Social get together

Hey class,

Lindsey wanted to see if anyone was up for getting together for a post-class social event. She's listed details on the discussion board:
12/11/07 at the Wedgewood Ale House
[8515 35th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115, (206) 527-2676]

TC517 Take-aways

Thanks again for a fantastic quarter. I can say it was both a fun and intellectually stimulating 10 weeks we spent together. Hope you can say the same!

During our final class last night, I asked you to reflect on what you'll take with you from this class. I tried to capture the highlights of our discussion, forgive me for paraphrasing. Feel free to add more to this list either in the comments - or email me and I'll add them here.

• Nothing substitutes getting real data from real users
• Placing the user at the center of the design process is critical
• Learning about users at the beginning is important, as is being involved in the design process from the beginning
• Usability studies are scalable: Sometimes they seem daunting because of how in-depth they can be and how much planning is involved, but you can learn a lot from just testing a few users.
  
• Usability studies can be conducted rigorously, there is a lot involved and a host of methods that can help you find out about how usable a product is.
  
• When conducting usability studies within an organization politics are very real. We need to communicate our results, methods and findings in an appropriate way for the audience whether it be designers, developers, managers or others.
  
• Usability testing are more difficult than they seem. Generating the right questions to ask and the types of data to collect is something that requires skill and practice.
  
• There is always more data you can gather. You need to make judgments and trade-offs of what type of data to gather. Need to know how to justify it and then there is the challenge of putting it together. (my notes are sketchy on this one if anyone has something to add, please let me know)
  
• Clear understanding of the Think Aloud Protocol is do or die. You need to understand what it is, how to elicit it successfully. Successful facilitation of a study is contingent on a successful Think Aloud Protocol.
  
• As usability professionals, we need to demonstrate self-confidence in our methods, how we communicate about our methods and how we present our findings and recommendations. We have to demonstrate that our findings are valid and important.
  
• Success is subjective, so it's important to define it up front. Success in terms of project success and what constitutes success in a usability study. Getting the team on the same page up front can be helpful in this endeavor.
  

Some more points, I hope you'll take away about research in general:

• Qualitative methods are valid ways to answer certain types of research questions (the hows and the whys).
• Employ both qualitative and quantitative methods where appropriate. Multi-method approaches to research can help strengthen your data collection.
  
• Triangulate to leverage multi-methods and techniques.

What else would you add? Or maybe your take-aways are not answers...but rather more questions.

Some final reminders/logistics

Hey Class,

Just to remind you:

• Final reports are due by Friday, December 7th. I originally said they were due at noon, but as long as they are in my inbox sometime on Dec 7th - that'll be fine. I plan to look at them first thing on Saturday.
• When you submit the final report, make sure to send me just one file - thanks!
• If you have final make up assignments, make sure you have communicated with me about due dates.
  

Some housekeeping:

• I will send comments and a grade on the final presentation by the end of this week.
• I will send comments and a grade on the final report by December 16 (or sooner!)
• Final grades are available on MyUW on December 19th.
  

Let me know if you have questions,
Emma

Preparing your final assignments

The slides from last week's class are up on the schedule page. Also, you might want to check out the criteria for the written report and the class presentation.

IA internship

You may have seen this via email, but an alum is offering an information architect internship:

I'm looking for an IA intern that can help us map our site. It’s a challenging site as we have a template driven network of 300 dynamic sites. This intern would use Omni Graffle (preferred), Visio or other to map out or architecture as it relates to these templates.
Thank you,
Gülay

Email me if you need Gülay's email address.

Slides from Steve's talk on Agile & Usability

Hey class,

Steve agreed to share his slides (pdf) from his class talk on Agile and Usability/UCD.

Thanks Steve! If other students want to share slides from their class talks, please email them to me (preferably as a pdf).

Reading assignments for next week

Here's the list of what you signed up for.

Remote testing
- Lauren
- Scott
- Steve F.
- Adonis
- David D.
- David B.
- Ned

Data Collection
- Lindsey
- David T.
- Kyle
- Virginia
- Bre

Contextual inquiry
- David T.
- Lindsey
- Molly
- Jonathan
- Maxine
- Virginia
- Adonis
- Lauren M
- Scott B
- Jada
- Anya

Architecture
- Angela
- Jada
- David B
- Charlie
- Kyle
- Gretchen
- Lindsey
- Garrett
- Anya
- Colleen
- Bre

Culture Factors
- Molly G
- Angela
- Jonathan
- Maxine
- James
- Steve F
- Charlie
- Gretchen
- Garrett
- Ned
- Colleen

Data Analysis

Class,

Looking forward to hearing more about the data analysis process. Here's the Mind Manager Map for your information/inspiration.

Slides from my talk: Moving Beyond ROI

Some of you asked me to link to the slides from my presentation on World Usability Day, so here they are.

The talk was called Moving Beyond ROI: UCD as catalyst for organizational change. You can find the slides linked on the resources page or download them directly (pdf) - 6MB.

If you want to talk more about the presentation or the topic, let me know.

World Usability Day is Thursday

Hey class,

Thursday is World Usability Day. I hope you celebrate in your own special way. Here are two events you might consider attending.

Microsoft is holding a full day event called "Best Practices for "People Ready" Solutions (Redmond, WA)" - looks like a great line up of talks. This event is during the day.

World Usability Day, Seattle - held here on campus in the evening, I'll be speaking about UCD and organizational change, Jason Fouts of Sonosite will be talking about Ultrasound at the Point-of-Care, and there'll be a panel of a group of UCD professionals talking about a variety of fascinating things.

Carol Taylor To Speak at DUB today

Here are the details - hope to see some of you there!

---------------
Carol Taylor, a graduate student in Technical Communications will be speaking about a study she led along with the Mobile UX research group that explored how people used their mobile phones to access the Internet. Next week, Glenn Kowack will be giving his talk on entitled "Unintended Consequences Trump Intelligent Design in the Evolution of the Internet." You can access our speaker schedule here.

Note, we are actively seeking speakers for next quarter. In addition, I am still trying to find a room on campus that can host 40-50 people and food :) Please let me know if your department has such facilities.

Where: MGH420 (directions )
When: 12-1:30 PM
Who: Carol Taylor, graduate student in TC
Food will be provided!

Title:
Always On: Mobile Internet Use

Abstract:
What are the behaviors and underlying motivations for personal mobile Internet data access? A UW study of mobile Internet users examines why,when and in what context people access Internet information on mobile phone in their daily lives.

Reserving LUTE - Additional details

Hi class,

Just got more info on how to reserve LUTE. You'll need to download this word doc fill it out and send it to Elisabeth at uwtclute@u.washington.edu (one per group please).

Here's other information from Elisabeth:

I will begin processing request forms THIS THURSDAY EVENING (after the usability day stuff) and I will be available to do LUTE tutorials
for individual groups at the following times during the month of November:

Fridays: 1pm - 5pm
Tuesdays: 4pm - 6pm
Wednesdays: 4pm - 6pm

Ask them to indicate on their request form whether or not Tues, Weds, or
Fri are best for them at those times and I'll work out the details with
them via email to secure a tutorial time.

Hope that helps! Email Elisabeth (or me) with questions.