How do you decide if a usability and user experience topic or publication is useful to you as a technical communicator? Discussions in most user experience book clubs are often only generally related to our profession. The STC UUX (Usability and User Experience) SIG is organizing a Virtual Book Club, which Kathleen MacDowell has volunteered to coordinate. Right now, the club is limited to UUX members until we see how well things work. Get the details, sign up, and suggest a book for discussion.

Labels: educational, UUX business

May 10 is the deadline to submit the application for the undergraduate or graduate scholarships available from the STC Technical Editing Special Interest Group. Go first to the information page to learn who is eligible and what you need to gather to send in an application. And good luck!

Labels: UUX business

I am so ready for Spring! Up here in the glorious Northwest, Winter lingered into April in Seattle. At our cabin in the Cascade Mountains, it snowed yesterday, April 13! Thank goodness I am going to Atlanta for Summit 2009, where the sun will shine and the weather will be warm.

I know it is a rough year to get funding for conference attendance; I am going with support from you, the UUX members. But in some ways, this is the most important time to get together. We need to support each other through these rough months.

Here are some activities Usability and User Experience is sponsoring or taking part in that you want to be sure to check out. Just click the image to open a full-size image.

Monday, May 4, 7:30 am: UUX business meeting. Breakfast is provided.

Monday, May 4, UUX Networking luncheon. For a ticket, sign-up for the luncheon when you register and pay the $35 fee. You may also be able to buy a luncheon ticket on-site.

Monday, May 4, Community Reception 6 pm

Below are the days and times of several sessions of interest to those of us doing usability and user experience. Of course, none of you want to miss the UUX Progression to learn great methods of testing documentation usability.

Labels: conference, educational, UUX business

UX will have a business meeting on Monday morning, May 4, at 7:30 am. I know; its early. We will feed you, however.

Also on Monday is the UUX networking luncheon. For that, you need to spend $35 and sign up for it when you register. Registration closes April 15.

And Monday evening is the welcoming reception in the exhibition hall. UUX will have a table.

I would love to know who is planning to go, and who is planning to attend the business meeting and the luncheon.

Labels: conference, UUX business

How many STC communities are on Twitter? All of these. There may be more, but Twitter search is down today.

stcukandi - STC UK & Ireland
stcintermtn
STCHouston
STCIndiana
STCBoston
STCPugetSound
stcchicago
STCAtlanta
stcwdc
stcaccess
stc_org
LoneWriterSIG
stcfrance
STCINDIA

To see these Twitter sites, just type http://www.twitter.com/sites-twitter-name-as-above.

For example: http://www.twitter.com/stcwdc

UUXManager will follow all of them.

Labels: collaboration, Twitter, UUX business

If you have not heard, STC is offering help to renewing members and person's joining for the first time by letting dues be paid in four monthly installments. They are also offering a payment plan for people wanting to attend the conference who cannot pay the entire fee up-front.

Dues Payment Plan
STC officials have initiated an option for members to split their dues into four equal payments spread over four months. This optional payment plan is available for both new and renewing members and for all categories of membership except students.
Payments must be made by credit card (Visa, MasterCard, or AMEX). Checks are not accepted for split payments. Payments are manually processed by staff and cannot be completed by the applicant online.
The payments will begin with the receipt of the membership application or renewal. A charge is made on the day of receipt for one-fourth of the total amount owed. A second one-fourth charge is made one month later, the third payment another month later, and the final payment is charged in the fourth month.
STC Director of Membership Lloyd Tucker outlined an example of what happens: “If a person sends in their request for split payment on 2 April for classic dues totaling $175, STC charges one-fourth of that amount ($43.75) on 2 April. One month later, on 2 May, a second $43.75 is charged to the card. Then, on 2 June, the third payment of $43.75 is charged, and the final payment of $43.75 is charged on 2 July.”
“This is an experimental program that we’re offering during these tough times,” explained Tucker. “I think our members will appreciate being able to spread out their payments over four months.”
The split-payment option is well-timed. The membership renewal period ends 31 March.
http://www.stc-access.org/2009/03/20/stc-offers-split-payment-option-for-members’-dues/

