Designing for Touch

Jackie Huffman and Sally Cohen
NCR Corporation

Audience: anyone
Keywords: how-to discussion, emerging interfaces, enhancing general usability skills, heuristics and guidelines, task design for lab testing, user interface design for touchscreens

Learn about the latest research and guidelines for designing touch-screen applications for kiosks. Conduct heuristic evaluations, and design screens based on the recommended guidelines.

Keep Them Thinking Aloud: Two Ways to Conduct a Verbal Protocol and Why It Matters

Judy Ramey and Ted Boren
University of Michigan, Microsoft Corporation

Audience: experienced usability professionals
Keywords: combination of how-to and overview of concepts, usability method or implementation, possible new method, lab testing

This presentation explores the rationale behind two approaches to one of usability's most common methods, the thinking-aloud protocol. Both approaches are illustrated by videotape and discussed.

How Can I Get There from Here: Overhauling Web Navigation on a 10,000-Page Corporate Site Using Tried, True, and New Methods

Julie Ratner, Karen Gondoly and Ken Hyman
Mathworks

Audience: anyone
Keywords: how-to discussion, web, usability method implementation or adaptation, possible new method, heuristics and guidelines, web navigation strategies

This presentation describes two usability methods for evaluating Web navigation: the black-out technique and the group testing party. Participants will practice both methods, before and after examples and style guidelines of the MathWorks Web site will also be discussed.

Usability Screening Techniques

Chris Law, Kitch Barnicle, and Shawn Henry
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Optavia Corporation

Audience: anyone
Keywords: how-to discussion, usability testing techniques, usability method implementation or adaptation, strategic usability, disability, functional limitations

A set of techniques to "screen out" functional usability problems which arise through adverse environments, temporary or permanent disabilities, aging, or from eyes-free, hands-free or ears-free operation of products.

Productive Usability Testing without a Usability Lab

Leslie Cahill
Gateway, Inc.

Audience: beginner usability specialists
Keywords: how-to discussion, usability method implementation or adaptation, data collection, results reporting, testing without a lab

Methodology for conducting 16 usability tests in 1-1/2 years without a usability lab or usability lab equipment. Problems encountered along with solutions to these problems will be discussed.

HAL and Star Trek? Applying Usability Engineering to the Design of Speech Interfaces

Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D. and Dean Barker
Weinschenk Consulting Group, Interface Architecture Inc.

Audience: anyone
Keywords: overview of concept or philosophy, emerging interfaces, enhancing general usability skills, heuristics and guidelines, speech interfaces

Speech interfaces are poised to enter the skill set of interface designers today. This presentation applies usability engineering principles to the design of interfaces that include speech.

Waving Magic Wands: interaction Techniques to Improve Usability Testing Low-Fidelity Prototypes

Barb Kauffolf and Shawn Lawton Henry
Optavia Corporation

Audience: anyone
Keywords: how-to discussion, usability method implementation or adaptation, possible new method, paper prototyping, usability testing

This presentation introduces and demonstrates techniques to improve the effectiveness of usability testing with low-fidelity prototypes. You will learn techniques that can improve your results and save you time.

Effective Prototyping for Usability

Tom Spitzer and Jack Hakim
EC Wise Inc.

Audience: intermediate usability specialists
Keywords: how-to discussion, usability method implementation or adaptation, rapid prototyping, comparative studies, usability oriented prototyping

This highly interactive session will explore how and when prototyping techniques can maximize the value of the dialog among designers, usability specialists, and prospective users, and discuss using simulations to evaluate alternative designs.

Incorporating User Archetypes into Scenario-Based Design

Norunn Mikkelson and Wai On Lee
Microsoft Corporation

Audience: anyone
Keywords: how-to discussion, usability method implementation or adaptation, combining methods, design

This presentation describes an effective way to establish users as "user archetypes" and to incorporate user archetypes within scenario-based design.