Anyone want to run through paper prototypes?

[Chris Pitzer]

Hi all,

I know this group isn't super active these days, but would any of you be interested in going over some paper prototypes of a project I'm working on?  It's the parks/trails/campsites project I demoed a mockup of at a pdxcritique meeting in early 2009.  It's been back burner for a while, and we're trying to pick it back up again.  Anyway, I'd gladly buy you coffee if you're open to walking through the paper prototypes and giving me some feedback.

Let me know if you're interested and I'll set up a time with you.

Cheers,
Chris

--
Chris Pitzer
p. 503 425 9444
t. @chrispitzer
w. http://lofiart.com

[Bill Burcham]

I'd be up for that Chris.

[Stacey Anderson]

It's nice to see interest in this group. This is not the first email I have gotten lately asking about reviews.

We struggled to find a meeting space post the demise of CubeSpace and after several good leads and a lot of dead ends, we all decided to postpone the effort through the holidays, but failed miserably at letting anyone know this.

If anyone knows of meeting spots, or wants to do casual meetups of small groups at coffeeshops, then I know we would be up for it.

Another suggestion is to come to the PDX Hackathon on Thursday evenings. There are lots of great minds there and I know, when I am there, I would love to give feedback on projects.

http://calagator.org/events/1250458034

- Stacey

On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 5:05 PM, Bill Burcham <bill.b...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'd be up for that Chris.

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[Igal Koshevoy]

Chris,

Yes, would be interested. It would be good to see you at the Weekly
Hackathon, but given the noise and tight quarters at the Lucky Lab main
room, it would be hard to have more than one or two people to work with
you at a time on it.

-igal

Stacey Anderson wrote:
> It's nice to see interest in this group. This is not the first email I
> have gotten lately asking about reviews.
>
> We struggled to find a meeting space post the demise of CubeSpace and
> after several good leads and a lot of dead ends, we all decided to
> postpone the effort through the holidays, but failed miserably at
> letting anyone know this.
>
> If anyone knows of meeting spots, or wants to do casual meetups of
> small groups at coffeeshops, then I know we would be up for it.
>
> Another suggestion is to come to the PDX Hackathon on Thursday
> evenings. There are lots of great minds there and I know, when I am
> there, I would love to give feedback on projects.
>
> http://calagator.org/events/1250458034
>
> - Stacey
>
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 5:05 PM, Bill Burcham <bill.b...@gmail.com
> <mailto:bill.b...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> I'd be up for that Chris.
>
> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "PDXCritique" group.
> To post to this group, send email to pdxcr...@googlegroups.com

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> pdxcritique...@googlegroups.com

> <mailto:pdxcritique%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.

[Igal Koshevoy]

Stacy (and others),

I'd also like to get these meetings going again, but have had no luck
finding an appropriate venue.

I'll try tweeting a request tomorrow in hopes of soliciting ideas from
folks that I haven't bugged about this already.

Does anyone know someone at a firm that does design? They might be
willing to host such a thing.

I'll also poke the PIE folks to see if they're interested, since they're
now operational and hosted some events.

-igal

Stacey Anderson wrote:
> It's nice to see interest in this group. This is not the first email I
> have gotten lately asking about reviews.
>
> We struggled to find a meeting space post the demise of CubeSpace and
> after several good leads and a lot of dead ends, we all decided to
> postpone the effort through the holidays, but failed miserably at
> letting anyone know this.
>
> If anyone knows of meeting spots, or wants to do casual meetups of
> small groups at coffeeshops, then I know we would be up for it.
>
> Another suggestion is to come to the PDX Hackathon on Thursday
> evenings. There are lots of great minds there and I know, when I am
> there, I would love to give feedback on projects.
>
> http://calagator.org/events/1250458034
>
> - Stacey
>
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 5:05 PM, Bill Burcham <bill.b...@gmail.com
> <mailto:bill.b...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> I'd be up for that Chris.
>
> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "PDXCritique" group.
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> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> pdxcritique...@googlegroups.com

> <mailto:pdxcritique%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.

