Conferences and Events: Past UPA Conferences
UPA 2008: Usability Through Holistic Practice
Many types of professionals touch the user experience of a product. Marketing specialists, graphic designers, computer scientists, business analysts, psychologists, information architects, technical writers and others bring valuable perspectives to usability and user experience. UPA 2008 invites you to share perspectives and learn from the experiences of other practitioners.
The conference proceedings are available for sale in the UPA Store.
- Conference Dates: June 16 - 20, 2008
- Location: Baltimore, Maryland, US
- Attendees: 700+
- Conference Web Site
- Photos from the conference on Flickr (tag: UPA2008)
- Keynote and Invited Speakers
- Tutorials
- Workshops
- Idea Market Afterthoughts
- Presentations
- Panels
- Peer Reviewed Papers
- Experienced Practitioners Track
- Conference Committee
Keynotes and Invited Speakers
- How Innovation Works - Carole Bilson Ph.D. (Pitney Bowes)
- Accessibility In A Post-Guideline Era: A Process Driven Approach To Access For All - Julie Howell (Fortune Cookie)
- Beyond Shrink-Wrap and Sites: Integrating Usability into Hardware Products - David Aurelio (Bose)
- Who are We Designing For? – The Generational Dilemma - Susan Weinschenk Ph.D. (Human Factors International)
- Beyond Web2.0 Skins and Mashups: The More Abstract, Intrinsic Expectations of Our Younger User Base - Patrick Hofmann (Google)
- Making Emotions Work for You - August de los Reyes and Dennis Wixon (Microsoft)
- User Experience in China: A Market Snaphot of the Present and a Look Ahead - Jason Huang (TANG Consulting)
- The German UPA Chapter and the UX Market: Small Country, Many Members - How Typical German Is That? - Henning Brau (Daimler Group Research and Advanced Engineering)
- The Evil UI Designer: How to Really Confound and Annoy Users - Jeff Johnson (UI Wizards)
- Ethnographic Research: Bringing You Face-to-Face with Customers in Natural Environments - Kathy Berke (Dell)
- Modeling Usability, Inoperability, and Harmonization: The New Section 508 - Michael Paciello
Tutorials
| Leaders | Title |
| Kate Walser, Duane Degler, Ann Chadwick-Dias, Marguerite Bergel | Applied Design Principles for Rich Web Interactions |
| Nancy Frishberg | Harnessing Customer Creativity and Engaging Customers and Clients with Innovation Games |
| Pawan Vora | Design Patterns for Web Applications |
| Richard Horst, Dustin Chambers | Remote Usability Testing |
| Charlotte Schwendeman, Carol Righi, PhD, Janice Meissner, Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus | The 3x3: A Unique Approach to Design Ideation |
| Mary Beth Rettger | Post-its and Affinities: low-tech tools for high-impact results |
| Jim Hudson, Stefanie Wood | Making Memorable Video Clips When you Aren't a Videographer |
| Jianming Dong, Carol Righi, Janice James, Larry Wood | Card-Sorting and Cluster Analysis for Information Architecture Design |
| Caroline Jarrett | Label Placement in Forms (and Other Time-Consuming Forms Controversies) |
| Yvonne Shek, Gene Smith | Accelerator Workshops: How Rapid Facilitation gets things done in days instead of weeks |
| David Siegel, Susan Dray | Skills and Strategies for Dealing with Key Issues in International Field Research |
| Deborah Hinderer Sova, Dana Chisnell | Effectively Recruiting Users as Participants in Usability Research |
| Jeff Patton | A UX Professional's Crash Course in Agile Software Development |
| Shane Morris | Interaction Design Studio |
| Aaron Marcus | Cross-Cultural User-Interface Design |
| Catriona Campbell, David Bomphrey | Combining the Qual. and the Quant. in Web 2.0 |
| William Albert, Thomas Tullis | Usability Metrics 101: An Introduction on How to Collect, Analyze, and Present Usability Data |
| Laura Downey, Thyra Rauch | Usability Testing Boot Camp |
| John Schrag, Ian Hooper | Design Essentials for Non-Designers: Methods for Creating Innovative User Interfaces |
| Susan Dray, David Siegel | Understanding Users Through Fieldwork: An In-Depth Primer |
| Sarah Bloomer, Shane Morris | Back to the Future: The Next Wave of UI Design |
Workshops
UPA workshops provide an active arena for advancements in the field of usability and design. Workshops provide the opportunity for experienced practitioners to develop new ideas about a topic of common interest and experience.
