TCANZ Pre-Conference Workshops 2007
"Choosing the Right Usability Technique" with Whitney Quesenbery

We are pleased to announce that the second pre-conference workshop will be held during the afternoon of Tuesday 6th November at the Duxton Hotel in Wellington.

Workshop details

There are many user experience design and evaluation techniques, from card sorting to usability testing. Each has its own advantages and requirements. Selecting the right technique, at the right time is critical to a successful project. That first decision affects the resources and budget needed, and can determine whether you can provide useful and effective information to improve a product.

This workshop is based on the assumption that there is not "one right way" to do user experience, but that if you can identify the questions, you can find a way to get answers within your resources.

We will review different options for usability and user experience work and look at how they can be used most effectively. Whether you are planning your first project or your hundredth, this workshop will help you match the right technique to your goals, to get the answers you need to improve your products, documentation and web sites.

Outline

• The project context
  Stage in the project, knowledge of users, resources available and the politics of the company or project

• Questions and answers
  The types of questions that user research can answer, decisions about using quantitative or qualitative techniques, and which users will help you provide the best answers.

• Choosing techniques
  A look at some of the popular user experience techniques to consider what questions they answer, resources they require, how they fit into a user experience program, what techniques they complement, and how they can be adjusted to fit the project context.

Outcomes

Participants in this workshop will leave with:

• An approach to planning usability and user experience work in any project situation

• An understanding of the strengths of popular techniques, including card sorting, personas, usability testing, surveys, and site visits

• Ideas for how to put several techniques together to get answers to allow confident design decisions

When

Tuesday November 6th 2007 (please register before 30/10/2007)
1:30pm - 5:30pm.
Tea and Coffee will be served on arrival from 1.00pm

Cost

Members (TCANZ, NZATD): $168.75 (Incl GST) Non-members $258.75 (Incl GST)

Venue

The Private Room
Duxton Hotel
Wellington

Need more information? Contact workshop organiser Johanne Booth.

About the presenter

Whitney Quesenbery

Whitney Quesenbery is a user interface designer and usability specialist with a passion for clear communication. As the principal consultant for Whitney Interactive Design (wqusability.com) she works with companies around the world to develop usable web sites and applications. As a principal at Cognetics Corporation for 12 years, she was instrumental in building a great design staff, and the design leader for many design and usability projects. Her project credits include work with companies such as Novartis, Deloitte Consulting, Lucent, McGraw-Hill, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, and Dow Jones. While at Cognetics, she was one of the developers of LUCID (Logical User-Centered Interaction Design), which promotes the importance of a user-centered approach and usability in design.