[Bram Pitoyo]

I can personally host this at my place: located at SW 1st & Harrison, just five blocks down from Hawthorne Bridge!

[Igal Koshevoy]

Bram,

Thanks! How many seated people can we fit into #Bramtopia?

-igal

[Bram Pitoyo]

> How many seated people can we fit into #Bramtopia?

It's called the Awesomery at FS (= FourSquare), so let's use that designation :)

I have a living room that will fit around 6 people. 7 is good. 8 max.

[Chris Pitzer]

Also, I have an office that we could use..... though it would probably max out at 6 or 7, and even that would be tight.

Anyway, if needed, it's there - and it's at NE 6th and Couch for reference.

Thanks for the support everyone!  I'll send all you who voiced up individual emails to schedule times - maybe some can overlap!  I'd love to see the pdxcritique group start up again, if it does we can definitely demo my project there... my hope is that maybe I can get a few reviews in before it does so the product I show to the group isn't super early...

Also, for anyone out there who's interested, I've been using a lot of prototyping tools lately (balsamiq, iplotz, flairbuilder) and could talk about my experiences with those tools if anyone's curious.

Cheers,
Chris
--
Chris Pitzer
p. 503 425 9444
t. @chrispitzer
w. http://lofiart.com

[Chris Pitzer]

(i was going to email people directly.... but I'll keep it in the google group for now so we can maybe have a group meeting... sorry for the extra noise to the rest of you who aren't interested!)

Let's aim for a group meeting - I think that would be wonderful.

I've gotten offers from Bram (1st and harrison) and Rebekah (near Lloyd center) to host.  Bram and Rebekah, what would be the most convenient evening next week for each of you?  Then we'll just see what works best for everyone who's interested! 

(not Tuesday or Thursday please - I have a Python UG and Legion of Tech meeting.  Thanks!)

Cheers,
Chris

--
Chris Pitzer
p. 503 425 9444
t. @chrispitzer
w. http://lofiart.com

[Bram Pitoyo]

> Bram and Rebekah, what would be the most convenient evening next week for each of you?

What about next Wednesday or Friday?

-Bram

[Igal Koshevoy]

Chris Pitzer wrote:
> Also, for anyone out there who's interested, I've been using a lot of
> prototyping tools lately (balsamiq, iplotz, flairbuilder) and could
> talk about my experiences with those tools if anyone's curious.

I'd be interested in hearing more. I've been doing a lot of wireframes
and mockups lately, and been kinda frustrated with my own evaluations of
tools. The special-purpose wireframing tools seem to have awful UIs and
only offer 80% of the solution, while providing absolutely no way to do
the remaining 20%, and expect me to post-process the resulting bitmaps
with a pixel editor to make up for their issues. I've resorted to making
mockups/wireframes with OpenOffice or Adobe Illustrator because these
give me enough control and seem more productive, even though I have to
draw everything myself down to basic controls.

-igal

[Janet Tingey]

I'ld be game for this as well.

Igal, have you tried Mockingbird? http://gomockingbird.com. I am REALLY fussy and prior to finding Mockingbird I did all my wireframing in InDesign to get the typographic control I wanted. Mockingbird does't give high typographic control, but I've liked it anyway. Much better than Balsamic (or however that is spelled--too lazy to look it up.

Janet

[Dan M]

Hey Chris et al., I would be interested in attending some more
meetings of PDX Critique, too. If you all meet on Friday of next week
count me in. Wednesday I have other plans.

I'm really excited to see people's interest in getting this group
going again as I have been missing it, too. :)

[Chris Pitzer]

The short version of my talk on prototyping tools:

• balsamiq - it's free, kinda... you can use it for free, but have to export your designs one page at a time as xml... ug.  Also, you can't link between multiple pages and can't share designs with other collaborators without sending around xml blobs.
• iplotz - solves the collaboration, multi page, and saving problems... but it's not free (15 per month) and the interface is a pain in the ass.  Also, limited interface tools and it's tricky to hack together custom interface options.  I would reach a certain level of complexity and then end up wasting tons of time screwing around with the tool itself... it was unwieldy.
  