| Leaders | Title |
| Catherine Courage, Stephanie Rosenbaum, Jhilmil Jain | Exploring Best Practices in Longitudinal Usability Studies |
| Mary Beth Rettger | Managing a Corporate User Experience Group |
| Amy Kidd, Jennifer Lymneos | Supporting Design by Non-Designers |
| Whitney Quesenbery, Christy Mylks | Models of Healthcare Consumers' User Experience |
| Sarah Bloomer | Managing a User Experience Consultancy |
The Idea Market - Afterthoughts
Ever feel that the best part of a conference happens between sessions? In Idea Markets, attendees are free to roam from one idea station to the next, until they find a topic that they are interested in. Multiple "activators" stir up lively discourse on a variety of topics in a highly interactive, fluid session.
| Leaders | Title |
| Deborah Hinderer Sova | Recruiting participants: a dying art or a re-emerging desirable skill? |
| Hongzheng Lu | How do you help your offshore usability team grow? |
| Deborah Goff, Christopher Bransfield | How do we communicate across disciplines to enhance the user experience? |
| Daniel Schwartz | How is usability best integrated into open source software? |
| Sharron Rush, Jayne Schurick | Are rich media and accessibility mutually exclusive, or inclusive? |
| Marina Chiovetti | Moving towards "usagility" |
| Lori Anschuetz | What are the challenges and rewards of conducting moderated remote usability studies to reach out to more users in more places? |
| Wendy Castleman, Kaaren Hansen | Moving UCD from "nice" to "NECESSARY!" |
| Carrie Cianchette, Linda Mateos | Does user self-identification help or hinder your website? |
| Jean Foster | Building a corporate Fort Knox: user data is like gold so why do we throw it away? |
| Christa Minks-Brown | How can usability be more like play? |
| Brooke Baldwin | Back-end usability |
| Lynn VanDyke | What strategy would you use to integrate look and feel throughout a product line that has been impacted by acquisitions? |
Presentations
Presentation sessions are either 40 or 90 minutes long, and focus on a practitioner's ideas and experience with usability methods, skills, philosophy, design, business case studies, or other relevant topics.
| Speakers | Title |
| Jana Roberts, Shawn Tafoya, Debbie Martinez | Iterative Usability Testing is Successful |
| Susan J Wolfe | Breaking down the silos: When government teams with private industry to optimize the user experience |
| Amy Anderson, Grace O'Neill | Usability Testing to Improve High-Volume Web Surveys |
| Hallie Wilfert | Using Web Analytics to Improve User Experience |
| Emma Rose, Suzanne Boyd | Making government user-centered: Managing UCD projects to promote change |
| Greg Laugero | How UCD Can Provide Leadership Skills for Complex Projects: A 4-Day Plan |
| Patrick Hofmann | Innovations in visual information design and multi-ethnic usability testing: how to create better products and bigger profits |
| Spencer Gerrol, Vir Amar Dasmahapatra, Kim Snedaker | Interdisciplinary Usability: Take the Next Step to Persuasive Design |
| Barbra Wells | Institutionalizing User Experience: A Consulting Challenge |
| Paul Sherman, Cassandra Swint | Moving Users' Cheese: Designing a New Navigation System For An Old Desktop Software Product |
| Dustin Chambers, Richard Horst | The Future of Web Analytics: Inferring User Intent from Session Replays |
| Tharon Howard | Using User-Diaries to Identify Market Gaps |
| Gregg Almquist, Marc Sill | Visual Design and the User Experience: Keys to the Partnership |
| Filipp Sapienza | Working with immigrant and trans-national users |
| Joan Doutney, Sara Conklin, Adam Armstead | Hiding a Paradigm Shift: Maintaining task simplicity in a self-service application |
| Nunez Loic, Denis Boudreau | Ergonomics & Accessibility: WCAG 1.0 checkpoints illustrated by Bastien-Scapin's ergonomics criteria |
| Tim Harter | Using On-site Surveys and Web Analytics with Personas to Inform Business Strategy and Design |
| Katrina Alcorn | How to manage a user experience team (without losing your mind!) |
| Stan Driskell | Spider Controls: A New Paradigm for the Display and Management of Computer Controls |
| Kate Walser, Whitney Quesenbery, Sarah Swierenga | Designing for Cognitive Disabilities |
