Events coming soon

I’ve been busy with work, so I haven’t had time to post anything for a couple of weeks now, but here are a couple of tips/reminders for upcoming events:

Talk: Caroline Jarrett, “Label Placement in Forms”, Cambridge, May 19th

I have blogged about this talk already, and some of you may remember that Helen Sargan mentioned it again at the University Web Liaison meeting on May 6th.

Caroline Jarrett is the leading expert in good design of forms on webpages. They are a ubiquitous feature of websites, but it is hard to get them right, and make them usable and intuitive. Come along to find out what you need to know.

Venue: Needham Building, Microsoft Research, JJ Thompson Ave, Cambridge

Workshop: Steve Krug and Lou Rosenfeld, London, May 21st/22nd

If you can get someone to pay for you to go, there are still tickets available for these two day-long workshops, being held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.

On May 20th, Lou Rosenfeld looks at interpreting and using site search analytics, but the one that I think would really appeal to you, dear reader, is Steve Krug’s one-day “Don’t Make Me Think” workshop, on Thursday, May 22nd, where he will explain discount usability testing. It looks great, and I wish I could go… but no money.

If people know of more events, please do let me know, and I will post details here for all to see.

Filed under: Events, caroline jarrett, lou rosenfeld, steve krug, talk, upa, usability, workshop

Computational Information Design write-up

Ben Fry – Computational Information Design

Making sense of huge datasets! (Microsoft Research, Cambridge, 23.04.2009)

Well, that was a pretty impressive talk. Visualising the information contained within massive sets of data is a big challenege, and something that researchers in a range of fields face every day. Designers can help to bridge the gap between aesthetics and functionality, and help make information usable.

Filed under: Events, Review, ben fry, complexity, data, design, simplification, talk, vis, visua, visualisation, visualization

Ben Fry – “Exploring the role of visualisation in research”

A bit last minute, but Ben Fry is giving a talk over at Microsoft Research (on JJ Thompson Ave, just off Madingley Rd… you can take the Uni 4 bus there) this Thursday, at 11am. The large lecture theatre there has 126 seats, so lots of space – no need to register, I am assured: just turn up.

I think this talk is part of the Joined-Up Ecology seminar, which is running this week. From the abstract, this talk looks really interesting, and although it doesn’t mention ecology, it does mention data visualisation, design, and bringing together disparate approaches…

Filed under: Events, News, ben fry, data, design, microsoft, processing, software, talk, visualisation, visualization

“Information Visualization for Knowledge Discovery”

Professor Ben Schneiderman speaking at Microsoft Research Cambridge, March 5th, 2009.

Here’s a bit of background: http://www.ukupa.org.uk/cambridge/archives/000627.html

The audience at Ben Schneiderman's talk (photo {cc} from Tim Regan's photostream, Flickr)

I was lucky to have been quick-off-the-mark, and get my name down to go to this talk, since it sold out very quickly, apparently. I say sold out, but by some miracle of sponsorship or goodwill, it was entirely free! Lucky us. I found it very engaging, and it gave me lots to think about. And I spell visualisation with an “s”, OK? It just doesn’t seem right with a “z”!

I was able to scribble down a few notes and interesting quotes, and if anything, they might be enough to encourage you to go off and read more about the subject. How it all applies to your web site / app / interface / whatever… well, that’s up to you to think about!  🙂

Filed under: Events, Review, data, information, interface, seminar, talk, usability, user, visualisation