Download an MP3 of Steve Wozniak speaking at the Communitech Techworking Breakfast (35:08 duration)

“I’ve taken my Segway 108 mph without a helmet.”

And with that statement, The Woz had his audience hooked. Not that he needed a hook, mind you, as over 700 people packed into a ballroom in Waterloo to hear him speak: that’s about, oh, 670 more than the original plan had assumed, according to Iain Klugman of Communitech.

User experience, design, and usability emerged as strong themes in Steve’s talk. I especially enjoyed hearing him give credit to Jef Raskin with first instilling these values at Apple, which you’ll find at around 21:20 in the recording:

One of the things Apple is good at is keeping things simple because we got a reputation in the early days for being oriented towards simplicity and ease of use. Largely came from one guy that came and joined Steve [Jobs] and I in the early days, and Jef Raskin was his name…. He said you should always take the effort to put the design effort into your product to make it work easy and well… I took that in my head to mean, the human is more important than the technology.

Many thanks to Communitech for organizing the event! And thanks to RIM also, for buying breakfast for such a huge crowd. Word on the street is this was the largest-ever turnout for a Techworking Breakfast.

Note: I recorded the above MP3 with my iPhone’s Voice Memos application, not sure what to expect in terms of quality. To my delight, it turned out reasonably well, given the simple technical setup: it sat on a chair next to me.

Just had to share this terrific story from Trevor Mann, a colleague of mine at Primal Fusion. Trevor, flaunting the stereotypical image of an IT systems specialist (especially here in the home of Blackberry), is pretty fond of Apple’s iPhone. The other day, he had reason to feel an even fonder affection. But it was an emotional roller coaster. Here’s the story in Trevor’s words.

Two days ago I found out just how tough my iPhone actually is.

This iPhone had already survived multiple drops to the floor, including a dramatic 4-foot fall onto concrete and numerous incidents while being handled by my 2 -year-old kid. Never has the screen scratched. It’s developed only cosmetic scratches on the back and sides. So I’ve become accustomed to these everyday abuses to my phone — but nothing prepared me for this experience.

My story begins two nights ago in my basement, during a serious winter thaw. As a good home owner, I was checking my sump pump to make sure it was functioning properly, because the local weather forecast was calling for massive amounts of rain. Severe basement flooding is common in these winter scenarios. So I did my thing: I lubricated the float rod to ease its range of motion; I inspected the electrical and plumbing connections; and I made sure the water in the pit looked clear. Everything looked good so I decided to go back upstairs.

I turned around quickly because one of my kids was yelling my name — and suddenly heard an alarming “splash!”and “ka-plunk!”.

At first I thought, “Oh shoot, I dropped the WD-40 inside the sump pit full of water.” I turned back around to fish out the spray can… and to my horror (and I mean horror!) observed my iPhone shining back at me from under two feet of water. Yeah, that’s right: it was still turned ON, with a lit-up screen. I guess when it fell out of my case, it hit a button and activated the screen.

“@?%$##!!” I gasped, then snatched it out of the water ASAP.

“@?%$##!!” I exclaimed again as water kept draining from the phone. “There goes three hundred bucks and a 3-year contract!!!”, I miserably thought.

“@?%$##!!” I concluded (but to myself of course, as my children were somewhere nearby).

I powered off the iPhone right away and shook it for a good five minutes trying to drain all the water from its casing. I placed it under a lamp for three hours — then let it sit overnight. The next morning, I steeled myself and tried to power it back up again. And to my amazement, IT WORKED! Phone, speakers, GPS, wireless, headphones, battery charging… EVERYTHING! This puppy was sitting under two feet of water, still turned ON, but came through without a hitch. It’s still working fine, two days later.

In fact, as I type this e-mail, I’m listening to music on it.

If you haven’t already heard about tomorrow’s Innovation in Action event, be sure to check it out. The Waterloo UX Group (aka IxDA Waterloo and the Communitech UX P2P) is kicking off our new season with an event co-sponsored with the Infusion Angels. And it’s going to be great.

Jensen Harris from Microsoft will be sharing stories about the redesign of Office, describing in particular how they conceived of the new Ribbon interface element. I recently saw Jensen deliver this talk at UX Week in San Francisco and quite enjoyed it.

But the real draw tomorrow is likely to be… well, a table.

This ain’t a run-of-the-mill kitchen-table piece of furniture, of course. Microsoft Surface is a very cool multi-touch device, which I admired last year in a previous post.

To get your hands on a Surface tomorrow, follow the RSVP instructions described at the UX Group’s blog.

Looking forward to May 9-10 this year, where I’ll be conducting a 2.5-hour workshop at the Technology in the Arts Conference in Waterloo. Here’s the session description:

For a growing number of arts organizations, the web has become a key communications channel — not just for sharing information, but for cultivating relationships with visitors. To what degree does your website deliver on its full potential? Does its visual and architectural design help or hinder visitors? What does it currently do well, and what specifically could improve? In this interactive workshop, you’ll learn how usability testing can help to answer these questions.

Through a series of hands-on exercises with live websites, we’ll practice planning, conducting, and acting upon the results of a usability test. As a group, we’ll discuss options for how to proceed with a limited budget and some tips for testing with younger audiences. You’ll also learn several simple exercises for uncovering potentially hidden insights, such as people’s emotional reactions to your organization. Becoming proficient at these methods takes practice, but by the end of this workshop you’ll have the skills necessary to begin conducting them on your own website.

Planning to attend the workshop? Drop me a line with questions, requests, or suggestions.