| Sareeka Malhotra, Shivam Goyal, Jennifer Kim | International Testing - A Multidisciplinary Approach |
| Elizabeth Benker, Kathi Kaiser | They Want My What?! Overcoming User Reluctance to Providing Personal Information in Online Transactions |
| Robert Bailey, Cari Wolfman, Janice Nall | Revising a Homepage: Applying Usability Methods that Guarantee Success |
| Sharon Laskowski, Bill Killam | Usability Performance Benchmarks for Voting Systems |
| Maggie Reilly, Doug Baker | Usability and Organizational Strategies |
| Whitney Quesenbery, Caroline Jarrett | Search is now normal behavior. What do we do about that? |
| Tom Illmensee | Applied Card Sorting: A Case Study in e-Commerce Taxonomy Research |
| Duane Degler | Future Interfaces: Latest in Semantic Web User Interaction |
| Shawn Henry | How New Web Accessibility Standards Impact User Experience Design |
| Jean Fox, Scott Fricker | Beyond Words: Strategies for Designing Good Questionnaires |
| Gregg Almquist, Chris Whelan, Laura Mason | 10 Strategies for Negotiating the Politics of Holistic Design |
| Wei Zhou, Velynda Prakhantree, Shannon Farrington | International User Research in the Product Development Cycle |
| Barb Hernandez, Josephine Scott, Casey Wright | Bringing it All Together - The Answer is A and B |
| Rebecca Ormsby | From Mainframe with Less Pain – Updating the face of Legacy Applications |
| Jhumkee Iyengar, Samir Chabukswar | Moving from Usability Oblivion to a Thriving Offshore Usability Practice |
| Andrew Schall, Anne Washington | Designing a successful eye-tracking usability study step-by-step |
| Jerome Ryckborst | Teach your software developers this Ideation-Design process to reduce your usability work downstream |
| Eric Dunsker | When There's Too Many Choices |
| Paul M. Linton, Ruth Frank, PhD | Elevating Usability in a Large Organization; a Successful Case Study |
| Michael Hawley | Beyond Card Sorting: Methodologies for Re-organizing a Large Informational Site Run Amok |
| Claude M Steinberg | Communication Techniques for Interviewing Expert Users |
| Emma Rose | Design research in developing countries: Creative applications for mobile phones |
| Terry Fairbanks | Use Error Hazards from a Popular Emergency Department Information System |
| Yu-kwong Chiu | Communicative Approach to Designing User Experience |
| Kuldeep Kelkar, Kelly Braun, Jim Hudson, Naini Mistry, Paresh Vakhariya, Stefanie Wood | Rich Man's Problems: Beyond Selling Usability |
| Martha Carrer Cruz Gabriel | Voice Interfaces in Art: An Experimentation with Web Open Standards as a Model to Increase Web Accessibility and Digital Inclusion |
| Michael Etgen, Mary Burton, Timothy O'Keefe | A Tortured Tale of Personas in the Real World |
| Rachel L Cobleigh | Using Instant Messaging to Usability Test an API |
| Amy Cueva, Chauncey Wilson | A Portfolio of Brainstorming Techniques: From the Nominal Group Technique to the Lotus Blossom Approach |
| Rob Rhyne | How to Break Consistency for Glory & Riches |
| John Yesko | The Brand vs. Usability Face-off |
| Carol Smith | Participatory Design at a Distance |
| Marc Schwarz | The Pushed-RITE Method: A hybrid approach for pushing Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation to its practical limit |
| Nick Serediak, Erin McClennan, Alison Cox | Kiosk User Experience: What makes or breaks it |
| Cari A Wolfson, Robert Bailey, Janice Nall, Sanjay Koyani | Contextual Card Sorting (or FirstClick Testing): A New Methodology for Validating Information Architectures |
| Serena H Rosenhan, Joanna Markel | Making Method Work for You: How Remote Contextual Inquiry Got Us Up-Close with Users |
| Carol Barnum, David Dayton | The Impact of Agile on UCD: Mixed Messages from a Before and After Survey |
| James B Ross, Paul Nuschke | Practical Eyetracking |
| Jakob Biesterfeldt | Managing International Research Vendors |
| Rob Houser | Moving the UA into the UI: Best Practices for User Assistance |
| Ron Sova, Matt Krueger | Designing Visually - the Holistic Solution |
Panels
| Speakers | Title |
| Richard Horst, Sharon Laskowski, Sanjay Koyani, Nicole Burton, John Bosley, Sean Wheeler | e-Government Usability in U.S. Federal Government -- Perspectives on Past Progress, Current Status, and Future Challenges |
