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UX London Launched

UX London has been launched. Taking place from 15-17 June 2009, it aims to bring bring the UX community in Europe together - speakers will include Don Norman, Jared Spool, Jeff Veen, Dan Saffer and Peter Merholtz, with more to be announced. Registration opens on 2nd January 2009 and early bird discounts apply!

http://uxlondon.com/

UPA Europe 2008: December 04-06 2008

The first European regional conference of the UPA will take place on December 4th - 6th 2008 in Turin. Details can be found on the UPA Europe website.

World Usability Day 2008

World Usability Day 2008 Thursday 13th November 2008

The UK UPA is proud to be hosting an event to mark World Usability Day this year at LBi. The theme this year is Transportation and we will be holding a poster competition on this theme (please see attached PDF) as well as having a series of talks on Transportation and interesting perspectives on wider Usability.

Our sponsors this year are Human Factors International and Flow Interactive Ltd. In addition, we will be launching the New Media Age (NMA) User Experience Directory 2008 in association with Aquent.

The event will be starting at 7pm sharp with a series of talks and judging for the Poster competition. Light refreshments will be provided.

This event is designed to introduce new faces to Usability as well as provide the old hands with a positive platform for sharing information and work. As always this is a fantastic networking opportunity, so make sure you're there if you don't want to miss out!

WUD Competition Details and Rules
WUD Poster Competition Notice of Entry

Creativity versus Counting

The October event will be taking place on Thursday 30th October at LBi's offices on Brick Lane.

Creativity versus Counting

Martyn Perks is a design consultant with cScape Ltd. Outside of work he regularly writes and speaks about design, innovation and technology.

"Small changes have a big effect” seems to be a mantra for our times. Economic uncertainty is putting even more pressure on website owners to perfect their skills. Creativity is likely to suffer when it has little measurable impact on the bottom line. Instead, customer behaviour analysis continues to dominate how businesses perform. But data paralysis is likely and will inhibit bold decision making. A convergence around the same kinds of analysis will ultimately mean a convergence around the same outcomes–diminishing any potential margins. What customers have done is no assurance on what they are likely to do. Instead, the reliance on customer behaviour analysis is a sure sign of a paralysis of creative thinking. This talk will explore why this is happening and argue that to buck the trend and innovate is going to be more important than perpetuating the statistics.

Martin will also be chairing a debate on Western attitudes toward innovation in the emerging economies “A Brave New World” at this year’s Battle of Ideas festival, 1st and 2nd November at the Royal College of Arts, London. Other digital-related highlights (amongst many other debates) include an exhibition and talk by RCA graduates on “Biomedical and biotechnology futures” and a debate “Caught in the Web” looking at internet censorship and regulation.

Find out more about Martyn Perks

Getting it Wrong - Qualitative Research in the Usability Community: Thursday 18th September 2008

The September event will be taking place on Thursday 18th September at LBi's offices on Brick Lane.

Getting it Wrong - Qualitative Research in the Usability Community

Catriona Campbell, Director at Foviance, a ground-breaking customer experience consultancy, believes it's time for usability companies to wake up to the strategic risks in our market place.

"The User Experience Community has long believed that it is a specialist field - some of us see ourselves as an important addition to the Design Community, however some in the design community believe that designers can fulfil the role with sufficient training. Some in our field see us as specialist Researchers, or as Consultants, and the list goes on.

However, there are others practicing in the field now, and I will outline where the threats are coming from, here in Europe and in the USA. It's an interesting insight into the Market Research community amongst others, where they have been conducting research for over 60 years!"

Catriona will be giving a talk on the risks to the user experiences community and suggesting ways in which we can be better prepared for the future of our market.

The BBC Experience: Thursday 7th August 2008

The August event will be taking place on Thursday 7th August at LBi's new offices on Brick Lane.

The BBC Experience: Jonathan Hassell

Jonathan Hassell, the BBC's Head of Audience Experience & Usability, will be talking about the BBC's approach to user experience and accessibility. He will be sharing insights on some of the BBC's latest projects, such as the BBC Homepage, and will be exploring the types of challenges faced while developing a successful and accessible user experience. Jonathan will be joined by other members of the BBC's Audience Experience and Usability team discussing recent research into media consumption and the refresh of their Mobile service.

About Jonathan:
• Over 6 years experience working with the UK's leading usability and accessibility experts
• PhD in Human-Computer Interaction
• Won 2006 BIMA for best achievement in accessibility for his first commission: the BBC accessibility site My Web, My Way

UPA Careers Event: Thursday 3rd July 2008

This year's UK UPA Careers Event will be held on Thursday 3rd July at LBi's new offices on Brick Lane.

Event Sponsors: LBi, Aquent, Avenue A | Razorfish, Conchango, CX Partners, Flow Interactive, Foolproof, Fortune Cookie, Webcredible.

The event aims to bring together User Experience companies, practitioners and students. It is suited to anyone looking for good people or a good role, or anyone just looking for the opportunity to network with peers.

The evening will begin with a short panel discussion which will be followed by a couple of hours of networking. Each Sponsor will have a dedicated area where they will display some of their work and be available to chat. Drinks will be provided.

If you are interested in your company being a sponsor of the event please let us know by emailing Claire: president [at] ukupa.org.uk

UPA Conference: June 16-20 2008

UPA Conference is being held this year in Baltimore on June 16th-20th. The theme is 'The Many Faces of User Experience: Usability through holistic practice'. Details can be found on the main UPA site.

May Event

There is no event planned for May.

