UX & IA Design Thinking

I will be Connecting, Reimagining, and Transforming myself at the SharePoint Conference 2014 in Las Vegas! I will be at all the usual social events so hit me up on Twitter to meet up and share a beer and talk about User Experience, Branding, or whatever. @ErikJSwenson https://twitter.com/ErikJSwenson If you are following the SPC14 Yammer Network you can also find me there as well. See you at the party!

25 FREE copies of my book will be given out Tuesday Nov. 13th 1pm at EMC Booth #629 . I will be there to Sign the books and provide a Q&A session after. Come on by to say hello! Add this event to your MySPC calendar!

I will be presenting a session on “ Intro to SharePoint 2013 banding and design ”. Here are some of the topics that I will hopefully be able to cram into the 1 hour session. I could easily spend well over 1 hour on each one of these topics… SharePoint 2013 UI Overview Design Manager Snippet Gallery Composed Looks (Themes) Device Channels SharePoint Designer 2013 Managed Metadata Global Navigation SharePoint Saturday NH Logistics: Where: Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), Manchester, NH When: September 22th, 2012, Saturday Time: Registration 8-8:30am EST Cost: FREE! Website: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/nh/default.aspx Twitter: @ErikJSwenson | #SPSNH I will be giving away a couple of my books out as prizes! Hope to see you there and do a little meet and greet after the session!

After 6 months of hard work my SharePoint 2010 Branding Book: Practical SharePoint 2010 Branding and Customization   is finally available for order from Amazon !!! If you are quick and order now, you can get it under your tree by tomorrow! This book is a great deal as it comes with 2 pre-built visual designs , a visual studio solution for applying the designs, and of course a great resource book to help you on your branding journey. The two Visual designs included in the SharePoint Branding Kit : Many thanks to Chris Arella, Matt Lally, Robert Dornbush, and the team at Apress. This would not be at all possible without the support from my family and friends! Happy Holidays!

I wanted to share that my SharePoint 2010 Branding & Customization book is available for pre-order. You can click on this LINK to review and order my book. Or you can click on the link within the “My SharePoint Branding Book” element on the right side of My Blog . The book will be available December 15th 2011 and will include many great branding and design topics. Book Details: With Practical SharePoint 2010 Branding and Customization, SharePoint branding expert Erik Swenson cuts through the fluff and discusses accessible, easy-to-understand consulting and processes to create aesthetically pleasing, highly usable branded and customized SharePoint websites, both internally and externally. Designed to be a quick reference, how-to guide that lets you dive straight into the task at hand, you'll find this book's attention to detail and pragmatism make it an attractive companion during your branding experience. SharePoint 2010 deployments are more common than ever, ...

Whoa, its been 3 months and no blog posts what gives??? Well I have been very very busy writing my SharePoint 2010 Branding and Customization book!!! I am sorry about no posts lately but I am very excited to say that I am halfway through the book. It has been many of long nights but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The book is schedule to be published and available around the early part of December of this year 2011. So that will be just in time to order one for a great stocking stuffer! Here is a simplified TOC from the book. Introduction to SharePoint 2010 Branding Overview of UX/Branding Process Gathering Branding Requirements Creating the Visual Design Development Environment Setup Building the Design Testing the Visual Build Tips and Tricks Tools and Resources CSS Reference Guide I want to thank everyone who has continued to follow my blog, and has posted such great comments and questions. I promise that once this book is...

Like many of you out there, you have more then 1 hat. I have set a goal for myself to have a good understanding of all aspects of consulting and SharePoint with an addition to a few Specialties. So here are my hats, drop me a comment with yours. Senior Consultant : Attend sales calls, proposal creation, requirements gathering, knowledge transfers, etc.. SharePoint Administrator: Creating, Configuring, and Troubleshooting SharePoint systems. SharePoint IA (Information Architecture): Taxonomy, Wireframe's, Layouts, Navigation. SharePoint Branding: Visual Design, CSS, Photoshop, Master Pages, Page Layouts SharePoint Governance: Gathering, Defining, and Delivering tailored plans. Also includes Communications, Vision, and Road Maps. Mentor/trainer/Contributor: Help contribute to the community and increase productivity and delivery standards. SharePoint Application Migration: Help analyze applications and function for migrations.

Here is a little background of myself. I currently work for EMC Consulting as a Senior Practice Consultant. I am 29 years old and have two amazing little boys (Gavin 3yrs and Bryce 11mths) and a wonderful wife (Karissa). I got my bachelors degree in graphic design from Plymouth State College, in Plymouth NH. My first job was at a printing company formally named NEBS. I spent most of my time there creating custom forms and stationary, not a fun job at all… I then got a job doing illustrations and production work for a small publishing company in Atkinson, NH called GEX. It was a laid back 9-5 job, but it drove me crazy… I was also doing some web design work on my own at the time for some family and friends. I took a leap of faith and Joined Internosis in July of 2004 as a production artist. My Manager took me under his wing and molded me into the consultant that I am today. He...