Boston, MA, USA

NH UPA May Meeting: Sneak Peak at Morae 3 and UserVue Demo

Topic: Morae 3 and UserVue Demo!

Speaker: Shane Lovellette, Morae and UserVue Product Manager - Techsmith

When you think of TechSmith Morae, you probably think of testing things on a computer screen—like a software application or Web site. But what about testing the iPhone user’s experience? Could Morae speed up and simplify a whole range of testing methods, from paper prototyping to in-depth interviews to focus groups? Could it enable unmoderated testing? The Morae development team is hard at work to support all these methods and approaches! In this session, we’ll pull back the curtain to give you a peek at what’s coming…and demonstrate specific use scenarios. We hope you can join us!

Shane Lovellette, the creator of Morae and UserVue, will be here from TechSmith to give us a demo and explain the benefits of using the new version of Morae and UserVue for conducting, recording, observing, analyzing, and presenting the results of in-person and remote user research tests.

When:
Wednesday, May 21st
Refreshments & Networking: 6-7:00 PM – Food & beverages will be provided.
Meeting: 7:00 PM – 8ish

Where:
Chordiant Software, Inc.
8 Commerce Drive
Bedford, NH 03110

Google map: http://tinyurl.com/43le9t

Summary:
The demo will cover how to: collect local and remote test session data, observe test sessions in local and remote environments, and analyze test sessions with the advanced analytical capabilities of the new v. 3.0 of Morae Manager (not out yet!) and UserVue. We will learn about automated and aggregated usability metric analysis, graphing and reporting, as well as creating video highlight presentations.

For those of you who already use Morae and UserVue, Shane will answer any questions you have about the products and give us all a demo of the new version of Morae 3.

About Shane Lovellette:
Shane Lovellette is the product manager for Morae and UserVue. Shane came to TechSmith with over eight years of management and production experience in video and television.

In 2004, Shane helped TechSmith introduce Morae, the first all-digital solution that records and synchronizes user and system data for the analysis of human-computer interaction. In that time, Morae has become the gold standard for usability testing and user experience research.

Shane holds a bachelor’s degree in television, radio, and film production from Syracuse University and an MBA from Michigan State University. Shane resides in DeWitt, Michigan, with his wife and two children.

RSVP:
Please send RSVPs to info@nhupa.org so we have an idea of the head count for the venue and refreshments.

***NH UPA meetings are always open to anyone who is interested in attending. Membership to the UPA is NOT required.***

Posted in Boston, MA, USA | Calendar | Local meeting | Locales | Maine, USA | Manchester, NH, USA | Organizations | UPA | Uncategorized
Tags: morae | remote | remote testing | research | techsmith | user research usability | user test | user testing | uservue
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NH UPA April Meeting

Please join us for our April meeting to take part in an interesting article discussion…

When:
Thursday, April 17th
Refreshments & Networking: 6-7:00 PM
Meeting: 7:00 PM – 8ish

Where:
Fat Belly’s Grill & Bar (http://www.fatbellysgrillandbar.com)
2 Bow Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801

Street Map: http://tinyurl.com/448pk3
Parking Map: http://tinyurl.com/ytsuz8 (street parking is also available)

RSVP:
An RSVP is not required, but it helps us to have an idea of the head count for the venue. Please send RSVPs to info@nhupa.org.

Topic:
~ Article Discussion ~

For this meeting, we’d ask that you read the selected articles ahead of time (don’t worry, they’re short articles, not books), jot down at least one discussion point about each article, then come prepared to discuss. Your discussion point can be a question, an example from your experience, or simply your perspective. We only ask that you keep your points constructive and not overly critical of the article or the authors. We will have two moderators that will help facilitate the discussion.

Thank you for your votes on the articles to read. The three “winners” are:

“Cultures of Prototyping”, Michael Schrage
http://hci.stanford.edu/bds/10-Schrage.pdf

“Getting the Right Design and the Design Right: Testing Many Is Better Than One”, Maryam Tohidi, William Buxton, Ronald Baecker, Abigail Sellen.
http://www.billbuxton.com/rightDesign.pdf

“Feature Richness and User Engagement”, Jakob Nielsen
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/features.html

NH UPA meetings are always open to anyone who is interested in attending. Membership to the UPA is NOT required.

Hope to see you there!

Posted in Boston, MA, USA | Calendar | Local meeting | Maine, USA | Manchester, NH, USA | UPA
Tags: hci | interaction design | interface design | nh upa | upa | Usability | user experience | UX
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Usability and User Experience 2008 (Boston, MA, USA)

UPA Boston’s Seventh Annual Mini UPA Conference will be at Bentley College in Waltham, MA. Hear and discuss critical topics in usability and user-centered design with practitioners, students, and experts in the field. Whether a newcomer, a seasoned usability professional, or member of a product team interested in usability, this conference offers unique content and learning opportunities.

