Agenda

The event begins at 6 pm; join early, starting at 5:45 pm for networking.

• 5:45–6:00pm Networking
• 6:00–6:15pm Introductions & announcements
• 6:15–7:00pm Presentation
• 7:00–7:30pm Q&A and discussion
• 7:30–7:45pm Wrap up

About the presenter

Nic Steenhout has been an accessibility trainer and troubleshooter for over 25 years. He’s worked on three continents, collaborating with various organizations, from local governments to large corporations, focusing on web accessibility and digital inclusion. Known for his pragmatic, down-to-Earth approach, Nic helps his clients navigate complex accessibility challenges. When he is not off on a birdwatching adventure, you can find him speaking at events or leading workshops.

Accommodation requests

If you have any accommodation requests, don't hesitate to get in touch with us before the event to discuss.

Come out to rant, rave, engage and connect with fellow Interaction Design practitioners and people interested in Interaction Design. We meet up bi-monthly to network with each other and become inspired together.

***Special discount with Calagator: Get $75 off the registration price when you use the promotion code CALPORT

UIE is excited to announce our new UIE Roadshow: Secrets Behind Designing Great User Experiences, a full-day workshop, based on 10 years of UIE's extensive research, that will deliver new insights and inspire your team to create the best user experiences.

This winter, we're taking this workshop on the road to:

Portland, OR on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 Minneapolis, MN on Thursday, February 19, 2009 Atlanta, GA on Monday, March 2, 2009

Recognized industry leader, Jared Spool, will share information that previously we've only made available to our biggest clients.

During the day, Jared will lead you through these sessions:

9:00 am: Designing for the Age of Experience? Jared will start with an overview of UIE's research into great experience design.

10:45 am: UX Level-Up: Taking Your Team to the Next Level?? You'll assess the critical dimensions that will pinpoint what your team needs to succeed.

1:00 pm: The Making of a UX Vision? You'll discover the secrets behind creating a unified user experience vision that you can share with your entire organization.

3:15 pm: Magic and Mental Models: Using Illusions to Simplify Design? In a perfect session to end the day, Jared will use professional magic effects to demonstrate the parallels between the world of magical illusions and the world of digital design.

View a full description of the program at: http://cli.gs/RqzyBR

Love it or hate it, everyone seems to be talking about Agile. Agile is used at scrappy startups that are iteratively defining their products and markets and at large companies with complex business problems working with internationally distributed teams. In each of these different settings, some folks are strong advocates of Agile, while some are still skeptics. Some people in the User-Centered Design (UCD) community dismiss Agile as a fad, others have embraced it whole-heartedly. Can these two worlds intersect?

5pm - CHIFOOd - Join us for dinner before the talk across the street from the Art Institute at Deschutes Brewery

6:30pm - Networking starts at the Art Institute

7:00pm - Presentation Starts

Scott Berkun, "Confessions of a Public Speaker" If you ever wonder why your wonderful ideas rarely get accepted or are compromised beyond recognition in meeting after meeting, it might not be your creative design talents that are the problem. It could be your ability to frame, shape, and pitch your ideas effectively to others. This fun, brutally honest talk, loosely based on the O’Reilly book Confessions of a Public Speaker, will give you everything you need to know to present, pitch, and sell your ideas so your world domination plans can begin.

In addition to the CHIFOO event, Scott Berkun will be making the following public appearances:

January 6, 9am - The AM Northwest television show on KATU Channel 2 He will also be in the Primetime show, which airs at 7pm on Channel 2.2 (without cable), Channel 302 if you have Comcast cable, or 464 on Verizon FIOS.

(First Thursday!) January 7, 7pm. Burnside Powell’s City of Books - Book Signing for “Confessions of a Public Speaker.” This is a free event.

About Scott Berkun: Scott Berkun is the bestselling author of Making Things Happen and The Myths of Innovation. His work as a writer and public speaker has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Wired Magazine, Fast Company, Forbes Magazine, and other media. He has taught creative thinking at the University of Washington and has been a regular commentator on CNBC, MSNBC, and National Public Radio. His many popular essays and entertaining lectures can be found for free on his blog at www.scottberkun.com.

5pm - CHIFOOd - Join us for dinner before the talk across the street from the Art Institute at Deschutes Brewery

6:30pm - Networking starts at the Art Institute

7:00pm - Presentation Starts

Scott Berkun, "Confessions of a Public Speaker" If you ever wonder why your wonderful ideas rarely get accepted or are compromised beyond recognition in meeting after meeting, it might not be your creative design talents that are the problem. It could be your ability to frame, shape, and pitch your ideas effectively to others. This fun, brutally honest talk, loosely based on the O’Reilly book Confessions of a Public Speaker, will give you everything you need to know to present, pitch, and sell your ideas so your world domination plans can begin.

In addition to the CHIFOO event, Scott Berkun will be making the following public appearances:

January 6, 9am - The AM Northwest television show on KATU Channel 2 He will also be in the Primetime show, which airs at 7pm on Channel 2.2 (without cable), Channel 302 if you have Comcast cable, or 464 on Verizon FIOS.

(First Thursday!) January 7, 7pm. Burnside Powell’s City of Books - Book Signing for “Confessions of a Public Speaker.” This is a free event.

About Scott Berkun: Scott Berkun is the bestselling author of Making Things Happen and The Myths of Innovation. His work as a writer and public speaker has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Wired Magazine, Fast Company, Forbes Magazine, and other media. He has taught creative thinking at the University of Washington and has been a regular commentator on CNBC, MSNBC, and National Public Radio. His many popular essays and entertaining lectures can be found for free on his blog at www.scottberkun.com.

5pm - CHIFOOd - Join us for dinner before the talk across the street from the Art Institute at Deschutes Brewery

6:30pm - Networking starts at the Art Institute

7:00pm - Presentation Starts

Scott Berkun, "Confessions of a Public Speaker" If you ever wonder why your wonderful ideas rarely get accepted or are compromised beyond recognition in meeting after meeting, it might not be your creative design talents that are the problem. It could be your ability to frame, shape, and pitch your ideas effectively to others. This fun, brutally honest talk, loosely based on the O’Reilly book Confessions of a Public Speaker, will give you everything you need to know to present, pitch, and sell your ideas so your world domination plans can begin.

In addition to the CHIFOO event, Scott Berkun will be making the following public appearances:

January 6, 9am - The AM Northwest television show on KATU Channel 2 He will also be in the Primetime show, which airs at 7pm on Channel 2.2 (without cable), Channel 302 if you have Comcast cable, or 464 on Verizon FIOS.

(First Thursday!) January 7, 7pm. Burnside Powell’s City of Books - Book Signing for “Confessions of a Public Speaker.” This is a free event.

About Scott Berkun: Scott Berkun is the bestselling author of Making Things Happen and The Myths of Innovation. His work as a writer and public speaker has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Wired Magazine, Fast Company, Forbes Magazine, and other media. He has taught creative thinking at the University of Washington and has been a regular commentator on CNBC, MSNBC, and National Public Radio. His many popular essays and entertaining lectures can be found for free on his blog at www.scottberkun.com.

WebVisions (http://www.webvisionsevent.com) is a nationally recognized conference that explores the future of Web design, technology, user experience and business strategy from May 19 - 21, 2010 at the Oregon Convention Center.

Attend workshops with the experts, chill out in the WebVisions lounge, and network, share ideas and be inspired by an all-star lineup of speakers.

Since 2001, WebVisions has built a loyal audience of designers, technologists and industry leaders. I invite you to join us for an event that's seen as "the creative conference for the Web."

Cheers,

Brad M. Smith
Executive Director

The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) Oregon presents: 3BY10 – A chance to see what creative professionals and design students in Portland are up to, ten minutes at a time. Doors at 6pm, and it’s all wrapped up by 7pm.

This month’s speaker: Elena Moon

For September 29, the 3BY10 will move to the LeftBank Project, a beautiful, eco-conscious historic renovation on Portland’s east side that’s home to a vibrant community of creative and tech start-up companies, including Sockeye Creative, Uncommon/MNML, and fMYi. LeftBank has graciously offered to host us and provide seating and projection facilities, and Widmer Brothers Brewing will supply the libations.

Also new for September, the normal 3-person format is being replaced by a single long-form presentation and discussion with user research and experience design expert Elena Moon. Elena has been conducting and acting on design research for over a decade, for clients such as Sony, Nau, Chase, Janus Mutual Funds, Microsoft, and Getty Images. This Wednesday she’ll be describing her experiences conducting effective user research under extremely tight budget and time constraints, in conjunction with Carl Alviani, who will supply the client’s perspective on one such project.

Come by and get connected with Portland’s creative community!

WebVisions (http://www.webvisionsevent.com) is a nationally recognized conference that explores the future of Web design, technology, user experience and business strategy from May 25 - 27, 2010 at the Oregon Convention Center.

Attend workshops with the experts, chill out in the WebVisions lounge, and network, share ideas and be inspired by an all-star lineup of speakers.

Since 2001, WebVisions has built a loyal audience of designers, technologists and industry leaders. I invite you to join us for an event that's seen as "the creative conference for the Web."

Cheers,

Brad M. Smith
Executive Director

We'd like to dedicate this month's meeting to HTML5. If you want to see some great apps built by local talent and get the skinny on HTML5 and CSS3 (the good, the bad and the the ugly) then make sure to mark your calendar.

We could always use more presenters! Do you or someone you know have a great app built in HTML5 or CSS3? Then come show it off or get some community feedback!

If you would like to present but it doesn't fit into the HTML5 topic, no sweat - just let us know if you're interested in presenting!

Join our google group here - http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-ux?hl=en

Don't forget to follow us on twitter - @PDXUX - http://twitter.com/#!/PDXUX

January’s meeting will be devoted to UX Wireframing tools.

Damon Eckhoff will be presenting on OmniGraffle Josh Marinacci will be presenting on Leonardo Sketch

We have one more presentation slot available and we’re hoping to find someone who can talk about Axure. If you or someone you know uses this tool and can demo it for 15-20 minutes, please let us know. We’re open to including other tools as well!

Food, Beer and Networking 5:30-6:00 Presentations: 6:00-7:30 or so

We are going to switch it up this month with PDX-UX's first group workshop. We'll present you with a small UX challenged interface in need of some pretty, some information design and even some data visualization skills. You and your peers will form groups and nosh on some solutions. Bring your brains and a laptop if you have one, and we'll provide the pens, giant pads of paper, food and drinks. We'll also be giving away some free books on data visualization courtesy of O'Reilly Media. Please RSVP at Plancast! http://t.co/yVvPR5qt

This time around, we're reading Agile Experience Design: A Digital Designer's Guide to Agile, Lean, and Continuous. Want to read, learn, talk about UX and agile, and maybe drink some beer? You should come along!

WebVisions (http://www.webvisionsevent.com/portland/) explores the future of Web and mobile design, technology, user experience and business strategy. Speakers include Jeff White of ILM, Nathan Shedroff (author of Make it So), Crystal Beasley of Mozilla, Ross Mayfield of Slideshare, Anant Anthale of American Express, Thea Boodhoo of AKQA and others.

Register by March 30th for the Early Bird rates.

» Register online

We’re back from a quick restructuring period. This month’s meeting we’d like to hear from y’all! We’re looking for three to four presenters who are interested in showcasing their latest project. Show us your work and get feedback and discussion from the audience. Whether it's a design for an upcoming project or a post-mortem on something you've just launched, we’d love to hear from you. As usual we’ll provide snacks, drinks, networking and discussions.

Who: Anyone interested in discussing or showcasing their newest user interface and user experience development and design projects.

