Caleb Jenkins | Developing UX

Sharing AJAX… and other talks.

July 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am (Design and UX, Speaking, Technology)

I’ve been trying out a couple of different ways to share presentations that I’ve given. You can see the result of SlideShare below. I like the social aspects of SlideShare (commenting, tagging, linking between decks), but I haven’t been happy with the way it handles transparencies or animations (it doesn’t).

| View | Upload your own

I’ve posted the same deck as an XPS file on my SkyDrive. Which do you think is a better format? (you can grab the free XPS viewer from Microsoft)

While I’m at it… here are a bunch of my other talks in PPTX format on my SkyDrive.

Enjoy!

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What the Jawbone Bluetooth headset needs to be perfect.

May 17th, 2008 at 9:03 am (Design and UX, Random, Technology)

In honor of Jawbone releasing a new version, I thought that I’d finally post my thoughts on my favorite blue tooth headset ever.

As was noted last year by Christoph, I love my Jawbone Bluetooth Headset, it is quite possibly the best headset in the world! Seriously, it’s fantastic. The first time I tried it I was driving down the freeway with the AC on full and all of the windows rolled down. My wife couldn’t tell if I was in the car or not… “Have you left yet?”. Awesome. That’s a great headset.

Like most things, it could be better. Here is my list of 3 features that I would love to see in a future version of the Jawbone.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Featured on Adobe.TV and xTrain.com

April 11th, 2008 at 2:36 pm (Design and UX, Speaking)

Update: I had to swap out the “embedded” video for a image with a link because of because of the differences between Internet Explorer and Firefox. I’ll post more on that later.

This is *very* exciting! I know that I talked about it the other day, but just to make things easier, here is one of the videos that I did for xTrain directly emended from Adobe.tv.

Direct Link

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Adobe TV and Adobe Media Player launch with xTrain content

April 10th, 2008 at 2:55 pm (Design and UX, Speaking)

xTrain is a super high quality, web based, training company focused on designers that I have created a “Developer Designer Zen” series with. Yesterday they launched a ton of content featured on Adobe’s new Adobe TV. Here’s a clip from the release:

“Adobe just announced Adobe TV and Adobe Media player today. Adobe TV is your on-line source for expert insight and inspiration. Feed your passion for Adobe products with insider tips, innovative techniques, and behind-the-scenes tours. Get to know Adobe personalities by tuning in to Russell Brown Photoshop Laboratory.”

I’m very excited to be a part of this launch and to be featured along side some of the best UX presenters and trainers in the industry! Here’s the “official” digg link

adobeTV | digg story

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Expression Launch – Chicago Style

February 4th, 2007 at 6:00 am (Design and UX)

Expression Studio has now launched! Or at least part of it has… but the party to celebrate the launch was nice. Expression Web has RTM’d, and the rest of the suit should RTM within the next couple of months. It was great meeting so many people that cared *a lot* about design, usability and over all UX. I got to see Chris Bernard and Dave Bost (some old friends from when I worked at Microsoft). Dave does a much better job covering the launch than I am.

One crazy cool thing that happened at the launch was when I first arrived: When I first arrived at the launch event I saw Eric Meyer walking in right in front of me… you know THE Eric Meyer… he like wrote the book on CSS and is practically the father of web design as we know it today! Anyways, I met Eric early last year at the WebmaterJamSession in Dallas. I got to hang out for 3 days with all of the presenters… it was a great time. Even though I chatted with Eric several times back then, I figure he talks to so many people a year that no way would he remember me. So I walk in behind Eric and say hi, and then remind him where we met… and he’s like… “yeah, Caleb, How are you? Hey, I heard a rumor that you aren’t with Microsoft anymore…” OK, just stop.

I’m playing it cool, but inside I’m all weirded out. Think about it… exactly under what scenario is Eric Meyer… you know THE Eric Meyer. Having a conversation somewhere, anywhere, and MY employment status comes up… I’m at a loss. I got nothing.

Anyways, Eric was very cool. We talked about the Expression Suit and recorded a quick CommunityCast.tv interview. Since he was key noting at the end of the day, I asked how he liked the tools, he mentioned that he doesn’t use them *cough* he writes his CSS by hand. He also said that what he has seen of the tools he really likes. He was, after all, there to talk about CSS Standards and why it was such a good thing for Microsoft to make this investment in web standards and CSS support. Later, I got to see first hand some of the Expression Web support for CSS. I have to admit, I think the team nailed that one. Expression Web can do some very advanced CSS driven layout with ease… I’m looking forward to using it after I get my new laptop!

One more interesting thing that happened at the launch event was a conversation that I overheard between one of the Microsoft Expression product guys and one of the designers from thirteen23. Thirteen23 is an interactive design firm from Austin, TX. A couple of their designers were on hand at the expression launch for a discussion panel. Check out their site, they have created some of the best examples of what a person can do with the Expression tool set and WPF.

The thirteen23 designer had just shown the Expression (Microsoft) guy a new WPF application that he was working on and the Expression guy asked the thirteen23 guy how he liked the product (referring Expression Blend) and the designer from thirteen23 responded with something like, “I don’t know, you’re the customer. Do you like it?” I thought it was an interesting interchange between someone that is working on a tool for people to use, (and wanting feedback) and someone that is using that tool to create their own product (and wanting feedback)… Wow. That was pretty wordy for a conversation that happened in a couple of seconds. Do any of these last two paragraphs make sense?

Anyways – it was a great event! I can’t wait for the final Expression Studio bits to arrive!

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Fire-Your-Designer Workshop Coming to Houston.

November 28th, 2006 at 6:00 am (Design and UX)

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It looks like my friend Erica is teaching a class in Houston with her company. If you're in the area, and are a small to mid-sized business owner than you should go check it out!

Note: This is not a class for programmers/developers - This is a class focused on design and strategy for websites leveraging on line resources like WordPress.

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