« September 2005 | Main | November 2005 »

October 31, 2005

San Francisco weather in early November

It was a beautiful day today in San Francisco. Sunny; clear skies; light winds; warm temperatures (high of 69F). And it should be very nice tonight (low expected: 54F).

But conditions are rather variable this time of year. San Francisco is known for its fog, and when it makes an appearance (as it certainly might at Fort Mason along San Francisco Bay), it can get chilly.

And though it doesn't often rain this time of year, occasional showers are presently forecast for the opening day of the conference.

Since you will be walking between different venues at Fort Mason throughout the conference, plan to dress as San Franciscan's dress: in layers, ready to shed (or add) a layer or two as conditions dictate.

And bring an umbrella just in case...

Posted by richard.anderson at 05:53 PM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2005

On-site registration

As blogged some time ago, DUX 2005 is sold out. And the waiting list got so long so quickly, we needed to stop making it longer. So, no one will be able to register anew for DUX 2005 on-site.

I repeat: NO ONE will be able to register anew for DUX 2005 on-site. If you are not already registered for the conference by Thursday, 3 November, do not come.

map.gifThose who are registered for the conference will need to visit the registration desk upon arrival at Fort Mason to pick up their conference badges and assorted conference materials. If you are one of those people, plan to arrive early! Don't risk missing out on the start of a tutorial or the opening plenary or another conference session by getting caught in a crunch of last-minute arrivals.

The registration desk opens the morning of Thursday, 3 November at 8am in Building C. Morning and full-day tutorials begin at 9am. Afternoon tutorials begin at 1:30pm. (All tutorials will be held in Building C.)

The registration desk moves from Building C to the Cowell Theater lobby shortly after the start of the afternoon tutorials. The opening plenary begins at 5:30pm in the Cowell Theater.

The initial studio tours begin at 10am on Thursday. Leave plenty of time to get to the studio tours which you have signed up for from Fort Mason, as all are located in another part of San Francisco. Note that those signed up for studio tours are welcome to go directly to the appropriate studio(s) without first heading to Fort Mason, since all the materials you should need for the studio tours are downloadable from the conference website.

The registration desk opens the mornings of Friday and Saturday, 4 and 5 November at 8am in the Cowell Theater lobby. Breakfast is served in The Firehouse beginning at 8am. The initial conference session of each day begins at 9am in the Cowell Theater.

Posted by richard.anderson at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)

Parking, driving, public transportation, ...

If you plan to drive to DUX 2005, plan to get there early. Fort Mason is an active cultural and education center with lots of concurrent events. There is quite alot of free parking, but there will often be lots of competition for it. You might have abit of a walk from where you will be able to park your car.

If you are staying at the conference hotel, we encourage you to walk or take advantage of our free shuttle service.

From other locations, consider checking to see what public transportation options are available. One of San Francisco's cable car lines ends about a block from the conference hotel. For information about bus lines with stops near the Fort Mason Center, see the Fort Mason Center website.

Driving directions from different parts of the Bay Area are also provided on the Fort Mason Center website.

Posted by richard.anderson at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)

Getting to the Fort Mason Center from the conference hotel, and vice versa

DUX 2005 is providing complimentary 22-seater shuttle service between the Argonaut Hotel and Fort Mason. You can meet the Shuttle at the Argonaut Hotel outside and to the left of the main hotel entrance. The Shuttle departing Fort Mason will leave from outside the Cowell Theater. The shuttle will run continuously about every half hour during the following times:

Interested in walking instead? The walk along San Francisco Bay between the Argonaut and Fort Mason will take you 15-20 minutes, unless you are slowed by the stunning views along the way.

Taxi service should be readily available at the hotel. However, you'll probably need to call for a taxi should you prefer one while at the Fort Mason Center. Taxi companies include Luxor (415.282.4141) and Yellow (415.626.2345).

Posted by richard.anderson at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2005

Heather Gold to emcee DUX 2005

gold.jpgWe are delighted to feature Heather Gold as DUX 2005 Master of Ceremonies.

