User Experience #uxcamplondon
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Lifestyle Saturday
Uncharacteristically more mature than any other barcamp style event that I have ever been to (and I think that’s 8 or 9 of them now) today’s #uxcamplondon was thoroughly stimulating and satisfying. The laid back and low key approach of the organising team allowed the delegates to take the lead (as they should at a barcamp) and I noticed a lot of first timers engaging in purposeful dialogue right from the outset. And there were many newbies!
There were clearly a lot of intelligent people in Richmond today and they knew their stuff. I learnt something both new and profound at every single session. My own session didn’t materialise this time, because (a) I’m still learning about UX and (b) my side project seems to have become more of a side-lined project. It will be a while before it’s launched on an unsuspecting public. In all seriousness, if #uxcamplondon2010 takes place next summer I might just be ready.
One thing that I did miss was the open space and the introductions that usually happen at the start of these unconferences. Having 90 people in one room would have made it unwieldy, but perhaps splitting them into 3 groups of 30 would have helped. At Barcamp London 6 they divided 150 of us into 10 groups for the 3 Tags introductions. That way, you at least get a feel for who some of these people are, and as a newbie you might then find someone you can easily connect with (not that I’m a newbie). Apart from that, the organisation was slick and things ran very well.
There was no goodie bag at the start. There is no t-shirt. There was free cider. That means that there was no clutter for me to bring home and clutter up my flat with! So that’s a vote in favour of freebies in the form of food and drink. No baggage! All I took home was the memory of a great day and a few tips and tricks which I have learnt from the professionals.
What did I learn? There will be a progress bar on my app when it’s launched. There will be as many buttons as I need, but as few as I can get away with. There will be a balance between content over form and form over content. There will be a structure and a sound underlying ERD, but there will also be some flair and I may need to buy-in that sort of creative expertise. With any luck it will come with a built-in tutorial! However, there will most assuredly, be a long interval before anything happens.
I think the snatched conversations in the corridors of any barcamp are often the most valuable bits of the whole event. I’m on the uncommittee for Barcamp London 7 and PresentationCamp London, and I think I will be advocating more open space and more time for ad hoc discussion; a morning coffee break and an afternoon break might serve the purpose.
Barcamp London 7 will be more of the same traditional Barcamp experience. PresentationCamp is all about polishing your presentation skills whether you’re a geek or not, and whether your style is Lo Tech or Hi Tech. If you’re free on Thursday evening 27 Aug 2009, I’m giving a short talk in Victoria on the use of Lo Tech visual aids. It’s not directly related to PresentationCamp, but my speaking club is a lot of fun. You’re welcome to come along as my guest. There will be other speakers - not just me - and entrance is free!
Anyway, staging an event of the complexity of #uxcamplondon is not easy. I greatly appreciate the time that the Team put in, and the generosity of Gumtree and all of the sponsors. Thank you all very much for a thoroughly refined and sophisticated user experience!
Posted on 22 August 2009 by Proactive Paul
Tags: Barcamp, barcamplondon, presentationcamp, professsional speaker, public speaker, Toastmasters, user experience, UX, uxcamplondon