When: Thursday, May 17th Snacks, drinks and networking at 5:30 Demos start at 6:00 and will wrap up by 7:00ish

This month we’re discussing the “Value of Bad Ideas.” When we create, we try to do the best work we can. There's not room for failure, but within the messy grey area of the creative process, there's plenty of room for bad ideas. In fact, bad ideas can often lead to the best solutions.

Our speaker, Ben Cerezo, helps make things simple to understand and intuitive for people to use. Ben’s background - From logo and identity development to complex application and web design, Ben has spent nearly ten years designing solutions to a variety of communications and design problems for clients of all sizes. He believes in the power of open collaboration and enjoys working with other designers, development engineers and clients, from discovery and strategy through implementation.

RSVP here: http://plancast.com/p/bv7u

When: June 28, 2012 Snacks, Beer and Networking 5:30 - 6:00 Presentation and discussion: 6:00-7:30 or so 

Where: 34 NW 1st Avenue, 3rd floor Portland, OR 97209 

Join our google group here - http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-ux?hl=en  Don't forget to follow us on twitter - @PDXUX - https://twitter.com/#!/PDXUX

Come and join us to discuss our book for June 2012: Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World http://www.amazon.com/Situations-Matter-Understanding-Context-Transforms/dp/1594488185/

Hold onto your hats, because we're reading Mike Monteiro's Design Is A Job (http://www.abookapart.com/products/design-is-a-job), a short, easy to read, essential guide for any designer, especially those who are, or thinking about, contracting.

Come along to meet other user experience designers and discuss Don Norman's Living With Complexity. There'll be good conversation and very probably beer. What's not to love about that?

Come talk about personas! Then, afterwards, we can have beer.

A casual event for all those into talking about UX and consuming beer.

The 2nd ever Portland UX Happy Hour will be at Thirsty Lion. Join us for a mix of people into UX + beer + food!

Ground Zero for Dangerous Thinking

Explore the Future of the Web

WEBVISIONS PORTLAND // May 22-24, 2013

WebVisions explores the future of web and mobile design, digital media, UX and technology with an all-star lineup of visionary speakers, including Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing.net and MAKE Magazine, Ethan and Malachai Nicolle (creators of AxeCop), Carla Diana (Smart Design NYC), Jason Kunesh (Director of UX, Obama for America), Carolyn Chandler (Manifest Digital), Mark Trammell (Twitter), and more!

"WebVisions is like the medium that spawned it: unique, personal, honest, emotional and eye-opening." –Jeffrey Zeldman

Register online at http://webvisions-portland.strangertickets.com/

UX Happy Hour is a monthly drinkup for anyone interested in user experience & design!

This month, we'll be chatting about UX and drinking/eating at Gold Dust Meridian. Even better, their happy hour runs until 8pm, which coincides nicely with our schedule! Anyone with an interest in user experience is more than welcome.

To help us give the venue a heads up about approx head count, tweet @UXHappyHour or @elea to let us know if you're in. Thanks!

Ready for your August dose of UX, beer, and socialization?

We'll be meeting up again in the SE area. Whether you're a designer, dev, PM, or founder, if you have an interest in talking about user experience design, you're more than welcome!

Delight is a two-day conference in Portland, Oregon for brands and professionals who care about making experiences people love. The event features a unique lineup of inspiring case studies, workshops and keynote presentations, as well as peer networking with fellow experience design, digital, marketing, and business leaders.

The conference gathers leaders and practitioners from a wide range of organizations including startups, healthcare, agencies, B2B and Fortune 1,000 enterprises – All with the goal of creating business value and delighting customers by differentiating on experience.

This year's event features speakers from Disney, MailChimp, Zipcar, Intuit, Mayo Clinic, and more. Full conference tickets include full or half-day workshops on digital experience strategy, healthcare, content strategy or design-thinking for startups, followed by the main stage event on day 2. Attendees of the main event will enjoy breakfast and lunch as well as several delightful surprises throughout the day, and a wine reception at the end of the day.

See the full lineup and agenda on the Delight 2013 website.

Delight 2013 is joining forces with Design Week Portland this year, connecting attendees and speakers with dozens of additional events, studio tours, and parties happening all week in Portland. Happening October 7-12, the week celebrates Portland as a city of design and for design in exploring process, craft and practice across disciplines. The culmination of events and creative professionals in Portland make it an extra special time to attend Delight and visit the lovely Rose City.

Register for Delight 2013 before August 7 to take advantage of Early Bird pricing for up to 25% off full conference tickets!

This time around we're reading one of the most talked about UX books in a long time, Leah Buley's The User Experience Team Of One. What's going to make this discussion even better is that Leah will joining us in person.

For the first time we're going to be meeting in Mozilla's new offices, and there will be beer, cider, and snacks.

If you don't manage to finish the book on time, please still feel free to attend!

For October, we'll be trying out Base Camp for our monthly meeting of beer + UX-y goodness.

You don't have to be directly involved in UX or design to attend - anyone who's interested is welcome to come hang out and chat!

Also, just a heads up: our next UXHH won't be until early Dec.

Come along and join us to discuss the excellent Just Enough Research by Mule Design's Erika Hall. Erika, will be joining us via video at 6:30PM to answer any questions you have.

Just Enough Research is a short, really useful book on getting research done in your job. It's just the thing to read if you're looking to get started with research, or you know you need to do research but don't have much support to get it done. Visit our Google Group for a book discount code.

We're being hosted by the fine folks at Puppet Labs at their offices in The Pearl.

If you don't manage to finish the book on time, please still feel free to attend!

Is It Usable Yet?

Forty years on, it's easy to forget that user-centered design and information architecture were once disruptive new ideas. Today, they're both presumed to be kind-of "thrown in" when UX work is being done.

"Of course we're user centered: that's the U in UX!"

"Of course we did the IA - we've got navbars and a site map, don't we?"

But as Peter Morville notes, when something is a part of everybody's job, that thing ends up being nobody's job and it does not get done right.

What's the situation around, and value of, UCD and IA in contemporary UX practice? Find out in a lively Q&A and short presentation on January 28 at Mozilla's office in Portland with Dan Klyn from The Understanding Group. There will be food and drink at the event.

Spoiler: what these things mean today is amazing, essential, transformative and not what you probably expect.

About Dan

Dan Klyn is co-founder of The Understanding Group (TUG), teaches information architecture at the University of Michigan School of Information and serves on the board of the IA Institute. He does IA work for clients including Herman Miller and JSTOR and his research focus is also his hero: Richard Saul Wurman.

UX Happy Hour returns for its monthly gathering of designers, researchers, developers, and anyone else interested in chatting about user experience!

As the name might indicate, it's just beer and hanging out.*

• Beer not required, can be substituted by other beverages or food.

Join us to discuss Kevin Lynch's classic The Image Of The City. Although the book is about the design of cities, it is widely cited in information architecture fields because of the parallels between urban planning and how we architect information online.

If you haven't managed to finish the book before the event, please feel free to come along and join the discussion

UX Happy Hour is a monthly gathering of designers, researchers, developers, and anyone else interested in chatting about user experience.

As the name might indicate, it's just beer and hanging out!

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To help us get a big enough table, you can optionally RSVP via http://attending.io/events/pdx-ux-happy-hour

If you have any questions, feel free to email [email protected].

Did you miss last month’s Interaction’14 conference in Amsterdam? Yes? Well read on…

We’ve watched all 35 hours of video from Interaction’14 and picked out the best of the best to share with you at this year’s IxDA PDX conference redux. Yes, that’s right, this year, we’re having a movie night!

Doors open at 6:00 for drinks, food and conversation.
Movie time starts at 6:45 sharp.

As in previous years, we are being generously hosted by Ziba Design, which means you’ll have a great view of the proceedings.

A huge thank you to Ziba, WebVisions, Vitamin T, and Georgetown Brewing. Without them, we'd all be going home after the event hungry and thirsty.

Register online:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ixda-pdx-interaction-conference-redux-tickets-10829731017

For April, we'll have 2 copies each of Lean UX and Designing Multi-Device Experiences to give away, first come first serve!

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To help us figure out how much space we need, you can optionally RSVP.

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UX Happy Hour is a monthly gathering of designers, researchers, developers, and anyone else interested in chatting about user experience.

As the name might indicate, it's just beer and hanging out!

For May, we'll be giving some UX love to Northeast for the first time! To help us figure out how much space we might need, you can optionally RSVP.

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UX Happy Hour is a monthly gathering of designers, researchers, developers, and anyone else interested in chatting about user experience.

As the name indicates, it's just beer and hanging out!

Join us to discuss George Lakoff's classic Metaphors We Live By.

This is a book that changed people's understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects.

Sound interesting? Then come along and talk! Also: there will be beer :)

If you haven't managed to finish the book before the event, please feel free to come along and join the discussion.

“USER EXPERIENCE – WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?”

PDMA Learning and Networking Event

Thursday, May 15, 2014

6:00 - 8:00 PM

Join PDMA for an interactive discussion with seasoned local Designers and Product Managers on how their experiences at the junction between design and product have driven business results. What do Product Managers need to know about UX and how do Product Managers and UX Designers effectively work together? How can Product Managers incorporate best UX practices into their daily lives? We hope you can join us to explore this exciting topic!

Panelists:

Clodine Mallinckrodt—Manager of Planning Analytics,

Providence Health and Services

Clodine is passionate about the communication and architecture of information - especially in the design and delivery of tech-based products and services. From Wall Street to MarCom Way, Clodine's varied background spans agency-based, vendor-side and strategy consulting work. Her career has touched: •Data and Business Intelligence •Interactive Media and eLearning •Web App & Software Development •Localization •Program & Change Management •Management Consulting

Currently, Clodine is Manager of Planning Analytics at Providence Health & Services, one of the top 20 integrated healthcare delivery systems in the U.S. Her specialized team delivers both quantitative and qualitative Market Intelligence in support of Oregon Region Strategic & Business Planning. This work supports the organization's response to healthcare transformation. She is also helping to develop Providence Consumer Segments, and is a GE-certified Change Facilitator. As of 2014, Clodine is Program Co-Chair for CHIFOO.org, the Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon.

Margi Waite – Senior Product Manager, ADP Dealer Services

In her current role as Product Owner at ADP Dealer Services, Margi is responsible for delivering Common Services for new products being introduced in 2014. In this role Margi partners with UX every step of the way from research to design to UX testing and application development. Margi has over fifteen years’ background managing B2B products including CRM, ERP, and Financial Services software, and has always been a strong advocate of UX as she considers it essential to the success of her Products.

Mike Lonergan -- Interaction Designer and Systems Engineer

Intel Security Group

Mike is an Interaction Designer, Product Owner and Systems Engineer for a suite of business apps in the Intel Security Group at Intel. He handles the requirements, mockups, prioritization and acceptance testing for all aspects of the site design, and factors every user's needs in the interactions, information and visuals that help them achieve their goals. Mike designs apps and processes down to the least cripplingly necessary overhead, and dreams of the day when his smartphone will recognize him half as well as his dog.

Schedule:

6:00 – 6:30pm: Gathering / Networking / Refreshments**

6:30 – 6:45pm: Announcements (upcoming events, who’s hiring, etc.)

6:45 – 7:30pm: Panel Discussion

7:30 – 7:45pm: Q&A / Open discussion

7:45 – 8:00pm: Networking

Cost:

$10 on-line registration prior to the event **

$15 at the door

A discount is available for PDMA members.

To register online, click the website above

** Note: This is a no-host event. The complete Lucky Lab food and drink menu is available. Grab a cold ale & bite to eat - and bring a friend or colleague to add to the discussion!

The Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) is the premier global advocate for product development and management professionals. The Oregon chapter's mission is to help local professionals and organizations to identify, develop, and launch more innovative and profitable products and services through cross-industry collaboration, thought leadership, and the sharing of best practices and practical knowledge. For more information about the Oregon Chapter of the PDMA, please contact: David Nash, Chapter President, at [email protected].

