Our very own Jess McMullin caught up with Nathan Curtis, principal at EightShapes and author of the recently published book Modular Web Design: Creating Reusable Components for User Experience Design and Documentation.

In the interview, Nathan talks a little about what modular web design is, how it can help you design, and how it applies to organizations of different sizes.

Listen to the full interview with Nathan Curtis (~10 minutes)

Sign up for CanUX to learn more about modular web design from Nathan Curtis, plus lots more!

We have two great content strategy speakers this year at CanUX, Kristina Halvorson and Rahel Bailie.  Each bring a unique perspective and plenty of experience and knowledge to the topic.  Last week I sat down with each of them individually for a chat about content strategy and what they will be presenting at CanUX.

The first interview with Kristina Halvorson, author of Content Strategy for the Web, and president of Brain Traffic, points out the differences between project based content strategy work, and enterprise content strategy. Large companies tend to have many departments that all write and manage their own content and communication channels, but once you move all of these disparate groups onto a single website it becomes even more important to have a cohesive content strategy.

We also chatted about how content creation can fail, often due to placing it too late in the project. Many teams think of content as something you can fill in at the end, rather than placing it up front and allowing the content to help determine the needs of the design.

Later that day I spoke to Rahel Bailie, president of Intentional Design Inc, about her content strategy practice. Coming from a strong technical communication background, combined with information architecture and usability practice, gives Rahel a unique understanding of content and it’s place in the design process. She talks about content strategy as a way of managing content throughout its entire lifecycle – from concept through creation and publishing, all the way to archiving and revising.

To hear our entire conversations check out the MP3s linked below. Audio Recording Disclaimer: It sounds like college radio.

CanUX Speaker Interview – Kristina Halvorson (~10 minutes)

CanUX Speaker Interview – Rahel Bailie (~9 minutes)

Sign up for CanUX to hear these amazing speakers, plus lots more! If you register before Oct.31 you can save $300, plus use the cnxblog discount code to save an extra $100.

Montreal-based Akoha is one of Canada’s coolest startups, creating a “social reality game” that rewards players for doing good. Along with the game Akoha has created a social network to connect players. To succeed, Akoha needs to create a great experience—and that’s where they turned to Toronto’s Normative Design.

Normative principal Matthew Milan worked with Akoha founder Alex Eberts not just to design a better experience, but to create a culture of design in a company composed of developers. We’ll hear their story, along with practical tips and tricks for adopting and encouraging a design culture in organizations of any size.

Rahel Bailie, one of the world’s leading content strategists, joins the Canux line up to share a real world example of content strategy in action. We’re excited to have Rahel share her insights and experience at Canux.

Here’s a little more about Rahel:

Rahel Anne Bailie is the principal of Intentional Design, and brings substantial business, communication, and instructional design experience to her projects, where she and a select group of professional partners help organizations create and better manage their communication products.

Her focus on performance improvement means beginning with an analysis of business goals and ensuring that any improvements support those goals.

Rahel has many years of experience in the areas of content development and user experience environments, including environments producing localized and/or internationalized content. She understands the complexities of content architecture and flows, and synthesizes her findings to match business requirements to user need.

A self-identified geek, Rahel is drawn to technology like a moth to flame, and embraces technologies that serve to improve the performance of communication products and the processes to create and maintain them. She was elected Fellow of the Society of Technical Communication in 2009, is involved in the , and holds memberships in related professional associations such as Content Management Professionals Association, Information Architecture Institute, and Usability Professionals Association, as well as local groups HTCE and VanUE, in order to keep current in pertinent practice areas.

Folks,

We’ve heard a lot of interest in Canux, but some people needed more time to get approvals from work, etc. so we’ve extended our early registration deadline to Sept. 30. We’ve also extended our regular registration deadline to October 31st.

We hope we see you in November!

Updated: new deadline Sept. 4th

We’re going to bring one lucky attendee to Canux with some help from nForm. We’ll give you a free conference registration, including two nights accommodation and meals during the conference, plus $500 CDN to help with your travel expenses getting to Banff.

How do you get to be that lucky attendee?

1. Tell us why you want to come to Canux in a blog post or online video. Entries must be in English.
2. Link from your post to the main Canux site at http://canux.nform.ca
3. Tell us about your post by twittering a link to it with the hashtag #flymetocanux. This tweet should not be to anyone – we’ll use the hashtag to find it, not our Twitter handles, thanks. If you don’t have a Twitter account, now is the time to get one

The nForm crew will choose our favorites from eligible entries, and Jess McMullin and Gene Smith will make the final selection. If the selected winner has already registered for Canux, we will fully refund registration costs (so you can register now, and still enter the contest).

The contest is open until 11:59 p.m., Pacific Time, September 4th, 2009. Winner will be notified on Monday, September 7th, via Twitter. One entry per person, please. Multiple entries will be disqualified.

The contest is open worldwide to anyone above the age of majority, unless prohibited by law. However, the winner is responsible for all travel costs incurred. nForm will award one (1) cheque for five hundred dollars ($500.00) Canadian on site in Banff. nForm will also register the attendee for one (1) single accommodation event registration, a $999.00 value. nForm has no responsibility for booking travel or making other arrangements. The winner’s photo, copy, or video may be used by nForm for promotional purposes with no further compensation. Depending on legal requirements in the winner’s jurisdiction, a skill-testing question may be required to claim the prize.

Tips for impressing us:

Do tell us who you are, why you care, what’s important to you, what coming to Canux will mean.

Don’t write more than a page of copy, don’t take more than 3 minutes in video, don’t send multiple entries, don’t badger us on Twitter, spam us by email or otherwise be annoying.

Luke W:
CanUX: Leadership Insights
CanUX: Why so much Sketching?
CanUX: Visual Thinking in Practice
CanUX: Sketchboards- Good Design Faster
CanUX: 5 Sketches or Else
CanUX: Creative Leadership
CanUX: UX Swimlanes

David Gillis, teehan + lax
CanUX Day 2, Part 1: Sketchboards
CanUX Day 1, Part 2: Swimlanes
CanUX Day 1, Part 3: Five Sketches (Or Else)
CanUX day 1, part 1: Web Forms

Sketches from CanUX 2008 – http://blog.mastermaq.ca/2008/11/18/sketches-from-canux-2008/

CanUX in video and pictures courtesy JESS3 – http://www.jess3.com/blog/2008/11/canux-2008.html

Tech Vibes’ list of CanUX links and resources – http://www.techvibes.com/blog/canux-2008-links-resources

If you’re flying into Calgary (YYC) you have a few options – taking the Banff Airporter Shuttle, renting a car, or hitching a ride with a local. The Banff Centre has details about directions and transportation on their site.

If you are looking for a ride or can offer one, please leave a comment here on this post.

Look forward to seeing you in Banff.