Archive for the ‘Meetups’ Category
Informal Interview
Saturday, June 12th, 2010
Date of Event: June 9, 2010
What: Informal Interview
What happened:
Had a quick chat with a web developer/entrepreneur who works fully in the business sector. The goal was to gain a comparison to those who work with nonprofits and double check a few of my “buzzword†definitions.
It became apparent that a lot of the questions I asked were either not directed clearly at the business world (more research definitely would have been helpful) or were not open ended enough. I believe it is the latter. For the questions I have created have come from my own experiences working with nonprofits and Wordpress, thus people with similar experiences and skill-sets will have an answer. How does this bias my research? It appears this also points out the benefits of participant observation, where one is not figuring out a specific question to ask, but experiencing the field of study as a whole. However, my performance as a web designer is an integral part of my study as is meant to help direct the types of questions I ask. I suppose then, how does a study that is a continuation of previous experiences not within the timeline of current research, impact one’s work? To what level am I to be accountable for this knowledge?
Few points:
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Bringing up the question of how the business world deals with choosing software, he stated in most instances larger corporations, with income allocated for technology can either hire someone to make the open source software do what they please, or create a proprietary software that fulfills their aims. Thus, the decision really comes down to ideals or functionality requirements, rather than cost-effectiveness.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The collaborative nature of technology appears to be more widely accepted by people working in the tech world and is slowly being understood by the greater public. However, he used the term responsive, which I think makes more sense for non-tech savvy people. While they may not use the internet as a collaborative tool, they maybe can view technology as working to be more responsive to their needs. Collaboration requiring the user to participate online, while greater responsiveness being the job of technology to provide for the user.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Agile development is not necessarily user-centered, but about the iterative process.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Why use Wordpress? Easy to set up and lightweight, and of course it is free.
Tags: designer views, relationship technology user, web design, wordpress
Posted in Meetups | 9 Comments »
Meetup: Apps for Good London by CDI Europe: Monthly Networking Drinks
Monday, June 7th, 2010
Date of Event: June 3, 2010
What: Apps for Good London by CDI Europe: Monthly Networking Drinks
Who: Apps for Good : http://appsforgood.org/
Where: Las Iguanas – Spitalfields Market
What happened:
Tonight I attended the Meetup Group: Apps for Good. An amazing organization that does this:
Apps for Good is the new programme by CDI Europe where young people learn to create apps that change their world. During April/ May 2010 we will be running the first prototype course at the High Trees Development Trust in Tulse Hill/South London and envision to expand to four other locations in the UK by the end of the year. And Rodrigo Baggio, CDI’s founder, wants to see 50 CDI Community Centres in the UK by the end of 2011… 
Quite impressive I must say, with a great following of people helping to get the project off the ground.
Received quite a bit of good information, apologies for the disjointed thought process, but going to note point by point:
-       Language: A small conversation began surrounding the fact that: “Language is impreciseâ€. Often, for successful interdisciplinary communication, or in this case client-designer communication, participants either need to use language that resides in one of the opposing systems or to find a point of convergence that allows for more fluid understanding. To what level then are web designers responsible for educating their clients?
-       Terminology: The term “emerging markets†was used at some point in the evening and appears to be quite popular in the web industry. I realize that the world is yet to find a term that not relative to the USA, Britain etc… but better suited would be a term that does not directly imply a move toward the capitalist market system.  I am certainly not against the use of technology in populations where there is less exposure, but it would be preferred that technology be developed as a result of research done for a specific location and need rather than imposed.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Agile Definition: Another definition of Agile development for comparison: reducing risk for a project and letting client and others know that changes are allow. Reducing stress as a whole. Setting priority at certain junctions, but being flexible.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Nonprofit Web Designer: Spoke to my first female web designer! And she was fantastic. A large portion of what was spoken about had to do accessibility and a comparison between her work with larger corporations and nonprofits. For larger corporations would not make their site accessible until they knew that the time put into such a task would also increase their revenue. Therefore, until this was assured and had moved through the hierarchy to be approved by all the correct individuals, nothing could be done by her as the web designer. And of course in the end, greater accessibility does mean great revenue. Nonprofits on the other hand, do not usually have the same hierarchy that would limit web designers from making the site accessible, they normally want an accessible site because it fits with their ideals (Digital Inclusion) and generally there is just greater need to reach as many people as possible. It was also for this reason that working with nonprofits was a positive experience for her. Being allowed more freedom, but being driven by the ideals of the nonprofit makes the process of web design more pleasant. Not to mention, that when working with a nonprofit often times any labor time that you can donate is appreciated whether or not you able to create exactly what planned.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Wordpress and Nonprofits: This web designer stated she also uses Wordpress because it is just best looking and easiest thing to get up and running. A common statement for sure among web designers. Following, CMSs are useful because themes are built to be compliant, again allowing an organization to reach more people across platforms. She stated without following set standards, communication eventually does break down.
