Arizona UPA Meeting – Thursday, October 8, 2009

RSVP Now!*

Please join us for the Arizona Usability Professionals Association (AZUPA) Chapter meeting on Thursday, October 8 from 6-8 p.m. Our generous host is Gene Tucker of the Arizona State University Technology Office (http://usability.asu.edu/ ).

Our speaker will be Kath Straub, PhD. Kath is the Founder of Usability.org and is an industry leader who approaches usability as the intersection of experimental cognition, social psychology, marketing, and technology. On October 8th Kath will discuss "Convenience, credibility, and content: Designing web content to engage consumers."

Agenda
6:00 pm Arrival and networking
6:30 pm Brief business meeting
7:00 pm Presentation - Invited Speaker
8:00 pm Adjourn

Meeting Location
Arizona State University
Memorial Union Alumni Lounge, Room 202
http://www.asu.edu/map/interactive/?campus=tempe&building=MU

Additional location and parking information:

http://uabf.asu.edu/parking_visitor_tempe

The visitor parking structure closest to the Memorial Union (MU) Building is off Apache Blvd. The Apache Blvd. parking garage fee is $2.00 per hour and is CASH only.

Note that you can also take the light rail into ASU. It is free to park at any of the rail stops that have parking available.


Speaker Bio
Kath Straub works with organizations and government agencies to evaluate and design websites, applications and other resources that help consumers understand more, make better decisions and get more done. Making resources more usable and useful is a key part of that effort. But, as the web has evolved into the primary (and often the only) point of connection between consumers and companies, Kath’s approach has evolved, as well. Today she also enfolds evidence-driven methods that guide the design of engaging, persuasive and empathetic content that educates consumers and shapes key behaviors.

Kath is an energetic and entertaining speaker who presents frequently at conferences and workshops around the world. She's currently the Principal of Usability.org. Prior to that, she spent 9 years as the Chief Scientist at Human Factors International. Kath holds a Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Science from the University of Rochester.

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*This is a free event, but space is limited. Walk-in attendees are certainly welcome, but please RSVP so that we can ensure we provide the appropriate accommodations.

You do not need to be a member to attend. Feel free to come and check us out!!! Also, please feel free to spread the word to any interested colleagues.

Save The Dates...

After a successful World Usability Day meeting last year and two initial chapter meetings this year, we are ready to announce a series of regular events. The chapter will now meet on the second Thursday of every other month from 6-8 p.m. In addition to the regular meetings, we will again host a local World Usability Day event and organize other occasional special events.

Here’s our lineup for the next several months. We’re very fortunate to have local and international luminaries from the field coming to speak. More details about each event will be provided as we get a little closer to each. Meanwhile, please save these dates and make plans to join us!


October 8, 2009 - Bimonthly Meeting
Speaker: Kath Straub
Topic: Convenience, credibility, and content: Designing web content to engage consumers
Time: 6-8 p.m.
Location: Arizona State University
University Technology Office
Tempe, Arizona


November 12, 2009 - Special Event for World Usability Day
Speaker: Theo Mandel
Topic: User experience design: the journey from discovery to advocacy
(A recap of Theo’s keynote presentation from User eXperience Russia and UPA Europe 2009)
Time: 6-8 p.m.
Location: The Art Institute of Phoenix
2233 West Dunlap Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona


December 10, 2009 - Bimonthly Meeting
Speaker: Elisa Delgado
Topic: Internationalization and localization for UI design and evaluation
Time: 6-8 p.m.
Location: Gangplank
325 East Elliot Rd Suite 34
Chandler, AZ 85225


February 11, 2010 - Bimonthly Meeting
Speaker: Robert Hoekman
Topic: Web Anatomy Interaction Design Frameworks
Time: 6-8 p.m.
Location: The Art Institute of Phoenix
2233 West Dunlap Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona


April 8, 2010 - Joint meeting with the Phoenix Interaction Design Association (IxDA)
Speaker: Whitney Quesenbery
Time: 6-8:30 p.m.
Location: Gangplank
325 East Elliot Rd Suite 34
Chandler, AZ 85225

Arizona UPA Meeting Notes: June 18, 2009

Speaker: Miguel Almaraz, AZUPA President

Bringing Usability to Life: Making everyday things better

UPA2009 Conference –Takeaways

The UPA 2009 Conference was held June 8-12 in Portland Oregon.

Conference Website

https://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/conference/2009/

Contact AZUPA for Conference Proceeding .pdfs

The conference proceedings were purchased for the Arizona Chapter of the UPA and are available to AZUPA members. Please contact arizonaupa@gmail.com to gain access to all 42 files…that is 25.2 MB of usability related content that you can read to your heart’s content!

Conference proceedings were not offered as .pdfs for the following topics:

• Persuasive Presentations
• Neuro Web Design

Miguel Almaraz offered his insights from the presentations.