Heather performs at venues and conferences across North America, like San Francisco's Just for Laughs Showcase 2004, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, New Media Invision Awards, Berkeley Arts Museum (Powerpoint for Peace), Silicon Valley's BlogHer and Top 25 Women of the Web Awards, Toronto's altdotcomedy, Austin's SxSW and Vortex Rep, and New York's Gotham Comedy Club. She contributes to many shows and publications, including the Toronto Globe and Mail, shift magazine, TechTV's Silicon Spin, The Learning Channel, The San Jose Mercury News, and her own popular subvert.com.

Heather spent years on the business side of the entertainment and media world. She followed and help further the promising path of digital convergence which she felt would eventually democratize distribution of art and media. Heather worked in strategic roles at New Line, CD-ROM pioneer Knowledge Adventure, Apple Computer's first music group which pioneered webcasting, and as a commentator for Yahoo Financevision. She also sat on the Advisory Board of SxSW Interactive for 4 years and has been a Webby humour judge and member of the International Academy of Arts and Digital Sciences since 2000.

Listen to Heather talk about DUX 2005 on an upcoming TechNation on U.S. public radio.

And, of course, hear, see, and meet Heather next week at DUX 2005.

Posted by richard.anderson at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2005

Wi-Fi, blogging, photo taking and sharing, ...

DUX 2005 has helped move the historic Fort Mason Center into the 21st century via its installation of a permanent wireless network in time for the conference. Hence, conference attendees will be provided with wireless network access in all Fort Mason Center conference venues. We ask conference attendees to refrain from taxing the network so to not jeopardize the quality of service it can provide.

Do you plan to blog your experiences during the conference? If you do, please let us know.

Note that audio or video recording is not permitted during conference sessions. However, should you take still photos during the conference (non-flash if in the Cowell Theater!), we encourage you to share the photos via flickr (use the tag "dux05").

Posted by richard.anderson at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2005

Breakfasts, lunches, and coffee breaks

lunch.gifWondering what you'll need to do regarding daytime meals during DUX 2005?

Lunch will be provided to all those attending one of the full-day tutorials on Thursday, 3 November. Coffee and other beverages will also be provided during breaks during full-day and half-day tutorials.

On both Friday and Saturday, continental breakfast will be provided beginning at 8am -- one hour prior to the start of the opening sessions. Breakfast Friday is sponsored by FilterTalent; breakfast Saturday is sponsored by Adobe.

Lunch will also be provided both Friday and Saturday. Coffee and other beverages to be provided during mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks both Friday and Saturday are sponsored by Yahoo!

(See an earlier posting regarding food and drink to be provided during conference evenings.)

Posted by richard.anderson at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)

Job boards

Are you hiring? Are you looking for a job?

DUX 2005 will feature abit of old technology: a physical job board or two.

So, bring paper copies of your job announcements and your resumes when you come to the conference.

(The job boards can be used only by those attending the conference.)

Posted by richard.anderson at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2005

Conference receptions and the DUXBash

party.gifTo facilitate attendee networking and socializing, DUX 2005 will feature two conference receptions and a festive DUXBash.

Immediately following the opening plenary the evening of Thursday, 3 November will be the opening reception of the conference, offering a buffet dinner and breathtaking views of San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz Island. This opening reception is sponsored by BayDUX -- a coalition of San Francisco Bay Area chapters of numerous professional societies and the San Francisco Bay Area presence of UXnet, with support from Intuit.

Immediately following the last session of the day on Friday, 4 November will be a wine and cheese tasting, sponsored by AOL. An excellent collection of Wattle Creek Wines -- wines we spent a long time carefully selecting -- will be featured.

Attendance at both conference receptions is limited to DUX 2005 conference attendees.

Later Friday night is the DUXBash, a festive party to be held in a popular art gallery and nightclub in downtown San Francisco. Sponsoring the DUXBash: SAP, with support from Adaptive Path. This is the one conference event we are opening up to more than DUX 2005 attendees, but attendance is limited to those who have received special event tickets in advance.

Posted by richard.anderson at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2005

To take home with you...

DUX 2005 attendees will have an opportunity to take alot of things home with them following the conference.