| Chris Rourke | Government Usability Around the World |
| John W Sorflaten, Jeff Sauro, Michael Rawlins, Linda Chadwick, Javier Broch | Winning at the Politics of Usability |
| Keith S Karn, Alex Little, Greg Nelson, Jeff Sauro, Jurek Kirakowski, William Albert, Kent Norman | Subjective ratings of usability: Reliable or ridiculous? |
| Paul Sherman, Lyle Kantrovich, Susan Dray, Josh Seiden, Patrick Hoffman | Future of the UX Industry: Niche or Not? |
| David Mitropoulos-Rundus, Jeff Johnson, Catriona Campbell, Kerry Bodine, Patrick Hoffmann | The State of Web Site User Experience |
| Steve Krug, Randolph Bias, Carol Barnum | Discount Testing by Amateurs: Threat or Menace? |
| Catherine Courage, Melissa Federoff, Gayna Williams, Scott Kincaid, Kelly Braun | Hiring and Retaining Talent in a Hot Market: Best Practices for User Experience Employers |
| Leonard Conte | Workshop Highlights |
| Aaron Marcus, Tony Brown, Janice James, Jon Meads, Nicholas Simonelli | So You Want To Be A Rockstar (Usability Expert), 2.0 |
Roundtable Discussions
| Speakers | Title |
| Assia Alexandrova | How can personalization improve the usability of government websites and online services? |
| Angela Colter | How do you determine whether your content is readable? |
| Caroline Jarrett | Using quick personas in Government projects: good idea or too risky? |
| Jason Rendel, Mark Gallagher | Herding Cats: Consensus Building in Federal Government Environments |
| Shawn Henry | What is needed to help usability professionals better integrate accessibility throughout the design process? |
Peer Reviewed Papers
Peer-reviewed papers are submitted as both a complete paper and a presentation. Both must reflect the priorities of the UPA conference, which emphasize practicality, hands-on experience, and interactive presentation.
| Authors | Title |
| Yee-Yin Choong, Theresa O'Connell | Planning User-Centered Evaluations for Interactive Information Visualizations |
| Celeste Lyn Paul | A Practitioner's Guide to the Modified-Delphi Card Sort |
| Carmon Cheng, Jin Li, Catherine Baillie | Knock Them Dead Blindfolded |
Experienced Practitioners' Track
This day-long program included five sessions that are geared for practitioners with at least 5-10 years of experience and who desire a deeper level of understanding and discussion. Attendance was limited to 40 people.
| Speakers | Title |
| Trent Mankelow, Robert Schumacher | Market and sell it - how to win work as a usability consultant |
| Paul Sherman, Daniel Szuc, John Rhodes | Make Yourself Heard! Selling User Experience in Your Organization |
| Saul Carliner | What Museums Can Teach Us about Usable Design: An Interactive Experience |
| Virginia A. Lang, David Hirning | You Won the Contract/You Granted the Contract...Now What Happens? |
| Chauncey Wilson | EP Town Meeting |
2008 Conference Committee
- 2008 Conference Co-Chairs: Alain Robillard-Bastien, Kate Caldwell
- Conference Advisor: Carol J. Smith
- E-Government Chair: Lisa Battle
- English as a Second Language: Kelly Berg
- Exhibits: Nicole Tafoya
- Experienced Practitioner Program: Danielle Cooley, Merryl Gross
- Experienced Practitioner Topics: Yihsiu Chen
- Idea Markets: Jerilyn M. MacLaren-Hall, Cristin Witcher
- Invited Speakers: Dave Metropolis-Rundus, Catriona Campbell
- Local Liaison: John Whalen
- Managing User Experience: Rich Gunther, Sandhya Pillalamarri
- Panels: Eugenie Bertus
- Peer-Reviewed Papers: Satyam Kantamneni
- Posters: Kevin Lee
- Pam Cote
- Presentations: Bill Albert, Laura Faulkner
- Publications Advisor: Lyle Kantrovich
- Publicity: Eva Gaumond
- Reviewers: Catherine Courage, Rajesh Kalidindi
- Session Chair: Carol J. Smith
- Sponsorship: Nicole Tafoya
- Thirty-minute Presentations: Carmen Broomes, Jean Fox
- Tutorials: Deborah Hinderer Sova, Hank Henry
- Usability Fundamentals Panels: Susan Dray
- Volunteers (On-site): Laurie Bennett, Rich Gunther
- Web Site - Conference: Amanda Nance, Pete Kinser
- Workshops: Eugenie Bertus, Lin Min
Do you have a presentation to add to this site? Send the presentation file or link URL to the Web Director. Files may be in Acrobat (PDF), Rich Text (RTF), Word (DOC) or Powerpoint (PPT) format, and should be under 2 Mb.