Aug Refresh Meetup 08/31: Sean Rankin
Why Enterprise Software Sucks
User Experience & Enterprise Software
By: Sean Rankin
Come out August 31st at 6:00 PM @ IT-Ology – 1301 Gervais Street
If you’re a designer or developer working at one of the fancy-pants design studios around town, this talk is going to make you cringe and want to drive sharp objects under your fingernails.
Increasingly, companies that build enterprise tools are trying to insert experience design into their development process. For practitioners, that spells opportunity – but it’s important to note that this opportunity comes with many challenges. This session will focus on the ins-and-outs of user experience design in the feature-rich, overly-complex, and head-spinning world of enterprise software; The software that runs businesses.
Selling your ideas in a culture based on technology rather than design can be tough. Sean will offer some background on what to expect if you decide work with these guys, as well as some ways to pitch the concept that the UX discipline is a valuable asset that should have the proverbial “seat at the table”.
As a bonus, you’ll be treated to a carefully curated Enterprise Software Wall of Shame that he only brings out on special occasions.
Sean Rankin
User Experience Designer
Duck Creek Technologies (Now: Accenture)
sean [at] internetwonderboy [dot] com
Twitter: @srankin
Sean’s Bio
Sean Rankin is one of those relics that witnessed the dot-com bust and lived to tell. His story starts back in 1994, when he wandered into a computer lab at USC to check out this new thing they were calling the “world-wide web”. Thankfully, that encounter derailed a future career in law enforcement, and our community is a safer place.
Over the last ten years, Sean has focused his career around software design in the insurance and financial services industries. He currently spends his days leading the user experience efforts at Duck Creek Technologies, a provider of enterprise solutions for the insurance industry. When asked by the technology folks about what he does for a living, he proudly replies “my job is to make technology easy and fun to use”.
In his spare time, Sean can be found running downtown with his dog Isabel, freaking-out about first-time parenthood, and cramming for one of his b-school exams.
Slides from Sean’s talk
For those of you who are looking for this, here is a link to Sean’s presentation slides.
Q&A mingle + BEER!
We’re all experts at something at Refresh and this is your chance to share that knowledge and answer some of those nagging questions that we all have about other areas of the web. So think of something that you happen to be pretty damn good at and bring in some questions in other areas that have been boggling you and we’ll see if we can get them resolved! And also we’ll meet up at a bar. Note: Beer.
Questions you may have might be something like:
“How do I get into mobile development?”
“Should I start using Fireworks for my web designs?
“Why do I always have color matching issues when I save for web?!”
*And for those of you that are just really shy, submit your anonymous questions as a comment on this post.
Where/When
We have reserved the side room of the Publick House on Devine St (Google Map) for Wednesday, 27th 6-8ish.
If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a great mingle space with mostly tall bar tables, pool tables and dartboards. This is a casual meetup to get people talking and maybe answer some questions for a few people. And also Beer.
Front End Dev at RCPL
We just got word that the Richland County Public Library is looking for a full-time front end developer. The position details can be found on the MyRCPL website, but it looks like they’re specifically looking for someone with Drupal experience.
Here’s a snippet from the job description:
Maintains the Library’s web presence, based on direction from the Virtual Services Manager.
Develops theme and module customization using Drupal, PHP, SQL, and cascading style sheets (“CSS”).
Analyzes available or custom built tools, then implements them into the existing Drupal system in the most user-friendly, intuitive, and simple way possible.
Works continually to optimize user experience.
Optimizes the user experience specifically relating to our online catalog.
Conceptualizes, plans, and may create innovative mash-ups that will inspire, inform, and entertain customers using available services and application programming interfaces (“API”).
Works as a member of project teams.
Uses planning tools as needed to successfully meet appropriate deadlines.
Maintains and utilizes current awareness of web design and programming, trends in public library services, and RCPL goals and objectives.
Plans, participates in development of, and implements interactive web features using Drupal content management system (“CMS”), MySQL, JQuery, along with tools like Adobe CS4, or other tools as needed.
Assists in planning of custom applications for mobile devices.
Full job posting with application details:
http://myrcpl.com/employment/front-end-web-developer-full-time
May Refresh Meetup: Dean Schuster
Stop Guessing! Learn to Engage Real People before you Build Things for Them.
Come out May 25th at 6:00 PM @ IT-Ology – 1301 Gervais Street
Dean Schuster of Truematter will show us how to:
Create better sites and apps by actually getting to know the people who use them.
The manic drive to create websites and mobile apps quickly and cheaply requires huge sacrifices. Is complex functionality the first to go? Hardly. How about the content management system? Goodness no. Trendy design? Please.
The first casualty of most Web projects is, unfortunately, concern for the people who will use them. The drive to build right now overcomes the small voice that asks, “Build what? For whom? Why?” We’ve created a culture of compromise. Most Web teams prefer to dive into work. Perhaps they possess supreme confidence or (gasp) make things up as they go.
I propose a radical idea. Maybe, just maybe, we should talk to the people who use our websites and mobile apps before we build stuff for them.
I do not trust my instincts. Neither should you trust yours.
May Refresh Meetup
There’s a May meetup happening! May 25th at the new IT-oLogy space (1301 Gervais Street). This month features Dean Schuster from Truematter. If you were at ConvergeSE last year, you’ll remember his talk on “Debunking User Experience“. I’ll post more info on the specifics of the talk later this week, but for now, save the 25th and come out.
Also, help spread the word too. Looking forward to seeing you all again!
