Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 23:13:25 -0500 (EST) From: Colin Godfrey Subject: SIGGRAPH/BOSTON at Mount Ida College, Wed. Nov. 20 SIGGRAPH/BOSTON November 2002 UI and Usability Testing Kay Corry Aubrey Usability Resources Inc When: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 6:30 - 9:00 pm (Networking 6:30 to 7. Presentation starts at 7) Where: Carlson Auditorium Mount Ida College 777 Dedham St Newton Centre, MA 02159 Our presentation this month is on UI and Usability Testing and how it integrates into the software development process. Our speaker is Kay Corry Aubrey. Kay Corry Aubrey has been a user interface designer for 12 years. She runs Usability Resources Inc, which does UI Design and usability testing for Boston-area companies. She has designed web and desktop-based software for Oracle Pharmaceuticals, AptSoft Corporation, Perot Time 0, IBM and Lotus. Kay holds an MS in Information Systems from Northeastern Graduate School of Engineering, an MSW from Boston University, and a BA from McGill University. She has taught at the Interactive Factory and Northeastern University. Kay will talk about the process of planning, administering, and reporting on the feedback from usability testing. She will review the mechanics of running usability tests, which seem like a simple concept but are actually quite involved and labor intensive. Additionally, Kay will talk about the benefits of running tests at various points in the software development cycle (e.g., when all you have is a concept, pre-alpha, developed product, integration testing), and the different artifacts you can use before you have a real product. A secondary theme of her talk is how to weave usability testing around the software development process so that you gain visibility and credibility. She will discuss the importance of involving engineers, product managers, and other stake holders in the process. Kay will discuss how to collect data that is "bulletproof". Finally, she will discuss how to help your team make sense of the data collected and come to agreement on how to fix and prioritize usability issues. She will teach you how to run usability tests that produce fairly reliable data at a low cost (except for your time!) She will present video clips of tests that she has run in the past. DIRECTIONS Carlson Auditorium ia located almost immediately after the entrance gate to Mount Ida. After entering through the gate/security point, there is a parking lot immediately on the left. If you drive, park here. Right across from it is a large building - the first building one sees after the gate. Cross over to the building from the parking lot, and there will be steps leading DOWN (there are also steps up). Go down these steps and into the building. At the end of the hall, straight from the door, is the auditorium. By car: first consult www.mapquest.com or your favorite map service, or take Walnut Street to the South from route 9 in Newton. Walnut Street becomes Dedham Street. By T: Take the Green Line to Newton Centre. A shuttle bus leaves Newton Centre on the half hour (e.g. 5:30, 6:30) The shuttle leaves from the parking lot on Cypress St. in Newton Centre, very close to the T stop. The shuttle takes about 10-15 mins to get to Mount Ida from Newton Centre. It returns from Mount Ida on the hour, with the last bus at 10 pm. ************************************************************************ SIGGRAPH/Boston Contacts WWW: http://www.siggraph.org/chapters/boston All SIGGRAPH/Boston meetings are open to the public. SIGGRAPH/Boston maintains a mailing list for e-mail announcements of meetings. Send e-mail to siggraphdistrib-request@cs.umb.edu if you want be added or dropped from this list