• Agile User Experience, presented by Sam Sutton
• Design Exercise, facilitated by Peter Bagnall

Please note, we will be starting earlier than usual at 6.45pm

Here are the full details:

Agile User Experience

Waterfall is dead, at least according to some. But in a software development world that is moving more and more to using Agile methods, where do traditional user experience practitioners fit in? I will be attempting to answer that question both from my own experience working within Scrum and Kanban, as well as looking at emerging best practice from leaders in the field of Agile UX.

About Sam Sutton

A passionate advocate of both agile development and user centered design, Sam has spent the last 3 years working as a designer within a Agile software development house, as well as working on projects as a freelancer. Sam has recently made the move to working full time as a freelancer, as Superdeluxesam. You can get in touch with him at www.twitter.com/superdeluxesam or sam@superdeluxesam.com.

Design Exercise

Pete Bagnall will be leading NUX’s second design exercise in September. The focus will be on high level design, rather than detailed design this time – looking at what information users might require, what the process through their task is like and therefore what functionality will help them achieve their goals. We’ll also look at how this competes with the business goals, and approaches for preventing conflicts between business and user goals, and between the goals of different user communities.

Clients often want guidance on which features they should include in their systems, and how to prioritise them. This exercise will help to show one method of answering those questions in a more rigourous and objective fashion, giving clients reassurance that it is based on more than the designers opinion. Being aware of what information is required to support a feature also helps to uncover dependencies between feature sets, which can help in planning development schedules.

Turning user goals into informational and functional requirements is a vital part of goal directed interaction design. Without this even the greatest interface design is likely to fail.

There will be an opportunity to discuss any techniques you use, so do feel free to bring you methods along!

About the Speaker

Pete Bagnall is an independent Interaction and Software Architect, at his company SurfaceEffect Ltd. He has had a varied career in the software industry from network research at BT’s research labs at Martlesham Heath (now Adastral Park) to working as an Interaction Designer in Silicon Valley. He’s taught courses for Lancaster University and presented workshops in design methodologies at the BCS annual HCI conference. More details can be found on his website www.surfaceeffect.com

Let Us Know You’re Coming

It helps if we have an idea of numbers, so if you want, you can let us know you’re coming at the Upcoming website. It is fine to just turn up on the night if you want.

Use Our Twitter Hashtag

If you want to tweet about the event or Northern User Experience, our twitter hashtag is #nuxuk

Join the Mailing List

Use the form on the right to add yourself to the mailing list and find out about events in the future.

Time

The event will be from 6.45pm to 9pm

Venue

Code Computerlove
Ducie House
Ducie Street
Manchester
M1 2JW

The entrance is on Peak Street, look for the robot above the door.

Sponsor

The venue has been kindly provided by Code Computerlove, a digital communications agency based in Manchester, England.

Future Events

• October 2010 (Leeds): agenda tbc
• November 2010 (Manchester): Communication theme for World Usability Day
• December 2010 (Manchester): Christmas social
• January 2011 (Leeds): Interaction Architecture for Startups and Digital Agencies
• February 2011 (Manchester): agenda tbc
• March 2011 (York): agenda tbc

Find out more about future events

First Alistair Sutcliffe gave a talk on ‘Does Technology Make Any Difference In Our Social Life’

www.slideshare.net/nuxuk/does-technology-make-any-difference-in-our-social-life-4693984

The book Alistair referred to is: Dunbar R.I.M. (2004), The Human Story, Fabe & Faber

Then Sarah Thew presented on ‘Exploring Users’ Values, Motivations and Emotions’

www.slideshare.net/nuxuk/exploring-users-values-motivations-and-emotions

Posts about the event

consequencing

You can also search on twitter for #nuxuk

• Exploring Users’ Values, Motivations and Emotions, presented by Sarah Thew
• Does Technology make any difference in our social life, presented by Alistair Sutcliffe

Exploring Users’ Values, Motivations and Emotions

Requirements Elicitation is a technical and analytical process, but it is also a highly social and potentially emotive activity. All but the smallest software developments can have a wider organisational impact and the potential to change people’s working lives in positive and negative ways. Users’ reactions to such changes are shaped by their own personal values, motivations and emotions. Exploring and understanding such information can help requirements analysts in:

• Developing a deep understanding of users’ long term goals, working practices, preferences and problems
• Making design decisions
• Building a rapport with users
• Anticipating user wants and needs

Sarah Thew has been exploring these ideas during her PhD, carrying out a series of interviews with novice and experienced analysts investigating if and how they consider users’ values, motivations and emotions. These interviews contributed to the development of a method to support analysts in considering and exploring values, motivations and emotions during the requirements elicitation process, which she is currently evaluating.

About Sarah Thew

Sarah is a PhD student at Manchester Business School.

