Come to the March DFW UPA meeting to find out more about the politics of UX. For those who have found themselves frustrated by seemingly capricious and/or political processes of getting designs, architectural changes, licensing agreements and other big and small decisions to go their
way, this presentation explores:

• Roles and mentalities of the CEO and gatekeepers, and how to constructively engage them;
• Methods you can use to attach value to projects under consideration;
• Tactics for gaining organizational alignment and successfully advancing your ideas in the face of opposition

If you want to achieve your organizational objectives while maintaining you’re working relationships and conserving much of your remaining integrity, this is a seminar worth sitting through.

Hmmm, sound familiar? To everyone no doubt!   Jonathan Isernhagen with Travelocity will share his insight so join us for a great evening.

When:

• March 27, 2012
• 6:30pm for Networking
• 7:00pm Tour of the swanky new USC Labs (nice!!!)
• 7:30pm for Jonathan’s Exciting Presentation

Where:

Usability Sciences Corporation
909 Lake Carolyn Parkway
Suite 1600
Irving, TX 75039

Google Map: http://g.co/maps/ks4na

Cost:

$5 unless your 2012 dues are paid ($20 for professionals, $10 for students).

NOTE:  You can pay online now: http://www.dfw-upa.org/membership/

RSVP:

http://03dfwupa2012.eventbrite.com

See What You’re Missing with Eye Tracking!!!

Come to the February DFW UPA meeting to find out more about eye tracking and how it can help user researchers. We will have several different eye trackers available for hands-on exploration as well as the Tobii software, Studio, which will be used to show how to produce heat maps and other visualizations. Come check out the T60, X120 and the mobile device setup and the Tobii Glasses, which you can wear in a store to gather user information.

Lorie Whitaker is a user researcher who has experience using Tobii eye trackers to conduct usability tests.  It’s is your chance to play with the technology and see what you are missing!

When:

February 21

When:

February 21, 2012

Start Time: 630PM

Where:

Improving Enterprises

16633 Dallas Parkway, Suite 100
Addison, Texas 75001

Cost:

$5 unless your 2012 dues are paid ($20 for professionals, $10 for students).

NOTE:  You can pay online now: http://www.dfw-upa.org/membership/

RSVP:

http://eyetrackingmobile.eventbrite.com

Let us ring in the New Year with a DFW UPA social!  The January meeting will be a three-part recipe:

1. Let’s plan on socializing.  Swap holiday stories and New Year’s resolutions (you may have already broken).  Appetizers will be provided by DFW-UPA.  The latter portion of the evening will consist of officer elections for the coming year.
2. We plan to review what you can expect at Big Design 2012, too.  We have a ton of great news to share with you, too.  We have saved some cool announcements just for this meeting.
3. We will also do our annual DFW-UPA officer elections/selections.  Seriously, we do have a good time with planning things.  You will get the inside scoop by becoming an officer.  If you don’t step forward, we’ll just volunteer you, anyway.

Please RSVP by using the link shown below.  We hope to see you there!  See details below:

What

January Meet-n-Greet, BigD12, & Officer Elections

When

January 31st, 2012

6:30 PM will be socializing

7:30PM will be Big Design 2012 Announcements

8:00PM will be DFW-UPA Officer Elections

Where

The Londoner in Addison
14930 Midway Road
Addison, TX
(972) 458-2444

Cost

$5 unless your 2012 dues are paid ($20 for professionals, $10 for students)

RSVP

http://jan2012dfwupa.eventbrite.com

Nominations

You can nominate yourself or anyone else. Please send your nominations to DFWUPA. All officer positions run for one calendar year from January until December.

To close out 2011, we wanted to visit the trains at North Park Mall, which is wonderful set of train views of different areas of Dallas during different times within our city’s rich history. All of the proceeds go to help Ronald McDonald House of Dallas, too.
 
 
 
 
Here are the details.

What: Trains at North Park Mall
When: December 1, 2011
Where: North Park Center (Located on Level Two near Barneys New York)
Time: 7;00PM
Cost: $3-$6 and discounts are available at Tom Thumb Stores.

You can find a map here: http://www.northparkcenter.com/directionsmap.html
Register here: http://12dfwupa2011.eventbrite.com/

NOTE: We plan to do some shopping for Keith Anderson’s family. Keith has been in the hospital since November 5th, sedated, on dialysis, using a respirator, and battling pacreatitis. We want to buy some gifts for his family.

Join Sabre for its annual World Usability Day celebration. You will get the chance to talk with all of the interactive design teams about their products and services. Plus, you can hear about job openings available on these teams. You will have 9 interactive exhibitis in Building A.