-       Documentation: For particular nonprofit sites, she did go through some processes of wireframing, but alterations in templates are relatively easy to make as well. Previous web designers have also stated that they bypass a lot of documentation because Wordpress’ basic installation allows one to organize content easily before implementing the theme.
-       Nonprofits + Agencies: She has seen nonprofits go to agencies for websites and what is given to them is a cookie-cutter site that is fast and easy for the agency, but lacks commitment to the nonprofit’s cause or needs.
-       New App: Also found out that there has been an app developed that automatically makes websites accessible and works with variety of screen readers etc… thus relieving lazy web designers of the work it takes to make the site accessible. Link anyone?
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Open Source: I also asked at this Meetup whether they agreed that a lot of corporations distrust free software and there was blanket disagreement. This is in opposition to the answer I received previously. Both groups of people were developers and designers. The group agreeing were individuals involved in the creation of an open source CMS, the group disagreeing were quite mixed. Not sure.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Value Chain: One member of the Meetup also brought up an interesting point about where people and data fall in the value chain. It is not until someone is able to make use of data, to build an app etc., that the data actually becomes valuable. It has then been given a use-value that can be exchanged at an entirely different level and possible even for something it was not intended for. *Would be interesting delve deeper into the movement of data through the market.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Sustainability of technology: The same member also stated he is facing the issue of how to make technology sustainable and accessible in order to allow continued use of the data gathered by his organization. If funding is cut, then technology must be easy to use and maintainable by the greater community. Â In replacing community with nonprofit, the same value applies. How can web designers implement a sustainable technology that allows nonprofits to maintain their website (their data and information) cheaply and easily? To provide ownership?
-       CDI: The goal of CDI is was my initial goal when attempting to figure out my research project. To find an issue and then use technology to solve it. In the end, my current project was more feasible, as I do not have the technological expertise to build the necessary app., plug-in, software etc. In my master’s next year in Human Centered Design and Engineering I will have a chance to work in a group where everyone has a different skill set to bring to the table. Making such a project possible.
Points I am not sure what to do with quite yet:
-       One of the participants stated that, “technologists simply learn to fix problems that they create themselvesâ€. I realize this cannot be taken at face value, but does remind us that user needs, while currently often in the forefront, are not the only factor driving innovation.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Work acceptance? The meaning of this is on the tip of my tongue. I know it was explained. Anybody help me out? Roles of client and designer? Is it relating to scope creep?
Links to check out:
CDI – http://cdieurope.eu/
Our mission is to transform lives and strengthen low-income communities by empowering people with information and communication technology.
http://www.itforcharities.co.uk/
IT resource guide for charities.
To be “The UK organisation that has the most impact on how Civil Society organisations can exploit the technology resources they need to improve their effectiveness, achieve their aims and, in turn, improve the lives of the people they serveâ€.
http://mulqueeny.wordpress.com/
Bio Co-Founder Rewired State & government-y type person. Sadly passionate about: Transformational Govnt, Smarter Govnt, Data, Power of information, Geeks.
Rewired State runs hackdays where developers show government what is possible, and government shows developers what is needed.
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/
Ordnance Survey is Great Britain’s national mapping agency, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government, business and individuals.
