Paul Sizemore

Paul Sizemore  //  

Nov 4 / 11:48am

Ignite or Pecha Kucha for Louisville?

I lived in Austin, and when I attended my first Pecha Kucha there, I was beside myself with excitement. There was even glitter thrown into the audience (please, do not do this at Ignite502). When I came back to Louisville, I wanted to organize a Pecha Kucha here, but after doing research found the Ignite format, and felt that it resonated with the Louisville community better than the Pecha Kucha format.

The decision to go with Ignite had to do a lot with the existing framework and support. As I interpret, the Pecha Kucha is more art, and the Ignite is more tech. That interpretation further lead me to the Pecha Kucha is about going new and exciting places, and the Ignite format, at the core, is about going the same places in new and exciting ways. Louisville is a very risk adverse community, and even though we are strong in the arts, I feel we are not going new places with the arts. The community is concerned with conventions, conventions with outputs.

In addition, Louisville has a strong 'brand' in glass blowing, and I talked to a lot of people here, and even after repeating 'Pecha Kucha,' they had problems pronouncing it. A nightmare for word-of-mouth. All these factors lead me to realize Louisville needed an Ignite. So I started putting together an event.

I feel the Ignite format resonates with the community better than the Pecha Kucha, but I'd love to see one of those here, too.

Links:
http://ignite.oreilly.com/502/
http://www.pecha-kucha.org/

Filed under  //  Ignite502   Louisville  

Comments (0)

Nov 4 / 10:53am

The change of downtown Louisville

A night driving through downtown Louisville made me realize how much I like change; don't get me wrong, the permanent fixtures in downtown life are great. The real things that are appreciated are the things that are only there for a day, and the things that represent the movement of the city.

           
Click here to download:
The_change_of_downtown_Louisvi.zip (575 KB)

Filed under  //  Louisville  

Comments (0)

Nov 4 / 10:52am

The Louisville Orchestra's performance of Spooktacular 2009

This year the boys and I went to the Louisville Orchestra's performance of Spooktacular 2009. They had a great time, and we got to see a lot of children in costume parading across the stage. I love the Palace, it's such a great venue.

Links:
http://www.LouisvilleOrchestra.com
http://www.LouisvillePalace.com

     
Click here to download:
The_Louisville_Orchestras_perf.zip (286 KB)

Filed under  //  Louisville  

Comments (0)

Nov 3 / 12:21pm

iPhone development and Axure

Axure has come a long way to reach 5 and half, or 5.5. Right now, the most important thing in my Axure universe, the thing I'm searching for, and looking to the horizon for, is more widgets. Widgets are 'libraries' that can be loaded into Axure. The best, and most thorough is the port of the Yahoo Design Stencil Kit, at Axure's site

This band wagon is just getting going, what I'm really looking forward to is more iPhone widgets and the onslaught of inevitable JQuery widgets, although I can see the Yahoo libraries making their way into a lot of my prototypes in the future. Some of the more fun widgets are the iPhone and the Form Elements

Another great set is at ConeTrees; they have a widget for touchscreen gestures, http://www.conetrees.com/content/downloads/ 

Moving on, there's a few widgets at GitHub including Audio, Photo, Video and Wordpress.

It does seem a bit odd, though, to be prototyping iPhone apps on a Windows OS, running in Bootcamp. 

           
Click here to download:
iPhone_development_and_Axure_t.zip (473 KB)

Filed under  //  Axure   Software  

Comments (0)

Nov 2 / 1:44pm

Outputs of Information Architecture

Site-level concerns are often overlooked, as developers are charged with balancing the visible page-level Human Factors, Interaction Design and Usability engineering. The implications are long lasting, especially as the site grows and become a complex and growing system. 

Below is a breakdown of areas that are often left behind, and a list of outputs. Comparing the list to the outputs from your process can help you find the process gaps.

XD: Experience Design - XD is driven by the touch points between people and your site/brand; therefore, a major output of XD is to increase those touch points to create a stronger outcome. 

XD Outputs
customer lifecycle plan
marketing campaign
multichannel strategy

IA: Information Architecture - AI is information in complex systems bound by a model. It's building the way information is structured, and labeling it to support usability and findability. 

IA Outputs
taxonomies
site maps
flow diagrams
screen-level design
navigation maps
thesaurus
dictionary
prototypes
swimlane chart
wireframe

UX: User Experience - UX is looking at the system from the user's perspective, and how they interact with the information therein. 

UX Outputs
Usability Site Audit
flow diagrams
navigation maps
user stories
personas
site map
content inventory
wireframes/storyboards
prototypes
written specs
graphic mockups
Filed under  //  IA   Information Architecture  

Comments (0)