Persuasive Presentations: How to Craft and Deliver Compelling Usability Presentations
Presented at UPA2009 by Susan Weinschenk

Usability professionals are experts at:

• Testing
• Evaluating
• Finding issues
• Making recommendations

Challenges for Usability professionals:

• Relaying the message to the stakeholders as a “call to action”
• Communicating the “what’s in it for me” to business units

Key Questions to ask when preparing the content of your presentation:

• Who is your audience? Business unites, end-users, etc.
• Does your presentation grab your audiences’ attention?
• Is it compelling and able to keep their attention?
• Is it persuasive?
• What is your call to action when you make a recommendation?
• What does your recommendation mean to the different business groups?
  

Your report is not your presentation

Source: Adapted from COLOGNY/SWITZERLAND, 08SEP07-
Cover of the World Economic Forum's Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009.
Copyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org)

How to prepare your presentations:

• Learn how to correlate recommendation to business department’s benefit.
• Presentation should allow you to talk to the issue, answer questions they have yet not asked, and spur questions for you to answer during the presentation.
• Do not tell them what you think is important…They don’t care.
• Talk to them about what is important to them.
  

Presentation Tips

• Use your skills as a Usability professional to make your presentations better. Apply the same principles to make a better experience better for the end-user, in this case your audience.
• Pay attention to text size, amount of text, font selection, choice of background, chart vs. tables
• Use images to tell the story

Example:

KOMO Staff & News Services.(2009, January 16)
’Miracle on the Hudson’: All survive crash into river. KOMONews.com.
Retrieved from http://www.komonews.com/news/37658674.html

Group Discussion Takeaways:

• Know your audience. Some people will interact more with the presenter some more with the graphic elements.
• Use a disconnected image as a strategy to get audience to tune in. If the deck of the presentation is given as a handout or included in the report, the image that was designed to be an “attention grabber” needs to be clearly identified and noted to provide context and relevance when referencing the deck at a later time.
• [For Presentations] try to have as little content in the slides as possible and have a separate handout as takeaway.
• Author Edward Tufte on PowerPoint, “PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a substitute for it.” ( Tufte, E. (2003). Power Point is Evil. [Electronic Version] Wired 11.09. Available from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html)
• Presentation vs. PowerPoint document: Not every PowerPoint deck is designed to be delivered as a “presentation”. PowerPoint can be used for more than just presentations: information repository, rapid prototyping, illustrating key concepts to your stakeholders. Know your audience to know what content is appropriate to include and how to display that information.
• Try writing a presentation outline before you design it. This technique can help you focus on the points you need to make.
  

Neuro WebDesign: What Makes Them Click?
Presented at UPA2009 by Susan Weinschenk

Susan Weinschenk presented ideas from her book. There are three parts of the brain.

Weinschenk, S. (2009). Neuro WebDesign: What Makes Them Click? New Riders Press (p.3)
Retrieved from http://neurowebbook.com/Images/pictures/pageshots/brain1.jpg

Old Brain

This was the first part of the brain that evolved. It scanned the environment and dealt with issues of survival:

• Is it food? Can I eat it?
• Is it a threat? Can it hurt me? Can I hurt it?
• Can I have sex with it (to propagate my species)?

This part governs unconscious decisions and is predictable irrational and governs the automatic bodily responses such as breathing and digestion.

Mid Brain
This is where emotions are processed. This is where marketers play. Your emotions drive decisions that are made by the old brain.

New Brain
This is the part that governs conscious decisions. The old brain feeds the new brain the decision and the new brain has to justify the decision.

Research Study: Rude Group vs. Nice Group

Participants of each group were subjected to different language and scenarios through survey questions. Each group was instructed to let the facilitators know when they finished the survey. They wanted to see which group would notify the facilitators upon survey completion.

They found that Rude group were more likely to interrupted the facilitators (who intentionally had their backs turned and were engaged in conversation).

Group Discussion Takeaway:

• We can use these types of studies to influence the behavior of Website visitors.
• Refer to the Suggested Reading List for recommendations from the group to learn more about neuro Web design and persuasion.

Terminology from the Meeting

Usability Gestalt: term used during the meeting to describe approaching the creation of presentations or surveys as an organized and structured whole rather than the sum of their constituent parts.

Priming: is a term used by Malcom Galdwell as a method of persuading someone’s brain to respond a certain way. In his book Blink he wrote about an experiment where subjects read a list of words related to old age; these subjects were found to walk more slowly after the experiment.

Captology: is a term coined by B.J. Fogg in 1996 to refer to the study of computers as persuasive technologies

Suggested Reading List

Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click?
By Susan M. Weinschenk

The Cognitive Style of Power Point
By Edward Tufte

Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do
By BJ Fogg

-Submitted by Jonathan Mann

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)
By Garr Reynolds

slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
By Nancy Duarte

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
By Malcolm Gladwell

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
By Robert Cialdini

Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
By Robert Cialdini

-Submitted by Robert Hoekman, Jr.