Would you like to take home a SONY PlayStation? Champion sponsor SAP plans to have a drawing for 2 or 3 PlayStations during the conference; be sure to visit their exhibit for drawing details.

tshirt.gifAlso be sure to visit Champion sponsor AOL's exhibit where you will be able to pick up your DUX 2005 t-shirt.

Champion sponsor Yahoo! has a mix of goodies it is planning to give away, both at its exhibit and during the Yahoo! coffee breaks. (The Yahoo! folks asked me to keep the details of their give-aways a secret, but I think you'll find them highly desirable.)

And you'll have an opportunity to accumulate alot of good reading materials. Among them, three outstanding magazines:

Ambidextrous Magazine is a project of the Stanford d.school. It is an independent magazine for the wider design community, which seeks to include everyone involved and interested in design, from engineers and ethnographers, to psychologists and philosophers. Ambidextrous exposes the people and processes of design. The magazine is geared toward high subscriber participation and interaction. It is expressly designed to be informal, irreverent, and fun to read.

Interactions Magazine is the HCI magazine dedicated to the practitioner. The magazine tries to be the voice of today's user experience designers, in much the same way that DUX is their conference. The magazine is a publication of ACM SIGCHI but is open to involvement from many different groups. Authors and contributors of the magazine represent groups such as ACM SIGGRAPH, IxDA, AIGA, IDSA, UPA, etc. The magazine remains an open venue for thought-provoking commentary, helpful techniques and methods, and the occasional humorous piece.

I.D. Magazine is America's leading critical magazine covering the art, business and culture of design. Winner of five National Magazine Awards -- four for General Excellence (1995, 1997 and 1999, 2000) and one for Design (1997) -- the publication appears eight times a year. Issues include the Annual Design Review, America's largest and most prestigious juried design-recognition program, published since 1954. The Design Review showcases the best American and international design in the areas of Consumer Products, Furniture, Equipment, Environments, Packaging, Graphics, Concepts and Student Projects.

So, if you are traveling to DUX 2005 from outside of the San Francisco Bay Area, leave abit of extra space in your luggage.

Posted by richard.anderson at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2005

A bit more on Edward Tenner's closing plenary presentation

The DUX 2005 website provides Edward Tenner's impressive bio, and an earlier blog posting provides pointers to additional information about Dr. Tenner.

tenner.jpgBut, how about a title and abstract for Edward's presentation? Here they are:

Unintentional Design: Uses of the Unexpected

New materials and processes are often greeted as exciting opportunities for design. But their very pace makes it more difficult than ever to foresee the consequences of innovation. With the ubiquity of the web, both positive and negative surprises can arise not just from overlooked physical and chemical processes, but also from complex biological and social interactions. The history of technology, design, and society suggests that a balance between a strong personal vision and an openness to innovation by users makes possible successful adaptation to the unforseen.

The closing plenary session of DUX 2005 will occur the afternoon of Saturday, 5 November beginning at 4pm.

Posted by richard.anderson at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

Invited panel announced

The DUX 2005 Program Chairs are pleased to announce the composition of the invited panel session to be presented during the afternoon of Friday, 4 November.

Suzanne Stefanac, interactive media strategist and author of the soon-to-be-published "Dispatches from Blogistan," will moderate a discusion among:

This dynamic panel will address a wide range of issues of importance to the many disciplines that constitute designing for user experience.

Posted by richard.anderson at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2005

Posters

poster.gifLooking for an extended opportunity to discuss accepted submissions with their authors?

The Program Chairs are pleased to introduce posters to the DUX conference this year. Posters for 19 submissions will be on display in the Bayfront Gallery along the edge of the pier throughout the conference.

Two special conference sessions will highlight posters and provide attendees with the opportunity to pose questions to poster authors. Ten posters will comprise a session entitled, "Visualization"; the remaining nine will be highlighted during a session entitled, "Engaging User Needs in the Design Process."

Lunch will be provided during both sessions.

Posted by richard.anderson at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2005

Tutorial & studio tour reminder

Those of you who have registered for DUX 2005 can access your registration record in order to sign up for one or more studio tours or in order to snag one of the few remaining tutorial seats.