• flairbuilder - my favorite.  It's 99 bucks, and an adobe air app... so it's a desktop tool, which means no intuitive collaboration.... those are the downsides...  What it lacks there, however, it makes up for with a kick ass toolset.  The box of goodies to build a design with is pretty simple, actually, but you can use the simple tools to build really complex stuff - including adding actions to all kinds of items to make your prototype designs interactive.  And I'm not talking about linking a button to a destination page - that's just for starters.  You nest elements on the page, and even have cardstacks that allow you to have multiple sets of nested elements in the same space that swap out with each other when you interact with them... this makes designing complex ajax'y forms a breeze.

Anyway, I'll demo at the meeting if people want to see the tool.

Wednesday and Friday both work for me... wednesday a little better than friday.  Anyone else have a preference?

Chris
--
Chris Pitzer
p. 503 425 9444
t. @chrispitzer
w. http://lofiart.com

[Igal Koshevoy]

Chris and Janet: Awesome, thanks for the suggestions and descriptions.
I'd also be interested in seeing you demo these with some actual content.

All: Next Wednesday would conflict with the Perl Mongers meeting for at
least Ben and me. Friday would work for me.

-igal

Chris Pitzer wrote:
> The short version of my talk on prototyping tools:
>

> * balsamiq - it's free, kinda... you can use it for free, but have

> to export your designs one page at a time as xml... ug. Also,
> you can't link between multiple pages and can't share designs
> with other collaborators without sending around xml blobs.

> * iplotz - solves the collaboration, multi page, and saving

> problems... but it's not free (15 per month) and the interface
> is a pain in the ass. Also, limited interface tools and it's
> tricky to hack together custom interface options. I would reach
> a certain level of complexity and then end up wasting tons of
> time screwing around with the tool itself... it was unwieldy.

> * flairbuilder - my favorite. It's 99 bucks, and an adobe air

> <mailto:pdxcr...@googlegroups.com>.

> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> pdxcritique...@googlegroups.com

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[Bram Pitoyo]

> Anyway, I'll demo at the meeting if people want to see the tool.

Having a PDX Critique session composed of mockup tools smackdown sounds fun, don't you think? We can present every tool out there, from OmniGraffle to Mockingbird and everything in between, and talk about their strengths and weaknesses.

[Jeffrey Slabaugh]

I'll step in and second Flair Builder...  It's an amazing tool when it comes to rapidly prototyping applications and sites.  It's definitely geared toward functional specs and I find it a little limited on the "make it pretty" front, but in general I have zero complaints.  Oh, and two of the better features Chris failed to mention:

1. It comes with an online, Flash-based renderer, so you stick your FB file somewhere and then pass a URL around to anyone for an essentially working demo.  This is ideal for ensuring your business users can see the demo, regardless of the platform they're on -- if they have Flash, they can see your prototype in action.
   
2. Cristian, the guy behind FlairBuilder, is super responsive on the support front and the product is still in active development.
   

Two more cents...

JMS

[rebekah]

I'm in for Friday December 11th.

> > w.http://lofiart.com

[Bram Pitoyo]

> I'm in for Friday December 11th.

So far, Friday the 11th seems to be a good time. Anyone else wants to chime in on availability?

[Chris Pitzer]

Friday works for me.

When and where? 

--
Chris Pitzer
p. 503 425 9444
t. @chrispitzer

w. http://lofiart.com

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 1:57 PM, Bram Pitoyo <bramp...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm in for Friday December 11th.

So far, Friday the 11th seems to be a good time. Anyone else wants to chime in on availability?

[Bram Pitoyo]

> Friday works for me.
>
> When and where?

My place or yours, or anyone who is willing to host?

[rebekah]

I'm willing to host. I live by the Lloyd center and currently don't
have internet but otherwise a nice roomy place. A few of you have
been to potlucks.

Let me know if it suits.

Rebekah

[Stacey Anderson]

I would like to note Igal is very allergic to cats, so a cat free zone would be best for him and possibly others. I would offer but have a dog and 3 cats.