I’m excited to announce this opportunity to work with me at Primal Fusion! Although we’re still in stealth mode, the time nears when we’ll throw off the covers to unveil our first product. In this role, you’ll make important contributions to that product — and to those which follow.

We’ve assembled a team of talented people who are a lot of fun to work with. Our new office is pretty nice too and in a great location, at the corner of King and University in Waterloo. Almost everything you’d need is next door or across the road: banks, restaurants, a pharmacy, Starbuck’s. If you’re so inclined, we’re even upstairs from a head shop…

Read on for a description of the job, then contact me if you’d like to learn more.

User Experience Designer

Itching for an opportunity to work in an environment where design really matters? Here’s your chance. From the beginning, Primal Fusion has understood the critical role that product design will play in the success of our business. We’re now looking for another designer to help us conceptualize and sweat the details of our web applications’ user experience.

As a User Experience Designer at Primal Fusion, you will:

• Imagine new opportunities to hit the “sweet spot,” that place where our products delight customers while fulfilling our business goals.
• Develop a deep understanding of our customers’ motivations and behaviors through user research methods such as field studies.
• Lay the groundwork for new products by modeling workflows, crafting personas, writing scenarios, and sketching storyboards.
• Design the form and behavior of our products by creating prototypes of increasing fidelity and detail, from concept sketches to wireframes to interactive simulations.
• Improve your craft by subjecting your work to rigorous assessment, including usability studies, A/B testing, and web log analysis.
• Help to further elevate the practice of design at Primal Fusion.

Before applying, please make sure you meet these requirements:

• A passion for design. “Design thinking” isn’t something you turn on and off — it’s how you think all the time.
• An entrepreneurial and energetic spirit. This is a startup environment in which things move quickly; you’ll have the opportunity to wear many hats.
• Demonstrated experience in designing elegant and highly usable websites and web applications.
• A proven understanding of why, when, and how to create artifacts such as workflow and mental model diagrams, personas, scenarios, sitemaps, and wireframes.
• Graphic and information design skills. You have a demonstrated ability to make visual design choices that guide users in their interactions with a product.
• Experience in communicating design requirements and shepherding products through the development process.
• Expertise with Adobe applications such as Fireworks or Illustrator.

Bonus points for any of the following:

• Experience in designing for large-scale consumer web applications.
• Experience in conducting usability studies and A/B testing.
• Ability to code in CSS+XHTML, Javascript, or Flash.
• Strong written communication skills, especially for web copy.
• Post-secondary education in Design.

This is a full-time opportunity, though we are also interested in independent contractors who feel they fit the bill.

And guess what… I’m fine with that! According to Fast Company this month, interaction designer is one of the “Ten Jobs You Didn’t Know You Wanted“. And we’re in fine company, sharing the list with brewmaster, flavorist, and roller coaster engineer. (Piece of family legend: a distant cousin of mine worked on satellites until one was famously lost in space; he then switched careers to become a design engineer for the Space Mountain roller coaster in Disney World.)

Fast Company describes the allure of interaction design:

Interaction designers work at all stages of product development to design innovative and user-friendly products. In addition to wearing the traditional hat of a designer, they work with executives to define goals for products and systems in development. They also investigate how people actually engage with new products and systems…. [and] enjoy the opportunity “to learn about every walk of life and industry imaginable….”

Suffice to say it’s the sort of job that won’t bore you easily. I’ve had the chance to learn about proteomics, machine vision, embedded operating systems, electricity markets, commercial facilities management, international shipping, computer networks, consumer telephony, radiology, and a host of other domains

Yep, this job rocks.

Just registered for Interaction 08, the first conference organized by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). Very excited about this, and not just for the opportunity to visit Savannah, Georgia in February! IxDA is growing into a terrific organization and has attracted most of the world’s top talent in interaction design; for instance, keynotes include Alan Cooper, Bill Buxton, Sigi Moeslinger, and Malcolm McCullough. The conference will also be a fabulous opportunity to put faces to familiar names from the IxDA discussion list.

Check out the conference, but FYI it’s likely to sell out by mid-January.

Heading to Interaction 08? Drop me a comment and hope to see you there!

Talk about innovation! For years, I’ve joked that the product I most desire is a cordless extension cord (followed closely by the microwave freezer).

Looks like the idea isn’t so ridiculous after all.

The other day, I read with interest a story about WildCharge, a very cool product that charges devices such as phones and MP3 players when you place them on its conducting pad. This led to a story I’d missed back in June about some MIT researchers who’ve been able to wirelessly power a lightbulb.

Fantastic!

Reminds me of the importance of encouraging ridiculous or even impossible ideas when attempting to innovate a product or service. If you start from somewhere safe, you’ll end up somewhere boring. Start from somewhere crazy and you might end up with a terrific idea that’s practical to pull off.

The Waterloo User Experience (UX) Group is hosting Roger Martin at our monthly get-together. This is a terrific opportunity to spend time with Roger, as he’s quite in demand as a speaker on the topics of design and business.

It’s a free event. Head over to the UX Group’s blog for details on the time and location.

A few minutes ago, an email from Amazon landed in my Inbox. It suggests that, since I’ve purchased books about interaction design by Alan Cooper, I might also like this upcoming release titled Bravery Awards for Aerial Combat. Check it out:

Um, okay, design can be pretty hard sometimes, but not sure it warrants an award for bravery. It’s downright silly that Amazon would blast this recommendation out to customers who’ve bought books by the other Alan Cooper. For their sake, I hope nobody blogs about it… oops.

Where are you, oh promised land of milk and honey known as the semantic web?