During SXSW I was able to attend Timothy Jordan’s talk on designing and developing for Google Glass. I’m somewhere in here – a photo taken directly from Jordan’s Glass:

Two things struck me from the videos that I’ve seen from Google’s promotional videos:

1) The 100% hands off view is not totally accurate, as you’re touching, taping and swiping the side of the Glass often, and 2) the “augmented view” is also not 100% what has been imagined from the movies or other early phone based, or game based augmented reality experiences.

Today’s Dallas Digital Summit started with Alexis Ohanian (reddit and hipmunk fame) talking about how the internet is changing everything. And in his talks he touched on some aspects of product development – things like shipping, getting a MVP product out the door, and making sure customers find value in what you’re creating.

It’s good to get a startup vibe to start off the day – and I’m really passionate about bringing this vibe to other organizations. I think as User Experience Designers we’re in the right place to help change organizations – so it makes sense that things like the Lean UX mirrors elements of the Lean Startup movement and Agile Development.

So lets make things, great things, well designed things – build/measure/test – and may you ship as often as possible.

Here’s my presentation from today’s UX session @ Dallas Digital Summit:

#DDSUM12

If you like a combination of the following: design, user experience, technology, games, art, travel and the internet let me provide you the news. Yes, I actually enjoy sifting through the news, so that you don’t have to – and I bet I’ll do a better job than your news reader (that is if we have similar interests!).

My wife has a strong passion for the political process, and as long as I’ve know her, she has worked hard help make things better. She been involved with many local campaigns, helping behind the scenes, and when an opportunity came up recently, with an out of touch incumbent going on his 6th term – she jumped into the race with both feet.

Today I gave a short presentation on “Taking Your Content Mobile” at Open Camp here in Dallas. It’s now easier than ever to quickly create a mobile specific version of your site using a few simple tools/plug-ins. If you’re not ready now, you’ll need to start thinking about it – and I’ll show you your options.

I’ve received some great comments, questions, and kudos from my IA Summit and Big Design talks on Mobile Strategy, and I’ve heard from a good number of people that they’re using the presentation to make decisions about mobile strategy on their own (which is great!). I did put together a couple of quick worksheets that could help turn the presentation into a mini-workshop for anyone trying to make decisions about what to do in mobile.

If you’re an Interaction Designer, I’m sure you’ve noticed a new design pattern in the past year – one that doesn’t really seem to have a proper name yet. In fact, you’re probably already incorporating this pattern into your designs. It seems like almost every major redesign is leveraging this pattern to help hide complexity: Amazon, Linkedin, TripAdvisor – and sites like Target, Google, and Yahoo have been using it for awhile. It’s a design pattern I’m calling “Revealing Interfaces”.

I’ll be speaking to the Refresh Dallas group about the Mobile Web this Thursday (10/11) at IMC2. Over the past year I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with a couple different mobile projects, and in the process have learned a great deal about the mobile space. I’ve had to evangelize XHTML-MP, figure out how to test on mobile devices, and give overviews of mobile technology to an assortment of internal teams. So I figured it was time to share the wealth. My goal with this presentation is to help other designers and developers move to the small screen, and create a great mobile experience.

User Experience has been defined and visually demonstrated many times before, but I’ve never really seen the “nuts-and-bolts” of a User Experience project listed in a way that’s easy to understand. I’ve come across many people who just don’t know what goes into a UX project, and also don’t know what resources should be on a UX project. By breaking out all the pieces I’m able to solve multiple problems with one graphic…

Where do you go to look for new hires? Monster.com maybe? What if you’re looking for that perfect culture fit, an individual that both has the skills and that je ne sais quoi you’re looking for?

Monster.com can easily tell you (if they are telling the truth) the skill set of a person, years they’ve been working in a field, etc… – but how can you tell if they are a culture fit for you and your company? Of course at some point you’ll need to meet with the person and have a lunch or two, but here are some shortcuts that help you tell beforehand. Sometimes you can get a feel for the person not by what they post, but where they post their resume, or by what job boards they are searching.

Sometimes you need to look beyond the mainstream and into the fringe…