Adaptive Path’s (AP) UX Week event is coming up in August, 11th through 15th: 8/11-8/15 2008. The 11th, however, is for registration and reception only, so it’s really a four (4) day seminar.
If you have attended previous UX Weeks, and have thoughts about it that others could benefit from, please post them via comments, below.
Basically the days are divided in to lectures, in the morning, and workshops in the afternoon. This, to me, seems an “inside out” approach: If I were a lecturer, I’d prefer to speak in the morning. As an attendee, however, I certainly prefer to attend workshops in the morning, when my brain is more elastic, fresh and receptive. Then sit for lectures in the afternoon (workshops begin at 2 pm), when I’m usually ready to put the gray matter in a more passive reception mode (aka cruise control).
I wonder what percentage of attendees work in SF, and will likely have to work part of the day, thus choose between lectures and workshops? They may prefer the current arrangement, but I assume them to be a minority. Perhaps AP’s Events Manager knows?
In any case, the schedule doesn’t seem to represent the most user-centered arrangement. And for the price, $2295.00 (to May’s end, after which $200. more is tacked on), it certainly should be arranged to benefit attendees more then paid lecturers.
I’d like to hear Don Norman and Peter Merholz discuss… things. And though I do not yet know of many of the other UX Week speakers, this in itself is no measure of what they can offer.
For my part, the workshops are the real draw. In particular:
- Design Management for User Experience
- Good Design Faster (Brandon is the mac daddy)
- Storytelling for User Experience Design
- Become a Sticky Ninja
- Unpacking Stories to Serve People Better
- Design is Made of People
Unfortunately, most of these are concurrent, so I’ll have to make some tough choices. More to follow….
Hopefully AP will provide frequent schedule updates.
I expect the event to be as great as all of AP’s extremely fun, intelligent, and invaluable events. The only question remaining, in my mind, is of day 3 (8/14), which seems—if my assumption is not mistaken&mdahs;a sort of placeholder. I’d expect the “field trip” to the Exploratorium to be replaced. Personally I’d prefer to explore AP’s offices (and projects). It is sort of surprising, given the otherwise rich presentation and workshop lineup, to see a full afternoon at a museum (one most frequented by K-12 students). But perhaps it is just a placeholder, TBD… if maybe a little later than AP would like.
As event schedule updates come about I’m encouraging my dear readers to comment:
Leave a Reply