October 2010 Meetup
This month’s meetup will be frighteningly close to Halloween, so we decided it’d be a treat to dig up and revive a theme from our October 2008 meetup, The Bleeding Edge of the Web. There are lots of scary techniques and technologies haunting our workflows. This gathering will feature a series of lightning talks (10 minutes or less) that highlight new ways to help us escape the web’s haunted past.
We’ll have lots of candy up for grabs at this month’s meetup and our book giveaway will go to the person with the best costume. Costumes are optional of course, but you can’t win if you don’t dress up. If you can’t make it to the meetup, feel free to join us afterwards at Hunter Gatherer. We’ll be headed there for dinner and drinks around 7:30pm.
This Month’s Talks:
Running with Font Squirrels
Aaron Hall (@llahnoraa) – aaron.im
It’s time to kick your Cufon and sIFR habits in the nuts. Aaron is a web designer and front-end developer who loves experimenting with HTML and CSS. For those who aren’t already onboard with @font-face, he’ll explain how to get up-and-running with them quickly using the free resource, Font Squirrel.
Creative Working Spaces Canceled
Larry Thacker (@cre8ordie) – cre8ordie.com
For this talk I’m going to shift focus from sketchbooks to working environments. For creatives, this could range from a traditional desk with bitching dual monitors and a G7 Tower, a table and laptop at Starbucks, to a park bench while working on your iphone. I’m interested in having Refresh members share pictures of their working environments and some of their favorite collaborative spaces around Columbia.
HTML5 is the Future NOW!
Jason Beaird (@jasongraphix) – jasongraphix.com
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard lots of buzz about HTML5. In less than 10 minutes, Jason will explain what HTML5 is, why people are so excited about it and how you can start using it today.
iPhone Photography
Nick Kask (@kaskcreativity) – kaskcreativity.com
Nick Kask is a brand manager and graphic designer, but he’s been taking photos longer than either. Now, with an iPhone in hand, satisfying photography is even more accessible. Using simple apps, Nick creates interesting and styled imagery, uploading them immediately to a tumblr gallery capture the moment. In this talk, Nick will go through basic ideas and the apps that work best to bring iPhone photos to life.
Featured Book:
Thanks to the user group partnerships advertised in the sidebar, we give away a free book at each of our meetups. This month we’ll be giving away a copy of The CSS Detective Guide: Tricks for solving tough CSS mysteries by Denise Jacobs. Instead of giving it away to a random attendee, we’ll vote for and give it to the person with the best costume. If you’d like to win the book, or if you just want to show off your Halloween costume a few days early, be sure to come dressed up.
When: October 27th, 2010 at 6pm
Where: USC Swearingen Faculty Lounge – 301 Main Street (map)
A few people had trouble parking at Swearingen last month. If you can’t find a meter spot around the building, there’s usually plenty of spots along Catawba on the other side of Assembly.
Topic: The Bleeding Edge of the Web 2010
RSVP: On Facebook
Accessibility Summit
The South Carolina Assistive Technology Program and the SC Assistive Technology Advisory Committee have sponsored a free showing of the Accessibility Summit presented by Environments for Humans on Thursday, September 30th.
This all-day online training event will be presented in the Peeples Auditorium at 2600 Bull St and will feature the following talks from some of the web’s foremost accessibility experts:
- 9:00 a.m. – Christopher Schmitt: “Accessibility & HTML5”
- 10:00 a.m. – Aaron Gustafson: “Progressive Enhancement with ARIA”
- 11:00 a.m. – Jared Smith: “Accessibility & Compatibility”
- 12:00 p.m. – Marla Erwin: “Accessible CSS”
- 1:00 p.m. – Lunch Break
- 1:30 p.m. – Glenda Sims: “Practical Accessibility Testing”
- 2:30 p.m. – Daniel Hubbell: “Future Trends in Accessibility”
- 3:30 p.m. – Derek Featherstone: “Mobile Accessibility”
- 4:30 p.m. – Matt May: “Is Universal Design Still Possible?”
You may attend as many (or all) of the talks you like, but space is limited for this free event. Visit SCATP’s 2010 Training page for details on how to register.
September 2010 Meetup
This month’s Refresh meetup is on Sept 23rd, now that’s a Thursday instead of our customary Wednesday. We’re still in our usual place, the faculty lounge of USC’s Swearingen Engineering Building and we’ll start at 6pm like always.
This month features an evening of design talks from the crew behind unmatchedstyle.com. You know us already, but be the first to experience our new series of talks that we’ll be taking on the road. You can be our beta-testers. As friends and peers in our community, you can provide valuable feedback, so please join us.
This Month’s Talks:
Jay Barry (@petridisc)
Craftsmanship and Code
Jay will talk about the way professionalism, ethics and standards relate to design and front end development and how new technologies like HTML5 and CSS3 facilitate simple, meaningful code.
