UXCampLondon has been the best UX event I’ve attended so far. Maybe because it was because I helped organize it, or that it was all of us presenting such amazing stuff, or that the team was so fantastic, or that the sponsors were so awesome or that Addlestones provided cider perks for the barcampers at the end of the day – a perfect treat out next to the Thames. No, it was a combination of all of the above, and more.
Presentations
Because I was half keeping an eye on the food order, I didn’t get to see all the presentations I wanted. But those I attended were really insightful:
Stuart Cruickshank‘s UX for Search presentation provided insightful thoughts about better search interfaces because seriously, we’ve been stuck with old pagination paradigms for ages.
Angela Arnold made some insightful propositions for the use of images as internal tools to effectively communicate user needs to stakeholders – which I will definitely attempt to apply in my existing projects.
Alex gave a good talk about personalization – a tricky thing to design for, but no less compelling. A key takeaway – do users tend only to personalize things that they are familiar with, that they know they can’t mess up? E.g. sorting a sock drawer < theme-ing a Windows XP desktop < pimping an automobile.
I had a lot of fun at Darren‘s session playing team-building games, a nice break and bit of variety from all the other presentations.
Cennydd and Dees‘s discussion panel about location was really engaging – a lot of people sharing their thoughts and perspectives on what we really mean when we say “location” – x/y coordinates are not used in the same context as “in the pub with me mates”.
My own presentation on Diary Studies went fairly well. I was really nervous, but I think based on comments and questions from people showed they got good things out of it, and I was delightfully surprised to hear some perspectives about Diary Studies from other people as well – particularly how Diary Studies can be used to explore the entire user journey of a person.
Organizing UXCampLondon
Working with the team was absolutely brilliant. I got to know some really great people, and seeing it all come together and how everything sort of fell into place was just fantastic. I volunteered to help sort out the food order for the day and that was well received, so despite all the madness of ordering Indian food (waiters passing the buck, failed promises on call returns, GPS-less cab delivery) it all went well in the end. Suffice to say, you’d be better off ordering from somewhere else other than Dawat from Tooting. Mark my words.
The Awesome UX Community
I really love being a part of the UX community here. It’s small enough that you do meet some familiar faces fairly often, but big enough that you meet new people who are genuinely interested in building better experiences. It’s also amazing to meet ex-UCLIC students who are now established in the industry, like David Whittle and Whan Kim, and even more amazing to learn crazy stories like how I almost bought a used copy of Bodyspace a year ago from David and realizing that it got sold at the last minute this another guy who turned out to be Fabien.
Perks
- Meeting Jesse James Garrett and Kate Rutter from Adaptive Path a day before the event
- Free flow of cider from Addlestones at the end, and drinks on tab courtesy of Saros
- Hanging out after the event in front of the Thames
- Free FOOD – esp. sushi from Matsuba om nom nom nom – thanks to Amberlight and Vodafone
- eBay/Gumtree offices FTW
Best Posts on Twitter about #uxcamplondon
- mahemoff: “please don’t take a photo of the wifi key and put it on flickr” #uxcamplondon
- proactivepaul: being unqualified is the best qualification for ux @cdewsnip #uxcamplondon
- bash: This representation of Twitter search results makes me very happy. http://twitpic.com/eu4iq #uxcamplondon
- sjjh: @DominicTravers finds out what happens when you’re late for a talk at #uxcamplondon http://twitpic.com/eu4rs
- andybudd: Sometimes I worry that UX people over think and over complicate problems a lot of the time! #uxcamplondon
- mahemoff: Just realised eBay owns gumtree, that’s why they’re in the same building #uxcamplondon #duhMoments
- Cennydd: “Methodologies… I think we did all of them.” #uxcamplondon
- adrianh: Wait… what was my talk title again? (wanders off to the board to check…) #uxcamplondon
- Cennydd: “In the beginning… was the command line” – @joelanman in ‘The Power of Text Interfaces’ #uxcamplondon
- eyetie: “the best way to make people passionate about your business is to make them better at what they’re already passionate about.” #uxcamplondon
- andybudd: @Cennydd’s online game avatar is acute girl with pigtails! #uxcamplondon
- twhume: OH: “the hardcore market is male dominated” #uxcamplondon
- cyberdees: Addlestones and The Thames #uxcamplondon http://twitpic.com/eviwo
- dominictravers: To me, this slide represents my worst UI nightmare #uxcamplondon – http://mobypicture.com/?633l5g
I’m looking forward to the next one!
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