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Andy Budd Go to the source

A couple of weeks ago Wired Sussex invited me to a debate on the standard of design education in the UK. Being a topic incredibly close to my heart I literally jumped at the chance to participate. In order to create a sense of drama, the event pitted three designers against three educators in a heated and passionate discussion on the quality of design education in our industry. I started by citing the recent ALA survey which showed that only half of the people polled felt that education was relevant to their work. For such a highly skilled profession, this is pretty shocking. However it’s understandable when you consider that most mid-to-senior level practitioners don’t hold a relevant degree as such things didn’t exist when they entered the profession. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

The theme for dConstruct this year is “designing for tomorrow”. This got us thinking about what cultural objects or experiences may not be around in the future. The kind of things that future digital archeologists may uncover and showcase in museums or write hypothesis about their place in naughties culture. We had our own ideas, ranging from obvious things like Twitter, Facebook and the iPhone, to slightly more obscure things like the mass of wires and adapters than plague our digital lives, or the fact that you have to carry a piece of card on a train to prove your right to travel. However we wanted to hear from you, so we started the dConstruct Time Capsule Project … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Time to set your alarms or calendar notifications as tickets for dConstruct go on sale this Monday at 11am. As always we’ve scoured the world to bring you an amazing line-up of speakers. People who educated, entertained and inspired us over the last couple of years. We’ve got insightful speakers like Adam Greenfield , author of “Everyware”, talking about ubiquity and location, or Russell Davies from Wired Magazine talking about the rise in post digital culture… Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Time to set your alarms or calendar notifications as tickets for dConstruct go on sale this Monday at 11am. As always we’ve scoured the world to bring you an amazing line-up of speakers. People who educated, entertained and inspired us over the last couple of years. We’ve got insightful speakers like Adam Greenfield , author of “Everyware”, talking about ubiquity and location, or Russell Davies from Wired Magazine talking about the rise in post digital culture. We’ve got entertaining and educational sessions like Nathan Shedroff and Chris Noessel ’s excellent talk about interaction paradigms in science fiction movies. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

As you’re no doubts aware I’m an unabashed conference junky, so it will come as no surprise to you that I’ve spent the last couple of weeks in the States attending three such events. First up was ETech, the emerging technology conference from O’R eily. Moved from it’s spiritual home in San Diego, this year it was help in the Chino wearing capitol of Silicon Valley, San Jose. The event was much smaller than last year and the tone was somewhat downbeat. However I don’t think this was necessarily down to the economy as a lot of people were speculating. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

Each year, hundreds of assorted geeks will get the chance to speak on a panel at SXSW, many for the first time. I’ve witnesses some truly inspiring and thought provoking sessions at SXSW. However I’ve also had to sit through my share of turkeys, from the mind numbingly boring to the painfully embarrassing. So here are my top 9 ways to stop your panel sucking. Keep your introductions short and sweet… Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

Register now for the chance to win a mountain of UX Books, signed just for you! That’s right. If you register for UX London before the Early Bird ticket deadline of 25th February, we’ll enter you into a free prize draw to win a stack of books by the speakers at UX London. What’s more, all the books will be signed by the authors themselves and contain a personalised dedication just for you. So you’ll be able to show off your signed copy of Don Norman’s “Design of Everyday Things” to all your mates in the office, complete with an inscription saying that you taught him everything he knows*. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

Just a quick note to let you know I’ll be running a public CSS Mastery workshop in Brighton on the 16th June. It’s going to be based on revised material for my book, so you’ll be amongst the first to sample it. Hope to see a few of you there. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

Ticket sales for UX London launched today so I thought I’d take this opportunity to outline what we’re trying to achieve with this event. A lot of industry conferences are what I’d describe as “talking heads” events, where well known speakers stand up for an hour and give the audience a big does of inspiration. I love these type of events and this is essentially what we do at dConstruct . I always come away with a head full of ideas and an a renewed interest in my profession. The one criticism I hear is that, while these events are inspiring, you don’t usually end up learning new skills. I think a lot of people blame the speakers or conference organisers for this, but I actually think it’s down to the format… Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

So I’m very excited (and a little bit scared) to be speaking at Web Directions East in Tokyo this November. I’ve never been to Japan before, but it’s somewhere I’ve always dreamt of going. I’ve got around 10 days to explore, so would love to hear your thoughts, ideas and recommendations. I obviously want to see Downtown Tokyo, including all the crazy Otaku haunts. I’m not one for Karaoke but definitely want to check out a cosplay bar or two! And before you ask, no I won’t be dressing up as my favourite manga character! I’m also keen to do a spot of “Lost in Translation” sightseeing as I kinda like the movie. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

Just a quick note that tickets for dConstruct 2008 went on sale at 11am BST this morning. It’s now 2:30pm and we’ve got around 135 tickets left. We’ve got some great people like Steven Johnson , Daniel Burka and Joshua Porter speaking this year, so it should be a lot of fun. So if you want to come along I recommend popping along now to secure your ticket . … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

To win a free ticket to dConstruct simply grab the code for one of our customisable buttons , add your own image and upload it to your website. Next, take a screen grab of your button and post it to our flicker group . The best button posted added by the evening of the 30th June, as voted by ourselves, will win a complimentary pass to the event. It’s as simple as that. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

As well as a great line-up of speakers we’ve got some amazing workshops at this year’s dConstruct. We only launched them a couple of days ago, but several of them are already half full, so we expect them to sell out a lot faster than they did last year. I think people have realised that the workshops are one of the best was to guarantee a place at dConstruct, which typically sells out in under 24 hours. However I think it’s mostly down to the fantastic people we’ve got running these workshops. It’s just a shame that I can’t see them all! First up we have Lane Becker , Thor Muller and Leslie Chicoine from Get Satisfaction running a session on building and managing online communities . They will cover everything from the effect design can have on community growth and behaviour, through to community managers and dealing with unhappy campers. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

If you haven’t already heard, we quietly launched the dConstruct 2008 website at the start of the week. So if you’ve not seen the latest incarnation yet, I suggest you pop along to take a look. 2008.dconstruct.org The conference itself will be take place on Friday the 5th of September, back at the Dome in sunny Brighton. And like last year, we’ll be hosting a series of practical workshops in the run-up to the event. … Read the rest here