- Stacey

[Bram Pitoyo]

I have no pet, but feels that Rebekah's place may be able to accommodate more people. Totally up to you guys.

[Chris Pitzer]

I feel like we'll want internet... so I may lean toward Bram's for this time...

--
Chris Pitzer
p. 503 425 9444
t. @chrispitzer
w. http://lofiart.com

[Igal Koshevoy]

Thanks for the mention, Stacy. If the place has pets, my allergies will
kick in hard unless it's well-ventilated and vacuumed, and sometimes
that's not enough.

The NedSpace Downtown location has a room that can fit ~10 people and
Reid can get into it whenever. So as long as this Reid can chaperon that
night, we could use that now. Hopefully he'll learn more about whether
we can use the larger Old Town location soonish.

-igal

Stacey Anderson wrote:
> I would like to note Igal is very allergic to cats, so a cat free zone
> would be best for him and possibly others. I would offer but have a
> dog and 3 cats.
>
> - Stacey
>
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 3:28 PM, rebekah <rebeka...@gmail.com
> <mailto:rebeka...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> I'm willing to host. I live by the Lloyd center and currently don't
> have internet but otherwise a nice roomy place. A few of you have
> been to potlucks.
>
> Let me know if it suits.
>
> Rebekah
>
> On Dec 3, 3:14 pm, Bram Pitoyo <brampit...@gmail.com

> <mailto:brampit...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > > Friday works for me.
> >
> > > When and where?
> >
> > My place or yours, or anyone who is willing to host?
>
> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
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> <mailto:pdxcritique%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.

[Chris Pitzer]

That works for me.

Should we say Friday the 11th, Nedspace downtown, 6:30pm?

--
Chris Pitzer
p. 503 425 9444
t. @chrispitzer
w. http://lofiart.com

[Dan M]

Hi Everyone,

Is this get-together definitely confirmed for Friday? I am certainly
looking forward to it. I've been missing this group in general, and
I'm particularly excited about this meeting since wireframing/
prototyping is such an interesting and useful topic. Please let me
know if this is definitely happening or not.

Thanks!
Dan

On Dec 3, 5:29 pm, Chris Pitzer <chrispit...@gmail.com> wrote:
> That works for me.
>
> Should we say Friday the 11th, Nedspace downtown, 6:30pm?
> --
> Chris Pitzer
> p. 503 425 9444
> t. @chrispitzer

> w.http://lofiart.com

>
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 5:18 PM, Igal Koshevoy <i...@pragmaticraft.com>wrote:
>
> > Thanks for the mention, Stacy. If the place has pets, my allergies will
> > kick in hard unless it's well-ventilated and vacuumed, and sometimes
> > that's not enough.
>
> > The NedSpace Downtown location has a room that can fit ~10 people and
> > Reid can get into it whenever. So as long as this Reid can chaperon that
> > night, we could use that now. Hopefully he'll learn more about whether
> > we can use the larger Old Town location soonish.
>
> > -igal
>
> > Stacey Anderson wrote:
> > > I would like to note Igal is very allergic to cats, so a cat free zone
> > > would be best for him and possibly others. I would offer but have a
> > > dog and 3 cats.
>
> > > - Stacey
>

> > > On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 3:28 PM, rebekah <rebekahgol...@gmail.com
> > > <mailto:rebekahgol...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> > >     I'm willing to host.  I live by the Lloyd center and currently don't
> > >     have internet but otherwise a nice roomy place.  A few of you have
> > >     been to potlucks.
>
> > >     Let me know if it suits.
>
> > >     Rebekah
>
> > >     On Dec 3, 3:14 pm, Bram Pitoyo <brampit...@gmail.com
> > >     <mailto:brampit...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > >     > > Friday works for me.
>
> > >     > > When and where?
>
> > >     > My place or yours, or anyone who is willing to host?
>
> > >     --
>
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[Reid Beels]

Hi Folks,

Ack! It turns out I've got a schedule conflict on Friday and won't be able to host the wireframe review at NedSpace. Bram (who is sitting here with me) has offered to host at his nearby apartment at 1st and Harrison (which is actually a bigger, nicer space than the conference room we were going to use). I'll let him post to fill in people about how to get there.

