Tag Archives: london

Useful London-based UX Social Network sites

photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wordridden/2993726470/

This is for the benefit of those who are interested to know more about the UX community here in the UK, although these resources are mostly London-based, with spillover membership from Brighton folks.

They’ve been extremely valuable for me as a budding UX practitioner.

http://london-ia.ning.com/ or Google “london ia ning”

Many, if not most, UX practitioners use this Ning site as their social network. If there was ever a one-stop community for London/UK-based HCI/UX practitioners, this is it.

Other groups (more job spam, less discussion)

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/london_usability/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/london-ia/
These two Yahoo groups are also popular for general posts. If you want a constant feed of employment opportunities (internships, job openings, volunteer opportunities, events, training, etc.), sign-up here.

IXDA.org

Not quite London-based, but has a lot of useful and practical discussions every single day. Members are mostly States-side, but is becoming increasingly international (UK esp.). Experts like Dan Saffer and Jared Spool regularly post content, which helps regulate a lot of discussions informally. Extremely useful and highly recommended.

UPA UK Chapter, http://www.ukupa.org.uk/

I think it’s worth becoming a member. Monthly events, free to members (free booze and snacks, good speaker content).

UX Book Club, http://uxbookclub.org/doku.php?id=london

You get to trash-talk your usability textbooks and classics here. Last month, we shot holes through Buxton’s Sketching book. This month, we’re doing Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. A good way to meet people because it’s more intimate and you talk about something in common.

Pretty much the same people end up going to these events because the UX community here is quite small. Plus, there are lots of current and ex-UCLIC students, so it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

Any that I may have missed out?

Will be attending Barcamp London 6

I just got my ticket at the very last moment yesterday, and I was psyched. And then I realized the event is taking place much sooner than I realized – this weekend. Anyway, I’m prepared to go. I sort of have an idea about what I’d like to talk about, although I’m not quite sure I will be talking. If I do, it’ll probably be about getting feedback from people who have used the Kohana PHP framework and what they think about it.

I’m not entirely sure there’ll be UX people there. Probably more developers. But I’m thinking there might be interesting things that will surface related to UX, like gestural interfaces and stuff. Who knows. This is my first Barcamp. I know nothing!

I remember that there was a Barcamp that took place about a year ago in Kuala Lumpur that I chose not to attend. I didn’t think it was going to be as exciting as the Barcamps that were taking place elsewhere. I guess I have this poor impression of the scene back home, but that’s not very healthy.

Need to make a list of stuff to bring.