We encourage everyone in Oregon who is interested in the Product Development Manager's Association to become a member of the National PDMA. For a great explanation on the benefits of membership in the PDMA, click [] (http://www.pdma.org/p/cm/ld/fid=171).

LOCATION CHANGE: because of the rain, we're moving indoors to the Lucky Lab on Hawthorne.

Take an evening to relax and join us for the second UX BBQ at Colonel Summer's Park. We'll be trading summer adventure stories and yes, nerding out on UX too. And this time, we'll try not to get shut down by the fire department.

Bring

• Food & drinks for yourself or to share
• Blankets or chairs, if you like
• Kids
• Dogs
• Friends

We'll have

• A barbecue for use by all
• Some basic BBQ grub
• Coolers and ice

Details

• Thursday, June 26th
• 5pm - 8pm
• Colonel Summers Park (Look for us in the SW corner closest to SE 17th and Taylor)

Come along and talk to Sam Ladner, the author of the super-useful and well-received new book, Practical Ethnography: A Guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector.

Sam's book is aimed at two groups of people:

1. Social scientists who want to adapt their academic skills to the private sector, either to find a full-time job or to practice as an independent researcher; and
2. Designers and researchers already working in the private sector who may not have formal training in ethnography.

Sam is based in Seattle but is coming to Portland to talk to us. Don't miss this opportunity to talk about the research skills that are so critical in creating successful products.

Note: if you haven't finished the book, please still come along and join the conversation

We're following on from July's excellent discussion on Sam Ladner's Practical Ethnography: A Guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector with a classic from sociologist Erving Goffman.

"Interaction Ritual - Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior" is one of several classic books by Goffman, and one that is studied by UX researchers. The book is a collection of six essays: "On Face-work", "Embarrassment and Social Organization", "The Nature of Deference and Demeanor", "Alienation from Interaction", "Mental Symptoms and Public Order", and "Where the Action Is". If you want to brush up on your understanding of people, this is one of the books for you.

If you haven't finished the book, but still want to come along and talk, the please do—we'd love to see you.

It's October and we're reconvening at Dig A Pony!

To help us figure out how much space we need, you can optionally RSVP.

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UX Happy Hour is a monthly event open to anyone interested in talking about user experience design. There are no talks or presentations; it’s just a small casual gathering of designers, researchers, developers, and more!

We're very pleased to have Chris Rivard, product designer and design manager specializing in data product design and visualization, presenting. Working at the intersection of business and design, Chris has spent 15 years bringing fresh insight, visual communication and design thinking to both large enterprises and growing startups.

A product designer's goal is to get products into the hands of users - to ship it, and get feedback. But as the steps to achieve that goal grow more complex, we're often faced with situations far outside the purview of what we consider “design”. In this talk, Chris will cover what it takes to bring a product from sketch to market while navigating the complexities inherent in software product design. He'll leave attendees with practical tips for dealing with those "non-design" situations. Hint: It's all design.

CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER

Come along and join us to talk about A Web For Everyone by Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery, which is a very useful book on accessibility and universal design. Additionally, we're going to be joined by Whitney on Skype to discuss creating digital content for everyone, including people with disabilities. Accessibility is a huge subject, and one that is frequently overlooked by designers and developers, even though there are laws covering the rights of people (for example, employees and members of the public) to be able to access information.

Come along with any of your team to discuss the important topic of accessibility and how it's not something you tack on at the end of a project, but something that can improve the usability of a product for everyone.

For information on where to buy the book, and a limited-time 30% discount code, see the post in our Google Group.

If you haven't finished reading the book, please still come along and join in the conversation.

The PDX Design Research Group is a multidisciplinary networking group focused on the role of research in the design of products, services and systems in business, government and non-profits. We welcome perspectives from all disciplines, including human-computer interaction, design, market research, and the social sciences, and others. Meetings will be held every other month in downtown Portland, and will include speakers, panel discussions, workshops, and other events, with opportunities to network and discuss relevant topics with fellow research professionals.

Help us kick off the new PDX Design Research Group with our first event on November 19th, featuring a presentation and discussion by Janna Kimel, Customer Experience Manager at Regence BlueCross BlueShield. If you have the challenge of integrating design research into the business, or if you consult with companies learning to integrate the voice of the customer, this talk will be especially relevant. Over the past 18 months, Janna has built up her role from doing web-based user research to partnering across business silos in order to support customer-centered projects and products. Come hear how Janna and her team helped move the organization from thinking “inside out” to thinking “outside in.”

Informal networking will be from 6:30 – 7:00, with Janna’s talk to begin promptly at 7:00. Please note: If you arrive after 7:00 pm, you won’t be able to get into the building, so please plan to arrive at least a few minutes before then.

We're ramping it up for 2015 and kicking off the first UX Happy Hour of the year with the help of Campaign Monitor, which means free notebooks, stickers, and drinks!

To help make sure we'll have enough space & refreshments, please RSVP beforehand.

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UX Happy Hour is a monthly event open to anyone interested in talking about user experience design. Come to trade stories and meet other designers, developers, researchers, and more!

Also, if you're interested in sponsoring our other happy hours this year, just get in touch. Thanks!

Come along and talk about Andrew Hinton's Understanding Context.

Technology is destabilizing the way we understand our surroundings. From social identity to ubiquitous mobility, digital information keeps changing what here means, how to get there, and even who we are. Why does software so easily confound our perception and scramble meaning? And how can we make all this complexity still make sense to our users?

Understanding Context offers a powerful toolset for grasping and solving the challenges of contextual ambiguity. By starting with the foundation of how people perceive the world around them, it shows how users touch, navigate, and comprehend environments made of language and pixels, and how we can make those places better.

We're going to be talking to Andrew via Skype, so it's going to be an interesting discussion.

Not finished the book? It doesn't matter—come along and join the conversation.

This month, we'll be at Night Light and have a few books from Rosenfeld Media to give away, along with some free dot grid notebooks.

To help us figure out how much space our group needs, please RSVP.

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UX Happy Hour is a monthly event open to anyone interested in talking about user experience design. Come to trade stories and meet other designers, developers, researchers, and more!

Come along and join us to talk about A Web For Everyone by Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery, which is a very useful book on accessibility and universal design. Additionally, we're going to be joined by Whitney on Skype to discuss creating digital content for everyone, including people with disabilities. Accessibility is a huge subject, and one that is frequently overlooked by designers and developers, even though there are laws covering the rights of people (for example, employees and members of the public) to be able to access information.

Come along with any of your team to discuss the important topic of accessibility and how it's not something you tack on at the end of a project, but something that can improve the usability of a product for everyone.

If you haven't finished reading the book, please still come along and join in the conversation.

What goes well with UXy conversations and drinks? Pizza! We'll be at Blackbird in SE this month to share food, beverages, and stories. Join us!

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UX Happy Hour is a monthly event open to anyone interested in user experience design.

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If you're a UX, design, or tech company interested in sponsoring a future UX Happy Hour, we'd love to hear from you.

Did you miss the IxDA Interaction15 conference in February? IxDA Portland is hosting a conference redux to recap the conference, share insights, and celebrate!

Get a free ticket here:
https://ixdapdx15redux.eventbrite.com

Agenda
Doors open at 6:30pm.
6:30-7pm: Snacks and drinks, sponsored by Filter Talent.
7-8:30pm: Event talks

Speakers

• This was not Liz Bacon’s first IxDA rodeo – not by a long shot. Liz does a “highly idiosyncratic” reading of the conference as a whole.
• Mike Monteiro said designers destroyed the world. Elena Moon weighs in on the size of the destruction.
• Is Big Tech missing the point with tech workers who are (or want to be) parents? Melissa Casburn reports on research by Rachel Abrams.
• UX has come a long way. Rikki Teeters discusses Leah Buley’s take on the modern UX organization.
• Leo Frishberg taught a half-day workshop on Presumptive Design. He’ll fill us in on the basics – in a bit less time.
• What happens in San Francisco? It doesn’t stay in San Francisco. Jos Vaught took notes.

Snacks and drinks are provided, thanks to our generous sponsors at Filter Talent.

We'll be heading to Green Dragon for our May round of food, drinks, and food. This month, Vitamin T has kindly stepped in to foot our beverage bill.

Attendance might be limited, so just RSVP if you'd like to come!

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UX Happy Hour is a monthly event for anyone interested in user experience design. There's no agenda or talks, just a casual gathering of designers, researchers, developers, and more!

We're giving the Northeast neighborhood some love again and heading back to Bye and Bye for our June edition of fooding, drinking, and sharing stories. If you'd like to come, just RSVP!

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UX Happy Hour is a monthly event for anyone interested in user experience design. There's no agenda or talks, just a casual gathering of designers, researchers, developers, and more!

After skipping July, UX Happy Hour is back at Produce Row for August's round of stories, food, and drink. And thanks to Citizen, our sponsor this month, we'll also have free beverages (non-alcoholic options included). Just RSVP to help us have enough to go around.

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UX Happy Hour meets once a month to share design tales over food and drink. There are no talks or agendas, just a casual gathering of designers, researchers, developers, and more! All UX Happy Hour Portland participants are required to adhere to our Code of Conduct.

Join us at the next PDX Design Research Group meeting on Wednesday, November 18th, 2015!

Research Into Results: Making Research Stick in Your Organization

UX and design researchers rarely work alone, and must collaborate with people in other roles to accomplish business and organizational goals. Anyone who is responsible for making research “stick” in their organization will benefit from hearing the perspectives and needs of non-researchers, including those in design, development, leadership, marketing, and others.

Panelists: Mike Lonergan, Product Manager at New Relic
Jolynn Mitchell, Materials Development Director at Nike
Jeremy Whitaker, UX Developer/Designer at SpendWell Health
Olivia Williamson, UX Architect at Autodesk

Networking 6:30 – 7:00 pm, presentation 7:00 – 8:00 pm
Filter Digital has graciously agreed to provide food and drinks, so come early to grab a bite and network!

Check out PDX Design Research Group's new Meetup page:
http://www.meetup.com/PDX-Design-Research-Group/

About This Organization...

The PDX Design Research Group is a multidisciplinary networking group focused on the role of research in the design of products, services and systems in business, government and non-profits. We welcome perspectives from all disciplines, including human-computer interaction, design, market research, and the social sciences, and others. Meetings are held every other month in downtown Portland, and will include speakers, panel discussions, workshops, and other events, with opportunities to network and discuss relevant topics with fellow research professionals.

Thank you for your interest in the PDX Design Research Group and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Don't Change My Chainsaw: Challenges­ in designing a tool for a skeptical audience

In this presentation, Michael Oilar (MDC Research) will talk about a project involving research for a new battery-powered chainsaw design. They tested several iterations, from paper prototypes to high fidelity models. Their research revealed conflicting needs of different user audiences, as well as some resistance to change. Michael will talk about how they worked to resolve those conflicts in the final design.

Please join us for what promises to be an enlightening and entertaining evening!

About the Speaker

Michael Oilar is the President of MDC Research, a market research agency located in Portland, OR.

Event Details

Time: Informal networking is from 6:30 – 7:00, with Michael's talk to begin promptly at 7:00. Light dinner to be provided from World Foods deli. Please RSVP on our Meetup site and let us know if you'll be attending. http://www.meetup.com/PDX-Design-Research-Group/

Special thanks to Connective DX for hosting this event!

About This Organization...

The PDX Design Research Group is a multidisciplinary networking group focused on the role of research in the design of products, services and systems in business, government and non-profits. We welcome perspectives from all disciplines, including human-computer interaction, design, market research, and the social sciences, and others. Meetings are held every other month in downtown Portland, and include speakers, panel discussions, workshops, and other events, with opportunities to network and discuss relevant topics with fellow research professionals.