A short walk to Building B gets you to the Usability Lab, where you can see a live usability test. For those brave souls, you can participate in the test. For other folks, you can watch people perform some basic tasks on an actual product in the process of being designed and developed.

If you visit all of the exhibits, you get a chance to win an Amazon Kindle Fire, which will be released on November 15, 2011. We are giving away two Kindle Fires. Please join us to learn about how Sabre builds usability and design into its products.

DFW-UPA will have a booth. Keith Anderson and Brian Sullivan will be talking about DFW-UPA and Big Design Conference. Sign-up for the Big Design Conference Newsletter for a chance to win a free ticket to Big Design Conference 2012.

Register at: http://wud2011sabre.eventbrite.com/

The October meeting is a working one! We are going to perform content evaluations, heuristic inspections, and design reviews for some of the non-profit companies particiapting in Give Camp for the weekend of October 21-23.

This event is free. Register at: http://designslamdfw2011.eventbrite.com

It is your chance to make a difference and help out some great non-profit companies. Several of the project managers for Give Camp will be there to explain your design challenge.

Here is the rules for the Design Slam:
1. Meet at Sabre at 630PM.
2. Break up into teams of 4-5 UX groups.
3. Review the non-profit website.
4. Determine a course of action (content review, competitive analysis, wireframe, heuristic)
5. Report results back to the project team at the end of the evening.

For more details on Give Camp, go over to the website (http:www.givecamp.org). Give Camp was started locally in Dallas. Let’s support the home team!

NOTE: Pizza and drinks provided by Big Design Week 2011 (on November 14-18, 2011).

Start Time is 630PM (for socializing), Slam begins at 700PM
Location is:
Sabre
3150 Sabre Drive
Building A, Room A1-157
Southlake, Texas 76092
Google Map

Ready, set, slam!!!

This month’s meeting is going to put you to work! Join Paula Thornton and be part of a group exploratory activity to provide feedback to a research group at the University of British Columbia.

NOTE: Stephen Anderson may drop in to run us through an exercise with his “Mental Notes” cards. He is trying to work it into his schedule.

Paula will lead us through an exercise that supports UBC’s research “how interaction design experts think about the role of social values in their design processes”. UBC is performing the study to gain an understanding of how interaction design experts think about the role of social values in their design processes.

Paula Thornton is a design expert who works with companies and professional organizations to help them define and understand how design can help them build better products and services.

When: Tuesday, September 27
6:30 pm

Where: Slingshot
208 North Market Street #500, Dallas, TX
214. 634.4411
Google Map

I scream.  You Scream.  We all scream for ….conference redux & ice cream.  Ice cream sandwiches, of course.  Make your own.

Register for this event, so we know how many cookies to bake and how much ice cream to order.

Get out of the heat and share your experiences at Big Design, SXSWI, UPA, IXDA, IA Summit, HCI or any other conference you attended this year.  And make your own ice cream sandwich, too.

Casual, off-the-cuff or formal presentations are welcome.  It’s your chance to promote a conference, speaker or content. We just want to hear from you. We’ll share the survey results and final Big Design Conference numbers with you. Plus, we will tell you about Big Design Week 2011 in November.

To beat the heat, you get to build your own ice cream sandwich, catered by Pokey O’s (sponsored by Big Design Conference). That’s right a custom made ice cream sandwich just for you. Select the homemade ice cream of your choice and sandwich it between the homemade cookies of your choice. It’s all about you!

- 630PM to 700PM (Socialize and Make an Icre Cream Sandwich)

- 700PM to 715PM (Big Design Summary from Brian Sullivan)

- 715PM tp 800PM (Conference Redux from Anyone)

Register for this event, so we know how many cookies to bake and how much ice cream to order.

Image via Wikipedia

You are invited to a Big Design Conference 2011 special Sneak Peak.  We will be meeting at the headquarters of Game Stop for a quick tour by Jeremy Johnson, UI Director. Then, we will start a series of 10-minute talks to preview the conference.

Check out several of the phenomenal speakers and hear they have to say first.  Gain an understanding of the tracks set up for Big Design 2011 and make your plan to make the most of the conference for you.

And take advantage of the personal setting of the DFW-UPA monthly meeting to ask the speakers questions and network with them as well as other industry leaders.

As always it’s a relaxed atmosphere but a charged setting.  See you there!

When:   Tuesday, 28 June from 6:30-8pm

5615 High Point Dr
6th Floor
Irving, TX 75038-2465
(972) 894-0247

Here’s a map to the Las Colinas office: http://goo.gl/maps/iEef

RSVP: http://dfwupa28june.eventbrite.com