CMS/website publishing software
Tags: cms, designer views, expert model, Nonprofit, ownership, relationship technology user, ucd, web design, wordpress, workflow
Posted in Meetups | 165 Comments »
NetSquared London – June: CiviCRM http://civicrm.org/
Saturday, June 5th, 2010
Date of Event: June 1, 2010
What: NetSquared London – June: CiviCRM http://civicrm.org/
Who: Michael McAndrew
Where: St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace
What happened:
Tonight’s Meetup topic was CiviCRM. I will let you read their website description below.
CiviCRM: A Free and Open Source eCRM Solution
“CiviCRM is a free, libre and open source constituent relationship management solution. CiviCRM is web-based, internationalized, and designed specifically to meet the needs of advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups.
CiviCRM is a powerful contact, fundraising and eCRM system that allows you to record and manage information about your various constituents including volunteers, activists, donors, employees, clients, vendors, etc. Track and execute donations, transactions, conversations, events or any type of correspondence with each constituent and store it all in one, easily accessible and manageable source.
CiviCRM is created by an open source community coordinated by CiviCRM LLC, and the 501c3 non-profit Social Source Foundation. The project also receives ongoing input and guidance from our Community Advisory Board.â€
———————————————————————————————–
Turned out to be a great meeting to attend, as the majority of people present were involved in the nonprofit sector as technology professionals looking to improve processes within their own organizations.
Two such people, in charge of revamping and maintaining their nonprofit’s online presence, were also having trouble convincing colleagues to actually use the technology that would allow forward movement. Describing them as “technophobesâ€, who also prefer not to use email for planning etc., the people in the organization simply are not (and apparently do not want to be) exposed to a lot of technology. Sticking with what is comfortable for them, a lot of issues have also stemmed from the transfer of print information to the web.  If one is not familiar the Internet, content can easily be seen as a static entity, whereas in most circumstances it does need to be altered for a specific context. Thus when the content does need to be put online, it is being given to the “tech professional†to handle, a person that may not understand its history and therefore changes made for the web may not reflect its initial intent. Not a very collaborative process, but also not collaborative because the technology is not viewed as being made for collaboration. As one person said: “technology is seen as for a professional to handleâ€.
Due to the speed of the industry, not having updated their site recently also usually means a more dramatic change and learning curve. However, constant revision is not feasible for many nonprofits. With a minimal budget for in-house tech people or out-sourcing, the need for systems that can take care of the basic tasks themselves seems to be necessary as a money saving option. And if this means using a CMS, this also breaks down the tech hierarchy. If there is an in-house tech, this person can also then work on increasing functionality, rather than worrying about small content changes etc.
During the presentation, this topic was also more generally discussed in terms of the positive impact that technology can have on an organization. However, with slower iterations and integration of new technologies tending to work better for nonprofits because it gives them a chance to adapt. For many technologies just stay very abstract until being used for the first time. Something that may also be more common for nonprofits as larger corporations appear to either not take the time to allow people to adapt, or already have someone who knows what to do. Â St.Ethelburgas, an excellent case study for CiviCRM, was successful because they had a group of people who were technologically minded and/or were open to the possible improvements that new technology could offer.
Oy. Okay. Interesting note about CiviCRM: It was designed to fit the needs of the nonprofit user. I would like to know how they went about deciphering nonprofit needs, what generalizations were made and what feedback CiviCRM have received in reference to how correct they were in defining the nonprofit user.
One of those needs is low cost solutions, but a good clarification that Michael brought up was that “free and open source†may not be clear to all individuals. While the software is free, it must be understood that if you are not a tech expert, you probably will need to pay to hire someone to set the software up.
Links to check out: Nten- http://www.nten.org/2009_ecosystem_report
NTEN aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations skillfully and confidently use technology to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.
Tags: designer views, expert model, Nonprofit, ownership, relationship technology user, workflow
Posted in Meetups | 71 Comments »
The Last Thursday CMS Meetup
Monday, May 31st, 2010
Date of Event: May 27, 2010
What: CMS Meetup Group
Who: The Last Thursday CMS Meetup
Where: Hoxton Hotel
What happened:
This evening was Meetup.com’s Last Thursday Group which concentrates on Content Management Systems. So of course I went along to see what people thought about Wordpress and a bit about using it with nonprofits. Got a lot of good feedback, however I think my slightly too large yellow notebook was a bit daunting. Need to switch to my smaller Rhodia pad. Anyway, just a note to myself.