Gene Crawford (@genecrawford)
Microcopy & Web Design
What is Microcopy, why should you care as a designer and how it can add up into more conversions and love from your clients, plus examples of really great microcopy.
Giovanni DiFeterici (@giodif)
A Button By Any Other Name
Symbolic Imagery in Interface Design. A discussion about the inherent symbolic nature of UI elements, how people interact with them in relation to their real world analogs and how to build a description of an element’s function into its visual presentation.
Featured Book:
Thanks to the user group partnerships advertised in the sidebar, we give away a free book at each of our meetups. This month we’ll be giving away the third edition of Jeffrey Zeldman’s Designing with Web Standards. We’ll choose a random attendee from the sign-in list, so be sure to show up and sign-in for a chance to win.
When: September 23rd, 2010 at 6pm
Where: USC Swearingen Faculty Lounge – 301 Main Street (map)
Topic: Design Talks from unmatchedstyle.com
RSVP: On Facebook
New positions around town
User Experience Developer: Duck Creek Technologies
Are you a web development superhero? Duck Creek’s Product Development team is looking for a front-end developer able to hand-code their way out of a table-based layout, slice up some PSD’s and hurdle IE6 chaos in a single bound. Of course, like all good superheroes we know you’ll do it with ClaSS, delivering completely standards based, fully i18n and l10n ready, web accessible code. If you eat dollar sign ($) for lunch, GET your AJAX on and POST your contact info to our human resources group.
Candidates must be able to demonstrate their work experience by citing examples of their work. Please include a portfolio link, screenshots, or links to sites you’ve built when applying for this position.
To read the full job description: https://home.eease.com/recruit2/?id=512961&t=1
Senior Information Architect (IA) http://www.duckcreektech.com/Opportunities/
Duck Creek Technologies is looking for a Senior Information Architect (IA) who will work with project teams to translate business needs and requirements into usable workflows that support the needs of our customer’s users. They interact with product management and project teams to create Web and desktop applications that are useful, useable, and desirable.
The best candidate for this position will have these essential skills:
Fluent in prototyping and wireframing tools like Visio or Omnigraffle. 5+ years’ experience as an IA in the user experience field, with a focus on interface design (web or desktop) of large-scale enterprise applications. Significant experience developing interface wireframes, flowcharts, prototypes, sitemaps, user interaction scenarios, personas, and style guides. Strong knowledge of user interface design processes and methodology. Other skills, abilities, and experience are listed in the full job description.
Two positions open at truematter
Information Architect / Usability Specialist
Have “User Experience” on the brain? Find yourself daydreaming about the interface implications of complex online interactions? Wire frame trips to the grocery store? We may be perfect for each other.
Project Manager
When someone calls you “anal retentive,” do you consider it a compliment of the highest order? If completing meaningful interactive projects on time and within budget takes your breath away (in a good way), send your resume immediately.
You can get the full PDF outline of each of these jobs here: http://truematter.com/jobs.asp
August 2010 Meetup
So the last Wednesday of the month (our usual meetup date) came and went with no warning. Sorry about that. You didn’t really think we’d leave you hanging, did you? We’ve two great talks lined up and to fit them in by the end of the month, we’re having our meetup on Tuesday, August 31st. As usual we’ll be meeting at 6pm at the faculty lounge of USC’s Swearingen Engineering Building.
Last month we went to Thirsty Fellow after the meetup, only to learn that Wednesdays are Trivia nights. That made it tough to get a table. We’re going to give the Fellow another try after this month’s meetup as there are no sponsored events on Tuesdays. Now that Fall is here, the lows are starting to dip into the 60s, which might make the outdoor deck a possibility.
This Month’s Talks:
NoSQL for the Masses
Fred Alger (@_phred) – FoxyCart
What can I, a designer who doesn’t code, do with a NoSQL database? What IS this NoSQL thing? You probably know your way around front-end code and how to setup a basic CMS, but what if you need to store some stuff in a database and get it back out? Enter, CouchDB and MongoDB, your new best friends.
HTML Email and Double Rainbows
Julia Anderson (@Blueys) – Period Three
It’s a task that has been labeled the antithesis to joy and happiness. A job so brow furrowing that Mike Rowe has yet to attempt it. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? We are of course talking about HTML Email. Julia will explain the in’s and out’s of designing for the inbox and provide tips that will keep you sane as you develop your own full-on HTML Emails.
Featured Book:
Thanks to the user group partnerships advertised in the sidebar, we give away a free book at each of our meetups. This month we’ll be giving away a copy of Introducing HTML5 by Bruce Lawson & Remy Sharp. We’ll choose a random attendee from the sign-in list, so be sure to show up and sign-in for a chance to win.
When: August 31st, 2010 at 6pm
Where: USC Swearingen Faculty Lounge – 301 Main Street (map)
Topic: NoSQL and HTML Email
RSVP: On Facebook
