UPA

Beyond In-Lab Website Testing with Morae (Philadelphia, PA, USA)

Please join us PhillyCHI and UPA Delaware Valley for a sneak peak of the new release of Morae coming in Summer 2008.

Date: Thursday, May 22, 2008
Time: 6 - 8PM (social time & networking from 6 - 6:30PM)
Location: Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall, University of Pennsylvania, 3417 Spruce St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Map: http://www.perelmanquad.com/about/directions/index.php
Parking: Available at garages on 38th & Walnut and 34th & Chestnut
RSVP: http://upadelawarevalley.org/events/event_register.php?id=9

Event Description
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. Remote user testing with UserVue will also be shown. We hope you can join us!

About the Presenter
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.

About TechSmith
Founded in 1987, TechSmith is the world’s leading provider of screen capture and recording software for individual and professional use. People everywhere use our products to capture content from their screens in ways that help them communicate more clearly, create engaging presentations for diverse audiences, and analyze product usability and customer experience.

To learn more about TechSmith, visit http://www.techsmith.com.

Posted in ACM SIGCHI | Calendar | Local meeting | Philadelphia, PA, USA | UPA
Tags: phillychi | techsmith | UPA Delaware Valley
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UPA 2008 (Baltimore, MD, USA)

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.

Posted in Annual association conference | Calendar | UPA | Washington, DC, USA
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Expecting surprises: A User Research Case Study (Hong Kong)

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.

Posted in Calendar | Hong Kong, China | Local meeting | UPA
Tags: upa hong kong
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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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UPA 2009 (Portland, OR, USA)

The 2009 annual conference of the Usability Professionals’ Association will be June 8-12 in Portland, Oregon.

Over time, more information will be available on the UPA conference page.

Posted in Annual association conference | Calendar | Conference | Portland, OR, USA | UPA
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Revolving Door Technique: a low-planning, multi-topic rapid data

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.

Posted in Calendar | Local meeting | UPA | Washington, DC, USA
Tags: | DC | upa
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Teamwork in Highly Dynamic Scenarios - UsabilityNJ (NYC, NY, USA)

Developing computerized support for time- and safety-critical teamwork, such as trauma resuscitation, is very challenging. To date, it is not even clear whether computer aids should support certain individuals, the overall team, or both, and in what manner.

This talk describes a study of teamwork in trauma resuscitation and the challenges concerning access to the setting, research methodology and data analysis. Preliminary insights about where in the process and how technologies can help  will also be discussed.

About the Speaker:
Aleksandra Sarcevic is a PhD candidate at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, majoring in Information Science at the School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies (SCILS). Her research interests are in the areas of human-computer interaction, computer-supported collaborative work, human information behavior, and information visualization.

Prior to Aleksandra’s current research on collaborative processes of trauma teams and trauma resuscitations, Aleksandra has been involved in research projects that investigated synchronous collaboration across dissimilar computer platforms, user interface design for searching emotional content in large video databases, and techniques and tools for evaluating interactive question-answering (QA) systems used by intelligence analysts.  Aleksandra’s work experiences include internships at Siemens’ User Interface Design Group and Google’s User Research Experience.
Location:
Siemens Corporate Research
755 College Road East
Princeton, NJ 08540-6632
Directions

Cost: Free. Donate as you wish for snacks.

RSVP: the event is open to all. However, as a courtesy to our host, please RSVP to rsvp@usabilitynj.org.

Posted in Calendar | Local meeting | New York City, NY, USA | UPA
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Social Influence: Social Media & the Enterprise (UPA) (NYC, NY USA)

If you think social media is all about clever corporate marketing on Facebook or quirky videos on YouTube, you’re missing an opportunity to change your company’s entire culture. In fact, social media can affect how companies innovate, test ideas, market, recruit talent, measure performance, and interact with all their stakeholders. In his discussion “Going Social Now,” Shiv Singh, head of the Avenue A | Razorfish social media practice, will show you how the enterprise can use social media to craft more relevant and useful user experiences.

As part of his discussion, Shiv will discuss how the rise of social media has created a new form of marketing altogether, social influence marketing. He will also discuss research studies that help explain why some online communities are more successful than others. You will walk away from this engaging discussion with user experience strategies to help you design more successfully for the social web.

Registration: 6:00pm (refreshments served)
Please arrive by 6 to allow time to get through security.
Photo ID required by security to enter building.
It must match the name on the registration list.
Presentation: 6:30pm to 8:00pm (includes Q&A)
Networking: 8:00pm to 8:30pm
Dinner at a nearby restaurant: 8:30pm to whenever
(participants pay for their own dinner)

Location: Avenue A | Razorfish
1440 Broadway (Between 40th & 41st)
New York, NY 10018
Cost: NYC-UPA members: $10, Non-members: $20,Non-members with 1 year membership: $25, Full-time students: $5 (students please provide valid ID)
RSVP: http://nycupa20080423.eventbrite.com
NO EMAIL RSVPs ACCEPTED FOR THIS EVENT.

Posted in Calendar | Local meeting | New York City, NY, USA | UPA
Tags: nyc upa | Social Media
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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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September COUPA Meeting (Columbus, OH, USA)

Columbus Ohio UPA (COUPA) Chapter Meeting
Date: September 17, 2008
Featured Speaker: Carol Smith, Principal at Midwest Research 

Agenda:
6:00 pm Networking
6:30 pm Chapter Meeting
7:00 pm Presentation by Carol Smith

Carol Smith is the Principal Consultant at Midwest Research (www.mw-research.com), a research and usability testing consultancy. Ms. Smith has seven years of experience working with government, non-profit, and private sector clients in industries such as: automotive; education (classroom and e-learning); financial; fine art; health care/medical; human resources; insurance; manufacturing; real-estate; and retail. 

Ms. Smith is the Director of Global Outreach on the Board of Directors of the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) and has presented at local and international usability conferences. Ms. Smith earned her Masters of Computer Science in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University in Chicago, IL.

Posted in Calendar | Columbus, OH, USA | Local meeting | UPA
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