Washington, DC, USA

UPA 2008 (Baltimore, MD, USA)

Saturday, May 10th, 2008 by Conference Editor
June 16, 2008toJune 20, 2008

The international UPA 2008 conference will be held in Baltimore on June 16-20, 2008.

This is a great conference for people new to usability as well as for experienced practitioners. You will meet wonderful people and get lots of practical tips and ideas. Monday June 16 and Tuesday June 17 are tutorials and workshops, while the main conference runs Wednesday June 18 through Friday June 20.

The theme of this year’s conference is “The Many Faces of User Experience: Usability through holistic practice.” Many types of professionals touch the user experience of a product. Marketing specialists, graphic designers, computer scientists, business analysts, psychologists, information architects, technical writers and others bring valuable perspectives to usability and user experience. UPA 2008 invites you to share perspectives and learn from the experiences of other practitioners.

This year’s conference will feature a special full-day program on usability in e-Government on Tuesday, June 17. There will be panel sessions on the status of usability in the U.S. Federal Government and in other governments around the world, small group discussions, and presentations and case studies on a wide range of topics.

UPA 2008 will also introduce a new topic called Managing User Experience. It includes sessions geared towards user experience managers, directors, or team leaders.

Find out more details about the conference
.

IxDA DC Kick-off Social ~ RSVP!

Monday, April 21st, 2008 by Olga Howard
April 28, 2008
5:30 pmto7:30 pm

IxDA D.C. is throwing a Face-2-Face Social so we can meet in person for drinks, socializing, and planning upcoming events based on user (you–the community) research. As such, we will be gathering both qualitative and quantitative data on the interests of the local IxDA & IA communities. We might even craft some personas (using pictures from later in the evening) to bring our archetypes to life.

So — come one, come all to this April IxDA D.C. social event. Bring your business card, or fill out a blank one there, and we will have a door prize raffle of something cool. You can RSVP to wkevans4@gmail.com

>> When: Monday, April 28th, 5:30 - 7:30pm (but feel free to stay late!)

>> Where: Cafe Citron, Dupont Circle, 1343 Connecticut Ave., Washington D.C.

>> Map: http://tinyurl.com/4guhzb

This a great opportunity to connect and network with local IxDA and IA folks - many of whom just returned from the IA Summit and are burning to share all the brilliant ideas and methods they learned.

The IxDA D.C. coordinators will be there and want you to contribute ideas as we plan upcoming events!

Please RSVP to Will Evans: wkevans4@gmail.com since we will be reserving the space.

/ IxDA D.C. Coordinators

Revolving Door Technique: a low-planning, multi-topic rapid data

Monday, April 21st, 2008 by Olga Howard
April 22, 2008
6:00 pmto9:00 pm

Near the end of 2006, the new, quite large website we were working on was nearing launch. Most site product areas needed rapid user feedback due to an aggressive development schedule. And, as we neared launch, more functionality was available so it was actually feasible to test user response to the working elements. However, with a 2-person research team and MANY disparate small research needs, we had to develop a way to effectively get customer input within days of the frequent requests.

We developed the Revolving Door technique in response to this need. It’s called Revolving Door because we scheduled participants to come in a steady stream over a period of 5 weeks and altered the usual research request process allow last-second requests to come in, thus shuffling and changing what topics were put in front of the revolving series of participants.

Working with lots of different topics with a high volume of participants and providing analysis within 2 to 3 days of starting testing helped us learn a lot about juggling disparate needs. We are eager to share what we learned in order to help other research teams provide agile, rapid research with confidence and without going bonkers.

Date and time:
April 22, 2008
6:00-7:00 p.m. Dinner at La Madeleine for anyone who would like to join us
7:00-9:00 p.m. Presentation

Location:
Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center
4805 Edgemoor Lane
Bethesda, MD 20814
Presenters:

Leah Rader: With 10 years experience in understanding and crafting
user experiences through qualitative research methods, Leah most
enjoys the improvisational moments in participant interviews. She has
delved into the behavior and thinking of customers as a head
researcher for consulting firms, e-Lab, Sapient, and Matter. She
started up the user experience research practice for Marriott
International and most recently has worked with Revolution Health as a
freelance researcher.

Beth Toland: Beth has a broad range of experience having worked in
most major functions of the web–from design and information
architecture to content development and research. Her specialty is
messaging and branding which is particularly useful in solutions
development and opportunity mapping. Beth has led projects for
consulting firms Andersen and Sapient, and helped build the research
practice at Marriott International. Most recently, she developed the
research offering at Revolution Health, where she pioneered several
new data collection methods.

