Topic Archive: Chicago

Why Chicago is Rails-town, USA

Dietrich Kappe, Wednesday, August 6, 2008 @ 10:42 pm

It's rare that dowdy old Chicago can pull rank on Silicon Valley, but with the red hot Ruby on Rails technology, Chicago leads the pack. How can I make such a claim? After all, everyone knows that SF and San Jose and points in between attract the best developers. There are 7 (and counting) reasons why I can say this:

1. 37Signals - yes, the company where it all started is headquartered in Chicago. They're out of the professional services business and selling software built in RoR, but we used to see them as a competitor and have tried to emulate some of their business plans.
2. Pathfinder Development - yes, the small but growing RoR powerhouse is also headquartered in downtown Chicago. They combine Agile development, User Experience Design (UXD) and RoR to develop "extraordinary applications," as it says in the tag line to the right. Watch for our Rails-based competitor to Mingle, Tasker, in the next few months. Of course we also have Noel Rappin, author of Professional Ruby on Rails.
3. ThoughtWorks - global IT consultancy, but an OO and Agile Rails development shop at heart. Their Agile project management product, Mingle, is implemented in Rails.
4. Centro - they're all Rails, all the time. Their core business is "providing the most comprehensive platform and services to help agencies easily and effectively buy local online media," but they have an impressive team of Rails developers powering their development. Heck, they're just a handful of blocks from us. We may have more Rails developers per square mile than any other neighborhood in America!
5. WindyCityRails - our own local Rails conference (yes, we sponsor it).
6. Two, count'em, two active Ruby groups, ChicagoRuby.org and the Chicago Area Ruby Group.
7. Obtiva - another Agile and Rails shop, this one in the suburbs.

Think your town deserves the title of Rails-town USA? Bring it on!

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Q&A with Trace Johnson of Chicago-based mobile-payment start-up Mpayy

Brian Dillard, Thursday, January 31, 2008 @ 11:41 am

Chicago isn't Silicon Valley, so it's always interesting to see tech start-ups putting down roots in Midwestern soil. Last night I hit the launch party for Mpayy, a mobile payment start-up that launched just last week. Over a hundred prospective customers, potential investors, and tech and banking professionals hit Fulton Lounge for cocktails, networking and, of course, a product demonstration. Afterwards, I chatted via email with Trace Johnson, Mpayy's product VP, about the launch, the company's future, and the state of Chicago's entrepreneurial culture. (Full disclosure: Johnson and I were once colleagues at Orbitz, one of the Windy City's big tech start-up success stories.)

Agile Ajax: First off, can you tell me the basics about Mpayy? What's the one-minute pitch?

Trace Johnson: Sure, but there are different pitches for consumers, online merchants and mobile merchants:

• Consumers get online and mobile payment processing. Shop online or send money to your friends from your checking account for free and get cash back when you buy.
• eCommerce companies get a secure payment solution with 0% fraud liability and they save 40-50% vs. credit card processing.
• Mobile merchants - taxis, fruit vendors at a farmer's market, Avon ladies, shirt vendors at a concert - get turn their mobile web enabled cell phone into a retail point of sale system.

Continue reading »

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Que Multimedia, Part 3, Beyond Typography

Charles Field, Wednesday, May 30, 2007 @ 3:52 pm

As you might expect, I have a suggestion or two. Firstly, I would confirm my standing as a heretic by questioning the hegemony of typography. Put five designers in front of lattes and the one thing they will all agree on with mumbled nods is the importance of Typography. Of course I would too, but this reflexive assent masks a larger problem in how design is practiced and taught.

The design profession has been so deeply fractured in the last 15 years typography has remained one of the few common links between this new multiplicity of practitioners.

Well, for better or worse, the aesthetics of desktop and browser based applications use type in extremely limited ways that are an intersection between common system installed fonts and informative hierarchies. And common system fonts, consider Arial, Impact and Papyrus for a moment, leave much to be desired. However this is the palette of many desktop and browser based applications.

Often the more complex issues in these engagements are how to assemble, change and order vast amounts of information. Designers bring a vastly different focus to these activities than most developers. The developer concentrates on a micro level of specific code interactions to construct a working system while a user experience designer connects the user to a much more general picture. Factors that might be involved include business problems, a users cognitive interest/abilities and the the capabilities of the developers systems.

There are user research activity models, interface and task modeling considerations that have little to do with what anyone would describe as sophisticated print typography. Yet notions of hierarchy and the effect of symbols and composition are elemental to forming easily navigated tasks. So mere type skills will not be adequate; understanding interaction from a standpoint of task and capability is the core activity.

