Beck Tench is ever-searching for the clarity that comes from a solid understanding of information architecture, cognitive behavior and beautiful design.She was formally trained as a graphics designer at the University of North Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication and has spent the time since designing and building websites for higher eduction, non-profit and corporate organizations. She is currently an information architect for hesketh.com/inc.Her research interests include: biologically inspired design, human-computer interaction, user experience and information architecture.Beck is a member of the Information Architecture Institute, the Triangle Usability Professionals Association and her local Refreshing Cities chapter, Refresh the Triangle. In October of 2007, she was awarded “Best of Track” for her presentation “Designing Compelling User Experiences (in Higher Ed)” at the High Ed Web Dev conference in Rochester, NY.She currently resides in a treehaus near the heart of Durham, NC, USA.
Latest News about Beck Tench
January 7, 2007
Joined hesketh.com as an information architect.
November 8, 2007
Attended World Usability Day and participated in my first Interactionary.
October 13-17, 2007
Attended HighEdWebDev 2007 in Rochester, NY and was awarded “Best of Track” for presenting Designing Compelling User Experiences (in Higher Ed). Left for home particularly inspired by Lori Packer, Daniel Frommelt and Derek Tonn.
October 15, 2007
Became a member of the Information Architecture Institute.
October 11, 2007
Presented Designing Compelling User Experiences (in Higher Ed) to the Duke University Web Communicators Group.
October 8, 2007
Joined Refresh the Triangle.
October4-5, 2007
Attended IDEA 2007 at Parson’s New School of Design in New York City. Was particularly inspired by Brad Paley, Sylvia Harris and Mike Kuniavsky.
October 3, 2007
Attended IDEA Pre-Conference Information Architecture Workshop in New York City, presented by MAYA. Left 100% inspired.
September 21, 2007
Attended TriUPA Mentor/Mentee lunch at Saffron in Cary.
September 9-13, 2007
Attended XML/XSLT training by Crane Softwrights in San Francisco, CA.
August 29, 2007
Offered position as Web Interaction Designer with Channel Advisor, Inc.
August 12, 2007
Sent in registration for a GRE math refresher class at the local community college, Durham Tech.
August 4, 2007
Attended BarCampRDU at Red Hat HQ. Was particularly inspired by the folks at disruptorMonkey and (no surprise, here) ibiblio.org.
July 23, 2007
HighEdWebDev2007 conference presentation proposal for Designing Compelling User Experiences (in Higher Education) has been accepted!
July 5, 2007
Registered for BarCampRDU.
June 18, 2007
Interviewed in the Triangle Usability Professionals 2nd Quarter 2007 NewsletterPDF of the interview. (navigate to page 6 for my interview). For archival purposes, I have created a
June 12, 2007
Decided to consider a part-time work/part-time school scenario in 2008 (instead of full-time school in 2010) after encouragement from a new friend, Lea Salas.
June 3, 2007
Attended DCampSouth in Raleigh, NC and was particularly inspired by Thomas Vander Wal’s presentation on folksonomy and infoclouds, a discussion about online image vs. online identity and a few new tricks for debugging websites and CSS code for IE. Also joined the Triangle Usability Professionals Associations (TriUPA).
May 30, 2007
Submitted Designing Compelling User Experiences (in Higher Education) presentation proposal for the HighEdWebDev2007 conference in Rochester, NY.
May 22, 2007
Attended Presenting Data and Information: A One Day Course Taught by Edward Tufte in Arlington, VA
April 14, 2007
Attended Full Frame Documentary Film Festival’s screening of Helvetica, left inspired and proud I chose to major in graphics design.
April 13, 2007
Launch of Another HCI Blog, a place to record my thoughts about and experiences with HCI, IxD and UX. You can subscribe to the Another HCI Blog RSS feed via feedburner.
March 23, 2007
Launch of HCI Notes, a tumblr.com scrapblog where I record quotes, links, graphics and videos about HCI, IXD and UX. You can subscribe to the HCI Notes RSS feed via feedburner.
February 28, 2007
Offered position as User Experience Designer at Red Hat, Inc.
February 22, 2007
Met Cory Doctorow at a small talk about blogging and boingboing.net for the Duke Web Communicators group.
February 20, 2007
Inspired by Fred Kilgour memorial and keynote lecture by Red Hat executive, Michael Tiemann entitled Sharing Knowledge, Multiplying Value: The Non-Linear Nature of Open Source Software
December 20, 2006
Came to the conclusion that researching users was to be my next career move, wrote on my duke website, “Sometimes with mandate, other times with curiosity and always with a sincere passion, I have spent the last decade researching the habits of web users and trends in interface design and information architecture. I consider it my responsibility as a professional — and as a willing participant in the World Wide Web — to not only create exemplary websites, but to contribute meaningfully to the collective intelligence of the internets.”
November 30, 2006
Attended Merlin Mann’s seminar Time burglars, attention sinks & bear traps or, “Why does my email make me cry?” and enjoyed a very greasy lunch with him at Bullocks BBQ.
October 22-25, 2006
Attended HighEdWebDev 2006: Collective Intelligence conference in Rochester, NY and was particularly inspired by Rose Pruyne and Daniel Frommelt.