A few seats remain in the following three tutorials:

And studio tour slots are rapidly filling up.

So, don't delay. (But, of course, be sure to NOT sign up for a studio tour that is being conducted at the time of a tutorial for which you have registered. Indeed, all tutorials and studio tours occur during the day of Thursday, 3 November.)

Posted by richard.anderson at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)

Brought to you by... (part 2)

yahoo_logo.jpgIn an earlier posting, I identified the professional societies that are supporting DUX 2005 in various ways, highlighting the key role of the three major sponsoring societies: AIGA, ACM SIGGRAPH, and ACM SIGCHI.

DUX 2005 is also made possible by generous contributions by multiple corporate sponsors.

sap80.jpgSpecial thanks go to our major sponsors -- the DUX 2005 Champion Sponsors: SAP, AOL, and Yahoo!

Additional thanks go to our two Benefactors, sponsoring the conference at a level just below that of the Champions: Autodesk and Sun Microsystems.

Thanks also go to our long list of "Sponsor" sponsors: Dubberly Design Office, Hot Studio, Pentagram, Cooper, Google, Avenue A | Razorfish, Arc Worldwide, MetaDesign, Stone Yamashita Partners, Adaptive Path, Ambidextrous, and TechSmith...

AOLnew.jpg...as well as to the "Friends" of DUX 2005: Intuit, Adobe, and FilterTalent.

We applaud these sponsors' recognition of the importance of DUX 2005 and of the importance of designing for user experience to business success.

Posted by richard.anderson at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2005

Experience San Francisco, courtesy of DUX 2005 and Nathan Shedroff

coit2.gifDUX 2005 is delighted to bring you "Experience San Francisco" by Nathan Shedroff, one of the pioneers in designing for user experience.

Nathan has put together an exciting and curious guide to San Francisco. a pdf of which is downloadable from the DUX 2005 website. This is Nathan's view on one of the most eclectic and beautiful cities in the world. So, don't sit back and relax, but get up and go and let Nathan be your guide through this unique and culturally diverse wonder of the world.

Nathan's guide and experiencing San Francisco are available to anyone, not just to conference attendees.

[Nathan Shedroff consults, writes (including the book Experience Design I published in 2000), speaks, and teaches internationally. His current focus is on the creation of meaning and meaningful experiences. He is a long-time resident and fan of San Francisco.

Nathan earned a BS in Industrial Design, with an emphasis on Automobile Design from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. However, fear of Detroit, coupled with a passion for information design, led Nathan into this arena, where he worked with Richard Saul Wurman at TheUnderstandingBusiness. Later, he co-founded vivid studios, a pioneering company in interactive media. vivid's hallmark was helping to establish and validate the field of information architecture, by training an entire generation of designers in the newly emerging Web industry.]

Posted by richard.anderson at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2005

World Usability Day and DUX 2005

world-u-day-square.jpgThe opening day of DUX 2005 -- Thursday, 3 November -- is also World Usability Day, "a day created to help everyone know more about the ways to help create a better user experience of our world."

In more than 70 cities in 35 countries, events will promote awareness of the benefits of usability engineering and user-centered design.

The initial events of World Usabilty Day will occur in New Zealand. The final event will occur 36 hours later in San Francisco.

The events of World Usability Day will be highlighted during the DUX 2005 opening plenary session. And BayDUX, primary sponsor of the reception to follow the opening plenary, has designated the opening plenary reception a World Usability Day event. As Keith Instone wrote to me, "whoever drinks the last beer at the reception will officially close World Usability Day." (Keith, who has helped in the development of World Usability Day, will be at DUX 2005 and may very well be the person who drinks the last beer.)

Posted by richard.anderson at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2005

A bit more on Bill Irwin's opening plenary presentation

The DUX 2005 website provides Bill Irwin's impressive bio, and an earlier blog posting details the themes of Bill's involvement in the conference.

irwin.jpgSo, how about a title and abstract for Bill's presentation? Here they are:

"The Language of the Body": Lecture-Demonstration

Bill Irwin's lifelong fascination with the language of the body has fueled his work as a performer. He has deep expertise in performing-experience design across several ancient and highly evolved disciplines, with much for digital designers to learn.

