The first LA UX book club

There's so many excellent UX groups in LA and I'm thrilled to be part of a brand new one - the LA UX Book Club. We met for the first time at the Santa Monica library to discuss Bill Buxton's Sketching User Experiences. Our collective take on the book was that it was an epic sketch that needed editing. But it did provide a fantastic springboard for discussions about wireframing techniques, sketching as a tool vs as a deliverable, setting expectations as part of the design process, stealing time to sketch, the challenge of UX designing in agile, communicating and establishing trust with clients, and personas - useful or useless?

Check out some of the resources we discussed:
• Balsamiq, the online wireframing app that makes your wireframes look hand drawn
• GUI magnets for enhanced whiteboard sketching
• 3 book recommendations about communicating and pursuasion: Crucial Conversations, On Dialogue and Nudge
...and if you decide to skip the book, do check out Bill Buxton's talk at Interaction 08 (thanks for the link Elise!)

Fish

Thomas Jefferson's definition of progress

This powerful quote from Thomas Jefferson was read at the MLK celebration in DC yesterday: "I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

The time for a new coat has come. I am inspired, proud of America, and filled with gratitude on the inauguration day of Barak Obama.

Objectified

Objectified, the new film by the director of Helvetica, is an exploration of how we perceive and design products for everyday use. A must see!