Listing major pieces of information rather than writing in narrative fashion due to the amount of information received.
Blog vs. CMS: A few people noted Wordpress’ blogging emphasis, but also did understand its capabilities for a full CMS and with the right alterations is able to handle a variety of tasks. This has not been the case in other circumstances, where it was only known as a blogging platform.
Relationship between software and user: It had not occurred to me that not having to buy Wordpress as a product also changes the relationship between the technology and the organization as user or consumer. The exchange value is shifted and the organization using the open source software (usually) understands the “agreement†they are entering into. No longer are they able to be dependent on a third party for any software related problems, but they also have to take initiative to find their own solutions or find someone who can.  Not sure if this just causes organizations to be dependent on the web designer as the solution, or if organizations would take the opportunity to value Wordpress as something that needs to be used in their everyday processes. It is also true that many organizations needing websites do not necessarily play a large role in choosing their software, but rather go with whatever the web designer uses or suggests. Still there is a separation in the fact that the organization does not have to deal with the ties attached to proprietary software.
Wordpress popularity: I asked whether or not the popularity of Wordpress is changing the nature of content management systems as a whole, and the answer I received was negative. While the ease of use of WP is quite commendable, more change is happening within the software itself as its user base continues to build. Other CMSs may be more complicated, but  they do have their uses and benefits.
Wordpress restrictions: On that note, I have also heard a few people mention now that Wordpress does not handle a high volume of visitors. Not something I will have to worry about, but something still to keep in mind. I was told it has a lot to do with the number of plug-ins and changing the caching system.
Wordpress functionality: A lot people appear to be mentioning comparisons between other blogging software and Wordpress and that WP has many more options and functionality. I wonder how much of this is that people in the design industry want more functionality because they know what can be done, or if users as a whole are starting to want more options in their online projects.
Wordpress and nonprofits: Again, when asked what aspects of Wordpress are suitable for nonprofits…mentioned was that fact that it is free, the backend is easy to use and its features and plug-ins are nice additions to have for nonprofits. Some other reasons were that templates and its base are compliant, which takes away time consuming basic work that needs to be done.  I also asked if nonprofits often choose WP because of open source ideals, but everyone seemed to agree it was really just because it is free.
Ownership: Another interesting point that was brought up is that organizations like, and possibly need, to take ownership of their web presence. Open source and free software allows one to do this. If you can do what you please with Wordpress, because of its licensing then it also becomes a very appealing option. Larger businesses however, that have the money to spend on web development, appear to believe that free products are not to be trusted. I suppose then as nonprofits do not have an option, it does not become an issue. A good example the participants gave was Google Analytics, which is said to be the best tool in the industry of its kind, yet no larger business will use it, because it is free and therefore not trusted.
Investment: I also asked if giving clients the ability to update their own content provides people with some incentive to continue to update the site. The two people I was speaking to simultaneously shook their heads and said it really depends on the client. In their experience technology, or content management systems, while they did allow for greater interaction between the client and website, were only successful in certain contexts because the client really needed to want to use the software. That there is still the view that technology is to be taken care of by professionals and is not the job of the client. I wonder then if this attitude is more prevalent in the business rather than nonprofit arena, where again nonprofits may have to take on such tasks themselves.
Hierarchy: Continuing on that point, it was stated that a lot of the companies who do not want to update their own website, have a lot of hierarchy within the business. Bureaucracy simply gets in the way as content needs to be approved or posted and ends up being easier for a single person to take care of the task. While this makes sense and job roles do need to be assigned in larger corporation, I suppose it also limits input from a variety of viewpoints. In terms of my research, I will also need to make some sort of distinction between organizations that do have an in-house person to do website updating, vs. the outsourcing of a web designer that provides them with a CMS.
