This article was originally published in the Oct 2008 issue (Vol 13, No. 4)
More News, More OftenWhy wait for the quarterly newsletter to know what's up with UUX? Manager, Mary Deaton's UUX blog:UUX Manager's Thoughts includes community news, usability tips and tricks, and links to Web places you may find useful or fun. Check it out and sign up for the RSS feed. |
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STC UUX Community Newsletter |
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| Usability Interface |
From The Manager
By Mary Deaton, UUX Manager
Fall is a crazy time of year. Yesterday, the sun was shining and the temperature was creeping up towards 80. Today, the sky is gray, you can feel the moisture in the air, and we'll be lucky if we break 65.
Unpredictable weather is out of our control, but Fall also means back to school, holidays one after the other, World Usability Day, and weekends full of football, volleyball, then basketball. So much change and activity requires planning and organization to stay on top of it all.
Unpredictable weather is out of our control, but Fall also means back to school, holidays one after the other, World Usability Day, and weekends full of football, volleyball, then basketball. So much change and activity requires planning and organization to stay on top of it all.
The Usability and User Experience community is undergoing a major transition this Fall. For the first time, the community has elected a full slate of officers to manage our ever growing organization. It takes at least three of us to keep our 1989 members busy! I cannot imagine how Karen Bachmann, manager for the past few years, did everything on her own!
Our first order of business was developing a budget for 2009, which meant figuring out how to spend your money. Over 115 of you helped by completing a survey asking you to select the activities you wanted us to organize. What you want are educational opportunities, so that is what we're working on.
Assistant Manager David Dick is developing Web-based seminars focused on documentation usability issues. Helping him out is Eric Hughes. If you have a topic or a speaker to suggest, send David an email.
Cheryl St. Charles, our Webmaster, is working with me to set up podcasts and to plan for new online services, including a wiki to create a central library of documentation usability knowledge created by you, the members. These three initiatives will be piloted this Fall and rolled out, we hope, in the first quarter of 2009.
You said to increase our presence at the STC conference, so David is also working with Chauncey Wilson to develop a really exciting progression for next year's STC conference. Keep your eyes open for details. Last year's UUX social was a hit, so we are planning to hold our business meeting next year in a similar venue and throw in some fun while we are at it. Are you planning to attend the conference? You can help out at the welcome reception table, the UUX luncheon, or the business meeting. Drop me an email if you are interested.
I am very excited about what we have planned and I have confidence that the team you elected is the right one to get it all done.
Our first order of business was developing a budget for 2009, which meant figuring out how to spend your money. Over 115 of you helped by completing a survey asking you to select the activities you wanted us to organize. What you want are educational opportunities, so that is what we're working on.
Assistant Manager David Dick is developing Web-based seminars focused on documentation usability issues. Helping him out is Eric Hughes. If you have a topic or a speaker to suggest, send David an email.
Cheryl St. Charles, our Webmaster, is working with me to set up podcasts and to plan for new online services, including a wiki to create a central library of documentation usability knowledge created by you, the members. These three initiatives will be piloted this Fall and rolled out, we hope, in the first quarter of 2009.
You said to increase our presence at the STC conference, so David is also working with Chauncey Wilson to develop a really exciting progression for next year's STC conference. Keep your eyes open for details. Last year's UUX social was a hit, so we are planning to hold our business meeting next year in a similar venue and throw in some fun while we are at it. Are you planning to attend the conference? You can help out at the welcome reception table, the UUX luncheon, or the business meeting. Drop me an email if you are interested.
I am very excited about what we have planned and I have confidence that the team you elected is the right one to get it all done.
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