This article was originally published in the Feb 2009 issue (Vol 14, No. 1)

About the Author

David Dick is a familiar face at the UUX SIG. He edited the Newsletter for over ten years and is now the Assistant Manager for the SIG. He is also an STC Associate Fellow.

STC UUX Community Newsletter
Usability Interface

Preparing for the STC Summit

By David Dick, Assistant UUX Manager

We will have a strong presence at this year's Summit and I want to tell you about our progression, business meeting, and luncheon. We're awaiting news from the STC office on the date, time and location of these events.

UUX Progression

Our progression topic is titled Effective Ways of Usability Testing Documentation. Our renowned user experience experts include Karen Bachman, Cheryl St. Charles, Mary Deaton, Caroline Jarrett, Tom Johnson, Ginny Redish, Whitney Quesenbery, and Chauncey Wilson. During this progression they will offer practical and simple methods for enhancing documentation usability.

Some of the lesser-known methods that will be taught include:

• Diary studies
• Q-sorting
• Card-based workflow diagrams
• Persona or perspective-based inspections

What are the benefits of these methods? Let's look at a few examples:

• Diary studies complement other methods by adding a longitudinal aspect missing from many traditional usability methods.
• A common activity for usability practitioners is prioritization of problems, tasks, or features. Prioritization is often a critical aspect of our feedback, and Q-sorting is a simple approach for more credible feedback. Q-sorting is a forced choice approach that clearly differentiates between low, medium, and high priority items.
• A technique that you might call card-based workflow diagrams can provide information on the efficiency of workflows and the pain points that users encounter. It uses simple materials like rolls of paper, markers, and sticky notes of various colors.
• Teach-back is a method where someone is asked to teach another participant how to perform a task and then the participant is asked to teach someone else or to teach back to an expert.

Click here for more details about our Progression.

Business Meeting

The business meeting will be held from 7:15 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. We know the feeling of waking up early to find a breakfast, so we plan to offer a buffet breakfast of coffee, juice, and muffins to get you primed for a day of sessions. Mary Deaton will talk about the success of our first webinar and plans for the coming season. We look forward to seeing you!

Luncheon

Our luncheon will be held on Monday, May 4. The luncheon is an ideal opportunity to meet fellow usability practitioners. The luncheon is not included as part of your registration, so you'll have to select it when registering. To sign-up for the luncheon, please Register Online - It's fast and convenient.