Don’t look now, but your life depends on user experience design. Smartphones lead us around by the hand, we strap computers to body parts like it’s going out of style, and autonomous cars are already on the road. Thankfully, Mark Wyner is determined to humanize those experiences. As a user experience designer, Mark has architected software for the US Army, Nike, Intel, Chrysler, and more. He has eloquently addressed the need for interfaces we understand and trust, both in writing and as a speaker at events like Webvisions. Come hear about his efforts to work with the machines, before they take over for good.

PDXAUX learns from Angel Chesimet and other blind end users while they demonstrate how they use every day technology, including websites, phones, apps, etc. They will discuss what works for them and what doesn't.

Demonstrations of use of screen readers, braille display, texting, gps, apps, OCR readers and applications, and everyday uses.

We will begin the evening with social time and then the presentation at 7pm so there is plenty of time for Q&A, discussion and a bit of networking/wrap-up at the end.

UX Book Club is back! Without a book...

Instead, please bring a few of your favorite UX-related resources (blogs / blog posts / articles / papers / podcasts / books / etc) to share with the group.

They can be your all-time favorites, or just something helpful or remarkable you've come across recently.

Be prepared to discuss what blogs / people / podcasts / etc you follow to keep up with the latest in UX and UX-related news.

We'll also discuss what book(s) we should read in the coming months.

Hope to see you there!

Let's follow the life cycle of an accessibility bug. Joe Watkins will guide us on a developer-oriented exploration of how these bugs hatch, mature, multiply, and — most importantly — how these pesky critters can be squashed. Come join in the moderated Q&A.

We will begin the evening with social time and then the presentation at 6:30 so there is plenty of time for Q&A, discussion and a bit of networking/wrap-up at the end.

Presenter: Joe Watkins is an Accessibility Consultant with Simply Accessible. Joe has a passion for the web and working with others to make it more usable for everyone.

Moderator: Bruce Elgort is an instructor in the web development program at Clark College. He emphasizes accessibility from day 1 in all of his classes. Bruce is also a low vision user who himself relies on accessibility with his day-to-day activities.

Interested in learning skills and tactics for understanding and designing User Experiences? Join LaunchCode and UX Night School's Principal Instigator, Amelia Abreu for an evening of learning all about these crucial details that can make or break your work.

We'll have snacks, beverages, and a hands-on usability audit exercise to work through together. Bring your UX questions and quandaries, and we'll sketch, socialize, and catch up.

While you're here, learn more about UX Night School's course offerings and how to hire apprentices with LaunchCode.

We’re having a work sprint with accessibility in mind. Come share your knowledge!

We are compiling a guide to help ourselves and others bring websites and web and mobile apps to an accessible state. We will have fun and interactive exercises, plus some individual tasks for people to work on.

How will the session work?

Bring a laptop, log in to the gitbook, and add a chapter!

Pick a topic you know and share tips,

Tell a story about your experiences - good and bad - with bringing accessibility to the products you work on, or pick an aspect of implementing accessibility that has puzzled you (like, accessible alert colors), do a little research online and share your results!

What this is:

Shared perspectives, stories and tips from all parts of an organization - UX, development, product and others

What this is not:

A replacement for WCAG AA guidelines

We'll be reading and discussing Val Head's book, Designing Interface Animations: Meaningful Motion for User Experience. 

The author will join the discussion, digitally, around 6:30.

http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/designing-interface-animation/

http://amzn.to/2tfBSiB

Please read Puppet Labs' Event Code of Conduct below:

Event Code of Conduct

Exhibitors, speakers, sponsors, staff and all other attendees at events organized by Puppet Labs (PuppetConf, Puppet Camps, training classes, and others) or held at Puppet Labs facilities are subject to these Community Guidelines and Code of Conduct. We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, and we do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

We ask you to be considerate of others and behave professionally and respectfully to all other participants. Remember that sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any event venue, including talks. Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the event without a refund at the discretion of the organizers or Puppet Labs staff members.

Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, sexual images in public spaces, real or implied violence, intimidation, oppression, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the event organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the event with no refund. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the event staff immediately.

Event staff will be happy to help participants address concerns. All reports will be treated as confidential. We strongly encourage you to address your issues privately with any of our staff members who are organizing the event. We encourage you to avoid disclosing information about the incident until the staff have had sufficient time in which to address the situation. Please also keep in mind that public shaming can be counter-productive to building a strong community. We do not condone nor participate in such actions.

We value your attendance. If you cannot find a member of the event staff or are not comfortable contacting one of the staff, you can alternatively contact [masked], Kara Sowles (kara at puppetlabs.com) or Nathan Rawlins [masked] or nathan.rawlins at puppetlabs.com).

We expect all participants to follow these rules at all event venues and related social events.

Plain Language is important for content creators, but it applies to UXers and developers, as well. At first glance, Plain Language is about making content more accessible to people with traumatic brain injury, cognitive impairments, dyslexia, etc. But Plain Language is about more than reaching people with medical disabilities. 

Plain Language is about getting your message through to people who aren’t good readers, people who need glasses but don’t have them for a variety of reasons, rushed readers who are skimming content on their mobile phones, etc. Committing to Plain Language means you are writing so that everybody has a fighting chance! 

Tonight we are joined remotely by national speaker, Whitney Quesenbery, and in person with Portland expert, Katney Bair, as they share their expertise. Join us and learn techniques for how to clarify your writing! 

Lineup/Agenda: 

• 6:00 gather/networking

• 6:30 presentation begins

• Katney will start us off by looking at what is Plain Language, exploring the business side and the numbers.

• Whitney will share her experience including usability testing with Plain Language. 

• 8:00 presentations wrap-up, time for Q&A and conversation

• 8-8:30 closing/networking

Katney Bair

Katney is the principal consultant at Pretty Plain, a communications company specializing in public information. Pretty Plain's communication services combine copywriting, graphic design and project management. Clients include government agencies, medical centers, health insurance companies, small businesses, public schools, universities and non-profit organizations. Katney’s deep experience in all areas of marketing and communications, along with her Plain Writing expertise, help her craft clear messaging that effectively reaches different groups across different platforms. 

Whitney Quesenbery

Whitney has written three books - A Web for Everyone, Storytelling for User Experience, and Global UX - to help practitioners keep users in mind throughout the creative process.  Whitney’s work in Plain Language started with the guide to the first LaserJet 4 and has continued through projects at organizations like the National Cancer Institute and The Open University in the UK. Now, most of her work aims to help voters understand how to participate in democracy from options for voting to making decisions about ballot choices. Maybe the right to understand is a civil right!

CrowdCompass is our event host, review their accessibility information and let us know if you have questions! 

We'll be discussing Cory Lebson's recent book, The UX Careers Handbook.

The author will join the discussion for Q+A, remotely, around 6:00. (This is earlier than usual, so please try not to be late!)

You can purchase a copy of the book at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/UX-Careers-Handbook-Cory-Lebson/dp/1138901067/) or CRC Press (https://www.crcpress.com/The-UX-Careers-Handbook/Lebson/p/book/9781138901063).

About the book:

The UX Careers Handbook offers an insider’s look at how to be a successful User Experience (UX) professional from comprehensive career pathways to learning, personal branding, networking skills, building of resumes and portfolios, and actually landing a UX job.

This book goes in-depth to explain what it takes to get into and succeed in a UX career, be it as a designer, information architect, strategist, user researcher, or in a variety of other UX career specialities. It presents a wealth of resources designed to help readers develop and take control of their UX career success including perspectives and advice from experts in the field.

About the author:

Cory Lebson has been a UX consultant for over two decades. He is the Principal and Owner of a small UX consultancy, a builder of UX community, and a past president of the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA). Not only a practitioner of UX, Cory teaches and mentors to help professionals grow their UX skills, and conducts regular talks and workshops on topics related to both UX skills and career development.

All participants must read and abide by Puppet Labs' Event Code of Conduct below:

Event Code of Conduct

Exhibitors, speakers, sponsors, staff and all other attendees at events organized by Puppet Labs (PuppetConf, Puppet Camps, training classes, and others) or held at Puppet Labs facilities are subject to these Community Guidelines and Code of Conduct. We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, and we do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

We ask you to be considerate of others and behave professionally and respectfully to all other participants. Remember that sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any event venue, including talks. Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the event without a refund at the discretion of the organizers or Puppet Labs staff members.

Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, sexual images in public spaces, real or implied violence, intimidation, oppression, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the event organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the event with no refund. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the event staff immediately.

Event staff will be happy to help participants address concerns. All reports will be treated as confidential. We strongly encourage you to address your issues privately with any of our staff members who are organizing the event. We encourage you to avoid disclosing information about the incident until the staff have had sufficient time in which to address the situation. Please also keep in mind that public shaming can be counter-productive to building a strong community. We do not condone nor participate in such actions.

We value your attendance. If you cannot find a member of the event staff or are not comfortable contacting one of the staff, you can alternatively contact [email protected], Kara Sowles (kara at puppetlabs.com) or Nathan Rawlins (503-806-2992 or nathan.rawlins at puppetlabs.com).

We expect all participants to follow these rules at all event venues and related social events.

Millions of individuals interface daily with colleges and universities throughout the Northwest region, as students, employees, and members of the public. Thousands of these individuals have disabilities that impact the tools and methods they use for accessing websites and information technologies.

How are colleges and universities in Portland and throughout the Northwest region handling this challenge? What strategies are they employing internally and through procurement to ensure their websites and information technologies are accessible? What can the rest of us learn from higher education's examples?

At the October meetup, we will explore these questions including strategies for getting buy-in. Terrill Thompson from University of Washington, Kaela Parks from Portland Community College, Emiluz Lopez from CollegeNET and Gabriel Merrell from University of Oregon will share their strategies, stories and experiences in an informal conversation about IT accessibility in higher ed.

CrowdCompass is our event host. They are graciously providing refreshments for this event! Review their accessibility information and let us know if you have questions.

Lineup/Agenda:

• 6:00 gather/networking

• 6:30 panelists share their experience

• 8:00 time for Q&A and conversation

• 8-8:30 closing/networking

Our panelists:

Terrill Thompson - University of Washington

Kaela Parks - Portland Community College

Emiluz Lopez - CollegeNET

Gabriel Merrell - Oregon State University

See our Meetup page for bios on all of our presenters.

Join us at the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub on Hawthorne where we will gather to share our accessibility successes and challenges of the year and to brainstorm what kinds of topics the group is interested to see presented in 2018. 

Are you interested in helping keep our group going? We have grown a lot over the past couple years and could use your help in 2018 to help us coordinate behind the scenes. Please introduce yourself if you are interested in helping out!

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll practice using design thinking methods to empathize with a wider group of users, and develop solutions that work better for everyone. Universal design is an approach where a primary requirement of any design is that all its users can access it, regardless of any physical or cognitive impairment they may have. It's also known as 'inclusive' or 'accessible' design. We’ll start with a short overview of how universal design can combined with design thinking to quickly deliver valuable insights during the design process. This will be an easy, fun, and very interactive introduction to combining universal design and design thinking methods!

Light refreshments will be provided.

Portland Community Design Thinkers and Portland Accessibility and User Experience are excited to partner to bring you this meetup. This event will be limited to 40 participants - if your plans change, please update your RSVP.

We look forward to having you join us in our first meetup of the new year!

More and more UX designers are looking to inclusive design solutions as the foundation for their accessibility strategy. A ubiquitous screen UI component is the form. Yet, far too often, using forms is a frustrating experience, for users at any point on the ability spectrum.

