Last night I tried out a Refresh Phoenix gathering that was held at Gangplank. Refresh Phoenix is just one chapter of the Refresh project. Refresh is focused on the creative, technical, and technical culture by promoting design, technology, usability, and standards.

I had attempted to attend a few Refresh gatherings back in Detroit while I was there, but most of them I was told were geared towards more of the technical and coding end of the spectrum and less on user experience and usability standards. I was hoping that this would be different.

While it was very interesting, it was definitely not geared towards user experience and interface design. There was a talk on Adobe CS4 and one on developing applications for Android. I loved hearing about the Android development. I only wish there was more talk on accessibility and user standards.

I am even more determined to have an IxDA local group in Phoenix. While Refresh Phoenix is a very great organization, I’d love to bring some more interaction design and user experience focused opportunities to the area. I miss that.