As usability professionals we face challenges that are unique to our field. We are often asked to perform detailed analysis with little time or resources. To be successful, each of us has to work creatively with what we are given. This conference is an opportunity to share your insights, successes, challenges, techniques, or findings with industry colleagues. We invite you to submit a presentation proposal. We encourage you to design a presentation that is as hands-on as possible and that uses creative techniques for involving your audience.

The Boston Chapter of the UPA is looking for presentations, panels, tutorials, workshops, and out-of-the box sessions in the following areas:

• Case studies and success stories
• Presentation skills
• Usability “disasters” and how to prevent them
• Getting noticed as a usability professional
• Starting up a usability program
• Getting started and setting up measures of ROI
• Tools, tips and techniques for consultants
• Research topics and advancements in methods
• Method validation
• Agile and extreme usability techniques
• Reasons usability fails (timetable, budget, personality, utility)
• Fitting usability into the product lifecycle
• “Out of the box” presentations
• How to hire a usability specialist: what do they do?
• Difficulties in working with UI professionals
• Client perspective of usability-related issues
• How usability relates to other disciplines
• ROI - Getting your money’s worth from a usability professional

Posted in Boston, MA, USA | Calendar | Conference | UPA
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Discount Usability Testing Workshop (Boston, MA, USA)

Steve Krug presents Don’t Make Me Think: The Discount Usability Testing Workshop. Learn how to dramatically improve your Web site by watching people use it. In this day-long session, he will teach you how to do your own low-cost/no-cost testing that’s simple enough to make it a routine part of your design process.

• A complete explanation of how he recommends doing testing
• Two live usability tests on attendees’ sites, so you can see the whole process in detail
• A chance to practice conducting a test on your own site
• Advice on how to interpret your findings and decide what changes to make
• Plenty of time to answer questions about testing or any other aspect of usability

Posted in Boston, MA, USA | Calendar | Training
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Site Search Analytics for a Better User Experience (Boston, MA, USA)

Does your site have a search engine? If so, you’re sitting on an often under-utilized pot of gold: search query data that describes what your customers really want from your site—in their own words. Site search analytics helps you understand and benefit from that data, enabling you to better diagnose and solve a multitude of user experience problems. The result: better content, better navigation, better search, better interface design, and a better user experience.

In this day-long workshop, Lou Rosenfeld, co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web and the forthcoming Search Analytics for your Site: Conversations with your customers, will combine lecture, discussion, and extensive hands-on exercises to cover the basics of site search analytics. And he’ll show you how spending even an hour a week analyzing your search queries can help tune and improve your site and expose new opportunities for improving your business strategy.

On April 4th, Site Search Analytics for a Better User Experience will be in Boston.

Posted in Boston, MA, USA | Calendar | Training
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NH UPA March Meeting: Sarah Bloomer (Dover, NH, USA)

Please join us for the NH UPA March Meeting…

Topic: Expanding User-Centered Design in the 21st Century or Why Design Thinking is the Next Big Thing.

Speaker: Sarah Bloomer, Sarah Bloomer & Co

When:
Wednesday, March 26th
Refreshments & Networking: 6-7:00 PM – Food & beverages will be provided.
Meeting: 7:00 PM – 8ish

Where:
Liberty Mutual
150 Liberty Way
Dover, NH 03820

Parking Directions: Park in the front lot. License and plate number needs to be presented at security desk. RSVP required (see below).

Abstract:
What is design thinking? Why is it important? What does design thinking mean to the field of user centered design?

Take a closer look: it seems design thinking heavily leverages user-centered design…

Stanford University recently set up a new Institute of Design (the d.school), founded by, amongst others, David Kelley and Terry Winograd, big names in interaction design. Its website boldly states “we believe design thinking is a catalyst for innovation and bringing new things into the world”.

Business Week Online includes a section on Innovation, where design is a major theme. And in his book A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink says that the new MBA is the MFA. He claims we are moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. And people with design thinking will lead the way.

This talk is an overview of how design thinking is finding its place in companies worldwide, and how user-centered design is being applied across many fields, from organizational design to product design.

About Sarah Bloomer:
Sarah Bloomer has designed user interfaces for 20 years. In 1991 she co-founded the interaction design company The Hiser Group. With Hiser, she helped establish the field of user-centered design in Australia. Upon returning to the USA in 2002, Sarah was a senior interaction designer for The MathWorks before starting Sarah Bloomer & Co, a consulting practice focusing on collaborative design facilitation.

Sarah has delivered papers, tutorials and workshops at user interface design conferences in Australia and the USA. Her tutorial, Successful Strategies for Selling Usability into Organizations, became a CHI classic. Sarah also led the conceptualization and development of The Hiser Element™ toolkit, a user-centered design methodology created to help companies rapidly set up usability teams.