Join us for an in-depth look at form design to help you better understand the issues with forms in general, and the extra hurdles they represent when examined from an accessibility viewpoint.

Our guest speaker, Gerry Gaffney, leads Information & Design, a usability consultancy in Melbourne Australia. He runs the User Experience podcast (uxpod.com), and is co-author with Caroline Jarrett of "Forms That Work."

Doors open at 5:30 for networking and snacks.
We'll begin Gerry's presentation at 6PM.

We'll discuss Brett Harned's recent book, Project Management For Humans: Helping People Get Things Done.

The author will join the discussion for Q+A, remotely, around 6:00.

You can purchase a copy of the book at Amazon
(https://www.amazon.com/Project-Management-Humans-Helping-People/dp/1933820519)

or Rosenfeld Media
(http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/project-management-for-humans/).

About the book:

Project management—it’s not just about following a template or using a tool, but rather developing personal skills and intuition to find a method that works for everyone. Whether you’re a designer or a manager, Project Management for Humans will help you estimate and plan tasks, scout and address issues before they become problems, and communicate with and hold people accountable.

About the author:

Brett Harned is a digital project management consultant, coach, and community advocate from Philadelphia, PA. His work focuses on solving issues that are important to organizations who want to produce quality digital projects in harmony. He loves to build processes and communication tactics that work not only for projects, but for the people involved in them. Prior to starting his consultancy, he was Vice President of Project Management for Happy Cog. In that role, he mentored a team of PMs and managed projects for companies like Zappos, MTV, and Monotype. Brett began blogging about his adventures in project management at brettharned.com when he realized that there was a void in the industry for people in the digital PM role. He has had the privilege to speak at various events internationally and has written for widely read industry websites and publications. One of the most satisfying projects of Brett's career has been building a global All participants must read and abide by Puppet Labs' Event Code of Conduct below:

Event Code of Conduct

Exhibitors, speakers, sponsors, staff and all other attendees at events organized by Puppet Labs (PuppetConf, Puppet Camps, training classes, and others) or held at Puppet Labs facilities are subject to these Community Guidelines and Code of Conduct. We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, and we do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

We ask you to be considerate of others and behave professionally and respectfully to all other participants. Remember that sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any event venue, including talks. Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the event without a refund at the discretion of the organizers or Puppet Labs staff members.

Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, sexual images in public spaces, real or implied violence, intimidation, oppression, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the event organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the event with no refund. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the event staff immediately.

Event staff will be happy to help participants address concerns. All reports will be treated as confidential. We strongly encourage you to address your issues privately with any of our staff members who are organizing the event. We encourage you to avoid disclosing information about the incident until the staff have had sufficient time in which to address the situation. Please also keep in mind that public shaming can be counter-productive to building a strong community. We do not condone nor participate in such actions.

We value your attendance. If you cannot find a member of the event staff or are not comfortable contacting one of the staff, you can alternatively contact [masked], Kara Sowles (kara at puppetlabs.com) or Nathan Rawlins [masked] or nathan.rawlins at puppetlabs.com).

We expect all participants to follow these rules at all event venues and related social events.

Join us to hear noted accessibility expert, Adrian Roselli, who will share his techniques for making web and mobile interfaces accessible.

This talk is a must-hear for developers and designers who care about enabling access to the interfaces they build to the widest spectrum of user abilities.

Adrian Roselli is a popular, erudite and entertaining speaker. If you've never heard him present, don't miss this chance!

We'll have snacks and networking at 5:30, talk at 6PM, with Q&A to follow.

Adrian Roselli has been developing accessible, effective user interfaces for the Web since 1993, as well as interfaces for multimedia and software applications. With a focus on standards and accessibility, Adrian ensures software and web-based applications can be utilized by users with varying levels of ability on a wide array of platforms.

Mr. Roselli served as an invited expert in the W3C HTML Working Group, the standards body responsible for developing HTML. He is now a full member of Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group, Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group, HTML Accessibility Task Force, and Web Platform Working Group (formerly the HTML Working Group).

Time to chat about your favorite accessibility topics, meet new people and discuss what you'd like to learn about and do at next year's meetups!

A Housekeeping Update from Eliza:

PDXA11yUX started a fundraising effort last year and so far we have been able to raise $462.55 from members plus $500 in sponsorship funds from AccessibilityOz­. This was enough for us to open our own bank account and get serious about forming a partnership with CHIFOO. Now that is set, all contributions will be tax-deductible. Woohoo!

Next we will launch a sponsorship campaign will support sign language interpreters or CART at more of our events in the future. We are always open to ideas and suggestions for cash sponsors as well as volunteers who may like to work with Eliza on fundraising.

Please be in touch!

Amplified, an experience design and technology innovation studio in Portland focused on imagining the communities of the future, is launching a new series called “Placemaking in the Digital Age” to galvanize a community around this emerging design discipline. In this series, we will discuss how we can build meaningful places where digital and physical experiences complement each other, examine design processes and methodologies, and examine the nature of design teams that create these experiences.

Join us on Thursday, August 23 as we kick off this series. Gregg Sloan, Founder and Chief Creative Officer and Janani Vasudev, Director of Experience Design at Amplified will introduce the series with a talk about what placemaking is, as well as discuss their work in the area. The 45-minute talk will be followed by a Q&A, with plenty of time in the beginning and at the end to network. Complimentary refreshments will be provided.

This event has a seating limit of 30 people. Please don’t forget to RSVP to save a spot!

When you write microcopy or technical documentation, clarity and concision are top of mind. Adding inclusivity as another requirement will help you write better copy for all your readers.

Join us on September 11th for a co-meetup with Write the Docs PDX! We’ll share inclusivity guidelines and tips, and try them out in a group activity, using examples of your own works-in-progress! Together, we’ll find solutions to make your writing more inclusive.

Please bring work-in-progress from one of your current projects for the group activity.

Light refreshment provided. RSVP requested!

Discoverability: UI Design, Usability best practices, user adoption, discoverability, GUI best practices

Discoverability is one of the most important user experience design goals, yet one of the most difficult to master. The biggest symptom of users glossing over, missing or ignoring valuable design features is poor discoverability. In this seminar you will build a Discoverability Plan and come away with practical strategies to tackle discoverability- everyone's biggest user adoption challenge.

Agenda

• What is Discoverability?
• Why Discoverability?
• Designing Discoverability: Web, Web App, Product
• The ROI hit from poor discoverability
• What good discoverability buys you
• Q & A

Frank Spillers is a distinguished speaker, author and internationally respected Senior UX practitioner and UX Master Trainer. He is a world expert in improving the design and user experience of enterprise sites, web applications, desktop, VR/AR and mobile apps. Frank has successfully applied 20 years of advanced knowledge of Usability Engineering skills and User Centered Design methodology in Fortune 500 and corporate environments globally.

CyborgCamps are small, in-depth unconferences about the future of the relationship between humans and technology. Attendees discuss a variety of topics such as the futures of identity, privacy, surveillance, hardware to wetware, drones, 3D printing, cyberpunk, human augmentation, constructed reality, the second self, ethics, robot rights, sexuality, urban design, and anthropology. Topics are discussed the morning of the conference and scheduled into the conference grid by attendees themselves, making it a DIY conference experience.

In addition to the above topics, the following has been discussed at CyborgCamps around the world: cyborgs, wearables, prosthetics, sensors, control systems, assistive tech, transcendence, transhumanism, technological singularity, artificial intelligence, intelligence amplification, utopia / distopia / weird topia, identity, quantified self, exocortex, ubicomp, robots, sensory augmentation, steam punk, philosophy, ethics, intelligence, the borg, hackerspaces, telepresence, science fiction, DIY, cryonics, cybernetics, open source, nanotech, augmented reality, brain-computer interface, artificial life, functional electrical stimulation, and neural science. Each CyborgCamp has its own mix of topics created by what the attendees want to discuss. All CyborgCamps follow a Code of Conduct.

We'll have two 20-minute talks, each followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. We'll have plenty of time at the start and end of the meetup for tasty beverages and networking.

Speakers

Impacting Product Development with Net Promoter Score & Customer Data
Camila Morrison, Product Manager

As a product manager, you may have different types of feedback and data from product users/customers. Some of that could be Net Promoter Score (NPS) results, e-commerce data, community media verbatims, or other survey information. Learn what’s going on with NPS and other customer data to look at it from a product use perspective. Then see how to translate that into making changes to your product to better connect with customers, improve your value proposition, and make more revenue.

Camila Morrison is a product manager in tech who has worked across a variety of areas in product management from concept/market/UX roles to managing a team in the development arena. Also in her experience, is running a Net Promoter System to drive improvements across the customer product lifecycle. She was in marketing management for companies that included utility control center software. Her background includes leading marketing research projects for tech, utility, transportation, ad/media, healthcare, retail, tourism, and non-profit industries.

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The Product Manager Career Lifecycle
Mike Kruse, Product Manager

After spending many years as a product manager in both large and small organizations, Mike would like to share the application of a tool we use in our day job to our career.

Mike began in software development and fell into the product manager role – initially informally and then formally. He has worked in a number of B2B and B2C markets including graphics processors, networking systems, digital media, educational software and currently fintech. One item on his bucket list is to master all 37 activities on the Pragmatic framework or to visit all 50 states in the US.

Mike is also one of the ProductCamp Portland co-founders, an annual product management un-conference that began in 2012. It provides him with the opportunity to create a new product every year and in doing so, apply a wide range of product management skills that he rarely gets to exercise.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an environment-focused, sustainable lens to review interactions with students within campus and remove barriers.

In this session we'll discuss:

• What is the need currently experienced by post-secondary education in matters of inclusion?
• The changing landscape of access and inclusion in Higher Education.
• how to encourage our own practice to recognize these areas of ‘tension’ in current approaches to access.
• Explore o the definition and intentions of Universal Design for Learning.
• Reflect on how UDL might meet the ‘needs’ being experienced in Higher Education for a rapid change in access practices.

Our Speaker: Samantha John is the Accessible Media Coordinator in the Office of Academic Innovation at Portland State University. She created a faculty professional development program that includes peer review of syllabi and course activities that incorporate UDL and accessibility publishing conventions. She also developed the UDL Media Lab at PSU where students with disabilities work to identify barriers in curriculum.

Samantha's passion for inclusion and diversity drive her study and presentation of UDL and universal access related issues in higher education.

We're finishing out 2018 having collectively presented roughly 85 human-centered events. Let's celebrate with a Human-centered Community Gathering!

We’ll be joining Portland’s human-centered groups who are passionate about HCD principles and how they can change the way we work and live. You can RSVP with one of the groups listed below or the Count Me In button, here. This is an informal event so signing up is more about getting you a reminder in your email when you need it.

You’ll have an opportunity to:

• Share insights with folks across the many fields that intersect in HCD in Portland
• Shape this community by giving feedback on a few ideas we have been working on for 2019 on how to bring the human-centered communities closer together.

Some of the groups that will be there include:

• Design Thinking For Social Impact
• OpenIDEO - Portland Chapter
• PDX Design Research Group
• Portland Accessibility and User Experience Meetup
• Portland Community Design Thinkers
• Service Design PDX

We support introverts, extroverts, and everyone in-between at this event. Don’t be shy, or do — either way, join the fun and help shape our community!

This event is sponsored by PDXHCD. Want to know more about the human centered disciplines in Portland? Take a look at the event calendar at pdxhcd.org.

Come together for an evening of accessibility sharing and learning! We'd like to hear from you, whether you consider yourself a novice or an expert. Bring your questions, projects, and ideas to discuss as a group. We'll break into small groups if needed to cover different topics.

Apparently, you can download inner peace. There are countless applications that can put meditation in the palm of your hand, and allow a guru to live in your pocket. How is the technology that is supposed to balance us throwing the rest of our life into imbalance?

