When you love your job, it's hard to step away, especially if you work for yourself. But focusing too much on work can can be detrimental to your health, your relationships, and even the very work you love. Finding a balance between work and life as a business owner is tough, and gets tougher when various challenges come up. Learn a few tips on how to help strike a good work life balance that works for you. Our Presenter, Angie Herrera Angie has been pushing pixels for roughly 14 years, 11 of which have been running 420 Creative, a tiny design studio based in Portland, Oregon. Having learned many of her business lessons the “hard way” and through some incredible peers, her passion for her work the industry has only strengthened over time. Angie is an avid soccer player, bike-rider, and a not-so-great golfer. When she roots, she roots for the Timbers.

Join us after the presentation for a 1-block walk to The Lucky Lab for food and libation!

The doors open to the event at 6:00pm and we will start the talk at 6:30pm sharp!

Our Topic Windows 8. Chromebook Pixel. Ubuntu Phone. These devices shatter another consensual hallucination that we web developers have bought into: mobile = touch and desktop = keyboard and mouse.

We have tablets with keyboards; laptops that become tablets; laptops with touch screens; phones with physical keyboards; and even phones that become desktop computers. Not to mention new forms of input like cameras, voice control and sensors.

One of the core things that responsive design has taught us is that we have to be comfortable with the ambiguity of not knowing what the size of our canvas is going to be. Input has that same ambiguity. It is transient. It is unknowable.

Reconciling that understanding from a design and implementation perspective is going to be as big a challenge if not bigger than the one we faced coming to grips with responsive design.

We've learned how to respond to screen size. Our next challenge is learning how to adapt to different forms of input.

Our Presenter, Jason Grigsby In 2000, Jason got his first mobile phone. He became obsessed with how the world could be a better place if everyone had access to the world's information in their pockets. But WAP was crap so he headed back to the desktop web for several years. Now Jason spends far too much time thinking about mobile. Jason is a mobile strategist, co-founder of Cloudfour and frequently speaks about mobile technology and strategy.

Join us after the event for a short walk to The Raven & Rose for food & libation.

Our Venue, eBay

eBay's Portland office is located at 1400 SW 5th Ave, in the Community Lounge on the 3rd floor. Please arrive prior to 6:30.  

Let's celebrate on December 17th!

Instead of our normal monthly talk and then drinks, this month we are going to just cut to the chase and have some drinks.

Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are on Refresh Portland! Come join us!

Our Venue We'll be holding up for a couple of hours at Bunk Bar (1028 SE Water Ave) starting at 5:30pm.

We'll have a couple of give-aways, but mostly it will just be a chance to hang out and enjoy each others company.

Please RSVP

And don't just bookmark it. Come!

Join us January 21st at 6:30pm!

Our TopicVirgin America. The New York Times. Apple. All three are design leaders and have beautiful websites.

Unbeknownst to many of us, they also have gigantic design teams, amazing product or content, and seemingly unlimited budgets - things most of us designers don’t have.

After spending several years designing large-scale responsive websites for Fortune 500 companies with mega-budgets, I now specialize in design for progressive non-profit organizations. The good news is that we can still create kick-ass design for any budget as long as we utilize solid design fundamentals, great communication, and a few tricks up our sleeves.

Some points that I’ll be covering in this talk are: How to effectively iterate on concepts Time-sucks in the design process and how to fix them Great time-saving open source tools Better communication with developers and clients

Our Presenter, Josh Riggs Josh started his UX design career back in ’02 just like most other designers - by creating a website for his metal band. Since then, he’s been a designer for various interactive agencies, a mega health care conglomerate, and an entertainment-focused Drupal consultancy.

He’s currently the Lead UX Designer at Portland-based ThinkShout, where he puts his design skills to work for non-profit organizations doing good in the world. Originally from Florida, Josh was lured to Portland by Pok Pok’s chicken wings and Blue Star’s donuts. He likes cold weather, long-exposure photography, and has a female dog named Frank.

Our Venue, ThinkShout Thanks to ThinkShout for hosting us this month! They are located at 433 NW 4th Ave, Portland OR 97209, Suite 100.

Join us, 19 February, 2015 at 6:30pm!

Our Topic "I have no idea what I'm doing."

When a new technology arrives there is a period of time in which there are no experts. The technology is so fresh and new even enthusiasts don’t know what to do with it (remember when the iPad came out?) This creates a unique opportunity for people of all skill levels to to create new things with the technology and get exposure for their work.

Being an early creator on a new platform can be an exciting experience that offers the potential for substantial rewards. From software platforms like iOS and Android to content platforms like YouTube and Vimeo and even creative markets like Etsy and Shapeways. Creators in early markets have advantages that can help propel their success.

However taking on early markets comes with substantial risks and countless challenges that can test even the most seasoned veterans. How do you answer questions that Google doesn’t know the answer to? How do you design for a piece of hardware you don’t actually have? How do you make decisions when you have no idea what you’re doing and there is no one to follow?

In this talk I will explore the challenges of working on emerging technologies and platforms through a retelling my experiences working on early iPhone and iPad apps.

Through these stories I will share key lessons I learned as well as specific tactics that can be applied to work of all forms.

Our Presenter, Josh Michaels Josh Michaels is an independent app developer and software artist based in Portland, Oregon. Josh spends most of his time working on his app series “Magic Window” which brings beautiful views from around the world to the iPad, iPhone, and Mac.

For more information on Josh including previous talks see joshjet.com. For more information on his work see jetsoncreative.com.

Our Venue, FINE Thanks to FINE for hosting us this month! They are located at 1140 SW 11th Ave, Portland OR 97205, Suite 200.