In this special lecture-demonstration, Irwin offers insights from his years on stage about the physicality of communication and his own use of the body's language. Can the performer predict audience responses? How does a human performer optimally manage the audience's focus and distraction from moment to moment? How do performers collaborate to create more than they expected, and sail into uncharted territory? Improvisation can be considered a model for software to truly adapt to the user, instead of the reverse.

The opening plenary session of DUX 2005 will occur the evening of Thursday, 3 November beginning at 5:30pm.

Posted by richard.anderson at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2005

Waiting list is now closed

As blogged last week, DUX 2005 is sold out.

The waiting list is already longer than we are likely to be able to convert into registrations. So, to not give any additional people false hopes, we have decided to close down the ability to lengthen the list even more.

Thank you all for your interest in attending DUX 2005.

Posted by richard.anderson at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2005

Studio tour signup begins

studio.gifThose of you who are registered for DUX 2005 are invited to sign up for the studio tours to be conducted during the first day of the conference -- Thursday, 3 November.

As stated in an earlier blog entry, fifteen studios have been selected to showcase the rich variety of practices in San Francisco. Visits to the studios will combine guided office tours, demos, and presentations. Studio personnel will share their stories, explaining how their philosophy, culture, and process shape their unique approach.

You must reserve a place on each tour you plan to attend. Places are given on a first-come first-served basis, and you are free to sign up to visit as many studios as you like. However, please be realistic about the number of tours you can attend (the website provides some guidance), as places are limited. (And be sure to not sign up for a studio tour that takes place while you are in a tutorial!)

Studio tours are open only to those who are registered for DUX 2005.

For more information and to sign up, go to the studio tours page on the conference website.

Posted by richard.anderson at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2005

DUX 2005 is sold out

Registration for the DUX 2005 conference is now closed.

If you had intended to register but were not able to do so before now, go to the registration page on the conference website and add your name to the waiting list. We will be processing the waiting list over the next few days and will attempt to keep people on it informed of the status of that processing.

Those who have already registered can still access their registration record via the link provided to them via email subsequent to registering. This link can be used to make corrections to their record, add a tutorial (a few seats remain for a subset of the tutorials), etc.

In earlier blog entries and in numerous mailing list postings, we encouraged early registration as we expected to sell all available seats. We hope you will be among those joining us for DUX 2005.

Posted by richard.anderson at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2005

Submission reviewers and mentors

Thanks to all the thoughtful and hardworking reviewers and mentors of submissions to DUX 2005, who gave generously of their time, advice, and hard-won experience.

Reviewers:

