The next UUX Virtual Book Club meeting will be Wed, Feb. 24 at the following time (starting at the US East coast and moving west):

EST/EDT (US): 7-8 pm
CST/CDT (US): 6-7 pm
PST/PDT (US): 4-5 pm
Delhi: 5:30-6:30 am
UK: 12-1 am

Our incoming UUX SIG manager, Alice Preston, will moderate our discussion of Steve Krug's "Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems". NOTE: The book link is to Amazon. If you buy the book through this link you'll save money--they have the book on sale--and the UUX SIG will receive a few pennies (at no cost to you), for a double bonus!

We've had a great response since we opened the discussion to all STC members. Sign-ups will end when we have four more responses or at @ 6 p.m., Fri., Feb. 12 ("Rocket Surgery" Sign-Up).

If you'd like to learn more about the book, check out Dmitry Fadeyev's well-written review at UsabilityPost. The one point I disagree with him about is who should read the book.

As a technical writer, I think learning about usability testing will improve the documentation I create, even if I never do any testing. I see it this way: to test, you need to analyze the content and decide what needs testing. That in itself provides me (the writer) with another perspective on the content and helps distance me from the act of writing. The end result is more usable content. Of course, that's my opinion, and I hope other people will offer their own.

OPERATIONAL CHANGE
I won't be recording the book club meetings for the foreseeable future. The files are difficult to upload and download because they are huge. Instead, I'll post a summary of comments from during and after the meetings--these will be easier to access and more informative than a recording, as they'll be a compendium of our members' views on the materials.

MEETING NOTICES
Those who have signed up for the meeting will receive meeting information beginning about a week before (i.e., Feb 15-21). Materials will include some questions to think about, pointers on Genesys (the webinar program we'll be using), the webinar link, and a reminder.

DO YOU WANT TO RECEIVE BOOK CLUB NOTICES?
If you don't already receive book club notices, you can put your name on the mailing list. Some book club notices go out to the SIG list as well, but the list addresses are sometimes incomplete.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?
Contact Kathleen MacDowell
UUX Virtual Book Club Coordinator
kathleen@writefortheuser.com

It's time to sign up for the UUX Virtual Book Club discussion of Steve Krug's "Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems". December 18, 2009. New Riders Press. ISBN-10: 0321657292; ISBN-13: 978-0321657299

Order the book through the link above and UUX will receive a few pennies at no cost to you.

Those of you who responded to the "Set Date" form overwhelmingly (90%) chose Wed, Feb. 24 at the following time:

UK: 12-1 am
EST/EDT (US): 7-8 pm
CST/CDT (US): 6-7 pm
PST/PDT (US): 4-5 pm

We will do our best to schedule the next meeting at a time more friendly to members in the UK/Europe.

"ROCKET SURGERY" SIGN-UP FORM
The sign-up form has only two short questions. UUX members have priority sign-up until Feb 3 @ 9 p.m. After that, all STC members will be able to sign up.

DO YOU WANT TO RECEIVE BOOK CLUB NOTICES?
If you don't already receive book club notices, you can put your name on the mailing list.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?
Contact Kathleen MacDowell, UUX Virtual Book Club Coordinator
kathleen@writefortheuser.com