Conference Payment Plan:
STC members may choose to spread their conference registration payment by paying half with their registration form and half onsite.
Eligibility
Available upon request to all members in good standing with the exception of students who are encouraged to volunteer and retired members who have a special rate.
Process
1. Download the conference registration form [1] (.pdf)
2. Make two equal payments, half paid with your registration and half to be paid onsite. (Potentially spreads your payment over two different credit card cycles)
Pay by credit card (Visa, MasterCard, or American Express). Checks cannot be accepted for split payments.
Payments are manually processed by staff and cannot be completed by the applicant online.
* E-mail (or fax +1-703-522-2075) the registration form to Julia
O'Connor [2].
Links:
http://conference.stc.org/docs/2009-Summit-Registration-Form.pdf[
julia.oconnor@stc.org

Labels: UUX business

What an experience! UUX held it's first Web seminar this morning. Apart from several technical glitches (in spite of multiple rehearsals and tech support calls earlier this week), people seemed to like it.

As presenter, it was odd talking to my computer screen and only knowing that somewhere out there were people who could hear me.

Eric Hughes, Web seminar coordinator, did an awesome job as moderator, despite problems getting people both phone and Web access. I could never had displayed the patience he displayed!

Now that we have passed this milestone, I am excited about planning more seminars. If you want to help, fill out the survey below and tell us what you want to learn about.

Labels: UUX business, Web seminars

Pull out your calendars!

The STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter's 2009 Conference - Visualizing Communication - will be held March 27 and 28 at Penn State University - Great Valley Campus.

And we are very pleased to announce that we will be joined this year by the STC Instructional Design & Learning SIG, as this event will be a regional conference for their members as well. The School of Graduate Professional Studies at Penn State Great Valley has also signed up as a Supporting Organization.

And this year we have something new to offer: the two Instructional Design Workshops on March 27, and the Instructional Design presentation session track (four presentations in all) on March 28 will be available via webcast!

Conference Looks at Leveraging Visual Communication

Find out how to use visual communication to improve the effectiveness of your technical documentation and instructional material at this year’s version of our exciting, award-winning Conference!

Our keynote speaker, the internationally acclaimed expert on visual communications Jean-luc Dumont, will kick things off by presenting his simple but solid guiding principles for designing visually effective communication. We're honored to welcome Jean-luc Dumont and proud to help debut his new book: Trees, maps, and theorems - Effective communication for rational minds.

Following the keynote will be more than a dozen presentations over four sessions covering areas such as:

- Career development

- Instructional design and e-Learning development

- Content management

- Writing and design skills improvement

Of course, there will be ample opportunity to network, catch up with old friends, and make new ones.

Workshops Examine Visual Communication, Instructional Design

This year we’ve doubled our workshop offerings, with Jean-luc Dumont and instructional design/E-Learning expert Jane Smith both leading two half-day workshops.

Extend your visual communication and IDL IQ as Jean-luc and Jane introduce key concepts, and then facilitate hands-on exploration of those concepts through case studies and group exercises.

Dates and Times

Workshops:

Friday, March 27, 2009
Morning sessions: 8 am to noon
Afternoon sessions: 1 to 5 pm

Conference:

Saturday, March 28, 2009
8 am to 5 pm

Location

The Conference Center at Penn State Great Valley
30 E. Swedesford Road
Malvern, PA 19355

Webcast information to be available shortly on the Conference website.
Look for more details about the STC 2009 Workshops and Conference on www.stcpmc.org.
Or contact us directly: conference@stcpmc.org.

Labels: conference, UUX business

UUX Manager's Thoughts is being integrated into the UUX Web site. You were most likely redirected here from our old home at Blogger. As soon as the UUX Webmaster adds us to the Web site navigation, you will be able to reach us from anywhere within the Web site, or directly at http://www.stcsig.org/managerblog.html

We are working out some glitches associated with the move, but we'll get it back to normal as soon as possible.

Labels: UUX business

UUX member Dana Chisnell co-authored the latest edition of that classic book, Handbook of Usability Testing, with Jeffrey Rubin. She also has a blog about Usability Testing. I have added it to the sites the UUX Google custom search prowls for you when you use it on this blog to conduct a search.

