We chat to Inez, Ridhwana & Lara about the Ladies that UX communities in Cape Town, and as of today Johannesburg.



Chantal, Kenneth & Kevin are joined by the dynamic trio of Inez Patel, Ridhwana Khan & Lara Pietersen to talk about UX and the local Ladies that UX meetups in Cape Town and now Johannesburg.

User Experience (UX) is an integral part of design, be it in the physical world or the digital world. It is the practice of putting the user first, creating empathy for the users of your systems.

"If the user can't use it, it doesn't work" -- Susan Dray

Lizzie Dyson and Georgie Bottomley, both UX (User Experience) professionals, loved their jobs but there was always a doubt about where the other women in the industry were. So they started the first Ladies that UX meetup in Manchester, UK, and it exploded. Lara was looking for an international community to connect with when she discovered Ladies that UX and it _stuck_.  The Cape Town LTUX meetup is the first African chapter of LTUX, started by Lara. Inez and co-organizer Ridhwana launched the Johannesburg chapter of Ladies that UX on the 31st of August 2017.

We hear from Inez, Ridhwana & Lara about their general experiences as women in tech, and why community events are so important to support each other. With Ladies that UX having over 50 chapters around the world, it gives also enables them and other community members to connect with each other.

Both events focus on creating a safe and inclusive space for woman in the UX field to connect, share & learn from each other. Each event follows a slightly format, from lean coffee and/or cocktails to workshops and presentations.

We also chat to Ridhwana about her upcoming TechWomen trip to the US, and how she'll use her that LTUX connections to meet inspiring women over there, and then bring all her learning back to share with the LTUX community back here. We wish her all the best with her journey!

In close we ask each guest to relate with us some advice for incorporating UX into our work. The suggestions are great, go have a listen.


Find and follow Ladies that UX online:

* https://twitter.com/ladiesthatuxcpt 
* https://www.meetup.com/Ladies-that-UX-Cape-Town/
* https://www.meetup.com/Ladies-that-UX-Johannesburg/
* http://ladiesthatux.com/cape-town
* capetown _at_ ladiesthat _dot_ ux _dot_ com

Find and follow Inez online:

* https://twitter.com/Inez_patel

Find and follow Lara online:

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/lara-pietersen/
* https://twitter.com/LaraPietersen

Find and follow Ridhwana online:

* https://twitter.com/ridhwana_k


Here are some resources mentioned in the show:

* TechWomen - https://www.techwomen.org/
* A journey through the eyes of a newbie female developer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXPN4UnrmuA
* Silicon Valley (HBO) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_(TV_series)



Thanks for listening!

Stay in touch:

* Website & newsletter - https://zadevchat.io
* Socialize - https://twitter.com/zadevchat & http://facebook.com/ZADevChat/
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72 - Ladies that UX with Inez, Ridhwana & Lara

We chat to Louise Perold about testing as a means to improve the overall quality of software, and the upcoming Let's Test conference


Kenneth & Len chat to Louise Perold about the art & practice of software testing. Louise reframes testing in a wonderful light, and how testers compliment and support the existing software development efforts. There are many things that simply cannot be tested reliably with automated techniques, and we explore why.

Louise has been helping teams write better software since the early 2000's, and is continuing on that journey today with her new consultancy and yearly conference. Louise is one of the proud members of [House of Test](https://www.houseoftest.rocks/en/), along with [Oz Chihwayi](/51). Louise is also one of the organisers of the local [Let's Test](http://lets-test.com/?page_id=5283) conference.

Just a few of the tips offered by Louise for developers working with testers:

* Talk, talk, talk
* Testers can help clarify your thoughts on design, and help identify where the risks can be
* Don't give a checklist of instructions, those are the tests that can be automated

Louise definitely gave us a lot to think about, and we hope you feel the same way after the show.


Find and follow Louise online:

* https://twitter.com/lperold
* https://www.houseoftest.rocks/en/rebels/louise-perold/
* https://za.linkedin.com/in/louise-perold-1947528


Here are some resources mentioned in the show:

* Who Still Needs a Tester? - https://zadevchat.io/51
* Context Driven Testing - http://context-driven-testing.com/
* ISTQB - http://www.istqb.org/
* The Psychology of Computer Programming - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1660754.The_Psychology_of_Computer_Programming
* Black Box Software Testing Courses - https://www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/courses/
* K-Cards - http://testingthoughts.com/blog/26
* Joburg Software Testers Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/preview/Joburg-Software-Testers2
* Cape Town Testing Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/preview/cape-town-testing-meetup



And finally our picks

Louise:
* Quality Software book bundle by Gerald M Weinberg - https://leanpub.com/b/qualitysoftware

Len:
* NVIDIA DGX Station - https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/dgx-station/

Kenneth:
* A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21.A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Everything

Thanks for listening!

Stay in touch:

* Website & newsletter - https://zadevchat.io
* Socialize - https://twitter.com/zadevchat & http://facebook.com/ZADevChat/
* Suggestions and feedback - https://github.com/zadevchat/ping
* Subscribe and rate in iTunes - http://bit.ly/zadevchat-itunes

73 - Let's Test with Louise Perold

Chantal and Kenneth talk to Grant Ongers and Mike Davis about infosec and the local BSides conference in Cape Town.

Grant and Mike are part of the organizing team behind BSides in Cape Town, and both love working in the infosec space. BSides here is based on, and supported by, the BSides conference in Las Vegas. BSides originated as a community event in Las Vegas and has been running for many years. It happens close to the popular Defcon conference.

BSides CT is looking to be a great event, with some amazing hardware badges on offer and the opportunity for attendees to contribute to their Rite of Passage program and help a young budding infosec person visit Defcon & BSides LV.

We also scratch the surface of infosec and it means for developers in our day-to-day work. We learned a lot, and this is only the beginning!


Find and follow BSides Cape Town, Grant & Mike online:

* http://www.bsidescapetown.co.za/
* https://twitter.com/BSidesCapeTown
* https://twitter.com/rewtd
* https://twitter.com/elasticninja


Here are some resources mentioned in the show:

* Defcon - https://defcon.org
* BSides Las Vegas - https://www.bsideslv.org
* 2016 BSides CT badges - https://hackaday.com/2017/05/22/zombie-badges-take-over-security-con/
* More on the badges - https://andrewmohawk.com/2017/05/16/bsides-cpt-badge-2016/
* Badges on GitHub - https://github.com/AndrewMohawk/BSidesBadge2016
* YubiKey - https://www.yubico.com/
* Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_2nd_Factor
* 0xC0FFEE - https://twitter.com/0xC0FFEE_CPT
* 0xC0FFEE Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/0xC0FFEE-Cape-Town-Hacker-Meetup



Thanks for listening!

Stay in touch:

* Website & newsletter - https://zadevchat.io
* Socialize - https://twitter.com/zadevchat & http://facebook.com/ZADevChat/
* Suggestions and feedback - https://github.com/zadevchat/ping
* Subscribe and rate in iTunes - http://bit.ly/zadevchat-itunes

70 - BSides Cape Town & infosec with Grant Ongers & Mike Davis

A weekly panel discussion with topics around the South African software developer community.

Regular panelists are Len Weincier, Kenneth Kalmer and Kevin McKelvin.

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