The Presentations category consists of two types of sessions:

• Presentations
  
  
• Panels
  

Printable version of the Call for Participation (pdf 613 KB)

Presentation Sessions

Presentation sessions focus on a practitioner’s ideas and experience with usability methods, skills, philosophy, design, business case studies, or other relevant topics. The UPA expects all presentation sessions to include substantial time for audience participation. Allow at least one-third to one-half of the time for discussion, exercises, or hands-on experience. Presentation length can be 90 minutes or 40 minutes.

No commercially available or vendor products will be accepted for demonstrations. Presenters should refrain from any product endorsements.

Panel Sessions

Panels feature two or three people presenting their ideas and experiences relating to usability methods, skills, philosophy, design, or other relevant, controversial, emerging, or unresolved issues. Panels may be conducted in several ways, such as comparative, analytic, or historic.

UPA recommends limiting panels to three members to allow ample time for discussion. Sessions are 90 minutes of which 30 to 45 minutes must involve audience interaction.


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Benefits

The primary presenter , or the facilitator for a panel, receives a 20% discount on conference registration. Unfortunately, we cannot offer discounts to multiple presenters at this time.


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Submission Information

All submissions must include two documents: a description, and background information about the presenters(s). Please use the UPA-provided templates to prepare these documents. In addition, you will complete forms online with additional information when you submit your presentation, as described in “Submitting Your Proposal.”

1. Description of Presentation or Panel (4 pages minimum, 6 pages maximum)

Include the following items in your Description:

• Title: Include the title on each page of the Presentation Description in the header.



• Abstract: Provide a 50-word synopsis of your submission. The abstract will appear in the Advance and Final Programs for accepted submissions.



• Indicate the duration of your proposed presentation (40 or 90 minutes).



• Describe the learning objectives of the presentation. Focus particularly on the “take-home” aspects that attendees will be able to use immediately on their jobs.



• Describe in detail the material that will be covered in the presentation.



• Explain how the presentation will be conducted, e.g., lecture, demonstration.



• sevents with time allocation.



• Describe and provide samples of materials (handouts) that you will include in the presentation notes.
  

If you previously have presented the proposed material at UPA or another conference, your UPA proposal should include the conferences at which you previously presented the materials and how you have modified your materials for UPA 2003, if applicable.

To facilitate the blind review process, the background section of your submission will not be sent to the review panel. Some information from the submission process (e.g., keywords, audience, etc.) will also be provided to reviewers. To keep your identity confidential:

• Do not include your name, product name (noncommercial products only), or organization on any page of your Description, including headers and footers.
  
  
• Be sure to remove your name and organization from the Property settings in your document.
  

2. Your Background

In a separate document, describe in one or two paragraphs the relevant background and experience of each presenter, including presenter names and their affiliated organizations. Background description should not exceed 150 words for each person. This description will be used in all published information about the presentation or panel.

During the online submission process, you will fill out a series of forms that ask for additional information. Several of these questions will help UPA classify the audience and subject matter for your presentation or panel. Please read the section, “Preparing Your Submission” before submitting your presentation proposal.


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Review Questions & Guidelines

UPA will evaluate presentation proposals on the basis of their anticipated benefit for prospective participants and on their fit with the presentation program as a whole. Factors to be considered include originality, practicality, relevance, appeal to the UPA audience, suitability for presentation format, and use of presentation methods that afford participants with opportunities to interact with the presenter and other audience members. Presentation submissions must demonstrate that the coverage of the topic will fit in the proposed timeframe, including audience participation.

Reviewers will evaluate all presentations on the basis of these questions:

1. Presentation strategy: Do you agree with the submitter's presentation strategy?
   
   
2. System, product, or project focus: Do you agree with the submitter's system, product, or project focus?
   
   
3. Topic category: Do you agree with the submitter's topic category?
   
   
4. Topic keywords: Do you agree with the submitter's keywords?
   
   
5. Importance: How important do you think this topic is to the usability field?
   
   
6. Practicality: To what extent would this presentation provide practical tips, tricks, and techniques that can be applied in the workplace?
   
   
7. Value to attendees: Will the session provide direct benefits that attendees can apply immediately to their jobs?
   
   
8. Audience: How effectively does the submitter address the needs of his or her targeted audience? See the section “Target Audiences.”
   
   
9. Interactive: Will the session be interactive enough to stimulate interest and involvement?
   
   
10. Theme: In your opinion, how well does this topic fit the conference theme ("Ubiquitous Usability")? While UPA encourages submissions tied to the conference theme, it is not required. This is an “added value” in evaluating submissions.
    
    
11. Originality/Novelty: How well does this presentation provide original or new content for returning conference attendees? Novelty is an “added value” for submission topics; UPA recognizes that established topics continue to be important to the UPA membership, and that new insights and new perspectives often come from re-examination of established issues.
    
    
12. Demonstration of Rigor: How well does this presentation address rigor of method? That is, how well does it position the methodology used in comparison to established experimental methods, or acknowledge where tradeoffs were made and why? Rigor is a difficult issue to assess because the criteria for rigor change depending on the topic and how the topic is approached. Evaluation based on rigor may not be appropriate in some cases, and may vary radically depending on the kind of work being presented. However, it is always a good idea to familiarize yourself with existing literature on the method or topic you are discussing. See “Rigor Guidelines” for more information.
    
    
13. Challenging: How well does this presentation challenge UPA mainstream thinking? How well will this presentation stimulate and promote "outside the box" discussion?
    
    
14. Overall Assessment: Would you accept or reject this proposal?
    

As a submitter, you will receive anonymous reviewers’ comments in response to all these questions


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Templates

UPA provides templates both for presentation submissions and for biographical information. These templates guide you through the process of building a submission that will describe your material in a way that will help both you and your reviewers to evaluate your submission against the review questions. We strongly urge you to use these templates.

• Download the presentation template at template_presentations.rtf (47KB)
  
  
• Download the panel template at template_panels.rtf (34KB)
  
  
• Download the biographical information template at template_bio.rtf (6KB)
  

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Examples

Some examples of outstanding submissions from past years are available. Reviewing these examples will give you some insight about what makes a strong submission, and what kinds of things that UPA reviewers look for.

• Presentation example 1: more.than.alt.proposal.pdf (111KB)
  
  
• Presentation example 2: beyond.compliance.proposal.pdf (397 KB)
  
  
• Presentation example 3: security.proposal.pdf (79KB)
  
  
• Panel example 1: how.many.proposal.pdf (89KB)
  
  
• Panel example 2: roi.proposal.pdf (43KB)
  

Thank you to Kara Pernice Coyne, Cory Knobel, Carl Turner, Stephanie Rosenbaum, Tec-Ed, and Optavia Corporation for permission to use these examples


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After Your Presentation is Accepted

UPA will notify submitters of acceptance by February 21, 2003. People whose submissions are not accepted will be notified by approximately February 28, 2003. If your presentation or panel is accepted, you will need to provide UPA with your presentation slides and the accompanying paper by May 2, 2003, in order for UPA to include these in the conference proceedings.

In the event that your presentation is not accepted, UPA encourages you to consider incorporating reviewer feedback to your materials, and resubmitting as a poster, which has a later deadline schedule. Note that the poster submission format is different from the presentation submission format.


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Important Dates for Presentations and Panels

Submissions are due: December 2, 2002
Submitters notified by: February 21, 2003

Presenters are required to provide presentation materials for the conference proceedings by: May 2, 2003


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For more information:

Contact Presentations and Panels Co-Chairs:
Deborah Hinderer Sova
Charlotte Schwendeman

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