
As I continue to consider organizing a conference for the benefit of the Refresh Tallahassee family, I thought this post made a great (and sobering) point about the value of web design conferences in general.
The summary: My verdict for the future of web design is to stay away from expensive conferences. If you are a conference person and can spare the money, good on ya! But don’t be fooled into thinking that you have to attend them to keep up with future web design trends. Attending smaller, local meet-ups with like-minded people and following the ‘celebrities’ via Twitter is a much cheaper and rewarding experience.
The source: brizk design blog
That being said, stay tuned for details about our next meeting in late May. It looks to be another GREAT one. In fact, we may even hold the event in the Planetarium at the Challenger Learning Center!
Join us for an evening with Andrew Maier!
Polishing User Interface Design: An evening with Andrew Maier
The mind behind UXBooth.com uses Photoshop to deconstruct some of the most common UI effects from scratch to add greater depth and realism to your work.
Tuesday, March 30th
7:00 – 8:30 PM
Room 249 (a 100-seat auditorium), FSU Fine Arts Building
530 W. Call Street St.
Tallahassee, FL 32301
About Andrew: Hailing from the great city of Atlanta, GA, Andrew Maier designs interactions and user experiences for a variety of clients. He writes, speaks, and teaches about design and its intersection with the internet. In addition he serves as the editor–in–chief of the user experience blog, UX Booth. When he’s not crazy busy, Andrew likes singing, practicing yoga and drinking coffee, like a good little hippie should.
Web Development Specialist Job
The State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota (former Manatee Community College) is looking for a Web Development Specialist. They are using the OmniUpdate CMS. “Salary depending on experience”, but on a rainy February day in the Capital City the idea of moving south and being closer to beaches may seem particularly appealing. Also, this job is at the Bradenton campus, less than five miles away from the Ringling Museum of Art – just the place to go when you need inspiration for that Rubens-inspired Drupal theme you’ve been pondering.
Join us for Carl Smith’s Encore!
Come join us on Thursday, February 18th at 6:30 PM at The Zimmerman Agency for our next meeting. Our host and guest speaker for the evening will be Carl Smith, the founder of nGen Works in Jacksonville. Here’s a taste of the evening (borrowed from the Atlanta Web Design Group’s post):
People often talk about usability and learnability when discussing web and application development. Things have to be intuitive and familiar to increase conversions and trial… blah blah blah. All of this is really important. But what does it really boil down to?
It’s all a matter of trust. Trust between the user and the developer. Between the user and the designer. Ultimately trust is allowing yourself to become vulnerable based on a positive expectation. So how do you build trust? And how do you avoid breaking it? It’s about the promises you make in subtle and obvious ways.
In his presentation Carl will break down key steps to understanding, building and keeping trust with your users. More than that you’ll get to hear from real users what they think when you break that trust. Ouch!
Special Thanks to Alan Hanstein of Paragon New Media for the generous event sponsorship! Also, thanks also to Eric Thomas and the folks at Zimmerman for their continued support and hosting our event! Lastly, if you haven’t already done so, please help us plan by letting me know if you plan to attend! You can shoot me an email or give me a call at 850-212-4044.
Ira Glass on getter better at what you do
Last night I had the pleasure of listening to a presentation by Michael Beirut sponsored by AIGA Jacksonville. During a brief Q&A time afterward, he referred to the video above by Ira Glass (part three of a four-part series – all of which are great).
I was interested in one of the comments in the comment thread about people either having “it” or not having “it.” I say, regardless of how much “it” you have, it will only get better with work – lots and lots of work.
What about you – got any thoughts on getting better? On the debate about “it”?
Haiti Earthquake Relief
Every bit helps. If you’re looking for good organization through whom to contribute to the disaster relief effort in Haiti, I recommend World Vision.
Fun for the day
Moving from “ease of use” to “joy of use.” Source: The Science of Fun: How Fun Helps Improve Your Design
