STC Usability SIG Newsletter
Usability Interface

SIG News - October 2004

Welcome New Staff to the Newsletter

We welcome Ruth Haworth, Lynda Chiotti, and Jocelyn Williams to our Copy Editor team.

News From UsabilityNJ

On October 27, eleven members of the UsabilityNJ group gathered at Pershing Technology Group in East Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, to hear Harry Blanchard of AT&T speak on "Conversational Re-prompting in Natural Language Dialog." The presentation discussed the special points that distinguish a natural language interface from a directed dialog interface, and was enlivened by audio examples from real systems, and by findings from a usability test conducted on one such system. After the one-hour presentation, a half hour of spirited discussion ensued.

Planned meetings during the remainder of the 2004-2005 year include a variety of practical and theoretical topics of interest to user experience practitioners, such as the November presentation on "Creating Useful Taxonomies: Metadata, Taxonomies and Controlled Vocabularies." The group's email contact list has grown from about 40 members in the autumn of 2001 to the current count of around 160. Those interested in usability events in the central New Jersey area can join the group at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/UsabilityNJ/.

Don’t Be Alone When You Attend a SIG Meeting

The next time you attend your chapter’s Usability SIG meeting, consider bringing a guest. Introducing a nonmember friend or co-worker is one way to encourage membership growth. When your SIG grows, it can offer more and better services, including seminars, workshops, Web sites, and newsletters.

Do You Know a Champion of Usability?

Do you know somebody who has gone above and beyond expectation to improve product usability?

If you, tell us about him or her and we’ll publish the achievement in Usability Interface and recognize that person for a job well-done!