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Following Michal Anne Rogondino impressive presentation on GUI at the Unconferenz, there was a lively discussion. Anyone interested to meet up to continue the talk? I'm interested to perhaps share each other's GUI designs and provide feedback to one another. I think that would be really helpful to me.

p.s. Michal Anne, what presentation software do you use? Didn't look like your typical powerpoint!

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I agree Todd - this meeting on Wednesday is to discuss U/I. Perhaps on Wednesday we can discuss briefly to set up a time for another get-together regarding "Agile practices in practice."
I think Dan's suggestion of keeping the agile UI development until the latter part of the meeting is a good idea. I am very curious to learn what Todd has been doing, and we can segue into our next meeting by weaving it into our discussion this week about how GUI is waterfall developed. I would guess that to understand agile UI development will require an understanding about agile development principles and practices in general. I'd also like to attend a future discussion about 'Agile practices in practice."
> I suggest that we organize another oriented towards development
> issues

We could do this or have an hour for discussion of UI design issues and a second hour for an agile design discussion. People can always come late or leave after the first hour.

> so hopefully he'd like to show up and talk some more about how these
> frameworks support rapid UI development.

I'll be there :-)

> I'm usually mentoring a FIRST Robotics team on Wednesday evenings,
> but I'll try to make it to the meeting.

Did you notice the new robotics group? Feel free to post info about the Robotics championship.
In contrast to the "waterfall" model, the one I am developing is called "waterwheel." I'll bring some diagrams with me.
To juice the conversation, here are some examples of site design I like:

http://johnmees.com/ - Just a simple portfolio site.

http://www.biola.edu/undergrad/ - i think this site has gotten a lot of recognition in the design community - what a much better way to design a page to attract applicants than the traditional lame stock photography

http://keilia.com/ - a much more thoughtful approach to the pre-release holding page - i'm much more inclined to hand over my email address to these guys than a regular (boring) page

http://www.nudo-italia.com/ - an oldie but goodie

http://brijit.com - for simple, clear layout of information

commandshift3.com - clean layout that's also fun (also the place to find great design examples)

http://www.springwise.com/ - just imagine how much inferior this site would be without the photos/images for each post

http://www.guardian.co.uk/ - best newspaper site design

Sites I don't like:
delicious.com - love the service - but if you're a new prospective user - it's hard to understand what the service provides from the homepage - i certainly couldn't send a non-techie to the site and expect them to understand what's going on

washingtonpost.com - it's just ugly. everytime i visit, i think, "omg, this is ugly"

Points of Discussion?:
http://www.firabcn.com/ - If I needed a convention center in Barcelona, I'd be persuaded to go with them. As my own devil's advocate, the Hawaii Convention Center site is much less artistic (http://www.hawaiiconvention.com/) - but it does provide the needed info right up front in an easily accessible manner. Site navigation and the main selling points are much clearer on the HCC site, even though it may not win any awards.

http://carfreaks.net/ - Again, to spark conversation - this site is definitely pretty - but is it too pretty for it's own good? You go "wow" - but does it overwhelm your ability and inclination to navigate around?
My favorite book on this is the one that inspired the pattern guys: The Timeless Way of Building, by Christopher Alexander.

Chapter 19, Differentiating Space:

Within this process, every individual act of building is a process in which space gets differentiated. It is not a process of addition, in which pre-formed parts are combined to create a whole: but a process of unfolding, like the evolution of an embryo, in which the whole precedes its parts, and actually gives birth to them, by splitting.

Chapter 9, The Flower and the Seed:

This quality in buildings and in towns cannot be made, but only generated, indirectly, by the ordinary actions of the people, just as a flower cannot be made, but only generated from the seed.

...

In a system which approaches the character of nature, the parts must be adapted with an almost infinite degree of subtlety: and this requires that the process of adaptation be going on through the system, constantly.

It requires that each part at every level, no matter how small, has the power to adapt itself to its own processes.

This cannot happen unless each part is autonomous.
I really like the look of http://www.biola.edu/undergrad. Thank you for posting these links.
I second that! The Biola site is cool.
What do you think about these design guidelines for Web 2.0 websites?
I like Nick Yee's website. Not only is it easy to navigate, it's also easy on the eyes.
Of course the Happy Cog site makes me happy.
I've been a long time fan of the clean look of the Articulate site.

I'm not a fan of sites that take too long to load, and that are too cluttered when they do.
Following on from the second half of last night's meeting, here's an nice site that provides quick critiques of web design in easily digestable nuggets, with handy screenshots:

http://konigi.com/
How do people feel about the format of the last GUI Meetup? If you guys want to do another in April, we are happy to host.

BTW - To help organize these discussions in separate threads, I say we use Viil's User Experience group.
sweet, I'd love to attend a meetup! But, I'd have nothing to contribute.. =(

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