Labels: UUX business

Welcome to Linda Patryas, our new membership coordinator. She replaces Susan Duncan Park who has given many excellent years of service to UUX but, now, sadly is leaving us.

Linda will be the "welcome wagon" for new members and will work with me to revamp how we handle member profiles on the Web site.

Labels: UUX business

Join us at the Usability and User Experience networking luncheon on Monday, May 4 at the 2009 STC Technical Summit. It's a chance to see old friends and meet new community members. If you are not a member of UUX, but are considering joining, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about our community from those who are members.

To include the UUX luncheon in your conference schedule, be sure to indicate you want to attend when you register for the conference, and pay the $35 fee for the luncheon.

Early Bird Registration is open now. Go to http://conference.stc.org/ for all of the details.

Labels: conference, UUX business

A new year always brings a combination of excitement and dread, and all the prognosticators in the world telling us what to expect. At The Content Wrangler, they asked Dave Kellogg to predict the technology changes that would affect content management. At Usability News, Katie Greene predicts what might happen to the user interface.

I am going to take the bold step of predicting what will happen in UUX in 2009.

1. UUX will begin holding regular Web seminars.
2. The UUX Web site will add podcasts and videos to its resources.
3. Summit 2009 in Atlanta will feature a progression of all of the UUX managers in the history of UUX.
4. The UUX Manager's Thoughts will be integrated into the UUX Web site.
5. The UUX newsletter editor will become a mother.


6. Five members who do not currently volunteer with UUX will volunteer to coordinate new projects for UUX.
7. The UUX Twitter page will surpass 100 followers.
   

Don't miss out on all the fun!

Labels: conference, interface, Twitter, UUX business

Russ at UserGlue today posted "Do We Really Need Associations, Anyway? Do They Need Us?

He's been pondering just how useful all of these professional associations (UPA, STC, IxDA, etc)and has come down on the side of "yes," with a caveat.

If associations do not provide what people want, people will create what they want without the association. His example is Stephen Bray's holiday weekend campaign to create UX Book Clubs via LinkedIn and other social networking sites.

To quote Russ:

Most of us work in the User Experience space (if you’re reading this blog, at least I think you are)– you/we should all be connecting these boxes and we should all be wanting to solve these problems. We should be taking advantage of this “whatever-point-oh” web/world that we’re in and FIND NEW WAYS to be excited and energized and CREATE SOMETHING BETTER.

Because if we don’t, someone else will.

Is there something STC or UUX should be doing that we are not? Create it. UUX has multiple communication tools, now, designed to help us talk to each other in whatever way works best for you.

You can comment on this blog. You can follow the UUX Twitter, you can start a thread on our mailing list.

UUX is run entirely by volunteers. You elected a leadership and we want our primary task to be enabling you to get what you need out of this organization.
There are 2033 members in UUX as of December 1. Talk to each other; make things happen.

Labels: collaboration, inspiring, UUX business

Three times a year, each STC community files a report about its accomplishments and challenges. I just filed the UUX report today after the leadership team spent a week putting it together. I want to thank immediate past manager Karen Bachmann for her contribution, too.

Here it is for the rest of you to read.

Awards

Volunteer recognition:  Recognized two members with the new Outstanding Volunteer award:

Adrian Howard, List Manager
Cheryl St. Charles, Webmaster

This award recognizes volunteers who have made a substantial contribution to the community in the previous year. It bridges a gap in volunteer recognition by honoring those who are not yet qualified for DSSA, but are on track to earn this distinction.

Professional contribution: The Excellence in Usability award was not given during the last calendar year. Two candidates  had not completed their project before the transition in UUX leadership. The candidates were referred to the new leadership for consideration for next year's award.

Labels: UUX business

Larry Kunz was the winner of the drawing for a copy of "Designing the Obvious." He was amongst the 117 SIG members who answered the survey on what activities we should budget for in 2009. I got this email from Larry:

Mary, my copy of "Designing the Obvious" arrived yesterday and I'm already enjoying it. I like its accessible, commonsense approach, and I know I'll derive a lot of value from it. Thanks again for sending it.
--
Larry Kunz

Labels: UUX business, winners

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