TED Video: Renny Gleeson on antisocial phone tricks

Website aesthetics - what has it got to do with usability?

-Submitted byLaurie Goldstein

Arizona UPA Meeting - Thursday, June 18, 2009

Just a reminder...

Please join us for the Arizona Usability Professionals Association (AZUPA) Chapter meeting on Thursday, June 18. AZUPA President Miguel Almaraz will present a summary of this year's International UPA conference. Miguel's presentation will include industry updates, best-practices, and other insights from his experience this week in Portland, OR (http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/conference/2009/). The conference theme this year is Bringing Usability to Life: Making everyday things better.

Other chapter meeting attendees will also be welcome to informally share their experiences from the UPA conference. In addition, you'll learn about the UPA and meet local colleagues who share a passion for all things related to creating compelling user experiences.

Speaker Bio
Miguel Almaraz is currently the User Experience Project Manager for Choice Hotels International and President of the Arizona UPA. He holds a B.S. from Arizona State University and a MBA from Western International University.

Meeting Location
The Art Institute of Phoenix
2233 West Dunlap Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona

Note: The meeting will be in room 456

Map: www.artinstitutes.edu/phoenix/AboutUs/Map_Directions.aspx

Agenda
6:00 pm Arrival, networking and light snacks
6:30 pm Brief business meeting
7:00 pm Presentation - Invited Speaker
8:00 pm Adjourn

This is a free event, but space is limited. Walk-in attendees are certainly welcome, but please RSVP to this address so that we can ensure we provide the appropriate accommodations.

You do not need to be a member to attend. Feel free to come and check us out!!! Also, please feel free to forward this message to any interested colleagues.

You are receiving this e-mail because you have signed up for the Arizona UPA mailing list, have attended a previous Arizona UPA meeting, or have attended a Phoenix World Usability Day event. If you no longer wish to be on this mailing list, simply reply to this address and request to be removed.

First-Ever Arizona UPA Meeting - Thursday, April 30, 2009

Please join us for the first-ever Arizona Usability Professionals Association (UPA) Chapter meeting on Thursday, April 30. Dean T. Barker, Director of User-Centered Design at Sage Software, will speak on integrating user-centered design into various software processes.

Dean will explain why software projects fail and how user-centered design (UCD) can be used to improve and optimize your product development methodology. He will present a structured approach to tailoring and integrating UCD into the software development process. In this presentation you will also learn about the critical gaps in your software development methodology, how to unify design and development, how to express UCD in the "language" of your methodology, how to promote usability activities within development, and how to make UCD a routine part of your software processes regardless of whether you're using waterfall, agile methods, the Rational Unified Process (RUP), or other methodologies.

You'll also learn about the UPA and meet local colleagues who share a passion for all things related to creating compelling user experiences.

Speaker Bio
Dean T. Barker is the Director of User Centered Design and User Assistance for Global CRM Solutions at Sage Software. He has over fifteen years of experience in design and software product development. He has been a co-editor and author of ISO standards for Software Quality and is co-author of the book Designing Effective Speech User Interfaces. Mr. Barker has a B.A. in Business Management and Communication and a M.S. in Software Engineering from the University of Minnesota. He is also the Membership Chair for the Arizona UPA Chapter and is the Phoenix-area Local Ambassador for UXnet.org, an online community connecting people, organizations, resources, and ideas to enable the growth of User Experience as a practice.

Meeting Location
The Art Institute of Phoenix
2233 West Dunlap Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona

Note: The meeting will be in room 456

Map: www.artinstitutes.edu/phoenix/AboutUs/Map_Directions.aspx

Agenda
6:00 pm Arrival, networking and snacks
6:30 pm Brief business meeting
7:00 pm Presentation - Invited Speaker
8:00 pm Adjourn

This is a free event, but space is limited. Walk-in attendees are certainly welcome, but please RSVP to this address so that we can ensure we provide the appropriate accommodations.

You do not need to be a member to attend. Feel free to come and check us out!!! We look forward to meeting you.

"Save the Date"

Hello everyone,
Well as you may have noticed, we missed our March meeting date. For that I apologize. Despite our challenges, the "transition team" has had meetings and made great strides in formalizing our local chapter of the UPA. Thanks to everyone for their effort.

So where does that leave us now? Well, now we are at the point when I ask that you "save the date" - April 30th, 2009 because that is when we will have our first full chapter meeting.

Although we are currently working to finalize the meeting location and topic of discussion, we do know that this meeting will be free to all who want to attend. So, please feel free to invite your friends and colleagues. Stay tuned for more details.

Thanks,
Miguel.

It won't be long...

Hello everyone.
I just wanted to send out a quick update for you. The core team met last week to discuss the next steps for the Arizona UPA. I'll send out information as it is finalized, but right now, let me share with you that we are planning on having our first official full chapter meeting by mid-March. I'll keep you posted.
Thank you.