Sarah holds an MS from New York University in interactive software design, a BA from Smith College, and served as masters supervisor at The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

RSVP:
You must RSVP to attend, as security is tight at Liberty Mutual. Please send RSVPs to info@nhupa.org.

NH UPA meetings are always open to anyone who is interested in attending. Membership to the UPA is NOT required.

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Stay informed about NH UPA meetings and events by joining the NH UPA Yahoo! group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nh-upa/.

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Hope to see you there!

Posted in Boston, MA, USA | Calendar | Local meeting | Maine, USA | Manchester, NH, USA | UPA
Tags: design | design thinking | upa | Usability | UX
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An Event Apart 2008 (Boston, MA, USA)

At An Event Apart, gain a deeper understanding of web standards and emerging best practices, be inspired by fresh ideas and new directions, and join the greatest minds and hottest talents in web design today. Web standards godfather Jeffrey Zeldman and world-renowned CSS expert Eric Meyer got together to create a conference for people who make websites.

An Event Apart Boston will be June 23-24 and will feature design guidelines and implementation techniques to enable better user experiences.

An Event Apart will also take place in New Orleans, San Francisco and Chicago.

Posted in Boston, MA, USA | Calendar | Conference
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NH UPA February Meeting

Our February 19th NH UPA meeting will be a highly engaging and informative night with 4 different 10-minute talks by 4 different speakers. The “10-minute talk” format is popular because of the pace of the meeting and the variety of topics discussed related to usability and user experience design.

Please RSVP to info@nhupa.org if you plan to attend.

Topics:
Cognitive Biases and the Fundamental Attribution Error in User-
Centered Design by Chauncey Wilson, Autodesk

Words Set the Stage: Modeling Good Behavior for User-generated
Content by Margot Bloomstein, PixelMEDIA

Pros and Cons of Presenting Multiple Options of a Design to the
Project Team by Shannon McHarg, H&R Block

Remote Usability Testing: Best Practices and Lessons Learned by
Rebecca Richkus, Autodesk

Where:
PixelMEDIA
222 International Drive
Suite 175
Portsmouth, NH 03801

Time:
6:00-7:00 PM - Networking (refreshments provided by PixelMEDIA)
7:00-8:00 PM - 10-Minute Talks

About 10-Minute Talks:
Presenter talks are strictly limited to 10 minutes and 6 slides max. Following each presenter, there will be 5 minutes for Q&A. This makes preparation and presentation easy and keeps things moving for the audience.

For usability and user experience practitioners, you will find plenty of tips and tricks you can use in your job. For those who are new to usability, the variety of topics will give you a good idea of what the profession is all about.

We look forward to seeing you there! Please RSVP so we can plan appropriately.

RSVP or questions: info@upa.org

Posted in Boston, MA, USA | Calendar | Local meeting | Locales | Maine, USA | Manchester, NH, USA | Social
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Conducting Usability Tests (Waltham, MA, USA)

The February STC Boston Workshop is “Conducting Usability Tests – Practical Tips and Techniques”. Never conducted a usability test? Want to add structure to your informal testing efforts? Need to cost-justify investment in usability?

This hands-on workshop, by Beth Loring and Lena Dmitrieva, will train you to conduct a usability test and lay the foundation for incorporating structured techniques into your work processes. The techniques you will learn here are applicable to whatever you work on: software, documentation, websites.

Learn introductory skills such as how to recruit participants, interact with them, and compensate them for their time, as well as advanced topics such as remote testing, handling difficult participants, and writing useful recommendations once the test is done. Practice test moderation in Bentley’s state-of-the-art usability testing facilities and receive individual feedback from the instructors.

Posted in Boston, MA, USA | Calendar | Local meeting | STC
Tags: stc boston
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Beyond the Box: Media Access Anywhere and Everywhere (Brighton, MA, USA)

Boston-IA and WGBH present Larry Goldberg, Director of the Media Access Group at WGBH. He will discuss the ground-breaking work that Boston’s public radio and television producer continues to do to make multimedia accessible for people with disabilities.

As media changes from analog to digital, from fixed to mobile, from broadcast to the Internet, captioning and video description must change as well. New and emerging applications for captioning and video description are being developed and proliferated today by the Media Access Group at WGBH and its business partners.

Larry Goldberg will discuss the promise and problems of captioning and description for personal data assistants (PDAs), cell phones, digital TV, digital cinema, DVDs, in-flight systems, and Internet-based educational and entertainment services.

The meeting will take place at the new WGBH facilities in Brighton.

See Boston-IA meetings for more information.

Posted in Boston, MA, USA | Calendar | Local meeting
Tags: boston-ia
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