UCD: Another important distinction brought up was the utilization of UCD in the process of building software such as Wordpress vs. the utilization of UCD during actual site construction using Wordpress. So while I am looking at the user experience of Wordpress with nonprofits, I am not looking directly into what changes need to be made to make it more usable for nonprofits. I was surprised to hear that UCD really does not come in very much during the development of software. Wordpress then is probably slightly more popular because it has gone through many iterations and usability testing has been an aspect of this process. The Wordpress CMS is like a website that people need to be able to use, so it is understandable that the backend interface would have been tested.
Twitter: I was convinced to get a Twitter account during this meeting as I was told it is quite easy to search for Wordpress solutions and tips when you are having issues. Follow me if you please @kristinakek. Ugh.
Tags: cms, designer views, expert model, Nonprofit, ownership, relationship technology user, ucd, wordpress, workflow
Posted in Meetups | 57 Comments »
LONDON WEB Meetup – Top 10 UX Gotchas, Conference learnings & Traffic kickstarts
Monday, May 24th, 2010
Date of event: May 20, 2010
What: LONDON WEB – Top 10 UX Gotchas, Conference learnings & Traffic kickstarts
Who: The London Web Meetup
Where: Hoxton Apprentice – Restaurant & Bar
What happened:
Tonight I arrived at the Meetup in lovely Hoxton. The topic was UX (User Experience) and it happened to be an excellent compliment to an earlier interview in the day with a user-centered designer (but I will talk more about that below). As with previous Meetups everyone was incredibly welcoming and I had a great time conversing with the good number of people that attended.
The night began with a speaker who works as a UX designer at Google, George Zafirovski (http://giizii.com/ – a good collection of links on his site) who spoke about the top 10 UX Gotchas he had compiled through emails with colleagues and his own experiences. He began however with a definition of the numerous job titles and roles that people play in the UX field. Titles that many people in the room stated they were confused by, one person being brave enough to ask, but again George Zafirovski had also already predicted the need for explanation and had a PowerPoint ready to do so.
Link to slide-show: http://www.scribd.com/doc/31987290/Top-10-UX-Gotchas
Here are the job roles he listed:
- User Experience Designer: UXD – Designs the visual concepts and ideas using software to create.
- User Experience Researcher: UER – Does cognitive walk-throughs, reassessment of existing products or on prototypes.
- Interaction Designers: ID – Creates protypes in HTML and Javascript etc…
- Mobile Designers: MD – Designs for mobiles.
- Web Developers: WD – Production of code for prototypes.
- Front End Engineer: SWE? – Production of code, using Javascript, Python etc… to develop frameworks.
All of whom are responsible for user-experience and advised to remember “Focus on the user and all else will followâ€. He stated that Google itself uses Agile development for its products, a fast paced and iterative process that keeps projects open and flexible. And that many of their ideas come from their own innovation, proceeding later on to user testing and such. A mix, rather than a linear progression of project management, UX and engineering as shown by his PowerPoint Venn diagram.
Onto the “Top 10 UX Gotchasâ€.
They are (with a few of his side comments):
1. I skipped the wireframes and produced hi-fi mock-ups instead. – Iterations are needed along with feedback or the user suffers.
2. We don’t have time to test it.
3. Just make it a setting. – Too many options cause disorganization and user confusion.
4. We only want to test it with savvy users. – Who and what is a tech savvy user?
5. We’ll let the translator worry about that. – Localization is necessary.
6. We’ll launch this and then figure out how real people use it. – People just get frustrated.
7. We’ll fix it in version two.
8. The target user is a late 20’s tech professional. – Who is this person? Is this person the same no matter where they are located? Probably not.
9. If you build it, they will come. – Who are you developing for?
10. Who is this for? – The world is huge. Ask users what they want and iterate, keeping them involved throughout the entire process.
All of these points received a knowing laugh the majority of people in the room. Most people cited time and money as the reason for committing these errors, but I also wonder how much stems from workflow standards that need to be unlearned.
In the Q&A session the speaker noted that there can be too great of variety in a user for one really to create a single persona or user group. In fact many users of Google products are in fact too vast, which is why they keep open online discussions for feedback and bug reporting. A smaller version of which I hope to integrate into my nonprofit project.
