On August 22nd, AIGA Boston had its first UX/UI Designers Roundtable, led by Brandon Miller of TANK design in Cambridge. It was a great showing of design professionals and members interested in the topic.

Brandon started off by opening a dialogue about the common misconceptions or improper definitions used by those who may be unfamiliar with UX/UI. What is it? Is it a person? Is it a team? Do you do one or the other? It seems that some answers led to it being a little bit of everything–the managing of the project, the strategy development, the client relationship, the usability, and the architecture of the information.

The conversation led to Apps vs. Mobile Web and then to the processes of both. Should we be thinking mobile first? Should we think of the user first? Who is the user? Should you create user personas? Is there a benefit to using lo-fidelity prototypes? What about using frameworks for building fast interactive models? What about the IA and hierarchy of information? What about responsive design? Should responsive be a “rubber band” or a “building block”? Must we always “live in beta”?

Overall, it seemed like this topic was just the start to a larger, more in-depth, much needed discussion. Talks are in the works to hold a second session at TANK in the coming months as well as the potential to hold a monthly casual chat as well.

If this is something of interest to you, please let us know with your comments below or a request to community@boston.aiga.org. Let’s keep it going!