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Your Chapter Needs YOU!New volunteers are always valuable since they contribute new ideas and additional skills. We all have the same goals, such as, to further our skills, learn more about and promote our profession, and network with others. Please pitch in to help us provide services to you and our STC Boston Chapter members. For more information about volunteering contact Arun Jain at ajain@baystatedocs.com |
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The Usability SIG explores all aspects of usability in technical communication, software development, and web site design. What is usability, how can it be measured, and why does it matter? How does usability relate to the fields of user experience (UX), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), human factors, user interface design, ergonomics, and accessibility? How can technical communicators get involved in usability, with or without changing career paths? Through presentations by guest speakers, lively discussions, assigned readings, and occasional field trips, we will attempt to find answers to these and other questions. November ProgramDate
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Program
Don't Push; Pull: Overcoming the Temptation to Teach
Presenter: Kris Engdahl Description
Transitioning from technical writing to usability work requires reversing the flow of information. It doesn’t go from the development team through you to the user anymore; it goes from the user through you to the development team.
It’s easy, when you are interacting with users of a product that you understand well, to want to explain to them how something works. Doing so, however, cheats you out of the information that you want to get from them: how they expect the product to work and why. Sometimes teaching is appropriate during a usability activity. For example, there are times when you provide training at the beginning of a usability test. But there are other times when providing information is exactly what you don’t want. This presentation will discuss:
The meeting includes a tour of the new Usability Lab at Bentley. About the Speaker
Kris Engdahl is a Usability Consultant at Bentley’s Design and Usability Center. She worked as a technical writer for 15 years before moving full time to Usability in 2005. She has worked on a variety of products ranging from solutions for very technical users, including Web programmers and database administrators, to products for business users and consumers.
Prior to joining Bentley, Kris spent 12 years at Oracle Corporation, where she worked on enterprise-level business applications. Kris’ recent projects have included a large study of enterprise data needs, developing profiles for enterprise users from IT professionals to business executives, developing personas for a loan-related website, conducting mobility studies of seniors, and testing web sites that support teens as they prepare for their futures. Kris holds an MS in Human Factors from Bentley College. She is active in the Usability Professionals’ Association, for which she designed a special exhibit that illustrated usability principles to children on World Usability Day at Boston’s Museum of Science. Time
Location
Bentley College (pay attention to SIG location; they vary) Cost and registration
Please register online for this meeting by November 18. For More Information
If you have questions about the Usability SIG, contact Usability SIG coordinator Ed
Drohan, or contact Kevin
McCauley.
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