STC UUX Community Newsletter
Usability Interface

From The Manager

By Mary Deaton, UUX Manager

Excellent!

Usability and User Experience has been designated a Community of Excellence by the Society for Technical Communication. This award is based on how effectively a community serves the needs of its members and promotes the craft of technical communication. The announcement of the award by Committee Chair Mary Wise said the award is given "For 'practicing what you preach' -- implementing a user-centered approach to determining and meeting member needs."

Ms. Wise said, "The committee was most impressed by how the SIG leaders have reorganized and revitalized the SIG. Your user-centered approach will ensure that members are able to voice their desires and receive the services that they need and want." The award was presented at the Leadership Summit, May 3 in Atlanta.

Such recognition is possible only because of the hard work of so many of you. I especially want to thank Cheryl St. Charles for putting up with my tendency to nitpick about little things on the Web site and making changes with a smile, or at least a facsimile thereof. Eric Hughes has done a remarkable job of putting together our first Web seminar and setting up a foundation for all of our future ones, too. Sherri Martin-Hutchins took over as editor of Usability Interface at the same time she began married life, and is certainly making a success of the editorship. David Dick left big shoes to fill, but Sherri is stepping right into them.

The entire leadership team, Assistant Manager David Dick, Treasurer Michael Harvey, Cheryl, Eric, Sherri, Adrian Howard our mailing list coordinator, and Linda Patryas, our new membership coordinator, have been diligent in attending our conference calls and coming up with great ideas.

Next year, I hope we can achieve the highest community award, that of Community of Distinction. You can help!

Volunteer an hour a week, a day a month

We have so many volunteer opportunities. Many of them can be done over a period of time, allowing you to fit in a task when it is convenient for you. Some take only one or two hours; others take some hours every month. Many of them give you an opportunity to be published or try your hand at a new task and gain some skills you did not have before. Below is a list of some of the current choices and a few for projects that will not happen without volunteers. Send me an email - mmdeaton@mmdeaton.com - indicating which volunteer position appeals to you and tell me a bit about yourself. We will be in touch.

Current opportunities

• Volunteer Coordinator: Responsible for recruiting members as volunteers and linking them up with projects that need them. Work with officers and project coordinators to identify needs.
• Project Lead, Worldwide Usability Day: We have a large amount budgeted for STC/UUX participation in Worldwide Usability Day in November, 2009. We need someone who wants to lead this project, working with the leadership team to determine what the activity will be and then seeing it gets carried out.
• Worldwide Usability Day team members: Team members work under the leadership of the Project Lead to carry out our plans for World Usability Day. Skills required will include writing, editing, Web design, usability methods experience, and so on.
• Book reviewers for the newsletter: Write a 500-800 word book review of a recently published book focused on usability and user experience, particularly as it relates to technical communications. Book reviews are included in our quarterly newsletter.
• Content editors for the Web site: Work with the Manager and the Webmaster to make sure your assigned section of the newsletter is up-to-date, has no broken links, and to add to and maintain existing content. Sections needing content editors include Usability Bookshelf, Usability Toolkit, and Topics in Usability.

Occasional opportunities

• Assist an STC chapter or community with improving the usability of their Web site. Experienced usability practitioners in UUX can perform an invaluable service to the profession by volunteering to help a chapter or community who is requesting usability help with their Web site. Requests come to the UUX Manager, who then contacts people on the list of volunteers. You work directly with the chapter or community.
• Be part of a panel for an expert evaluation: An expert evaluation panel is 2-4 usability practitioners who each review a Web site for another STC chapter or community using a common set of heuristics. The coordinator for each expert evaluation then compiles the results and manages the report writing. Requires about 5-10 hours of work over a 2-3 week period.
• Be a project coordinator for expert evaluations: An expert evaluation coordinator recruits a volunteer panel when an expert evaluation is requested, manages the review schedule, and compiles the reviews and drafts the report. The draft report is reviewed by the entire panel before a final report is written and given to the requestor. Requires about 8-12 hours of work over a 2-3 week period.

Upcoming opportunity
 
Starting in June, UUX is beginning the process of redesigning our Web site. Volunteers will work with the Manager and the Webmaster to create a requirements list, determine what the membership wants from the Web site, write a design specification, create the information architecture, create wireframes, conduct usability testing, and implement the new design. We need volunteers who already have the skills needed in each of these areas, as well as volunteers who would like to learn these skills by working with someone who has them. If this long-term volunteer commitment appeals to you, please send your resume and a cover letter explaining what experience in Web site design you have or would like to gain to Manager Mary Deaton.