Agency Partner

Intro to User Research Recap

Intro to User Research – A Nerdery Interactive Primer

User Experience (UX) design cannot be accomplished without proper context and empathy for those who’ll interact with an app or website. Our next webinar is about how our UX team applies user research as part of our scientific approach to develop better interactive experiences tailored specifically for their intended audiences.

Nerdery UX gurus Zack N and Mike J will discuss how knowledge is power when it comes to understanding user needs, goals motivations and frustrations. We’ll cover:

• research methods: contextual inquiry/contextual observation; usability testing; surveys; card sorting; stakeholder/user interviews; site-search and web analytics
• where user research fits into the interactive design process (hint: beginning; during; after; ongoing…)
• the difference between user research and marketing research (other than we don’t do the latter)
• science!

Interactive Primer: The iOS5 game changers

Our lead mobile developer, unabashed Apple fanboy, and early adopter of all things iOS, Jon Rex went to Apple’s latest unveiling and came away from the Worldwide Developers Conference with more than what was publicly revealed in the keynote. Will he tell all at our next Interactive Primer webinar? No. He wants to be invited back to WWDC.

However, we want to cordially invite you to hear his take on what game-changers are coming to your world with iOS5. RSVP for our two free webinars, Tuesday, June 14 at 10:15 a.m. and Thursday, June 16 at 3:15 p.m.

Rex is stoked to work and play with iOS5 – what with the Twitter integration and the enhanced notifications; the geo-fence driven reminders and the PC-free synching; Lion and iMessage and iTunes Match – oh my. And don’t even get him started on iCloud. Actually, do. But you could ask him to recite all 250 new features for Lion, or to go off on the simultaneous auto-synching of music and photos and everything to iPhones, MacBooks, and iPads. . . it’s almost too much, but we’ll fit it neatly into a 45-minute webinar, twice even, on June 14 and 16. RSVP today!

Sevnthsin garners Webby honor for JCPenney Weekly Deals mobile ap

A boatload of congratulations and mad props to our pals at Sevnthsin whose JCPenney Weekly Deals mobile apps were named an official honoree for the 2011 Webby Awards! Being an honoree is quite the achievement. Of the 8000 submissions to the Webby Awards fewer than 15% are recognized with the Official Honoree designation.

Also, we have to thank them for the shout out. We’re happy we could help them on their way to nabbing such a great honor.

Facebook webinar: Go see it

“The Social Network” beat our Facebook webinar at the box office last week – it really wasn’t even close. The flick also jumped out to an early lead in terms of Oscar buzz, but time will tell. Either way, our Facebook webinar accomplished exactly what all our monthly agency primers set out to do. Below, you’ll find slides of our presentation, along with a bootleg video of Facebook 2: Electric Boogaloo. Go see it.

Facebook Webinar from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Slides

Banner ad webinar wrap

Whether you missed last week’s agency-primer webinars on banner ads or just want to experience them over and over, here’s the slideshow and full-length video (the director’s cut).

Banner Ads Nerdery Webinar from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

The tabs on Facebook they are a-changin’

Facebook is reducing the width of custom profile tabs to 520 pixels (down from 760). If you’ve created a custom tab (think landing page of a Facebook app) it’s gonna get 32% slimmer next week.

Imagine if someone came along and lopped off “are a-changin’” from the headline of this post. Bob Dylan and I would be pissed about losing context and leaving you hanging like that. Now, picture that Facebook tab you so lovingly designed, and imagine watching helplessly as that awful Leatherface severed it by one-third with his chainsaw. How does it feel?

Words and images, if not cut off, may be scrambled instead. Clickable links might lose their interactivity. Scary stuff.

Obviously, from here forward we’re building within the 520 frame, and we’re ready to help you adjust existing Facebook tabs – whether we developed the original or not. So fear not, agency partners and clients. The Nerdery will protect you from Leatherface.

Agency Primer Notes: Designing for web workflow webinar recap

Whether you missed our last webinar or just want to relive it, here’s the video and presentation deck from our “Designing for Web Workflow” agency primer – as well as a few extra recommended links from designers/presenters Karsten and Matt.

Designing for web workflow from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Additional resources:

960 Grid System
http://960.gs/

cufón
http://cufon.shoqolate.com/generate/

Typekit
http://typekit.com/

Google Font Directory
http://code.google.com/webfonts

sIFR
http://novemberborn.net/sifr3

Friday Links: Communication Arts’ best interactive (and some other stuff)

Before we get to the links, we just have to mention that Communication Arts has released its list of the best interactive projects of the year. We’re pretty happy to see two projects we got to work on made the list. Fallon’s Skimmer and Colle + McVoy’s Take Me Fishing. Pretty rad way to end the week, isn’t it?

• In honor of the Oscars on Sunday, AdFreak has complied the 66 best movie taglines of the past 20 years. It’s a fun list.
• If you missed Funny or Die’s Presidential Reunion, you should probably watch it. It’s pretty good.
• IE6 Funeral.
• Make does a nice little Q&A with the makers of that fabulous Ok Go video that took the Internet by storm this week.
• Homer’s iPhone.
• Lego games, four kinds of awesome.
• John Lennon’s Citroën ad fairly indefensible
• For The Nerdery’s bikers: 10 amazing bikes of the future.
• Darth Vader disco ball.
• Infographic of the week: What people are really buying onlive vs. offline.

Sevnthsin wins RACIE award, makes us blush

First of all, congratulations to Sevnthsin & JC Penney on their Racie award for the JC Penney Weekly Deals iPhone App.

Second of all, thank you for mentioning us in your post announcing the win. We’re always happy to help!

“Congrats to all involved, especially our boys down at The Nerdery who moved mountains at the 11th hour many a time during the pre-holiday build up.”