Enter mindfulness. A tenet of Eastern philosophies for centuries, now it’s a comprehensive inclusion in the therapeutic arsenals of therapist’s, psychologist’s, and psychiatrist’s toolkits.

Using mindfulness allows for awareness of the present moment through attention and non-judgement. But now, mindfulness can be used as an accommodation. This talk will show how people with disabilities fuse with technology and vice versa. This can be done as a great boon for a person’s mental health and wellness. Mindfulness is essentially vigilance before acting. It prevents against impulsive actions, and is a discipline of thought. It’s like taking that extra step before you buy junk food at grocery store while you’re hungry and asking, do I need this? But being mindful in technology design means a focus on the design that works for the person in the moment. Our presentation will focus on how accessible design can accommodate mental health disabilities. Instead of impulsively choosing accommodating or try to fit a square peg in a round hole, it’s changing a way of thought. This presentation will be focused around user empowerment, but also be a call to action for developers. Through case studies that we will present with actual data and use feedback, we’ll argue that being aware is crucial for technology, especially accessibility.

About Sharon Rosenblatt
Sharon Rosenblatt is an accessibility professional working to improve the overall experience by a user with disabilities. She has been a part of the Accessibility Partners team for the over eight years, and specializes in document remediation and web compliance testing. Her efforts have enabled developers and manufacturers to see the tremendous potential that accessibility has not just for users with disabilities, but of all abilities.

She is a strong advocate for abolishing the stigma of mental health and researching accomodations in the workplace to support a mental health diagnosis. With her enthusiasm highlighted in several publications like The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Fast Company, Information Week, CNN, Mint.com, and more, Sharon enjoys participating in the constant dialogue between accessibility and innovation.

We'll have two 20-minute talks, each followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. We'll have plenty of time at the start and end of the meetup for tasty beverages and networking.

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Using Wireframes to Communicate Product Vision
Amy King, Software Product Manager at Digimarc

Over the past year, I learned how designing, creating, and sharing wireframes greatly facilitate communication both for the overall product vision that impacts multiple teams, and prepping smaller product features for engineers. For product managers that did not have a graphics background like me, "design" is an intimidating skill to tackle, but one that is valuable when working with engineers, designers, and marketing teams. In this presentation, I will share:
1) How I got started
2) A couple examples of how I used wireframes to align multiple teams to work towards the same product vision
3) Recommendations and pros/cons of different wireframing software to help people get started

Amy King is a software product manager. she likes learning about different industries and how people use technology in their jobs, then figure out how her team can build software to help people be more efficient with their work

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Supercharging User Engagement by Supporting Autonomy: Practical Motivation Science for Product Managers
Jahed Momand, Head of Product Management at Conversa Health

The talk of the town in theories of behavior change in technology center on centuries old behaviorism, such as BJ Fogg's Behavior Model or Nir Eyal's Hook Model.

But, what if you're trying to precipitate a user behavior that's complex? That happens over long time domains? That isn't immediately rewardable?

How do you support users in finding the motivation to interact with your product, when push notifications just won't do the trick?

I'll talk about how we applied the science of motivation, Edward Deci's self-determination theory, to product design at Conversa Health, for outsized gains in patient engagement, retention, and NPS.

Jahed heads up the product team at Conversa Health, an automated care management chatbot for health systems, leading them to successful A and B rounds of funding during his tenure.

Before, he led the product growth team at Zoomcare, where he increased revenue and visits 240% over 18 rapid fire months, leading up to their acquisition by Peace Health.

Before that he worked with Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational fame on applying behavioral economics to projects within Google, and worked in the adtech industry applying behavioral science to ad units (he's not proud of this work).

Way before then, he played poker professionally for a few years after grad school, where he completed an MS in Physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Cvent, in partnership with InVision, is hosting a special screening of the InVision-produced documentary DESIGN DISRUPTORS for Portland Design Week with snacks and networking beforehand, and a panel with design leaders after. Join us for this free event during Design Week Portland April 9th, 5:30–7:30pm! Register at http://tinyurl.com/yygxjjkm.

Please join us for another night of meeting new friends and chill design conversations over drinks. Your hosts are Rachel Glaves and Leo LaCroix, both local UX freelancers. Welcome! We hope you swing by and say hi.

This is a monthly series of happy hours to build and strengthen our local design community. We are actively seeking venue suggestions and co-hosts - we're both based in SE Portland but know that folks come from every corner of the city. Want a UX Happy Hour in your neighborhood? We welcome you to host one or suggest a venue you love! Message us to get started.

Venue note: Monday happens to be Lucky Lab's "Happy Day", with $1 off pints and specials on pitchers. We will have a few signs with "UX Happy Hour Portland" on the table so you can find us.

CHIFOO presents: Researching Smart + Spatial Computing with Hannah Scurfield!

Understanding how humans will react and engage with new and emerging platforms can be challenging, particularly with smart and spatial computing. These types of experiences often depart from existing mental models of human-machine interaction and are often tricky to prototype. Traditional behavioral research methods often become less effective, meaning researchers need to experiment with new ways to gather learning.

Using examples from research into mixed and augmented reality experiences, we will explore these hurdles and discuss techniques for gathering insights when existing research methods prove inadequate.

Join this session to hear about experimenting with user experience design research techniques and how people interact with augmented and mixed reality experiences.

About the Speaker

Hannah drives technology innovation by researching people, behaviors and culture. She works with design, development, product and business teams to help build products and experiences that people love. She has nearly 18 years’ experience in both research and design roles in the technology industry and an exciting 14 years spent working in the innovation labs of global technology leaders.

Her career has been focused on emerging platforms, from early mobile computing and the Internet of things to augmented and virtual reality experiences. A background in film, human-computer interaction and ergonomics prepared Hannah for experimenting with smart and spatial computing and her current passion: reimagining the traditional screen-based design research studio.

Hannah likes blank sheets of paper and big questions with no answers.

https://chifoo.org/may-1-2019/

Meeting Details
5:30 - 6:30: CHIFOOd and Registration: Please join us before the meeting to enjoy dinner and networking. Food and beverages will be available for $5.

6:30 - 8:00: CHIFOO program starts at 6:30pm.
This meeting is free for CHIFOO Members & $5.00 for non-CHIFOO Members. Become a member today at chifoo.org. Raffle Tickets are $1.00 for two (available at door during Registration).

Please note: CHIFOO wants to make sure that each meeting is a great experience for everyone. If you need an accommodation to help you better enjoy CHIFOO meetings and events please let our CHIFOO Programs Chair know how we can help a few days prior to CHIFOO event.

We'll have two 20-minute talks, each followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. We'll have plenty of time at the start and end of the meetup for tasty beverages and networking.

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Leveraging product principles to drive better decision making
Ami Murthy, Head of Product - Mobile at eBay Classifieds Group at eBay

Product principles can serve as a strong complement to the product vision and strategy. I will share examples of our product principles and how we have successfully used them as tools to drive better and faster decisions.

Ami Murthy is a product leader who is excellent at building teams that create experiences which millions of customers LOVE and USE on a daily basis. She has experience leading diverse, global teams from product conceptualization to launch, with a proven track record of building scalable customer-centric products including 5-star apps, a multi-million dollar mobile product, and market-leading e-book solutions. She is adept at driving business results and has helped companies like eBay, Intel and Amazon grow their bottom line performance.

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What can theater teach us about software delivery
David Van der Merwe, Senior Product Manager at Radar

I've been thinking about the similarities between software development and the process of producing theater for a while. My wife runs a theater company and I'm constantly picking her brain about the creative process and theater production as a project that actually has a deadline (opening night). My hope is to share some learnings about this process and how it may apply to product managers when we need to deliver a full solution to a customer problem by a committed date.

I'm currently a Sr. Product Manager working at RADAR building privacy incident response management solutions. Like many pm's, I grew into a product management role somewhat through circumstance, some curiosity, and a desire to improve customer experiences. I was born and raised in South Africa and then immigrated to the US where I've worked in web marketing, and e-commerce solutions that served both b2b and b2c enterprises for the last 20 years.

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Also, thank you to our host, Jama Software. And thank you to Opal for sponsoring the food. Check out their job postings here:

Jama Software: https://www.jamasoftware.com/company/careers/

Opal: http://jobs.workwithopal.com/apply/Vbraj5qtQV/Senior-Product-Marketing-Manager

Let's PechaKucha!

It's been a while since we got together. We'll have snacks/drinks/networking from 6 - 6:30 and then run presentations until 8.

*You don't have to present to attend, but consider sharing something important to you or something you think would be interesting to the group!

Please bring your slides / short presentation to share with your fellow designers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKucha

See you next month!

In May, IDEO.org and +Acumen will once again be offering their highly regarded free 9-week online course, Design Kit: Course for Human-Centered Design. As we do regularly, Portland Community Design Thinkers will be hosting a special meetup on May 6, where we'll explain what the course is about and what you can expect from it. And for those interested in participating, we'll help you form teams of local colleagues with whom you can work, which we've found vastly improves both completion rates and the experience as a whole.

Created by IDEO.org for those who are relatively new to design thinking, +Acumen's free Design Kit: Course for Human-Centered Design is probably one of the best and most immersive resources anywhere for getting up to speed on the nuts and bolts of HCD. This meetup is specifically for those interested in learning more about the course and helping to form working teams. Please note PCDT is not managing this course -- you'll be on your own for that. But we're keen to give anyone interested a leg up in getting off to the best possible start with a group of other eager local participants, and you're welcome to use our own Slack channel for course communication and organizing, as many groups have previously done.

Read more about the course at the below link.

In brief, it's a nine-week online FREE curriculum that will introduce participants to the concepts of human-centered design and how this approach can be used to create innovative, effective, and sustainable solutions.

During those nine weeks, you'll work online (and off) with a group of 2-6 people, learning the HCD process by applying it to one of three pre-crafted real world design challenges. (You'll also have a choice to craft your own challenge.) Each week you will explore the fundamental concepts through readings, case studies, and short videos. Then you'll meet in-person with your design team to get your hands dirty practicing the relevant human-centered design methods.

Let's get as many teams together as we can for the next course! Read more at this link: http://www.plusacumen.org/courses/introduction-human-centered-design

Even for digital products and services, there is still always some kind of physical interaction. Whether it's by keyboard, touchscreen, voice, or something else, people choose a way to interact that works for them in their unique situation.

The Community Vision Assistive Technology (AT) Lab is a collaborative education and resource center that is open to the public. The Lab demonstrates a wide variety of AT, from Braille readers and browser extensions to voice-controlled lights and adaptive video game controllers. Community Vision will be hosting us for the night to learn about these tools and explore them firsthand.

Agenda:
5:30pm: Arrive and network
5:45pm: Introduction and guided tour
6:00pm: Open exploration of the lab, with AT Lab staff available for questions
6:30pm: Post-event socializing at a nearby location (TBA)

About Community Vision:
Community Vision's mission is to make Oregon a place where people with disabilities can live, work, and thrive in the communities of their choice. Community Vision takes a person-centered approach in providing quality supports tailored to the unique needs and wishes of each individual and family. Learn more at https://cvision.org.

Please join us for another night of meeting new friends and chill design conversations over drinks. Your hosts are Rachel Glaves and Leo LaCroix, both local UX freelancers. Welcome! We hope you swing by and say hi.

This is a monthly series of happy hours to build and strengthen our local design community. We are actively seeking venue suggestions and co-hosts - we're both based in SE Portland but know that folks come from every corner of the city. Want a UX Happy Hour in your neighborhood? We welcome you to host one or suggest a venue you love! Message us to get started.

Venue note: Monday happens to be Lucky Lab's "Happy Day", with $1 off pints and specials on pitchers. We will have a few signs with "UX Happy Hour Portland" on the table so you can find us.