Designing for the social: Avoiding anti-social networks: Miles Rochford - Thursday 24th April 2008

Designing for the social: Avoiding anti-social networks

This presentation considers the role of traditional social networks and the role of IAs in addressing the challenges that arise when designing and using online social networks.

The presentation discusses philosophical approaches to sharing the self, how this relates to offline social networks and human interactions in different contexts, and provides guidance on how online social networking tools can be designed to support these relationships.

It also covers ethical issues, including privacy, and how these can conflict with business needs. A range of examples illustrate the impact of these drivers and how design decisions can lead to the creation of anti-social networks.

Finally, it considers the design role which IAs play, and how recognising the impact of business needs, philosophy and ethics can help deliver better social networks. It also considers how the IA community generally could influence and improve social network design.

The presentation is aimed at IAs who are designing, building or using social networks, who also recognise that their design choices, philosophy and ethical background have a fundamental impact on user experience.

Participants will learn about different approaches to social network design, and how online social networks relate to traditional ways of viewing human interactions. They will also gain some practical advice on the different issues which should be considered when designing and using social networks.

This is a version of the presentation that will be made at IA Summit

Miles Rochford is a Design Specialist at Nokia Design, based in London, England.

He has been an information architect and user experience specialist for more than six years, working on a range of projects for government, non-profit, corporate and startup clients based in the United States, Europe and Australia.

He has experience in a range of different areas, including interaction design, spatial data, health informatics, social networking, media sharing, mobile devices, and service delivery.

William Hudson: Advanced Topics in Card Sorting - Thursday 20th March 2008

Sub-groups, Deviants and Navigational Alignment: Advanced topics in card sorting

Have you ever wondered

• When and why to use sub-groups in a card sort?


• How to maximize the quality of sorting analysis?


• Where to find the main differences between sorting results and current information architecture?

Register for the event here

Personas: Archetype not Stereoype: Martina Schell & Simon Johnson - Thursday 21st February 2008

Personas: Archetype not Stereotype

There are some common misconceptions about what personas are and what role they play in the User Centred Design process. Martina Schell and Simon Johnson from Flow Interactive will be covering the basics of what personas are, where they originated, how to develop them and what their benefits are. They will be giving practical advice as well as providing examples of successful persona-based projects, anecdotes, as well as tips on how to embed them in your clients’ design and development processes.

Event: Beyond ‘Usable Security’ - M. Angela Sasse

Beyond "usable security": how to manage the human element in security – M. Angela Sasse, Professor of Human-Centred Technology, University College London

Research in usable security commenced 10 years ago, when it was found that many users make mistakes using security tools, or shortcut difficult and cumbersome security procedures. But is "making it easy for users to do the right thing" sufficient to ensure that users comply with security policies? I will argue that it is not. To design effective security design and operation, we must look at a bigger picture of managing human behaviour in organisations. The loss of 7 million UK citizens' data has reminded us that human error needs to be seen in the context of latent failures in the systems and procedures. Traditional security models do not fit the requirements of modern, global data-dependent organisations. Usability professionals will have a key role in improving this: we need better understanding of security requirements, more stakeholder involvement, better security awareness, education and training programs, and to include security goals in psychological contracts and reward schemes.

Event: Product Usability: Thursday 22nd November

Product Usability: Chris Rourke & Mark Westwater - User Vision

Chris and Mark will cover the scope of product usability and focus on the primary differences between product and web usability. They will provide case studies and examples from a variety of projects to highlight the role of the usability / human factors professional in the product development process, how this has evolved over the years, and how certain companies have used their user-centred design process and products as a marketing USP. They will also outline the key tools and methods in user-centred product design and the various factors e.g. stake holders, manufacturing costs and accessibility requirements, that have an impact on both the physical design, user interface and aesthetics.

Chris Rourke is Managing Director of User Vision, a leading UK user experience consultancy, and president of the Scottish Chapter of the UPA. In addition to experience in many leading web and software related projects, Chris has performed and managed usability and human factors efforts on products ranging from airplane navigation systems, large format printers, thermostat controls, keyboards and cashpoint machines.

Mark Westwater is the lead User Vision consultant for product design, and has over 11 years experience applying user centred design methodologies to product developments. Mark was the lead human factors engineer worked at NCR, the world leader in Automated Teller Machines (ATM) Research and Development. His primary focus was to plan and support both hardware and software developments as well as conducting research is future technologies. This included mobile based application design and Voice Recognition system evaluation. Mark has also been a representative on various accessibility committees in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, developing standards that meet both the consumers' needs and current technology trends.

World Usability Day: Thursday 8th November 2007

World Usability Day is taking place on Thursday 8th November 2007, with a focus this year on Healthcare.

The UK UPA is supporting an all-day event at LBi in London that will showcase some case studies of healthcare user experience design and provide the opportunity to debate issues in the areas of experience and service design.

Details for the event, and how to get involved, can be found on the World Usability Day website events page

Scott Weiss: UPA Event - Thursday 25th October 2007

Slides from Scott's talk can be found here

Scott Weiss on Mobile Widgets and Mobile Search: UX Findings from New York.

Scott Weiss leads Usable Products Company, a usability agency in New York focused on two things: quantitative usability benchmarks and the design of mobile phone user interfaces. The two become delightfully intertwined in most of Usable Products' work, which includes the Vodafone Simply (available in Spain), and the Samsung YP-K5 and K3 players, sold world-wide.

Scott has been called to London this week for business and would like to share his team's latest findings at a special meeting of the UPA about mobile widgets and search, based on insights from quantitative user experience benchmarks for each.

Scott will show video excerpts from the study, as well as demonstrations of each of the six products he studied this Spring and Summer. A brief subset of the presentation will be available via the web following Scott's talk.