Registration:
Please register online at
http://www.upa-dc-metro.org/registration/event/beginEventReg.php

Cost
$5 members
$15 nonmembers

Directions to the Program:
The Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center is located at 4805
Edgemoor Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814. The Center is in the two-story
County office building on the plaza level of the Metropolitan complex,
above a County parking garage.

By Car:
The entrance to the parking garage is marked with a large blue
Bethesda Center parking sign. Parking is available in the garage -
$.75 per hour short-term (3 hours or less), $.50 per hour for over 3
hours. If you are coming south on Old Georgetown Road (from the
Beltway use exit 36), turn right on Woodmont Avenue and the parking
entrance is almost immediately on your left (second driveway). If you
are coming south on Wisconsin Avenue/Rockville Pike, turn right onto
Woodmont Avenue, go south for approximately one mile, cross Old
Georgetown Road, and the parking garage entrance is the second
driveway on your left. If you are coming north on Wisconsin or west on
Rt. 410, take Old Georgetown Road north, turn left at the second
traffic light (Woodmont Ave.) and the garage entrance will be on your
left (it’s the second driveway). Take the elevators from the parking
garage to the plaza level (P). The building is located at the center
of the plaza. County and American flags and a sign bearing the County
seal mark the entrance to the building.

By Metro, Bus or on Foot:

The building is located across the street from the Bethesda Metro
station. From the Bethesda Metro Station, take the escalator from the
bus bay to the plaza level, turn left, walk past the clock tower and
across to the Metropolitan plaza using the pedestrian bridge. If you
are walking from any other location, the Center’s street entrance is
at 4605 Edgemoor Lane (corner of Old Georgetown and Edgemoor) and is
marked with County and American flags. Take the elevator to level 2
for meeting rooms.

La Madeleine is located at:
7607 Old Georgetown Rd
Bethesda, MD 20814.
The restaurant is a short walk from the Bethesda Metro stop.

Web 2.0 Design: The Agony and the Ecstasy (Arlington, VA, USA)

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 by Olga Howard
March 12, 2008
6:00 pm

User experience teams can wander into unknown territory when we redesign our Web 1.0 products into Web 2.0 offerings. Lillian Christman, of Plateau Systems, will share with you the story of one user experience team’s Web 2.0 adventure. Ms. Christman will discuss how the team arrived at their usability goals, what the most salient aspects of Web 2.0 are to them, and what the most salient features of our redesign were. She will also speak about their design collaboration as well as general process issues. Ms. Christman will conclude with a short summary of lessons learned and some thoughts about our next design cycle.

Date & Time

March 12, 2008
6 – 7 PM A light dinner will be provided at the event location.
7 – 9 PM Program

Location

SRA International, Inc.
3434 Washington Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22201
202.282.3080

Presenter Bio

Lillian Christman is Director of User Experience at Plateau Systems, an Arlington startup that provides web-based talent management software. Prior to joining Plateau, Christman directed user experience at Q.Know Technologies where she led the design of a tagging and collaboration extension to the Microsoft Office suite. Christman worked in the Silicon Valley for 15 years, designing the user experience for software startup products and large-scale enterprise appplications. She holds a PhD in sociology from Vanderbilt University. Ms. Christman is currently leading the Web 2.0 redesign of the Plateau user experience. Instrumental to this effort are Plateau’s “usability partners”, targeted customers and user groups, who are actively collaborating in the redesign.

Details at UPA DC Metro site.

Cost

$10 members
$20 nonmembers

Registration required.

Putting Research into Practice (Washington, DC)

Thursday, February 14th, 2008 by Human Factors International
March 13, 2008toMarch 14, 2008

Putting Research into Practice provides participants with an engaging review of foundational and recent research with a distinct “How can I use this?” focus. HFI’;s experts provide in-depth summaries of the current literature in Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Computer Science, Technology, Usability Engineering, and Marketing. We present the practical implications of this research and its impact on how we conduct user-centered design. Through discussion and lively exchange, participants learn to effectively apply exploratory research to their real-world applications.

More information: http://www.humanfactors.com/training/annualupdate.asp

Cost: $1295 per person; $1165 each if three or more attend from one company

To register: https://www.humanfactors.com/training/registration/registration.asp?id=223

Location information: www.mclabs.com/facilities/Washington_DC/

The Science and Art of Effective Web and Application Design (Washington, DC)

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 by Human Factors International
March 10, 2008toMarch 12, 2008

Successful user interface design is both a science and an art. Learn to optimize both user performance and visual appeal. This course draws on thousands of research studies on user behavior – and on modern principles of visual design. You will learn how to design for your target users, create navigation structures that make sense, and avoid common design pitfalls. Experience design challenges with real world examples. Experts in the field of interface ergonomics offer a comprehensive approach to creating highly effective Web sites, Intranets, and Web and Windows™ applications.

