Expecting surprises: A User Research Case Study (Hong Kong) - 22 May 2008

Conducting user research programs is much more of an art than a science. Even a very small sample size could easily demand serious planning and vigilance in execution, however, the knowledge and insights it brings also goes way beyond what one can get from data based studies such as a survey.

This presentation will take us through a project case study for predesign work targeted at collectors.

See UPA Hong Kong for more information.

The 6th International Conference on Design & Emotion is a forum where practitioners, researchers and industry meet and exchange knowledge and insights concerning the cross-disciplinary field of design and emotion.

Our relationship with the world is affective, and all human-product interactions are colored with emotion. The last ten years, design science has shown an increasing interest in this emotional impact of product design. And although this has stimulated some valuable attempts to formalize and model design emotions, we must not loose sight of the fact that emotion is holistic and an effect of the overall quality of the product or service, and the universal, cultural, and personal values of the user. It sometimes almost seems as if emotion has become just one of the many design demands. So that is why this year we say ‘dare to desire’ - dare to surrender to the multifaceted behavioral, mental, expressive, and physical phenomena we call emotion. Good design is desirable design, and design for emotion is not about products and services that feel good, but about products and services that make us feel great.

Conference themes:

• Values & Culture
• Usage & Interaction
• Modeling Experience
• Technology & Materials
• Brands & Consumption
• Design & Emotion: Methodological Issues
• Design & Emotion: Theoretical Issues
• Desire & Lust
• Food & Fragrance design
• Toy & Game design
• Design for hospitality
• Emotion in design education

The International Association of Societies of Design Research is presenting the IASDR 2007 conference 12-15 November, 2007 at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This is a large, international design research conference with an intensive and high quality program. Keynote speakers are drawn from academia and industry and will cover themes of business, collaboration, methods, and user behavior. Multiple paths through the papers will be suggested to help participants find synergies among people and papers.

UXnet advisor Kun-Pyo Lee will be one of the keynote speakers.

DDF.UPA China warmly invites you to User Friendly 2007 for 3 days, bringing together 700+ usability practitioners, designers and technologists from across China and internationally. The theme of 2007 is Connecting User Experience Communities. Come to Beijing to continue the tradition of sharing, friendship and learning as experienced in Beijing (2004), Shanghai (2005) and Hangzhou (2006).

See UPA China for more information.

Scott showed us some new design and interaction directions on the mobile phone including widgets and some clips from mobile usability tests he had conducted. There was agreement that the mobile landscape is changing quickly with new models being released, the integration with internet services and what this means for usability and UI design.

This was one of the first co-organised events between the Interaction Design Association Hong Kong and the Usability Professionals Association Hong Kong.

See http://www.usability.com.hk/event_september2007.htm for more information about the event.