This last week I attended TEDxDetroit. An independently organized TED event held at Lawrence Tech University in Southfield, Michigan. The idea of TEDxDetroit is to spread positive ideas for the world from Detroit. Seating was limited and I was one of the lucky 150 hand picked attendees. Although the videos from all the speakers will be available shortly I wanted to take some time and reflect on the event as a whole.
The Event
All the speakers were either from the Detroit area or had some connection to Detroit. Charlie Wollborg along with a few others did an amazing job bringing in such a diverse group of speakers. The day was broken into four sections, powering, educating, perceiving and connecting.
The powering section started out strong with some inspiration and then got down to business with an alternative way to gather wind energy and a different way to think about electric cars. Mixed in was musical performances about Michigan and Detroit.
Educating section was a filled with local Detroiters who are really making a difference in the community. Chazz Miller stood out the most because of the amazing things he is doing with art, Detroit and the youth. He was referred to many times by other presenters as a “hurricane”, fundamentally changing Detroit with amazing force.
The perceiving section had some amazing stories about the current and future state of Detroit. Two presenters really stuck out, the first was a poem by D Blair titled “Detroit (While I Was Away)”. You can see an unofficial recording of it at the link. It’s a view that many of us have of Detroit, it’s what makes Detroit home. Although it’s not the best view it shows the passion, drive and determination of the entire city. The second was Lee Thomas talking about his struggle with vitiligo and turning all lives experiences into positive power.
The last section connecting was also highly inspiring. PJ Jacokes talked about demanding imagination. PJ runs Go Comedy, an improv theater and encourages all of us to take time to explore our imagination. He asks “When was the last time the floor was made of lava”? A world without imagination is boring and mundane, we cannot get caught in the impression of “adulthood” and just let go and dream every once and a while. It will make you focus on the things that are really important.
Takeaways
The attendees were amazing, everyone I met was very open, friendly and doing great work. All the speakers were very inspiring and uplifting and had a very clear vision for Detroit and how to move it forward. The ideas have to start someplace and these speakers took full advantage of their time to inspire us.
I am so glad I was invited to attend TEDxDetroit and have been inspired to go forth to inspire others and move Detroit forward.
This week I had the privileged of speaking at the Michigan Usability Professionals Association (MIUPA) meeting. I can’t explain what a great group of people they are, I feel humbled being around so many people with much more formal experience and training than myself.
My Approach
Although I come from a computer science background I love usability, user interaction and user interfaces. My approach has always been ad-hoc and unscientific. I like to just sit back and watch or ask random people in their natural settings and see how they react. Which ultimately leads to an ever evolving UI based on these observations and actions.
This method comes from my belief in the release early, release often agile development methodology. Small incremental steps that lead to the full result while making improvement along the way.
Usability Professionals
The audience was primarily usability professionals who pretty much do this for a living. So although I created the presentation above it really did not get used. I made the presentation more of a discussion about everyone’s experiences and how mine synced or collided with theirs.
The best part was a group from MSU’s Usability & Accessibility Center came all the way from Lansing. It was great to hear and talk with them about similar struggles higher education web professionals have.
Thank You
Overall it was a great meeting with most people staying after to talk further. I wanted to thank the MIUPA again for hosting me and the Southfield Public Library for providing a rocking facility.
Nick DeNardis, associate director of web communications at Wayne State University will discuss his approach for reviewing and creating usable web sites.
A lot of people are involved with planning and constructing a single web site. How can you break through the administrative barrier and focus on your users?
Become an authority as a web professional and fend off requests that don’t meet your users goals.
Create a plan for testing and modifying the web site based on your users needs and how they actually use your site.
I will focus on higher education where a lot of sites offer the same “product”. Identify strategies to stand out and care about your users.
View your site from an outsiders perspective, does it pass the “ten second test”? Can you find the information you need?
And last but not least, did you take enough time to care about users with special needs?
Nick is the Associate Director of Web Communications at Wayne State University. As host of the video blog, EDU Checkup, he reviews higher education websites from the point of view of a first time visitor, while critiquing the design, information architecture and code of the sites.
He is a staff writer at .eduGuru, a higher education marketing and web development blog. He takes an active role in the higher education web community by sharing his thoughts and real world analysis in the Wayne State Web Communications Blog.
Nick is also an officer for Refresh Detroit, a group of web professionals whose goal is to promote web standards, usability, and accessibility and to spread the knowledge of web design in the Detroit and Ann Arbor Michigan areas.
Location
Southfield Public Library, “The Meeting Room”
26300 Evergreen Rd
Southfield, MI 48076 (map) Website
(248) 796-4200
Price
$10 – UPA Members
$5 – Full-time students and people between jobs
$20 – All Others
RSVP
RSVP to events@miupa.org (ensures we have enough food and drink for all)
This free event took place at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There was ~30 people who attended from various industries, they came to get a better understanding of social media and how they can leverage it.
The questions brought out not only the direction and how to for beginners but also the best practices and case studies of the advanced users in the social media field.