Another person asked: What about commercial viability? Where does making money come into the process? A good question considering the message of UX seems to be only about the users’ needs, and not about how to balance them with making money. The question was not answered solidly, as it appeared to be somewhat irrelevant in Google’s context. Small businesses definitely do not have the same marketing and structural benefits as such a large organization and thus are not able to take the same risks and time in development.
Finally I asked “Does User-centered design fit in as all encompassing of what you have just spoken about, or a separate but related field?†The speaker was confused by the question, and I was confused by his answer, so I spoke to him after the talk. From further discussion, it appears that the term user-centered design can be used to describe anything that is user-centered, rather than a field in itself. User-experience design however, as stated above, contains a number of players that make-up an entire process.
What I thought about it:
The most interesting aspect for me in this event was the continuation of confusion over the the individual roles within UX. The interview I had earlier in the day stated that job titles and skill-sets were also being confused and lumped together by clients. This leaving the project managers etc. to figure out what exactly their clients were looking for and who they needed to hire externally to get the job done. Which continues to support the feedback I am receiving about workflows: that in the design industry most people really just build up a personal process or workflow that works for them and achieves the desired goal, with really no strict procedure to follow.
Additionally, to hear the speaker at this Meetup not acknowledge the existence of UCD as a separate field or use the term at all was quite different from my research thus far. Again, they seem to point in the same direction, as the interviewee used them interchangeably and both the interviewee and speaker used documentation, such as personas and journeys to better understand the user. I have to say I am still slightly in the dark about where things separate and overlap ( i.e. I thought user-centered design was a workflow, just as agile development is a workflow, but apparently they are often combined).
It appears that user-centered design is sort of a catch all for people and can be said to be in effect at any point in the design process, with a history in such things as ergonomics and non-internet related technology. User-experience on the other hand seems be directed more often at online work or web design. As both contain the same job roles, it may simply be that UX is taking over as the buzzword for the web world. Researching now….
Any comments on what you believe to be the main differences certainly welcome.
Tags: designer views, expert model, ucd, user experience, workflow
Posted in Meetups | 726 Comments »
SXSW London Meetup Group
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
Date of event: May 12, 2010
What: SXSW Meetup
Who: 6 web designer/developers
Where: The George Inn, London
Today I had a short session with the Southwest London web Meetup group. I was impressed with how friendly and open everyone was, and the conversation moved from everyday topics, to web-based information relatively fluidly. This meeting was particularly interesting for it was clear that my web design knowledge allowed me to participate in the group discussion. If I was simply a person trying to study web designers without any prior knowledge, I would not be able to keep up with the conversation at all, especially with the rapid amount of change that is going on in the web industry. It was impressive to see how involved people are in their field, as web design for me is only an aspect of what I do, and this was apparent in my lack of ability to talk about side projects related directly to development and programming.
I failed to interject with questions for my research enough, but many members volunteered information on nonprofits they have worked with or others who may have information. We did speak about Wordpress for a bit, and I was surprised to hear that no one is really using it or only use it as a blog. In addition, I asked in what ways they as web designers communicate with their clients and how they translate technical terms, and two members stated that they go client by client. Some try to translate and end up starting too low, others start too high in their technical terms. Same goes for their workflow: rather than building a strict structure to hold to each time, the process adjusts depending on the assignment. Further talk about clients also revealed, similar to in interviews, that web designers, freelancers at least, really just get the task done for clients, rather than doing extensive research. A lot of their web design process results from their personal use of computers and coding in their own free time and simply enjoying web design in their own way. So again, because clients have no knowledge of the web design process, designers are able to build a website in their own manner, not being checked by anyone else.
One of the programmers also said that he is trying to work toward further work with nonprofits because it is more fulfilling and would prefer to no longer work in the corporate world. It appears that a lot of nonprofits are getting people who want to do good and are coming to them because they have already made their money or need a change. Same goes for those I have interviewed.
Another interesting aspect of the meeting was the amount of suggestions and helpful tips exchanged between the Meetup members pertaining to their current projects. A possible extension of the discussion boards and forums visited to help with any coding issues.
Tags: Nonprofit, web design, workflow
Posted in Meetups | 6 Comments »
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Kristina Krause