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Wednesday, Febrauary 21, 2007 Round table discussion & Election night: What are you doing about Accessibility? WHEN:
WHERE: Topic: What are you doing about Accessibility. A recent STC meeting featured Sharron Rush from Knowability talking about a lot of issues around accessibility. Are your project teams developing accessible software and/or web sites? Come talk about your experiences and share your insights with other UPA members. We'll also hold our annual elections for officers: |
| some recent events... |
January 16, 2007 Show 'n Tell: Personas, et. al. With two wall-sized posters as a focal point (posters available for each attendee -- from Microsoft's small business ERP systems), Paula Thornton facilitated a discussion around project artifacts that help tell a continuous story about initiatives and/or serve as relevant discussion/design placeholders. Personas are one such artifact. As Enterprise 2.0 (http://del.icio.us/iknovate/enterprise2.0 ) begins to transform more information-only intranets into functional workspaces, there are new considerations. Facilitator Bio: Paula Thornton is currently part of the User Experience consulting group at EDS. Interested in the overlaps between many existing disciplines she started an Experience Design discussion group in 2003 (http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/experiencedesign/). She is also a co-author on the Corante Total Experience blog (http://totalexperience.corante.com/). |
November 14, 2006 World Usability Day DFW Usability Professionals Association Presented a World Usability Day Event at the Art Institute of Dallas. Our Speaker, Dan Langendorf discussed: What is Ethnography. How can ethnography be used in product design and development? Using ethnographic techniques can help us outside of newspapers and product design. Dan will also describe how he and Chip Wood (another UTD professor) are raising an awareness of ethnographic techniques forschool, work, and other ventures. SPEAKER: Dan Langendorf is currently an MFA candidate as well as an instructor at the University of Texas of Dallas where he teaches Emerging Media and Communications as part of a new track within the Arts and Technology program. For the last several years, Dan has focused on ethnographic field research while working for Ignition, a Plano-based product design and development company. Recently Dan left Ignition to pursue his own Internet startup venture. In an even earlier life, Dan was a reporter for the Dallas Times Herald newspaper. |
October 25, 2006 HAPPY HOUR!! Come network, socialize, and generally have some fun. Gloria's at Beltline and Tollway (in the Village Parkway shopping center, facing the Tollway) |
June 20, 2006 FutureNow Author Spoke and Signed Books Emerging media have undermined the effectiveness of prevailing mass marketing models and created an unprecedented opportunity for businesses to redefine how they communicate with customers. Author Jeffrey Eisenberg will address the DFW Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) at a book reading / signing on Tuesday, June 20, 2006. In their new book, WAITING FOR YOUR CAT TO BARK? Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing, Jeffrey along with his brother Bryan – "Wall Street Journal" and "New York Times" best-selling authors of CALL TO ACTION: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results – address the current state of marketing.
The Eisenbergs reveal how to leverage the power of increasingly interconnected media channels by viewing your marketing system through the lens of Persuasion Architecture Together, Bryan and Jeffrey co-founded Future Now, Inc., a marketing consulting boutique, based in New York City, that focuses on increasing their clients’ conversion rates. They have consulted and run seminars for companies such as: Yahoo, Disney, Price Waterhouse Coopers, GE Healthcare, NBC Universal Studios, SAP, Dell, Volvo, Computer Associates, Overstock.com, LowerMyBills, Agora Publishing, CafePress.com, RADirect and many others. |
May 31, 2006 iRise: Simulate to Innovate - Improving Software through Richer Interactions with Users, Earlier Building the software right is not the same as building the right software. What if, rather than relying on requirements documents, static mock-ups, and Visio wire frames, you could easily create a visual and interactive experience early in the project lifecycle to help all team members to visualize what the system was really meant to do? Would you get better requirements? Design better interactions? Involve more stakeholders? Better manage expectations? Deliver the right software? The full product was demonstrated at the UPA meeting. |