This means that the designer must have a comprehension of the basics of digital design history as well as what is current, and this is equally as trend driven as any part of print culture, in development terms.

I see this as the formation of the question, not an answer. What we do know is that the answer is a moving target, obfuscated by the claims of those who market digital culture. But the challenge to answer it is as real as any aspirations we have as providers of both sensible and innovative solutions.

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Que Multimedia: Part 2, A Dilemma:

Charles Field, Wednesday, May 30, 2007 @ 3:50 pm

I share the responsibilities of hiring decisions for a small consultancy and being a design educator. Hiring new staff gives me one perspective on the state of education, and designing and delivering classes another.

Our consultancy delivers user experience design for applications; the participation of any kind of designer in these tasks is a relatively new thing, and is too often seen with some suspicion by both developers and financial officers in the organizations we consult with. The ability to convey the passion that is required for the work is an asset, and one beyond any discussion of teaching methodologies. That said, I see it as vitally important work that is rooted in a strong understanding of typographic hierarchies, information design and the mechanisms of interactivity.

Experience in the former role tells me that hiring a design graduate with less than 3 to 5 years experience is usually a mistake. Surprisingly, I have had better luck with geeky film or architecture grads. They tend to have stronger conceptual abilities.

We can deduce that design programs are non-functional in developing graduates capable of exploring and understanding these tasks. This is a simple and troubling assumption, particularly as I am complicit in the activity of educating them.

The organizers of the Schools of Thought conference have recognized a broader problem, inclusive of this issue, and have organized their spring conference around it.

http://superstove.blogs.com/schoolsofthoughts3/portal/index.html

My question is this. Is it presumptuous to expect Design Schools to graduate students with even a roadmap of the skills of information design, interactivity and typography? The problem lies less with graduate programs - where students should have some breadth of experience - but is pronounced in undergraduate education.

I hear no end of lip service; these are core values all lay claim too; yet the results are a vision of the emperors new clothes.

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CHI2 Town Panel

Charles Field, Sunday, April 9, 2006 @ 12:56 pm

On April 5 I was invited by Brian Maggi to speak with Mark FelcanSmith [Allstate] Frank Gruger [Motorola] & Jason Kunesh [Orbitz], at the Depaul Center at 1 East Jackson. Frank & Brian recorded the event for a podcast - I think elaborate mixing & sweetening is occurring as you read this.

Pre-talk dinner at the Exchequer loosened tongues & elicited shared histories with several of us having journeyed to the West Coast and/or back, and this became one of the first topics of the panel in terms of the opportunities available both here & there. My comments centered on the differences in the kinds of business endeavors which predicated a much more conservative environment here.

I find far less frivolous business ventures here - no pets.com or flash in the pan outfits like Friendster. What Chicago has is brick & mortar businesses who tend to be in a discovery phase with User Experience Design & HCI concerns; this means that there is vast opportunity. The logical corollary is a requirement for significant education; the panel agreed that IT departments were very much the gatekeepers here, and tended to be suspicious of anyone from outside their world-view. Luckily for us, there are many supportive currents in the media, both tech & general, that are helping open these doors.

Brian moderated, goaded & cajoled with great skill, keeping the conversation flowing. The structure of the event was simple Q & A, but as the panelists had many years of experience between them, stories & opinions were anything but lacking.

Adam Steele - in a moment of brilliant academic scheduling - brought his DePaul class. There were a couple of questions regarding what to show in an interview - I think the first one was whether you should show a book. YES, definitely was the resounding answer.

But what kind of book? The answer from the panel was unanimous - all of us wanted to see evidence of process. I recall it was Mark FelcanSmith who said show how you got there. I reinforced his comment by saying that I would rather see the process steps of three examples - problem statements, concept, iterations, solutions, results - than 15 unconnected finished pieces.

If you actually make it to an interview, then it gives both of you something worthwhile to talk about. How you developed an idea leas to methodology discussions of how you approach the stages of a process & how you deal with collaborative environments. UXD or HCI work is a team event - particularly as a junior, you are not likely to be handed a problem and told to come back with a solution in two days.

There will be Business Analysts, Developers, Senior designers & Clients working together to solve what is usually a complex series of problems. Work needs to be produced in a way that allows for comment, technical realities or epiphanies or creative market approaches. So the ability to work in stages is crucial.

Many other questions were asked & answered - I will link in the podcast when it appears. Thanks to Brian & the other panelists for an enjoyable evening & freely sharing their stories.

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user experience design