This past weekend was thanksgiving. You know, the real one in Canada. It got me thinking about this past year at The Republic of Quality and all the great companies we’ve had the opportunity to work with. Let me tell you a little bit about four of them.
Yellow Pencil
We make the web work for everyone. Future friendly web design & development
I’ve known the owners of Yellow Pencil, Dave and Paul, since I was three. Our dads are buds. Whenever I’ve worked with the Yellow Pencil team it’s been like working with family, but in a good way. Over the last year I’ve been able to work with them on projects for BC Transit, CPA Canada, and the City of Red Deer. Yellow Pencil is a great company that focuses on complex content and web design problems. Great partners on any cludgy content problem that needs solving.
Habanero Consulting
We are passionate about helping people and organizations thrive.
While I can’t yet talk about the work I’ve been doing with Habanero (I know, I’m a tease), I can talk about how great they have been to work with.
One of the things that impressed me the most about Habanero is their ability to adapt to find the best solution. They want to learn from others to see how their process can improve and how their clients can be better served. Right from the start I felt like a valued part of the team. I like teams and believe that collaboration and sharing our ideas is the path to success. Habanero is great at this. Big thanks to Mallory O'Connor for bringing me in to help where I can.
Fresh Tilled Soil
Bespoke experience design for web and mobile
Fresh Tilled Soil are new friends. They are a great UX company in the Boston area. I met Michael Connors, their Executive Creative Director, at the 2014 IA Summit in San Diego this past March. He was talking my Responsive Content Modeling workshop with his co-worker Alex Sylvia. They had a great time and recommended me for an event they put on called UX Fest.
Fast forward six months and I’m in Boston putting on the first ever workshop at UX Fest and doing one of the main stage talks the next day. It was great to partner on the workshop for the event and to be able to share a new UX talk (Conflict is the Key to Great User Experiences). All of this was made so easy for me by working with Alex Stetson, their Head of Marketing and Events. I can't wait until I can collaborate with her again.
I love a chance to share my knowledge and process. Fresh Tilled Soil gave me a great opportunity to do that. I love how they promote UX in the Boston area and beyond. They are big supporters of the UX community.
Another plus, I got to see @signalnoise, another Canadian, kickass at UX Fest.
The City of Surrey
The future lives here
Okay, one of these things is not like the other. More than ever over the last year I’ve become part of the team at The City of Surrey. Together we have created standards for UX and content research, worked on a framework for their digital strategy, and created a passion for audience focused design. I’m thrilled with the work that I’ve been able to do with the team there and how we’ve wrestled with things together. It has never been a situation of client and vendor, it is us working together. We’re like a family that is creating a better web for everyone in The City of Surrey.
So Many More
There are so many great organizations that we’ve worked with over the last while and we’re going to share more about them in the future. Today I wanted to share a glimpse into why I’m a thankful Canadian UXer. I’d love to hear about what you’re thankful for in 2014.