May 4, 2006 Visual Interaction Designer Patrick Hofmann presented Picture performance: evaluating and enhancing the usability of visual information. Our May 4, 2006 community meeting was a joint meeting with the DFW Society for Technical Communication. For the past ten years, Patrick Hofmann has been hip-hopping the globe exclaiming the virtues of visual language and pictorial instruction: "away with words"! Wordless communication can solve countless usability problems and reduce often enormous translation costs. But can it do that all the time? Since he created his first wordless manual, Patrick and his colleagues conducted several usability tests on reams of hard-copy instructions and online information, uncovering both new and ongoing challenges in visual communication. How do we visualize for different cultures, languages, and ages? How do we visualize for different types of information, and newer technologies? How can we test the usability of these without spending a fortune? During this presentation, Patrick addressed these questions and generate many more—to evaluate the performance of pictures and words in our information. As a former technical writer and now a visual interaction designer, Patrick Hofmann has turned into ‘a man of few words’. For over ten years, this vibrant Canadian has helped clients like Nokia, Philips, FedEx, HP, BASF, and Agfa overcome the anxiety and stress involved in globalization and translation—often by eliminating the text in their online, hardcopy, and interface information. His award-winning work and undying passion for "visualization" continue to send him far and wide, as he runs his own consultancy and teaches workshops on using pictures to improve communication. |
April 18, 2006 How’s the job market for UI designers, usability testers, information architects, and others who focus on improving the user experience? Hear from hiring managers during a panel discussion sponsored by the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of UPA (Usability Professionals Assn.). Panelists covered:
PANELISTS: |
March 1, 2006 William H. Cushman spoke on the topic of "Designing for an Aging Population: Age-related Changes in Human Capabilities and Design Strategies." While much attention has been given to designing for people with disabilities, less has been given to accommodating people without disabilities as they get older. As anyone over 50 can testify, the body is not the same as it was at age 20. We are not fully aware of the extent of these changes, however, because they occur gradually. An awareness of age-related changes is important for product designers because the number of middle age and elderly adults is increasing rapidly in both developed and developing countries. The presentation focued on age-related changes that have an impact on user-product interaction and design strategies for ensuring that users of all ages will be able to use the products we design. A discussion period followed. |
January 30, 2006 Marc Rettig presented an abbreviated version of his sold-out tutorial from the DUX2005 conference: "The Layers of Experience" (http://www.dux2005.org/?page=tutorials ) on Monday, Jan. 30 from 11:30 - 2:00 p.m. at Texas Instruments. We're knee-deep in buzz about "The experience economy," "experience design," "behavioral segmentation," and "marketing experiences." But a buzz-only diet leaves questions about How To Do It. How do you understand human experience well enough to create products that fit? How do you evaluate attempts to deliver a great experience? At this special mini-tutorial, Marc Rettig will present an abbreviated version of his sold-out tutorial from the DUX2005 conference: "The Layers of Experience." The premise of this talk is threefold: "Ethnographic methods" are also part of the current buzz, but the most successful approaches blend behavioral research with the disciplines already so crucial to fielding successful products. This session gives attendees tools for analyzing and understanding human experience. It is not so much a workshop on research methods as a workshop on "how to decide what data to gather, and what to do with it once you have it." Based on more than a decade of using field research to support design and marketing, Marc will share tools for documenting the complexities of human interactions with technology, information, and one another. Using video of field observations, we looked at moments of experience through many lenses. We'll then create models of what we saw, integrating data about: what people do, relationships between people, communication and language, success measures and barriers to success, artifacts and environment, and more. Having created a model of the "layers of experience" for a particular activity, we will then discuss how to use this model in conceiving, designing, and marketing products and services. Speaker BIO: Recent clients include Whirlpool, BBC, the U.S. Army, Crate and Barrel, and Microsoft. He has taught both lecture and studio courses at Carnegie Mellon's Graduate School of Design (where he was the 2003 Nierenberg Distinguished Chair of Design) and the Institute of Design, IIT, in Chicago. Marc has an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and Linguistics, and completed requirements for a Master's in Computational Linguistics at New York University. Marc frequently speaks and conducts hands-on workshops in industry and academic settings around the world. |
November 15, 2005
