2004 Conference Theme: Connecting Communities

Communities are the core of our social structure, a bridge between us and the larger world. Families, businesses, sports, religions, professions, schools, towns, cities, and nations all function as communities. In turn, they are all made up of individuals that interact with each other through community networks.

Communities are changing in ways unimagined a generation ago. More and more, people work and play together for years without meeting face-to-face. While technology may undercut and fragments traditional communities, it also opens us up to broad new possibilities.

UPA 2004 will explore the many ways that communities affect usability and the user experience, as well as the ways that the user experience affects communities.

Changes in community infrastructure affect how we communicate and interact. How are text messaging, online communities, instant messages, cell phones, wireless broadband, and mobility changing user expectations?

New technologies demand new processes to create and support them. How do our processes and techniques in new product innovation, user research and usability evaluations continue to evolve with a community focus?

As our communities grow and stretch, they take in more and more diverse people. How do we design and evaluate products in this new global marketplace? How do we make products more inclusive, while maintaining specificity to critical audiences? How do we reach so many different audiences?

As we begin to design for communities, how do we transform the concept of “user experience” into “community experience?” How do we develop the persona of a community? How do we measure and assess the community experience? How do we balance between users and communities? How do communities interact with each other, and how do we design for inter-community interaction?

The usability community itself is changing and growing. How do we shape these changes? How do they affect the way we define ourselves, the tools and processes we use, and the ways we work with our colleagues to the benefit of our users, both individuals and communities?

The community landscape changes every day. Come to UPA, and network in our community.

We encourage submissions relating to this theme, in addition to a broad range of other topics of interest to usability professionals. While a connection with the theme is an added value in selecting submissions, it is not required.

 A Personal Invitation

From Caryn Zange Josephson, conference co-chair

I grew up in a small town before the “technology explosion.” My sense of community was shaped by my experiences and interactions within this small town – everyone knew your name and your family, and there was a strong sense of shared history. I was aware of the world outside this community only in the “abstract.” Today I live an urban/suburban area. What I find fascinating is the way in which the sense of community changes in this setting, yet at the same time is so similar to the small town I grew up in. The diversity of experiences and backgrounds are both invigorating and challenging, and yet during times of crisis or shared joy, differences that potentially can divide people diminish as they come together to mourn or celebrate a community event.

The advent of technology has allowed our communities to expand even further. When I began my career, the community in which I worked was located in the same office, and everyone worked on site. “Remote” working meant that you needed to walk to a different building for a meeting. Today my working community includes people who telecommute and people who live in different states and countries. Technology allows us to form communities that truly break boundaries. However, these new communities bring their own challenges: when everyone was in the same office, you quickly learned that when “Joe” says “that can’t be done,” all you had to do was raise your eyebrows and then sit back and watch him figure out how to do it. However, building that kind of understanding of and rapport with members of a virtual community is much more challenging.

I’m excited to be co-chairing the 2004 conference in my “home town community” – the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. We have a local UPA chapter made up of people from many different backgrounds and who are themselves members of many other communities. We are eager to explore ways in which to reach out to other groups to mutually explore ways to improve the “community experience.”

I invite you to come to UPA 2004, to share your experience and knowledge. Submit a proposal for a presentation, panel, paper, advanced topic, tutorial, workshop, idea market topic, or poster. Our community needs you!

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