Posted by Michael Seidel on June 14, 2010
We’re still reeling from how wonderfully our inaugural meeting went last week. Gretchen and Margot did an awesome one-two punch to beat some excitement into Milwaukee about what content strategy is and how to begin selling/evangelizing it.
If you missed the meeting or just want to spend some time revisiting it, here are a few links for you to get frisky with.
If you have any thoughts or images you’d like to share, let us know!
Thanks to everyone who attended. Hope to see you again in July! Details to follow.
Posted by Michael Seidel on May 19, 2010
Well, we’re exactly three weeks out from our inaugural mkeUX, and damned if we aren’t excited!
There has been some really good momentum and excitement within the Milwaukee tech community about the group. (Our Facebook group is up to 43 members & we have 41 Twitter followers!) We’re stoked to see how that translates into a live, in-person meeting.
Here’s the thing
We want mkeUX to be as participatory as possible. Take our first presentation with Margot Blumstein & Gretchen Thomas, for example. It’s about Content Strategy.
CS is getting quite a lot of buzz in the broader tech world, but it doesn’t seem like something that crops up much in Milwaukee.
Is it something you’re familiar with?
- If not, what do you want to know about it?
- If yes, what seems like its benefits or shortcomings?
- Have you employed a good CS within your organization? How’d it go?
We want everyone to feel like they can take the podium and get everything off their chest. We don’t want the meeting to break up just because the speakers have said their part. If it means convening at a bar or coffee shop to talk about it more post-meeting, that’s awesome. Perfect.
If you have some thoughts or questions prior to the meeting, leave a comment here. We’d love to get the conversation going in advance.
It’s a mystery
Exactly how everything will play out is a big question mark at this point. If you have any suggestions on what has or hasn’t worked with other groups you’ve participated in, let us know! We want to learn from what’s happened before – this will help us make OUR meetings as good and valuable as possible for everyone.
LAY IT ON US! We want to hear your thoughts. On everything. For serious.
Posted by Mike Kornacki on May 18, 2010
Resting on one’s laurels – to be content with one’s past or present honors, achievements, etc. This is the dictionary.com definition of that phrase according to my trusty iPhone.
I had a conversation with some co-workers today about development cycles and how there is a fundamental need to re-test the user experience of these products at every phase and we may see some sweeping changes come out of those tests at every 3 month cycle.
They looked at me like I was crazy.
I told them that we had a grand opportunity to really hone the UX of this product and iteratively improve upon it mid development.
More looks of disbelief and questions like “Well, we will take care of the UX in phase 1 right?” “How much can really change in 3 months?” “You mean you’re not putting together a rock solid UX out of the gate?”
I assured them that I was going to put together the best UX I could with phase 1, but there are going to be more features and applications added in later phases that may affect the UX. I also mentioned that we will actually get to see how people use this product on a daily basis after phase 1 launches. We will have an opportunity to address some user concerns if we stay on top of it. And finally I talked about the speed at which technology changes and if we adopt new technologies through the life span of this product we may be able to change the UX to accommodate these new technologies. (Multi-touch for example.)
The lights started to get a bit brighter in the room as more people started to understand the concept of iterative UX design. It’s no different than iterative development cycles, I told them.
Companies have a tendency to think that UX happens at the end of the first phase or iteration of their product. From then on it is just “bolting on” features and functionality. Development evolves and moves forward and the next thing you know it has been 2 years and they haven’t touched the UX.
Now instead of introducing rolling changes and enhancements to the user experience and information architecture, the company does a massive overhaul of the entire product to better incorporate all the bolted on features and functionality ripping the UX/IA carpet right out from under the user’s feet.
This is a mistake that happens far too often. It is our jobs to change that mentality. As UX professionals it is our responsibility to change the mindset of “once the UX is designed and developed it is done for good.” We need to show our clients, customers and employers that we can save them money and help increase user satisfaction by re-testing and tweaking the UX at every development cycle.
Posted by Michael Seidel on May 5, 2010
Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! MKEUX.com is live!
A bit of history
We (@yellowledbedder & @michaelseidel) have been mulling over the idea of starting a really informal UX group in Milwaukee for the past several months. Why? Because we we learn most when the walls of formality are smashed—when we can pop the tops on a few beers and let the ideas ping-pong.
That’s what mkeUX was born out of. A need to learn and hangout all at once.
What is mkeUX?
We’re a people in the Milwaukee, WI area who care about collaborating and sharing knowledge in order to create killer user experiences.
Our driving principal is that there are no experts. Everyone knows something. Or lots of things. Or can come up with an new take on things.
Our meetings are a place for Milwaukee’s UX community to swap ideas in order to grow our collective understanding of how to create soundly-built websites and apps that users get.
We really hope you’ll join us and contribute to make this thing more awesome than we alone could have imagined it being.
More info
There’s a ton more I want to say about our philosophy, etc, but I know you don’t want to read it all in one blast! So keep your eyes open for upcoming posts.
We’ll dish it all, ya’ll.
In the meantime, don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions! The best way is to follow us on Twitter and send a DM. We have short attention spans.
- @mke_ux
– @yellowledbedder
- @michaelseidel