While "a picture is worth a thousand words", an interactive picture can be worth even more. As those of us who are part of solutions design can attest to, the tools and methods to help us bring to life the concepts we’re creating has been limited and doesn’t appear to be moving anywhere fast. A recent discussion list raised the most common tools of the trade for both concept and prototype: Visio and DreamWeaver. With that much critical mass, you’d think there would be a solid handshake between the two - but there’s not. Help may be on the horizon. See a demo of a tool that holds promise to help fill the concept/design gap: ProcessView Composer. The conceptual brilliance of this tool is its reliance on XML. When you ‘draw’ something, it’s actually working code. Transition from visual to prototype is literally a click away. All the data in the tool is ‘sucked up’ into pre-defined Word XML templates. Project design data is published, in a single click. Seems too good to be true? See for yourself. Easy enough for departments to define their solution needs themselves - a must-see for all project managers and business analysts. So bring your PMs and BAs to this informative software and process demo. See related review: http://www.iathink.com/2005/09/seeking_the_sil.html
Speaker is our own Paula Thornton, IA at TI. |
November 3, 2005 World Usability Day The Sabre Holdings Human Factors held an Open House on Thursday, November 3 to celebrate the first annual World Usability Day, sponsored by the Usability Professionals’ Association. This worldwide series of events was designed to promote awareness of the benefits of usability engineering, user-centered design, and evaluation. Activities included tours of our usability labs, Webcasts of UPA sponsored events, and more. |
October 6, 2005 Dr. Randolph Bias, Ph.D., from the University of Texas at Austin, presented Cost-Justifying Usability: Why "they" don't get it and why "they" do at our October 6 community meeting. This was a joint meeting with the Society for Technical Communication (STC). Why do users still find plenty of Web sites and other user interface designs unusable? Why do so many software development teams still resist the inclusion of usability support and eschew a user-centered design approach? Learn about the cost-justification approach to usability and improve usability in your interfaces. Dr. Bias has a Ph.D. in human experimental psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and has worked as a usability engineer for over 20 years. He created and managed BMC Software's Usability Department and co-founded an independent usability lab and consultancy. He has published over 70 technical and scientific articles, and co-edited Cost-Justifying Usability: An update for the Internet age (2nd edition). Dr. Bias is a certified Human Factors Practitioner and a vigorous advocate for designing technology to fit the user. He has been on the faculty of the University of Texas School of Information since 2003. |
September 15, 2005
Topic: Fall kick-off meeting for the local chapter of UPA (usability professionals Assn.). We heard from a couple of people who attend the National UPA conference this summer. We also talked about our local plans for World Usability Day - Nov. 3. |
May 5, 2005
Topic: A demo of MORAE, - the industry's first all-digital, software-based usability testing solution from TechSmith. The demo will be given by the TechSmith Team. |
March 15, 2005 Topic: The Role of Use Cases in the Web and Software Development Process given by Jeanie Anirudhan a Business Analyst at TI and Prasanna Sivakumar a Business Analyst with InfoSys. Both are in the Web Solutions Group at TI. |
November 11, 2004 Topic: Writing for the Web |
August 3, 2004 Topic: Personas & Storytelling |
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July 6, 2004 |
May 25, 2004 TOPIC: The Institutionalization of Usability The DFW UPA chapter held an active discussion based on the HFI's Usability Broadcast Network webcast: "From Inspiration to Action at A.G. Edwards" Free Webcast Tuesday,
May 25, 2004, 3:30 to 4:30 pm, EDT (U.S.) HFI's Executive Managing Director, Jerome Nadel, hosts Pat Malecek, User Experience Manager of A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. Pat discusses how his team of Certified Usability Analysts (CUAs) were instrumental towards making usability a routine practice at A.G. Edwards. Following many of the
principles outlined in Dr. Eric Schaffer's new book "Institutionalization
of Usability: A Step-By-Step Guide" A.G. Edwards' CUAs provided
design guidance, usability testing, standards Download a free white paper: http://www.humanfactors.com/training/webcastAGE.asp The Webcast will conclude with a live question and answer period with Jerome and Pat and the viewing audience. Hopefully, this Webcast will stimulate some interesting discussion about how we can all evangelize for Usability within our own organizations. |
April 8, 2004 My Favorite Metrics Kathlyn Auten, Manager, of Texas Instrument's Application-Specific Circuit (ASIC) Product Information Team will address a joint meeting of the Society for Technical Communication's (STC) Lone Star Chapter (LSC) and the Usability Professional Association (UPA). Ms. Auten discussed selecting the best metrics for your needs. "We all need to learn the value of making metrics work more for us than our working for them, how to translate metrics into meaningful information, and how to keep metrics 'friendly'," she said. "With managers and corporations looking more at the budgetary costs of maintaining operations, we need to understand and project the value add we bring by using metrics to justify the existence of our technical writing or publications departments," said Debbie Wiles, President of the Lone Star Chapter of STC. "Kathlyn's talk will provide us with the basic tools to start providing that justification." Ms. Auten has been with Texas Instruments for the last 21 years working with online delivery -- from before the Web became a viable channel to the present popularity of using the Web to deliver everything. She is a senior member of the STC Lone Star chapter, a past manager of the chapter's Publications, and was recently honored as the keynote speaker at the first STC Conference in India in 1999. |
