Putting the User First, Remotely - Meeting Sept. 22

[Brent Mitchell]

Join us Wednesday!

Mark Thompson-Kolar will discuss “Putting the user first, remotely” at
Cengage Learning … and your company.

In today’s era of agile methods — when software is developed quickly
in sprints and ease of use often is crucial for success in a fierce
marketplace — companies of all sizes benefit from hearing users’ input
early and often. Smaller-scale, remote user testing can give firms of
any size the ability to efficiently and effectively gather vital user-
experience information without spending a lot of money or time.

ABOUT:

A traditional model of software and web site development has been to
gather requirements, build the program, and then see how the finished
product performs in large-scale user tests or directly in the market.
However, many companies are learning that having users try the
software during the development process reduces the risk of major (or
minor) usability problems, and leads to better software with fewer
costs.

Cengage Learning has placed “Focus on the End User” as the top element
of its mission statement and is bolstering its usability culture. This
summer the company ran a program of weekly remote, smaller-scale
usability testing in Farmington Hills.

An in-house team of three, consisting of two interns from the
University of Michigan graduate School of Information and the User
Experience Manager, performed almost two dozen remote user tests on a
variety of the company’s products. This provided a wealth of
actionable suggestions to guide programming teams. Mark will discuss
how it was done and offer suggestions about how your company can put
these methods to work.

BACKGROUND:

Mark Thompson-Kolar is a master’s student at the University of
Michigan in the School of Information. He’s studying information
architecture, interface usability and content strategy and aims to
work in the Ann Arbor/Metro Detroit area when he graduates in 2011.

Before his current studies, he was a newspaper editor, designer and
manager for 18 years at daily news media companies in Michigan and
Indiana. He has prior bachelor’s and graduate degrees from University
of Michigan.

WHERE:

Washtenaw Community College, Morris Lawrence Building, Room 105

WHEN:

Wednesday, September 22 from 6:30 to 8:30pm

COST AND REGISTRATION:
FREE, open to the public
Please RSVP via http://guestlistapp.com/events/31467


We'd love to see you there!

[mattburpee]

Great meeting last night. I was wondering if the slide deck was
available somewhere to look at.

Thanks,

Matt.

On Sep 20, 10:12 am, Brent Mitchell <i...@balancedinteractive.com>
wrote:

> Please RSVP viahttp://guestlistapp.com/events/31467