Speaker Spotlight: Catharine McNally & Web Accessibility
If a feature of a website separates audiences, particularly those with disabilities, Catharine McNally views it with a critical eye to find better solutions. As a Quality and Accessibility Analyst at Phase2 Technology, Catharine McNally uses a process-driven and strategic approach to provide clients and the community with the confidence to develop inclusive and user-friendly content on both the backend and frontend of a web platform. You can see Catharine on the Accessibility Panel on Saturday, June 2 at the Big Design 2012 Conference. She will be sharing her insights on web accessibility with a panel that includes Sharron Rush [...]
May 31: Guerrilla Research Methods
Russ Unger literally wrote the book on Guerilla Research Methods. Russ leads this hands-on session will cover a number of low cost, yet powerful research methods to help you make better data-driven design decisions. Russ will provide you with a number of techniques for recruiting research participants, creating better research questions, and what to do with your data once you’ve conducted your research. Seating is limited to 100 people. It will sell out fast! Topics Covered: How to sell guerrilla research into a project from the start How to recruit better participants How to form better research questions Valuable “how-tos” [...]
Featured Stories
Windows Phone Bootcamp & Hackathon at Big Design 2012
Want to learn what it takes to build a Windows Phone application? Interested in winning some awesome prizes and getting a free Windows Phone? The Windows Phone Bootcamp and Hackathon is a free, two-day event chock-full of everything you need to know to develop a Windows Phone application followed by an application building competition. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just getting started with .NET development this event is for you! Windows Phone Bootcamp In this workshop you’ll learn what it takes to build a native Windows Phone application. We’ll talk about what the Windows Metro design language means to Windows Phone developers, discuss [...]
Help Us, Help Roger! Get a Free Ticket to the Conference
I rarely make personal appeals of the Big Design community. In the last four years, I have only done two appeals. The first appeal was to help us to offset costs for Keith Anderson, while he was in the hospital fighting for his life. You helped us to raise $12,000 to pay for his mortgage for several months. You can see Keith Anderson and his daughter at the conference this year. The second appeal was to help Dana Chisnell to kickstart a project to get Voter Field Guides into the hand of election officials this year. At the time, Dana [...]
Contest: Bad Design Gets You to Big Design 2012
Announcing the Bad Design Gets You into Big Design Contest! Bad design is everywhere–the local pizzeria menu, music videos involving David Hasselhoff, even the 2012 Olympics logo (seriously London, what gives?) Now is your chance to find the worst design ever made and snag yourself a ticket to the Big Design Conference in Dallas on June 1 and 2. Scour the Internet for bad design. Poke fun of yourself. Make something up. Just post a picture to our Facebook page. We want you to show the BEST of the WORST. Get creative and have some fun! Contest Rules The rules are [...]
Videos
Using UX Illustrations for Executive Buy-in
Tomer Sharon is going to be talking about how to get stakeholder buy-in at the Big Design Conference 2012. This talk ties directly into some work that has been doing over the past several years called “It’s Our Research.” At this site, Tomer interviews many key UX thinkers. You will enjoy this video on how to add UX illustrations within your projects. This video originally appeared on It’s Our Research site. It is shown here with permission from Tomer Sharon. Video on UX Illustrations Amberlight Partners Uses UX Illustrations Amberlight Partners is a London-based research and design consultancy with over 10 years [...]
[Video & Transcript] The Power of UX Checklists
Elisa Miller discusses the benefits of using checklists during the user experience (UX) design process. Checklists are used by professionals in all fields. Commercial drivers, air line pilots, surgeons… all use checklists to ensure that they are fully prepared for their task, or have covered every point in their work. We should too. Transcript (Sponsored by UTD’s ATEC program, special thanks to Leslie McMillan) How many of you have actually used a checklist? Wow, that’s awesome. Now I’m going to ask you, what did you use your checklist for? Everything, grocery store, to do list, what else? Packing. My mother once went [...]
[Video] Jim Henson and Human-Computer Interactions (1963)
In 1963, Jim Henson produced an animated short about human-computer interactions from the perspective a robot. This short film was originally commissioned for a seminar in Chicago aimed at business owners about the topic of data communications. AT&T recently discovered this short, verified it was done by Jim Henson, and posted it on You Tube. The robot narrator exudes some very human=like qualities. Physically, you can make out eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, lips, and more. As the robot “speaks” to you, notice the egotistical qualities of pride, arrogance, and (ultimately, humility). The goal of the this short video was to talk [...]
Reviews
Your Multimedia & Film Speakers for Big Design 2012
We added a Multimedia & Film track this year because we noticed several things. Multi-media and Film Designers use many of the same tools as UX designers. Plus, they deal with many of the same pressures–the emergence of social media, difficult personalities, tight deadlines, crazy release schedules, and very detailed work. Multi-media and Film Designers are brothers of a different UX mother. You don’t want to miss these great talks. These speakers have worked on Iron Man, Spider-man, Halo Wars, Jimmy Nuetron, and more. You can see them in the credits of Walt Disney, Pixar, and Marvel films. Get your [...]
Top 10 Reasons to Book a Room for Big Design 2012
So, you have been waiting to book a room for Big Design 2012. We compiled a list of 10 reasons to book a room. Enjoy! Be Known as One of the “300.” We need to book 300 room nights to keep costs down. The conference space free, as long as we book 300 room nights. Help us keep costs down. Become one of the “300”. This is Sparta…uh, Big Design! It’s Just Plain Fun. The conference is not all about work. You get a chance to play with like-minded people. Mock gambling, playing video games, testing new products, tweeting about [...]
Your Content Speakers for Big Design 2012
We added a stellar line-up of speakers in the Content track for Big Design 2012. You’ll want to stay and watch them all! Get your tickets today! Rahel Anne Bailie. Content as a Design Framework Content strategy promises – or threatens, depending on one’s perspective – to upend the framework used for development projects. Content becomes the lynchpin around which the rest of the design, technology, and user experience revolve. Good content is the logical nexus of the user experience; it makes sense to start a project with the content. Content strategy in design agencies may differ from product content strategies [...]