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March 16, 2004 Basic Instinct:
Designing for (and not fighting Using recent experience
in large scale e-commerce projects, Chris Hornbaker will show how to plan
for the inevitable time when users become slaves to their own instincts,
and how to harness basic instinct to your Formally educated as a user interface designer with an emphasis in web-based applications, Chris came to Dallas to pursue a career in graphic and information design. As an information architect,
he has performed user research, developed prototype user interfaces,
and facilitated user-testing sessions. Chris has created web interfaces
for some of the most well known brands in the world, from Ritz Carlton to Match.com. November 18, 2003 Topic: Gathering ROI and Visitor Success Rate Directly from Site Visitors The presentation
provided attendees with anew perspective in methods of capturing
usability issues and building ROI measures specific to their own
needs. In addition, participants learned how these new methods
can be used to complement and augment their own traditional lab-based
methods. Jeff Schueler: Jeff spent 20 years with IBM in various staff and management jobs in marketing and development. He pioneered many of the usability testing methodologies that have allowed Usability Sciences to succeed. Jeff has published and contributed to articles on software usability in nationally distributed publications such as PC Computing Magazine, Computer Technology Review, and Insurance Industry Review. Scott Kincaid: Scott has
been involved in the usability industry for the past 10 years working
at Usability Sciences. Working for an independent October 8, 2003 Topic: Designing for People Internationally noted information developer Andrea L. Ames, M.S. will address a joint meeting of the Society for Technical Communication's (STC) Lone Star Chapter (LSC) and the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Usability Professionals' Association (UPA). "Information should become transparent. Users shouldn't have to think about what they are reading," said Ames. In her presentation "Designing for People: Human Factors for Technical Communicators," Ames will describe some basics of human factors and then demonstrate the impact of two important factors on information design and architecture. Ames explained that human factors are those characteristics of users that influence or affect their experiences while using our products the way users think, solve problems, and learn, as well as their background, past experiences, and attitudes. Ames, a technical communications expert with more than 19 years' experience, specializes in user-centered product interfaces, online information architecture and design, interaction design, and usability. A Senior Information Developer with IBM, Ames also teaches at several universities. Ames is an Associate Fellow with STC and a member of the STC International Board of Directors (she will be President in 2004-05). September
23, 2003 Topic: Low Cost Usability Methods UPA & STC member Elisa Miller "road-tested" a presentation on "low-cost/no-cost usability methods" which she designed for the Region 5 STC conference. June 2, 2003 PRESENTATION: "How To Get Usability Into The Project Plan" by John Thywissen, EDS. |
| May 5, 2003 Topic:"Lessons in the Art and Science of VUI Usability - Or, How I Learned To Love IVR's" ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Susan Hura, PhD, leads Intervoice's Usability Testing Program and
has several years of experience with both speech technology and
product and application testing. Dr. Hura also has experience as
a part of the Usable Solutions Engineering and Multimedia Performance
testing teams at Lucent Technologies Bell Labs, where she focused
on intelligibility testing, usability, and interface design. As
a faculty member at Purdue University, she helped found the Purdue
Spoken Language Research Group |
| April 7, 2003
Topic: "Away With Words! How Usable Is Visual The evolution of the digital information age has given birth to a revolution in the way we communicate. With the dissolution of borders comes a necessity to communicate globally. Will Esperanto become the global language? Um, no. There is a language that is much more natural, almost instinctively comprehensible: the language of pictures. However,
after creating many picture-based global documents, and conducting
a barrage of usability tests on visual instructions, I've discovered
that there are new challenges facing visual communication. How do
we satisfy the vast array of global users? How do we Let's address these questions and generate many more - all in an attempt to evaluate the usability of pictures as a new global language. ABOUT
THE SPEAKER: As a trained technical writer and now a visual interaction
designer, Patrick Hofmann has turned into a man of few words. At
Quarry Integrated
Communications near Toronto, Canada, he helps many clients overcome
the anxiety and stress involved in globalisation and translation--often
by eliminating the text in their online, hardcopy, and interface
information. His award-winning work and undying |