Hacknight #209

Putting the Us in Usability Testing

with Marisa Bernstein

[[hacknight_209.jpeg]]

Too often, technology products and services that are meant to improve the lives of everyday people are researched, designed and prototyped entirely behind closed doors. Learn how GRIT Toronto is changing that by inviting residents to participate in the process of building technology. https://codefor.ca/grit-toronto/

Speakers

Marisa Bernstein

Marisa Bernstein is a member of the City of Toronto's Service Design & Delivery team (part of the new Customer Experience Division). They work closely with the City's Housing Secretariat to deliver housing-related digital and analog initiatives by leveraging an empathy-based, human-centred design approach. Marisa has a background in urban design and community engagement, which has helped her incorporate values of inclusion and accessibility into her work in the civic tech sector. Prior to joining Code for Canada, she co-founded a civic tech company that created digital tools to help communities to become better engaged in the urban improvement process.

Topic:

Putting the ‘Us’ in Usability Testing

Too often, technology products and services that are meant to improve the lives of everyday people are researched, designed and prototyped entirely behind closed doors. Learn how GRIT Toronto is changing that by inviting residents to participate in the process of building technology. https://codefor.ca/grit-toronto/

Come help us chip away at civic problems by combining technology with the power of our community. We’ve got everything you need for a perfect Tuesday night: a presentation to learn from, some projects to work on, and pizza (or other food) to snack on!

Marisa Bernstein, Program Manager of GRIT at Code for Canada

@MarisaBernzz Program Manager of @code4ca

https://medium.com/code-for-canada/tagged/grit-toronto

@CivicTechTO #civictech https://link.civictech.ca/tweet

Marisa has a background in urban design and community engagement, which has helped her incorporate values of inclusion and accessibility into her work in the civic tech sector. Prior to joining Code for Canada, she co-founded a civic tech company that created digital tools to help communities to become better engaged in the urban improvement process.

Our venue sponsor for the month of September is the PwC Experience Centre! https://www.pwc.com/ca/en/services/consulting/experience-center.html

When you enter the PwC building you’ll see a Civic Tech Toronto volunteer by the elevator who will let you up to the PwC Experience Centre on the 19th floor.

If you run into any issues, send a message to our “doorbell” at 780-652-2649 (780-6LAB-6IX), and the organizers will get a notification.

The venue is physically accessible, with an elevator up to the 19th floor. Physically accessible washrooms are also available.

We can offer 2 transit tokens per participant per week to those in need of transportation support to get to hacknights. Please ask an organizer to take advantage of this. (We have a set budget for tokens, and if we’re running low, we will make every attempt to update the event description to say so.)

Our weekly civic tech hacknights bring together designers, coders, urban planners, government staff, mappers, policy-makers, students, communications strategists, and all other Torontonians who share an interest in making Toronto more responsive, prosperous, sustainable and equitable, through design, tech, and data. (Coders are welcome, but you don’t have to be a coder to contribute!) Come and be part of it!

6:30-7: Welcome and intros 7-7:30: Presentation and Q&A/discussion 7:30-9: Breakout groups (go make something!)

For more info, visit http://civictech.ca Here’s our Code of Conduct: http://civictech.ca/about-us

Hope to see you Tuesday!