However!
I've talked to Josh a bit and If we can find a time that works for people, we should be able to hold regular meetings at either NedSpace.

Reid

> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to pdxcritique...@googlegroups.com.

[Bram Pitoyo]

> I'll let him post to fill in people about how to get there.

Against Reid's advice, I posted the event on Calagator. Don't all show up at the same time, now!

http://calagator.org/events/1250458049

Friday, 12/18
From 6:30-8:30pm
At the Harrison East Condominium
111 SW Harrison St
Portland, OR 97201

Please call me when you're nearby: 503.481.4430

-Bram

[Dan M]

Thanks Bram! See you on Friday.

[Chris Pitzer]

Sounds good!  I'll bring a few copies of my paper prototypes and maybe some snacks!  I guess I could also show off the functional prototype/alpha thing, though the UI isn't there yet.  :P

See you all on Friday, and probably a few of you tonight!
Chris

--
Chris Pitzer
p. 503 425 9444
t. @chrispitzer
w. http://lofiart.com

[Bram Pitoyo]

No need for a UI if you don't have one! We'd just love to see wireframes. :)

[Chris Pitzer]

Quick double check... is this happening today or next friday?  I had thought it was today, but I just noticed that bram mentioned friday the 18th.  I'm cool with that too.  Should we run with that?  What were you all planning?

sorry for the last minute correction - I just want to make sure everyone's on the same page.

--
Chris Pitzer
p. 503 425 9444
t. @chrispitzer
w. http://lofiart.com

On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 10:31 AM, Bram Pitoyo <bramp...@gmail.com> wrote:

No need for a UI if you don't have one! We'd just love to see wireframes. :)

[Igal Koshevoy]

Chris,

According to the Calagator event that Bram added, this is tonight:
http://calagator.org/events/1250458049

I've DM'ed Bram asking him to send confirmation to the list, but I'm
pretty sure he meant tonight.

-igal

PS: Reid and I wish that we could join you, but as we may have mentioned
already, we're needed at a Open Source Bridge planning meeting happening
at exactly the same time. Hope to see you at the next Critique meeting.

Chris Pitzer wrote:
> Quick double check... is this happening today or next friday? I had
> thought it was today, but I just noticed that bram mentioned friday
> the 18th. I'm cool with that too. Should we run with that? What
> were you all planning?
>
> sorry for the last minute correction - I just want to make sure
> everyone's on the same page.
> --
> Chris Pitzer
> p. 503 425 9444
> t. @chrispitzer
> w. http://lofiart.com
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 10:31 AM, Bram Pitoyo <bramp...@gmail.com
> <mailto:bramp...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> No need for a UI if you don't have one! We'd just love to see
> wireframes. :)
>
> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "PDXCritique" group.
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> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> pdxcritique...@googlegroups.com

> <mailto:pdxcritique%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.

[Stacey Anderson]

Also, sadly, none of the original founding members will be in attendance this evening. Two of us are under the weather and Ben is getting a tire replaced on his car.

Hope it goes well and would love for someone to post notes to this group afterwards.

Thanks,
Stacey

[Chris Pitzer]

ok - tonight it is!

--
Chris Pitzer
p. 503 425 9444
t. @chrispitzer
w. http://lofiart.com

[Igal Koshevoy]

I've confirmed with Bram that it's indeed tonight:
"Ok. Time: 6.30pm. Address: 111 SW Harrison St. I will be waiting at the
entrance. The Harrison East building."

He'll also post his phone number near the entrance.

Have a good time, sorry to miss this.

Also hoping Stacey and others feel better soon.

-igal

> > <mailto:bramp...@gmail.com <mailto:bramp...@gmail.com>>>

> wrote:
> >
> > No need for a UI if you don't have one! We'd just love
> to see
> > wireframes. :)
> >
> > --
> >
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