More information: http://www.humanfactors.com/training/design.asp

Cost: $1495 per person; $1345 if three or more attend from the same company

To register: https://www.humanfactors.com/training/registration/registration.asp?id=221

Location information: www.mclabs.com/facilities/Washington_DC/

25th HCIL Symposium (College Park, MD, USA)

Saturday, January 26th, 2008 by Conference Editor
May 29, 2008toMay 30, 2008

Celebrate the University of Maryland’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab’s 25th anniversary by joining us for a very special Symposium on May 29, 2008. Not only will you hear talks about cutting-edge research being conducted at the HCIL, but this year we will begin the Symposium with a very special keynote panel, “25 Years of HCI, 25 Years of the HCIL.” Esteemed colleagues from outside of the HCIL will offer their reflections. In addition, this year we will continue the tradition of demos and posters following the talks, but these will happen as a part of lab tours where you will be able to see our new facilities. The following day, May 30, 2008 there will be a wide variety of tutorials and workshops that can’t be missed.

See HCIL Symposium for more information.

Making A Difference In The World Through UCD4D (Washington, DC, USA)

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 by Olga Howard
January 24, 2008
7:00 pmto8:00 pm

“Hearts On Our Feet”: Making A Difference In The World Through UCD4D

In the past year, a new community has emerged within User-Centered Design, a community calling itself “User-Centered Design for Development” or UCD4D. The name places this community squarely between UCD and international economic and community development, an interdisciplinary juncture that has previously been unexplored but which holds great promise for collaboration and connection. Basically, by linking together the UCD/usability community with the economic and community development community, we hope to help leverage the skill sets and knowledge of both to tackle hard global problems such as poverty, literacy and health.

In this talk, Susan Dray will give some history and background about how this community formed and what it is up to. She will also give some examples of UCD4D projects in the so-called “developing” world, and will discuss ways that we all can to do “make a difference” in the wider world by using our UCD skills creatively to help solve global problems.

Speaker:

Susan Dray, Ph.D., CHFP, is President of the consulting firm, Dray & Associates, Inc. based in Minneapolis, MN. She and David Siegel, her husband and business partner, have worked with companies worldwide to help bring the voice of the user to the table on design projects. They have done user research in 24 countries and are widely recognized for their expertise in cross-cultural field research. A pioneer in UCD having entered the field in 1979, Susan worked at Honeywell and American Express before moving to consulting in 1993. She has published widely and is active in a variety of professional groups.

She currently serves as Director of Publications for UPA and has been a prime mover in the development of the UCD4D community. For more information, see www.dray.com.

Cost:

$5 members of the UPA DC Metro Chapter
$15 non-members

Please register online at:
http://www.upa-dc-metro.org/events/2008/01-24-08.htm

Date and time:

January 24, 2008
7:00pm - 9:00pm
6:00-7:00 p.m. Dinner at La Madeleine for those who would like to join
us (directions below)

Location:

Hyatt Regency Bethesda
One Bethesda Metro Center (7400 Wisconsin Ave),
Bethesda, Maryland, USA 20814

Congressional Room (Conference Level, one Floor below the Lobby)

The Hyatt Regency Bethesda is located above the Bethesda metro stop on the Red Line.

Frontiers in Service 2008 (Washington, DC, USA)

Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 by Conference Editor
October 2, 2008toOctober 5, 2008

The Frontiers in Service Conference is considered by many to be the world’s leading annual conference on service research. It features a unique international mix of business people and academics, and a cross-functional list of topics, including service marketing, service operations, service human resources, service information technology, e-service, service innovation, and customer relationship management. Speakers at the conference include many of the leading service experts, including high-ranking executives and prominent academics from around the world.

The 2008 Frontiers in Service conference will take place in Washington, DC, on October 2 - 5, 2008.

Welcome to the Washington, DC Area UXnet Locale

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 by Olga Howard

Many of you know that our DC Area UX community is incredibly active. In the next few months I’ll be taking time to review our local UX-related organizations in an effort to help those seeking advice, networking opportunities, and work in this field. If you have an organization in mind that would be interested in a small review please send me a note (olga [at] olgahow [dot] com). Until later…yours truly. Olga.