As of today, I've launched a new blog at http://www.okayjames.com ….if you’re following me, follow there for the latest in UX stuff in public sector.

See you there…

J 

Thanks to everyone who attended last night!  You can find the deck and demo code here:

Here’s the essential links I gave towards the end of the talk:

- Download Expression Web trial at: http://expression.microsoft.com

- ASP.NET Design Starter Templates: http://tinyurl.com/5pe2hn

- Download SuperPreview for IE: http://tinyurl.com/c2v9vh

I’ll shoot for having the on-demand version of this dinner published within the next week.

James

Hey Guys,

I’ve definitely been heads down with a couple projects and with MIX, so sorry for the late notice…

Tomorrow I’ll be speaking at our monthly Developer Dinner at the Reston office, covering the latest in Expression Web. A detailed description is on our main developer blog, Design your ASP.NET Application with Standards using Expression Web.

Hope to see you there!

James

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for all that stuck out the bad weather and were able to make the dinner last night!

I received lots of great feedback from last night’s content and we will definitely continue to collaborate our developer and designer focused sessions to ensure the story is painted fully end to end.

As promised, you can download my deck and Blend project here:

Thanks again and stay connected to my blog for more UX videos coming soon similar to this session…

James

Hey guys, here’s a post written by Renee Yong, Marketing Manager for Expression. If you’re in the market for Expression Blend, you can definitely take advantage of this promo…

James

For a limited time, customers in the United States can shop the Microsoft Online Store for Microsoft Expression Blend,  Expression Studio and Expression Web and get 50% off.

• Expression Blend Upgrade $49.95
  Create rich interactive and web applications for WPF and Silverlight
• Expression Web Upgrade $49.95
  Create modern, standards-based web sites and applications using CSS + XHTML, ASP.NET, PHP
• Expression Studio Upgrade $174.95
  Get Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Media, Expression Encoder, and Expression Design in one package

Chances are good that you qualify for the Upgrade pricing if you have any existing web design or creative software, or Microsoft Office software, including any ONE of the following:

• A licensed copy of an earlier version of Expression Web
• Adobe Creative Suite (any version)
• Adobe/Macromedia Flash or Director (any version)
• Adobe/Macromedia Dreamweaver (any version)
• Adobe GoLive (any version)
• Microsoft Office (any version)
• Microsoft FrontPage (any version)
• Quark QuarkXPress (any version)

[Note: Pricing and specials are set on a locale-by-locale basis.  This deal applies only to US customers of the Microsoft Online Store and is valid only for a limited time.]

Continuing to build off of Marc Schweigert’s developer dinner session, we’ll explore how to take the next steps in making your UI effective. Don’t miss our next Designer Dinner in Reston on 1.27.2009 @ 6:00pm.

The dinner is free and registration is HERE.

Here’s the description:

So you know the basics of animation in creating Rich Internet Applications, but want to dive and start using the latest Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) technologies? …well, this designer dinner is just for you. We'll explore the essential designer/animator techniques from high level basic animation all of the way down to more advanced methods including timeline interpolation, and leveraging motion paths in your RIA user interfaces.

Hope to see you there!

James

Not sure what this Azure platform is all about? Why should I care as a design firm? Check out this webcast on Wednesday to see if the Azure Services Platform can help your agency deliver services without having to maintain data centers to power your RIAs.

Registration link: Microsoft Global ISV Technical Forum on The Azure Services Platform

Keep in mind, the talk will be directed more to the ISV audience, but is definitely applicable to design firms and development shops.

James

For those looking to brush up on their Designer Skills using our latest UX toolset, don’t miss our next Designer Dinner in Reston on 12.17.2008 @ 6:00pm.

The dinner is free, and you’ll get some free pizza while you’re at it. Register HERE, as space is limited.

Here’s the description:

Leverage the full power of WPF on the desktop and Silverlight on the internet to provide your audience with big-impact, high-performance user experiences that drive brand recognition and repeat use. In this Designer Dinner, we'll dive into the recently released Expression Blend 2's uniquely scalable, design oriented interface built using the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and will concentrate on the process of design instead of digging through nested menus and rearranging floating palettes that are always in the way. We'll walk through real-world scenarios and will explore how to effectively design user interfaces using the latest design tools from Microsoft.

Hope to see you there!

James

So I’ve been heads down in my new role as a User Experience Evangelist for the last couple months and I’m officially back in the blogosphere as of today.

I’m excited to finally exclusively focus on User Experience (UX) within Public Sector, and I’ve got alot of stuff in the pipe I think can really help both design firms as well as customers who are wanting to cross that line into the RIA space. Specifically, I’m wrapping up a Silverlight 2 site that will consume this RSS feed, and will be my central place to find guidance, videos, tutorials, etc with UX in Public Sector.

More to come… 

James

We are pleased to announce the release of SDLC-in-a-Box version 2.0! With more than 75 partners in over 10 countries already signed up, we are excited about partners being more prepared than ever to deliver Visual Studio Team System deep-dive and implementation training for customers. We encourage you to visit the site, become familiar with the program, and engage your Microsoft account team and Training or Consulting Partner to begin the Application Lifecycle Management assessment within your own organization. If you are a partner, sign up now, download SDLC-in-a-Box, and start training now!

One of the most demanded features for this release was the inclusion of complimentary Visual Studio Partner products for functional areas such as Requirements Management, that when combined into a single demo, illustrate the richness of the Microsoft Application Lifecycle Management tools platform. SDLC-in-a-Box version 2.0 includes product integrations from Sparx Systems, Personify, TeamLook and DevBiz, not to mention the inclusion of RASK, a Microsoft Requirements Authoring Starter Kit project. This comprehensive demonstration environment makes this program one of the most compelling examples of a customer’s real-world ALM implementation.

Our team has been heavily working on SDLC-in-a-Box version 2.0, and the latest progress of the next release can be read at www.sdlcinabox.com. The most compelling new features of this next release is the improved partner integration story. One of the difficult challenges in implementing a methodology with Visual Studio Team System, is deciding which tools to compliment your process among the vast amount of partner products. With this next release of SDLC-in-a-Box, we have taken the most requested partner integration demonstrations from our customers and have provided simple and compelling use cases for a full SDLC tools platform.

 The following partner products will be integrated and demonstrated in SDLC-in-a-Box version 2.0:

·         Borland – Requirements Management

·         Teamplain – Developer Portal customization

·         Sparx Systems – Modeling & Traceability

·         Teamprise – TFS for Eclipse IDE users

·         Personify Design – Team Management through Outlook 

There have been tons of downloads, inquiries and great feedback for v1 of the kit so far, and our team would love to get your input for inclusions in the next release. Feel free to download the latest version of the FREE VSTS training kit and provide us with your input.

- James

David Baliles and I have developed SDLC-in-a-Box - a program geared towards helping customers get up to speed with Visual Studio Team System. This is a free training program that can be delivered by Microsoft partners demonstrating the ENTIRE software development lifecyle using Team System. From installing Team Foundation Server to deploying a real-world application, this training program provides an in-depth training approach developement teams of all sizes can benefit from.

We have also included a video that showcases the program from start to finish.

V1 for SDLC-in-a-Box will be available on 09-22-06 - so feel free to check out www.sdlcinabox.com for more details.

- James