Tutorials

• Supply the attendants with the means for producing a truly user-centred project.
• Relate UCSD to a commercially available software development process, i.e. the RUP.
• Introduce easy-to-apply, low-tech user-centred methods.

The learning outcomes are

• Learn how the full scope of UCSD can be integrated in a systems development process.
• Hands-on experience in how the key principles for UCSD can be used in practice in development projects.
• Learn strategies on how to deploy UCSD in organisations.

This tutorial is appropriate for master-class academics, practitioners, and students. This tutorial is intended for attendees who want to develop and deploy a UCSD process in their development organization. A basic knowledge in software development processes, i.e. the RUP, is adequate, but not mandatory.

Jan Gulliksen is a professor in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at Uppsala University, Sweden. Jan is a Swedish expert in ISO-standardization within software ergonomics and human-computer dialogues and also the chairman of the IFIP working group on Methodologies for User-Centred Systems Design (UCSD).

Bengt Göransson is a senior usability expert, Usability Designer, at the IT-consultancy Guide Redina in Sweden. He is the manager of the companies’ usability group and the leading architect behind their UCSD profile. Bengt has a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from Uppsala University, Sweden.

• How scientific rigor applies to qualitative research
• How to archive data to maintain the link between data and conclusions, and to facilitate analysis; and how different software tools (including computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software or CAQDAS tools) can help in this process
• How to triangulate in on valid conclusions through iterative use of complementary analysis techniques, including coding strategies, clustering and affinity diagramming, extracting dimensions, and exploring networks of relations
• How to deal with common validity concerns regarding qualitative field study data, such as the small sample problem, and appropriate generalization from qualitative data

This tutorial is intended for practitioners who want to improve the credibility and validity of their field user research for product development. It assumes some experience in fieldwork including ethnography, contextual inquiry, or naturalistic usability, with a practical focus on any aspect of product definition and design. It also will be of interest to people who have a background in more structured forms of user research, such as lab usability, but who want to prepare for the less structured world of field research. The tutorial is especially useful for people who want to provide best practices leadership for multi-disciplinary teams involved in field research.

David and Susan are very experienced User-Centered Design (UCD) consultants who have done field research for a long list of clients. The size and strategic importance of many of these projects have challenged them to develop practices that enhance the credibility, validity, and practical usefulness of the research findings. They have taught these methods in a range of venues internationally. They have published many articles on User Centered Design, and are co-editors of the Business Column of the ACM-SIGCHI magazine,

Emeritus Professor John Long worked for Shell International as a line-manager. He then joined the Medical Research Council’s Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge conducting HCI research and managing the PO consultancy. He was Director of the Ergonomics & HCI Unit at University College London. He has authored/co-authored over 200 publications and managed more than 40 grants, many involving iterative HCI projects. He has acted as consultant to numerous companies. He was awarded the Bartlett Medal for research and received the IEA’s Outstanding Educator Award. He is currently Emeritus Professor at the UCL Interaction Centre.

Steve Cummaford worked as a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology, investigating the design of effective e-commerce interfaces, before being appointed Lecturer in HCI, University College London (UCL). He was a founding partner of Amberlight Partners, a leading HCI consultancy based in London, managing iterative design projects for clients including Autotrader, AOL, Ask Jeeves, MSN and Yell. He is now at TWI interactive, where he designs and produces sports websites and mobile applications, for clients including Manchester United, FIFA, The Open Championship, O2, Vodafone and Miss World.

The tutorial includes two different approaches for creation of personas that both are grounded in field data. In one approach the field data is ethnographic inspired video-recordings, and personas are created while playing a design game including video-snippets and images from the field. The other approach is a step-by-step framework describing what it requires to create engaging personas, which enables the reader to identify with the persona, and use it actively in the design work. The field data used has primarily been questionnaires and/or interviews with intended users

Besides the hands-on sessions the learning objectives are to give a short overview of how the two approaches presented differs from other approaches. Furthermore it will be discussed how the personas can be used as a platform for scenario-based design.

Lene Nielsen has conducted several workshops about personas with the industry in Denmark. She has taken part in several projects about developing web-applications for e.g. the medical field. Nielsen has presented her work at several conferences aimed at professionals and researchers. She has been teaching personas and scenario writing as part of HCI courses for several years at The IT-University, Copenhagen and Copenhagen Business School. She is the initiator to and active member of the Personas Work Group SIGCHI.DK (45 members in Denmark). The concept of the engaging persona and narrative scenario is developed in her PhD thesis: Engaging Personas and Narrative Scenario (Nielsen 2004).

Eva Brandt is trained as engineering designer, and holds a Ph.D. in user-centered design from the Technical University of Denmark. She has for ten years conducted research about collaborative design processes within mobile and ubiquitous computing, space design, and product development. Brandt has presented her work at several international conferences. Example of previous workshops held at international conferences: “Hands-on experience with design games in collaborative design”, “The user-centered design process”, “Augmenting activities in the home”. Brandt has tought user-centered design courses at the following institutions: Danmarks Designskole, Art and Communication, Malmö University, The Design School Kolding (Denmark), The Technical University of Denmark, Cape-Technikon, South Africa.

• HFI’s User-centred design process,
• Key components of a successful project, and the “contract for design”
• The four key focal points of design – Navigation, Content, Presentation, Interaction,
• How to balance form and function in the design process,
• How to create usable and useful web sites and applications.

At the end of this tutorial participants will be able to:

• Understand the user-centred design process
• Design intuitive navigation structures
• Optimize interaction through controls and feedback
• Deliver content that conveys the required message effectively

Eric M. Schaffer has been a part of the usability engineering field since 1977. He worked as a Human Factors Specialist at AT&T and Bell Laboratories. In 1981 he co-founded Human Performance Associates and in 1988 he took his half and founded Human Factors International. He is currently the worldwide CEO of HFI and since the sun never sets on HFI, he gets little sleep. Eric is a “ruthlessly pragmatic” usability engineer with an unparalleled range of experience. He has completed projects for more than a hundred of the Fortune 500 companies and has addressed systems as diverse as financial planning, office supply purchase, HR, and bomb disposal (actually these are all pretty similar). He has personally taught over 400 classes on usability and has made innumerable presentations and keynote addresses. He is supposed to be pretty entertaining. Eric is the world’s thought-leader on mature and professional usability operations; with methodology, tools, standards, training, certification, and cost-effective staffing. Eric’s 2004 book, Institutionalization of Usability: A Step-by-Step Guide, has sold over 3,000 copies, and you should probably have bought one (hopefully at a discount). Eric has made HFI a market leader in usability that is 5 times larger then the next competitor. HFI now provides a complete and seamless offering to support institutionalization of usability and ongoing sustained usability operations. This includes a global presence. Eric currently lives in Mumbai, India helping to grow HFI’s Asian presence and sleeping under a mosquito net. Dr. Schaffer is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and a Certified Professional Ergonomist.

John Meech, has over fifteen years experience designing usable products and services. He began his career in the Aerospace industry working in Human Factors research and development before spending several years teaching and researching in human-computer interaction. This included a year as a researcher at CERN investigating human factors issues in high-energy physics experiments using the then very new world-wide-web. John has a wide range of industrial and consultancy experience in many diverse domains. For the last five years John has been responsible for leading multidisciplinary teams in consultancy roles in a wide range of projects.