In January, Portland Community Design Thinkers gathered to examine how mobile devices and apps are designed to hijack our attention in ways that are not aligned with users’ best interests but, rather, mainly with the interests of advertisers. In that session, we explored how “engagement,” the chief currency of Silicon Valley, has become inextricably linked with the hidden design practices that prioritize user time on platform above all other considerations.

Managing our own ability to ignore these digital distractions is difficult enough; but it becomes vastly more difficult when we must do so for our children as well, who are growing up in a world in which these device mediate nearly every aspect of their social, psychological (and, increasingly, their educational) lives. How do parents and families take back control of their homes -- and their children's futures -- from the Silicon Valley tech giants whose primary concern is maximizing "time on platform" and delivering users' eyeballs to advertisers? There is so much at stake. Cyber bullying, inappropriate texts, social anxiety, depression, ubiquitous porn, and screen addictions are just a few of the issues that might affect our children.

There are certainly benefits to using mobile devices. But how can parents and young children assure they remain the masters of these devices rather than servants to them? How do parents assure they are leading by example to create tech-healthy families?

On May 21, we'll reconvene to consider just these questions. We'll be joined by two Portland subject matter experts, both of whom provide counseling, workshops and proven strategies for parents to help children manage screen time and find balance in the digital age.

Richard Halpern is a Portland-based Parent Educator and Counselor, and the founder of Coach4Parents, providing workshops and parenting strategy sessions to help manage screen time, and to reduce screen dependence, for kids of all ages.

Andrea Davis and her husband, Tyler, are the parents of five kids. Together, they've created BetterScreenTime, a resource for any parent who believes screen time can be a positive experience and who wants to prepare their children for that privilege in the best way possible. It’s for the parent who knows screen time will never be perfect, but believes it can be better.

Join us on May 21 for an interactive discussion. As always, we'll have food and drink on hand from our sponsor, LUMA Institute, some door prize giveaways, and some networking and socializing time prior to and after the presentation.

Please join us for another night of meeting new friends and chill design conversations over drinks. Your hosts are Rachel Glaves and Leo LaCroix, both local UX freelancers. Welcome! We hope you swing by and say hi.

This is a monthly series of happy hours to build and strengthen our local design community. We are actively seeking venue suggestions and co-hosts - we're both based in SE Portland but know that folks come from every corner of the city. Want a UX Happy Hour in your neighborhood? We welcome you to host one or suggest a venue you love! Message us to get started.

Venue note: Monday happens to be Lucky Lab's "Happy Day", with $1 off pints and specials on pitchers. We will have a few signs with "UX Happy Hour Portland" on the table so you can find us.

It's summer, so we're taking a break from presentations to have a casual accessibility social. Come out to chat about your favorite accessibility topics, meet new people, and discuss what you'd like to learn at future events.

Ever wonder about how to use and test all of the different accessibility tools and devices? Natalia Voegele will tell us all about her personal story, and how & why she got started with accessibility testing. She’ll give us a sample of different tools, from Android and iOS devices to Braille displays and Chromebooks. Learn about some of the common problems encountered while testing and what to do about them. We’ll also have some time for questions and hands-on work.

About the speaker, in her own words: I am Natalia Voegele. An ambitious, strong, 36-year-old woman who happens to be blind. I have always loved technology. In addition to working, passions of mine include mental health, the environment, reading, traveling, singing, cooking, baking and spending time with those I love. I am in the process of writing a book about my life and creating an album. Connect at https://accessibleandroid.com.

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Note: If you have any accommodation requests, please contact us in advance of the event to discuss.

Join us for another night of meeting new friends and chill design conversations over food and drinks. Your hosts are Rachel Glaves and Leo LaCroix, both local UX designers. Welcome! We hope you swing by and say hi.

Venue note: for summer we're meeting at the food cart pod at 11th and SE Madison. We'll be in the west area of the pod with the covered picnic tables, behind most of the food trucks. The pod has a beer cart and many food options - come enjoy dinner with us!

Francis Storr (https://twitter.com/fstorr) will be sharing some of his accessibility knowledge with us. Full details coming soon!

Doors open at 5:30pm for socializing & snacks; presentation begins at 6:00pm.

Venue accessibility and accommodation requests:

Please review the accessibility information of the venue and let us know if you have questions! http://bit.ly/pdxa11yux-venue-cvent If you have any accommodation requests, please contact us in advance of the event to discuss.

There’s a lot that goes into writing good microcopy for accessibility: Identifying what needs it, writing for something spoken aloud versus read silently, and finding a champion to help you develop it.

Join Portland Accessibility and User Experience Meetup (PDX A11Y UX, https://www.meetup.com/Portland-Accessibility-and-User-Experience-Meetup/) for a co-meetup with Portland UX Writers (https://www.meetup.com/Portland-UX-Writers-Meetup/). Kate Knappett and Josh Hetrick will share guidelines and tips and try them out in a group activity. Together, we’ll find solutions to make your writing more accessible and help you become an accessibility champion on your team.

Agenda:

• 6:00-6:15 Networking, topic post-its, job opportunities, food, and drinks
• 6:15-6:30 Presentation
• 6:30-7:00 Panel Q&A and group activity
• 7:00-7:30 Wrap-up

Food and drinks provided by Cvent, our host for the event. Attendance is capped and IDs required.

Venue accessibility and accommodation requests:

Please review the accessibility information of the venue and let us know if you have questions! http://bit.ly/pdxa11yux-venue-cvent If you have any accommodation requests, please contact us in advance of the event to discuss.

Springtime brings many annual events, including accessibility conferences! Even these days, events are still happening. Join us to hear about three recent events: CSUN Conference, HXD Conference, and AccessU. We'll have hosted presenters talking about their experiences, and will open the floor for others who attended to share their learnings as well.

Event begins at 6:00pm; join early starting at 5:45pm for networking.

Online/call-in meeting info will be announced on Meetup.

Agenda:

• 5:45–6:00pm Networking
• 6:00–6:15pm Introductions & announcements
• 6:15-7:00pm Presentations
• 7:00–7:30pm Q&A and discussion
• 7:30–7:45pm Wrap up

Accommodation requests: If you have any accommodation requests, please contact us in advance of the event to discuss.

Curious about how to make rich data visualizations accessible? Doug Schepers will share some of his work on how to create equivalent data viz experiences.

Images, charts, and diagrams are an important part of the web, but often hide critical information from people with disabilities of vision, cognition, and others. But there are many ways to provide inclusive affordances that use other senses, especially hearing and touch, to convey complex information. This talk will explore some of the challenges and different methods to overcome them using advanced techniques like text equivalents, sonification, haptics and tactiles, and more.

Event begins at 6:00pm; join early starting at 5:45pm for networking.

Online/call-in meeting info will be announced on Meetup.

Agenda:

• 5:45–6:00pm Networking
• 6:00–6:15pm Introductions & announcements
• 6:15-7:00pm Presentations
• 7:00–7:30pm Q&A and discussion
• 7:30–7:45pm Wrap up

Accommodation requests:

If you have any accommodation requests, please contact us in advance of the event to discuss.

About the presenter:

Doug Schepers is the founder and director of Fizz Studio, an accessible data visualization startup in Chapel Hill, NC, USA. He develop his ideas and early prototypes for accessible charts while working with the accessibility community at W3C. As a developer who defined Web technologies and standards at W3C for a decade, he launched or worked on fundamental projects such as SVG (and the Accessible SVG Task Force), WebApps, Web Audio API, Touch Events and Pointer Events, Web Annotations, and many other technologies, as well as starting the W3C developer relations program. He believes in positive social change through building communities and interoperable open technology.

Curious about what's happening in the digital accessibility legal space? Wonder why accessibility is even a legal issue to begin with? Lainey Feingold will bring us up-to-date about accessibility as a civil right and how advocates are using the law in the United States to advance disability inclusion by eliminating digital barriers. Come learn about pending accessibility lawsuits, what courts say about digital accessibility, and what strategies are available to advocates besides the confrontation and expense of a lawsuit. We'll also talk about the importance of avoiding fear when thinking about the law and what to expect from the Biden/Harris administration in the digital accessibility legal space. Plenty of time for questions and conversation.

Event begins at 6:00pm; join early starting at 5:45pm for networking.

Agenda:

• 5:45–6:00pm Networking
• 6:00–6:15pm Introductions & announcements
• 6:15–7:00pm Presentation
• 7:00–7:30pm Q&A and discussion
• 7:30–7:45pm Wrap up

About the presenter:

Lainey Feingold is a disability rights lawyer, an international speaker, and the author of Structured Negotiation, A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits. Structured Negotiation has a twenty-five year track record in resolving complex accessible technology claims without the expense and conflict of traditional litigation. Lainey has worked in the digital accessibility space since 1995 and helped negotiate the first web accessibility agreement in the United States in 2000. She also serves as the accessibility subject matter resource for Disability:IN, the leading business disability global inclusion non-profit organization. Lainey has spoken to #a11y and #UX meetups across the United States and in Toronto and is excited to join us in Portland! More about Lainey’s work on her website or follow her on Twitter.

When loading a web page, a sighted page visitor can take in almost all information at a glance and home in on what they want to explore — a whole-to-part approach. A blind screen reader user, on the other hand, must reverse the process and gather bits of information through page exploration to create the full picture — a part-to-whole approach. If sighted design stakeholders are not mindful of the differences in these strategies, they may disregard helpful bits of information that allow the most efficient exploration and understanding for blind visitors. Using parallels from pedestrian navigation such as the importance of “landmarks” and “boundaries,” our presenter Dr. Michele A. Williams will help create common ground between sighted and blind communities to ensure blind screen reader users are best accommodated in Web and other digital design.

Event begins at 6:00pm; join early starting at 5:45pm for networking.

Agenda:

• 5:45–6:00pm Networking
• 6:00–6:15pm Introductions & announcements
• 6:15–7:00pm Presentation
• 7:00–7:30pm Q&A and discussion
• 7:30–7:45pm Wrap up

About the presenter:

Dr. Michele A. Williams has 15 years of academic and industrial experience in UX, accessibility, and technology. She is passionate about ensuring people with disabilities are not excluded from technology. Her well-rounded experience includes training, design consultation, field research with people with disabilities, and code remediation for building WCAG-compliant technology.

Dr. Williams holds a B.S. in Computer Science, Masters of Software Engineering with a concentration in Human-Computer Interaction, and PhD in Human-Centered Computing with a focus on accessibility. Along with industry project contributions, her research and designs have resulted in several cited publications, international presentations, and a patent application (see LinkedIn for more details).

Coupling her passion with her expertise, she now offers consulting services including accessibility training for UX professionals and key stakeholders, and project advising including research facilitation and design consultation. Contact her for a consultation experience tailored to your needs. More about Dr. Williams' work on her website or follow her on Twitter.

Join the Portland Accessibility and User Experience Meetup to celebrate the 10th Global Accessibility Awareness Day in partnership with the A11yBay community and many other partner Meetups!

May 20 marks the 10th Global Accessibility Awareness Day and we will be sharing our excitement by partnering with sister Meetup groups around the world. Our goal is to make this the largest Meetup on accessibility and inclusive design!

TALKS & GUEST SPEAKERS:

We'll open with word from A11yBay and a special guest appearance of GAAD Co-Founders Joe Devon and Jennison Asuncion. They will have an exciting announcement to make. We then will turn to our speakers. We have three confirmed now, with more to come.

Terri Rodriguez-Hong recently published "What it's like having a hidden disability in Silicon Valley" in Fast Company. She'll join us to reflect on the article and to have a discussion about her journey.

