Items tagged "DC"

The International UPA 2008 Conference in Baltimore

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. The schedule
for the e-Government program can be found at: https://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_conference/program/2008/index.php?view=day_with_tracks&day=Tuesday&style=brief#E-Government_Program

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

Register by May 5 before the prices go up! Prices and online registration are available at: http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/conference/2008/registration.htm

For more details about the conference, go to: http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/conference/2008/index.htm

Posted in Calendar | Conference | UPA | Washington, DC, USA
Tags: | DC | 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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