Richard Anderson, John Armitage, Audrey Bennett, Todd Bentley, Kenneth Berger, Beth Berrean, Jacob Biehl, Brian, Blau, Agnieszka Bojko, Claudia Brenner, Marion Brown, Jakob Bruhns, Sam Bucolo, Natalie Buda, Jacob Burghardt, Wendy Castleman, Eugene Chen, Jiangping Chen, George Christou, James Combs, Jane Coughlan, Murray Crease, Abe Crystal, David Danielson, Scott Davidoff, Dena DeBry, Jean-Yves Delort, Janna DeVylder, Clark Dodsworth, Hugh Dubberly, Marc Fabri, Mark FelcanSmith, Jodi Forlizzi, Nate Fortin, Brooke Foucault, Timothy French, Nancy Frishberg, Uday Gajendar, Carrie Gilbert, Steven Gilman, Steve Gilmore, Elizabeth Goodman, Jeff Gothelf, John Grimes, Jaime Guerrero, Steve Harrison, Carrie Heeter, Mike Herold, DJ Hoets, David Hoffer, Matthew Holloway, Stefan Holmlid, Shamsi Iqbal, Frankie James, Gabe Johnson, Casey Jones, Syahrul Junaini, Kyeong Kang, Thomas Kannampallil, Charalampos Karagiannidis, Joseph 'Jofish' Kaye, Jesper Kjeldskov, Jon Kolko, Per-Ola Kristensson, Thomas Koltringer, Edward Lank, JoRoan Lazaro, Nicole Lazzaro, Riad Lemhachheche, Nancy Lightner, Min Lin, Marcus Lynch, Catriona Macaulay, Sascha Mahlke, Erin Malone, Eliana Martella, Helena Mentis, Michel Milano, Jessica Miller, Kevin Mitchell, Lena Miyamoto, Andrew Vande Moere, Jaime Montemayor, Robert Mori, Sudhindra Venkatesha Murthy, Doug Murray, Guadalupe Munoz, Raquel Navarro-Prieto, Ken Ohnemus, Aaron Oppenheimer, Erika Orrick, Joseph O'Sullivan, Benoit Otjacques, Haunani Pao, Katerina Pastra, John Payne, David Pinelle, Lubomir Popov, Steve Portigal, Scott Preece, Rakhi Rajani, Frank Ramirez, Jens Riegelsberger, David Robertson, Scott Robertson, Andres Rodriguez, Ruben Rohde, Stacie Rohrbach, Dan Saffer, Daniel Salber, Justine Sanderson, Tania Schlatter, Garrick Schmitt, Stuart Schmukler, N. Sadat Shami, Brian Smith, Juhan Sonin, Molly Steenson, Mark Stringer, Simone Stumpf, Sriram Subramanian, Ann Sunhachawee, Terry Swack, Ronnie Taib, Jennifer Thom-Santelli, Bettina Thurnher, Michael Tuminello, Manas Tungare, Michael Twidale, Frank Vetere, Annette Wagner, Jim Waters, Alan Wexelblat, Mikael Wiberg, Todd Wilkens, Maria Wimmer, Susan Wolfe, Bryan Wu, Susan Wyche, Lu Xiao, Lu Yan, Nicole Yankelovich, Calvin C. Yu, Danielle Zeedick, Betsy Zeller

Mentors:

Peter Benson, Matt Cottam, Clark Dodsworth, Elizabeth Dykstra-Erickson, Meghan Ede, Nancy Frishberg, Barb Helfer, David Heller, Judee Humburg, A. J. Kim, Dirk Knemeyer, John Payne, Vesna Popovic, Whitney Quesenberry, Rakhi Rajani, Marc Rettig, Michal Ann Rogodino, Garrett Schmitt, Rashmi Sinha, Mitchell Yawitz

Posted by richard.anderson at 01:27 AM | Comments (0)

October 07, 2005

Volunteer applications no longer being accepted

Many thanks to those who have offered to help out during the conference by assisting conference attendees and speakers, supporting conference sessions and events, etc.

We've had an overwhelming response to our call for volunteers, and we no longer need any additional offers.

If you have already volunteered your services but have not yet been contacted, send email to Volunteer Chair Teresa Hardy via volunteer@dux2005.org.

Posted by richard.anderson at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)

Lodging near the Fort Mason Center

Rooms in the Argonaut Hotel at the conference rate are no longer available (see previous blog entry).

Additional hotels located near the Fort Mason Center include:

Posted by richard.anderson at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)

October 04, 2005

San Francisco's Fort Mason Center

ft_mason_72dpi.jpg

We are delighted DUX 2005 will be held at San Francisco's Fort Mason Center, located in the historic piers and buildings of Lower Fort Mason.

As described on the Center's website:

"This former military base offers the opportunity to experience diversity in a unique environment, focusing on the visual and performing arts, humanities, education, ecology, and recreation.

A National Historic Landmark and part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Center houses about 35 nonprofit organizations and is the setting for more than 15,000 meetings, conferences, performances, and special events, attended by 1.5 million visitors each year."

ggbridge.jpgWith a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge to the west, DUX 2005 attendees will find themselves in the perfect setting to explore the melange -- the diversity -- the melding of multiple perspectives which comprises designing for user experience and which characterizes San Francisco.

For more information about San Francisco's Fort Mason Center (including how to get there), see http://www.fortmason.org/.

Posted by richard.anderson at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)