Deque System's Carie Fisher will present The Future of Accessibility is a "Choose Your Own Adventure" Book. The question Carie will address is: do designers and developers really think they can build an accessible experience for all - even though there are endless combinations of browsers, ATs, settings, and user preferences?

Our other confirmed speaker is Marc B.D. Greenberg. Robots are entering the public space and our lives more and more. In one form or another—from Roomba to Aibo and home, sidewalk, and in-store robots—they are getting designed and released into our lives and spaces. What accessibility considerations should be made and how can we get in front of that?

AGENDA:

(subject to tweaking as May 20 grows near!)

• 4:30 – 4:45 pm PT – Welcome from A11yBay and GAAD Co-Founders
• 4:45 – 5:15 pm PT – Terri Rodriguez-Hong "Reflections and Discussion on What it's like having a hidden disability in Silicon Valley"
• 5:15 – 5:55 pm PT – Carie Fisher's talk: "The Future of Accessibility is a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Book"
• 5:55 – 6:15 pm PT – Marc B.D. Greenberg's talk: "Robots and Accessibility"
• 6:15 – 6:30 pm PT – Talk to be announced
• 6:30 – 6:45 pm PT – Optional zoom break-out room socializing

ZOOM DETAILS:

• This is an online event and will happen through Zoom:

The Zoom URL will be published on this event page a few days before the meetup and shared via email (sent through meetup messages) with people who RSVP via the meetup site.

Check to make sure your email settings are enabled to receive "event updates from organizers" in your account settings or you may not receive the message.

• How socializing in zoom break out rooms will work:

We’ll use the zoom breakout rooms feature to give folks an opportunity to network and chat with others in small group conversations with randomized participants.

If you do not feel comfortable making conversation with other people during this meetup, we'll pause briefly after the main talk content so you can log off. Those who want to chat can just stay on the zoom!

• Zoom tips for controlling closed captions and screen reader alerts:

More details on our Meetup event page.

How can employees at any level help companies embrace inclusive design? How can existing employees drive an organization towards more inclusive hiring?

At a young age, Janna realized that not everyone can access the world in the same way. Both through her own experience on and off crutches and her experience with a mixed hearing/deaf theater troupe, she gained a passion for making life accessible for all. This talk will focus on how to grow, and nurture, the practice of inclusion in your organization.

Agenda:

• 5:45–6:00pm Networking
• 6:00–6:15pm Introductions & announcements
• 6:15–7:00pm Presentation
• 7:00–7:30pm Q&A and discussion
• 7:30–7:45pm Wrap up

About the presenter:

Currently a Manager of User Experience Research at Hinge Health, Janna C. Kimel has practiced design research for over 15 years. Her current role ensures that the organization's experiences are seamless and help participants build healthy habits for a pain free life. In her past 2 roles, she has also led employee ERGs focused on accessibility. Janna has focused on health technology and wearables over the course of her career. She has run her own small consultancy and has worked at Intel, Microsoft to Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield and Dexcom.

She has published and presented on accessibility, behavior change, user research and wearable technology. She is a ramblin' wreck with a master's degree in industrial design from Georgia Tech.

Hello fellow PDXers! We have been dormant for a while, and want to gather for some networking and socializing this summer.

Join us on July 26th for a gathering at Laurelhurst Park, Picnic Area D near the intersection of SE Ankeny St & SE Cesar Chavez Blvd.

We'll provide some light snacks & beverages, but BYO is also encouraged.

A few rules from Portland Parks and Rec:

• No smoking
• Beer/wine only, no other alcohol
• Clean up after ourselves

Accessibility Notes

Parking

• Street parking
• Paved pathway to play area
• 250 feet to play area

Play Area

• Engineered mulch surface
• Ramp into play area

Play Equipment

• Transfer station
• Sensory play elements
• Adapted high-back swing
• Ramp onto play structure

Other Amenities

• Accessible restroom
• Accessible picnic table

Join us for a casual summer-end accessibility social. Chat about your favorite accessibility topics, meet new people, and discuss what you'd like to learn at future events.

Food and drinks are available to purchase from a variety of food carts. This event is no-host (each participant pays for their own food/drinks), but there's no obligation to buy something to attend.

Seating area and restrooms are wheelchair accessible, via side/rear entrance. Location is accessible by public transit from multiple nearby bus lines, there is bike parking out front, and street parking is available nearby.

See hinterlandpdx.com or call (503) 231-4333 for more details about Hinterland.

As an accessibility professional, do you ever feel like you’re swimming against the tide as you try to make your company’s offerings more accessible? If so, you’re probably aware that the organization could be “better” with respect to accessibility, but you may have trouble identifying just what it would take to make real progress. Accessibility maturity models can help by providing objective assessment criteria and concrete steps for leveling up. In this talk, we’ll cover what is a maturity model, how they’ve been applied to accessibility, and strategies for getting started with your first assessment.

Event begins at 6:00pm; join early starting at 5:45pm for networking.

Agenda

• 5:45–6:00pm Networking
• 6:00–6:15pm Introductions & announcements
• 6:15–7:00pm Presentation
• 7:00–7:30pm Q&A and discussion
• 7:30–7:45pm Wrap up

About the presenter

Andrew Hedges is a co-founder of Assistiv Labs, providers of a platform that simplifies manual testing of websites with assistive technologies. He is a longtime web developer having started building websites professionally in 1998. Soon thereafter he discovered this thing called accessibility and has been advocating for it ever since. Most recently, he led the design system team at Zapier where he was a major contributor to the company’s accessibility guild, including helping initiate Zapier’s first self-assessment of their digital accessibility maturity.

Accommodation requests

If you have any accommodation requests, please contact us in advance of the event to discuss.

Special thanks

Thank you to Assistiv Labs for providing tonight's Zoom hosting!

Even for digital products and services, there is still always some kind of physical interaction. Whether it's by keyboard, touchscreen, voice, or something else, people choose a way to interact that works for them in their unique situation.

The Community Vision Assistive Technology (AT) Lab is a collaborative education and resource center that is open to the public. The Lab demonstrates a wide variety of AT, from communication devices and browser extensions to voice-controlled lights and adaptive video game controllers. Community Vision will be hosting us for the night to learn about these tools and explore them firsthand.

Note: The event is capped at 25 attendees; please RSVP on Meetup. Be sure you can attend in person; if your plans change, please remove yourself from attendance.

Agenda

• 5:30pm: Arrive and network
• 5:45pm: Introduction and guided tour
• 6:00pm: Open exploration of the lab, with AT Lab staff available for questions
• 6:30pm: Post-event socializing at a nearby location (TBD)

About Community Vision

Community Vision's mission is to make Oregon a place where people with disabilities can live, work, and thrive in the communities of their choice. Community Vision takes a person-centered approach in providing quality supports tailored to the unique needs and wishes of each individual and family. Learn more at cvision.org.

Accommodation requests

If you have any accommodation requests, please contact us in advance of the event to discuss.

Join us for a casual year-end accessibility social. Chat about your favorite accessibility topics, meet new people, and discuss what you'd like to learn at events in the new year.

Food and drinks are available to purchase. This event is no-host (each participant pays for their own food/drinks), but there's no obligation to buy something to attend.

Location is wheelchair accessible, near public transit, and there is street parking for bikes and cars available nearby.

See victoriapdx.com or email [email protected] for more details about Victoria Bar.

Lecture Details Sometimes when we share research findings, we hear back, “We already knew that.” In this talk, I’ll examine why that happens, and what we can do about it. Sometimes, it’s a cognitive bias, called hindsight bias and also known as the “knew it all along” phenomenon. But there are other causes and we can adjust our approach to research to try and limit this all-too-common challenge.

About Steve Portigal Steve Portigal is an experienced user researcher who helps organizations to build mature user research practices. He is the author of Interviewing Users: How To Uncover Compelling Insights (now in a second edition) and Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries: User Research War Stories. He’s also the host of the Dollars to Donuts podcast.

Website: portigal.com/

Hello fellow a11y PDXers!

Join us for a social gathering on Thursday, June 20th, at Laurelhurst Park, Picnic Area D, near SE Ankeny St and SE Cesar Chavez Blvd.

This is an opportunity to network, reconnect with old friends, or make new ones! Previous experience or accessibility knowledge is not required, but curiosity is welcomed. We'll provide some light snacks & beverages, but BYO is also encouraged.

A few rules from Portland Parks and Rec:

• No smoking
• Beer/wine only, no other alcohol
• Clean up after ourselves

Accessibility Notes

Parking

• Street parking
• Paved pathway to play area
• 250 feet to play area

Play Area

• Engineered mulch surface
• Ramp into play area

Play Equipment

• Transfer station
• Sensory play elements
• Adapted high-back swing
• Ramp onto play structure

Other Amenities

• Accessible restroom
• Accessible picnic table

Many neurodivergent professionals work in the fields of accessibility and user experience. Yan Vishnepolsky joins us today to discuss his career as a neurodiverse user researcher. He will talk about aspects like living abroad as a UX professional, launching a podcast, and the benefits and challenges of being neurodiverse in design tech.

Event begins at 6:00pm; join early starting at 5:45pm for networking.

Agenda

• 5:45–6:00pm Networking
• 6:00–6:15pm Introductions & announcements
• 6:15–7:00pm Presentation
• 7:00–7:30pm Q&A and discussion
• 7:30–7:45pm Wrap up

About the presenter

Yan's family knew from an early age that he was neurodiverse. As such, he attended BOCES Gifted Special Education, a program in upstate New York for neurodivergent children, throughout most of his school years. A couple of years after college, he launched a UX agency in India and lived there for nine years. While in India, Yan learned Hindi and Indian culture, teaching him firsthand the impact of different perspectives. Also in India, he met his wife, an Iranian expat studying as a pharmacist. After marriage, Yan moved back to the US, where he pursued a career specific to user research. In the last few years, Yan has been particularly interested in the impact of AI on the future of user research work (and vice versa). Last year, he started speaking publicly about the impact of neurodiversity on his career.

Accommodation requests

If you have any accommodation requests, please contact us in advance of the event to discuss.

Join us for a casual end-of-summer/beginning-of-fall accessibility social. Chat about your favorite accessibility topics, meet new people, and discuss what you'd like to learn at future events.

Food and drinks are available to purchase from a variety of food carts. This event is no-host (each participant pays for their own food/drinks), but there's no obligation to buy something to attend.

Seating area and restrooms are wheelchair accessible, via side/rear entrance. Location is accessible by public transit from multiple nearby bus lines, there is bike parking out front, and street parking is available nearby.

See hinterlandpdx.com or call (503) 231-4333 for more details about Hinterland.

Cancelled Sorry, due to unforeseen events this event is cancelled. We hope you can join us for our events in November and December!

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Adam McBride-Smith will present on state-level initiatives around the country to meet the DOJ’s new ADA Title II rule, including ongoing efforts in Oregon.

About the presenter

Adam McBride-Smith is a Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA), a Accessible Document Special-ist (ADS), and a JAWS Certified tester. He has worked as a digital accessibility and UX consultant for several organizations, including Community Vision, Clackamas: Health Housing and Human Services, and the City of Portland.

He is currently the Digital Accessibility Strategist at Oregon Health Authority and a member of the state’s Electronic Portal Advisory Board and the Multistate Digital Accessibility Collaborative. He also teaches a class on Digital Accessibility at Portland State University.

Happiness can feel elusive when we have to deal with matters such as team politics and corporate dysfunction. In this talk, Lizz will share some of her insights about the art of building great solutions, focusing on how fostering positive “heartsets” (like mindsets, but emotional states) can help sustain our souls and improve our teams’ outcomes.

About Lizz Bacon Having been in the field of digital product design and development for 25 years, Lizz Bacon knows that the work can be very challenging. Devise Consulting