Carolyn Snyder Sessions

Tutorial: 5. Product Usability: Survival Techniques

Jared M. Spool, User Interface Engineering; Carolyn Snyder, User Interface Engineering

Benefits
You will learn how to produce a more usable product by prototyping and testing a design in a matter of hours, using readily available materials.

Origins
This is an update of a tutorial presented at several CHI conferences. This year more emphasis is placed on discount usability methods and less on design principles and user interface guidelines.

Features

• develop products using a process of iterative refinement with frequent measurements to ensure they are still on course
• build a paper mock-up of a product interface using common office supplies
• usability test a paper mock-up and improve it very quickly based on feedback from users
• apply the concepts of affordances and mental models to create a successful design

Audience
All members of the development team, including engineers, designers, technical writers and managers. Experience in developing commercial products is highly recommended. Participants are not assumed to have experience with usability testing.

Presentation
Lecture, hands-on design exercise and competition.

Instructors
Jared M. Spool is Founding Principal of User Interface Engineering. He has over 16 years experience conducting usability evaluation on a variety of products, and is an expert in paper prototyping techniques. Jared is on the faculty of the Tufts University Gordon Institute. He speaks at other conferences around the country such as Web 97, SD 97 and WinHelp. Carolyn Snyder is a Principal at User Interface Engineering. A former software developer, now teaching paper prototyping techniques to development teams, facilitates usability tests, writes articles on topics related to usability and has lectured at Harvard and NIST. She has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois.

Related Tutorials

• 4. Planning and Implementing User-Centred Design (Sunday)
• 34. Documenting UI Designs (Monday afternoon)

Tutorial: 24. Web Sites That Work: Designing with Your Eyes Open

Jared M. Spool, User Interface Engineering; Will Schroeder, User Interface Engineering; Tara Scanlon, User Interface Engineering; Carolyn Snyder, User Interface Engineering

Benefits
You will learn how to design a Web site that matches your business goals, and to identify and avoid usability problems by examining other commercial sites. Includes unpublished results of recent research.

Origins
This is a new tutorial for CHI 98.

Features

• identify the business goals of your Web site
• design sites around user needs
• support users' natural navigational styles
• identify and avoid usability problems seen in other commercial Web sites
• hands-on exercises with live Web sites
• understand and apply research findings

Audience
Anyone who has experience designing a Web site or creating content for one, including interface designers, developers, writers, graphic designers, usability professionals and marketers. No technical knowledge is necessary. Usability testing experience is useful but not required. Enrollment is limited for this tutorial; register early to guarantee yourself a space.

Presentation
Lecture/discussion, numerous examples including screen shots, video and live demonstrations. Small group exercises with live Web sites on the Internet.

Instructors
Jared M. Spool is Founding Principal of User Interface Engineering and on the faculty of the Tufts University Gordon Institute. He has over 16 years of experience conducting usability evaluations on a variety of products, is an expert in paper prototyping techniques, teaches seminars on product usability, and speaks at conferences such as Web 97, SD 97 and WinHelp. Carolyn Snyder is a Principal at User Interface Engineering. She teaches paper prototyping techniques, facilitates usability tests, writes articles on usability and has lectured at Harvard and NIST.

Related Tutorials

• 2. Introduction to Web Design (Saturday evening)
• 6. Java-Based User Interface Design and Development (Sunday)
• 15. Web Site Design From the Trenches (Sunday)
• 36. Current Issues in Web Design (Monday evening)

Special Interest Group: Measuring Website Usability

Organizers

• Jared M. Spool, User Interface Engineering
• Tara Scanlon, User Interface Engineering
• Carolyn Snyder, User Interface Engineering
• Will Schroeder, User Interface Engineering

Saturday, 18 April Sunday, 19 April Monday, 20 April Tuesday, 21 April Wednesday, 22 April Thursday, 23 April Pre-Conference, 18-20 Technical Program, 21-23 All week

Tutorials Workshops Consortia Plenaries Papers Panels Demonstrations Late-Breaking Results Special Interest Groups Other Activities

Topics Participants Advance Program Registration, Travel, Housing