This arrived in my email recently and today I finally opened it to see what Jakob had to say. If you, like me, spend most of your time working with application interfaces, there is some great stuff in this article. Year's 10 Best Application UIs

Labels: interface

The results are in and members most want their UUX dues on Webinars, podcasts, and a blog or wiki. The member with the email name lk81924 was selected randomly from all respondents who left their email address to receive a copy of "Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design."

One-hundred and seventeen members voted in our survey the week of August 4. Notice of the survey was sent to the UUX discussion forum and to all members listed on our roster as of July 31.

The final tally is:

1. Educational seminars via the Web


2. Develop podcasts or streaming videos on UUX topics


3. Host a blog or wiki for members to communicate to one another


4. Increase UUX presence at STC national conference


5. Develop a directory of Usability/HCI degree programs on the Web site


6. Play a sponsoring role in World Usability Day


7. Give an annual Excellence in Usability award


8. Conducting outreach to other usability professional groups


9. Recruiting new members from outside STC to the UUX SIG

Some of the comments voters made about their rankings included:

• A listing of the degree programs...would be a big help.


• Advertise what we do to other professional societies that have little to do with technical communication.


• Continue to communicate and educate.


• Find or create and post data about documentation usability.


• Hold a local symposium on usability.


• Reach out to local chapters in some way.


• Anything that captures UX knowledge and makes it available online.


• More ways for members to communicate with one another is always a plus!


• I like the idea of blogs and podcasts--most of my learning/communication is through these media.

Members also made some suggestions of their own, including:

• "...Would it be possible to have someone periodically summarize the (discussion forum) discussions (pull out 'gems') of a few of the major threads and present it for download?"


• Create a mentorship program between long-standing, experienced members and recent graduates.


• Sponser a design forum.


• Look into what it would take to create an online library of UUX resources or at least links to tested resources.


• Sponsor research.


• Development of online education or collaboration with (an) existing online educator who is well-known in the field….


• Do an event which raises fund for a charity of our choice...maybe an undergraduate scholarship fund.


• I think it would be interesting to have a segment of this SIG act as a peer review committee.


• Spread the word about the importance of UX in both the design and computer science departments of educational institutions.

The leadership is drafting the 2009 budget this week; we will budget for the top four activities members voted for in this survey. Once our budget it submitted, we will turn our attention to the details of planning Webinars and podcasts. We will also begin discussing a wiki pilot project.

Thank you all so much for your input. And if you want to volunteer to help with developing Webinars, know something about podcasting, or have wiki expertise, please send me an email. Now!

Labels: UUX business

First, thank you to all of you Usability and User Experience SIG members who voted for me as SIG Manager. Yah, I know, I was unopposed, but I want to thank you anyway.

Your new leadership team - myself; David Dick, Assistant Manager; Michael Harvey, Treasurer; Adrian Howard, discussion list coordinator; and Cheryl St. Charles, Webmaster - are looking forward to the coming year.

Right now, we are working on the SIG budget for 2009. STC is changing its fiscal year from July 1-June 31 to January 1-December 31. The budget for 2009 is due to STC by August 15.

Our budget is based on a subsidy from STC of $4.00 per member of the SIG. The other $6.00 of your SIG fee supports the SIG discussion forum and Web site, as well as support we receive from the STC office. The SIG can also earn money through its activities in order to increase the amount available to spend on activities. On 2009, we ought to have about $7700 in the budget.

In a conference call last Friday, August 1, the leadership group discussed several possible activities we could budget for.

We are excited about the possibility of adding online seminars to our offerings to the membership; David and volunteer Eric Hughes are already researching what this costs.

Webmaster Cheryl St. Charles experimented with a SIG blog after getting excited about new ways to communicate at the conference. Should we continue exploring things like blogs and wikis?

We want to know what activities you want the SIG to undertake. We focus on the usability of technical communication, but are we doing everything we can to help our members make their communication products more usable? What services could we offer our members that they cannot get anywhere else?

Please fill out this brief questionnaire by August 7. You can rank the suggested activities or give us a great idea of your own. And if you are willing to tell us more about your great idea, please give us your email address at the end of the survey.

Labels: UUX business