Does Technology Make Any Difference In Our Social Life?

This talk will give an overview of the EPSRC/ESRC Foresight project ‘Developing Theory for Evolving Socio-Technical Systems’ (TESS). The project is based on Robin Dunbar’s Social Brain Theory that explains the evolutionary constraints on human relationships and social organisation. With the spread of Social Networking Sites such as Facebook and MySpace, will we be able avoid those constraints to keep up with more friends and be more social, or is the downside, invasion of privacy, stalking, and a less social world ? The TESS project is researching these issues by studying social networks and work-related groups. I will describe current research on social networking sites and how this fits into the wider picture of social mediating technologies such as Twitter, Wikipedia, etc.  Investigating the questions- does technology really change the way we behave in our social life, how do we adapt and use these technologies, and what impact might technology have a social capital?

For more information on the project http://www.mbs.ac.uk/research/DTESS.aspx

About the Speaker

Alistair Sutcliffe has been principle investigator on 15 EPSRC and European Union projects on requirements engineering, multimedia user interfaces, safety critical systems and cognitive modelling for information retrieval. His research interests span a wide area within Human Computer Interaction and Software Engineering. In HCI particular interests are interaction theory, and user interface design methods for the web, multimedia, virtual reality, safety critical systems and methods for usability evaluation. His research also covers application of cognitive theory to design, and design of complex socio-technical systems. In software engineering he specialises in requirements engineering methods and tools, scenario based design, knowledge reuse and theories of domain knowledge. Alistair Sutcliffe is a leading member of both the international HCI and requirements engineering communities and chairs / serves on a number of committees.

Let Us Know You’re Coming

It helps if we have an idea of numbers, so if you want, you can let us know you’re coming at the Upcoming website. It is fine to just turn up on the night if you want.

Use Our Twitter Hashtag

If you want to tweet about the event or Northern User Experience, our twitter hashtag is #nuxuk.

Join the Mailing List

Use the form on the right to add yourself to the mailing list and find out about events in the future.

Time

The event will be from 7pm to 9pm

Venue

Code Computerlove
Ducie House
Ducie Street
Manchester
M1 2JW

Sponsor

The venue has been kindly provided by Code Computerlove, a digital communications agency based in Manchester, England.

Future Events

• September 2010: Selling UX Internally & Design Exercise
• October 2010: agenda tbc
• November 2010: Communication theme for World Usability Day
• December 2010: Christmas social
• January 2011: Interaction Architecture for Startups and Digital Agencies

Find out more about future events

Introductions

We started by introducing ourselves and what we do. We had people attending from Leeds, Harrogate, York and Lancaster. The steering group talked a bit about what Northern User Experience is and how it works.

Discount Usability Testing

Tonight’s session was facilitated by Keith Doyle. We listened to a Boagworld Podcast of an interview bewteen Paul Boag and Steve Krug about Krug’s new book called ‘Rocket Surgery Made Easy‘. This was followed by a discussion of Krug’s methodology and of how we carry out usability tests in general. Lee Duddell from What Users Do has met Steve Krug, and he explained the unmoderated usability tests which they offer – a service which Krug recommends in his book and which is discussed in the Podcast.

Instant Usability Testing

We had a quick go at Krug’s methods to identify the top few things which would improve the Northern User Experience website in the next month. One issue raised was to split the text out to make it easier to read, so in this post, I have added more headings – so hopefully this site is becoming more usable already!

What are your thoughts on discount usability testing?

You can add a comment here using the link below, tweet using the #nuxuk hashtag, or email the mailing / discussion – you can join using the form on the right. Let us know if you have written a on the subject in your blog, and we can create a link to your post.

Sponsor

Tonight’s venue was sponsored by www.extremeusability.co.uk

The Brewery Tap is right by the train station and there’s an NCP car park across the road (LS1 5DE). We’ll be meeting between 7 and 9. They do sell food if you need something to eat. The address is 18 New Station Street, Leeds, LS1 5DL.

www.brewerytapleeds.co.uk.

If you want, you can let us know you’re coming here: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5744243/ – but it’s fine to just turn up on the night if you want.

The meeting is open to anybody interested in user experience or discount usability testing.

If you want to be notified of future meetings by email, you can complete the mailing list form on the right.

Hashtag: #nuxuk

The event last Tuesday was attended by Keith Doyle, Judith Garman, Peter Bagnall, Alistair Sutcliffe and Chris Collingridge. The first agenda item was ‘how we organise ourselves’.

There were a number of principles which we discussed:

• That it would help to publicise events if at an event we already knew what was happening at the next event
• That we could publicise events more if they were planned more in advance
• That the organisation of events needs to be shared among a number of people (we suggest between 3 and 6)
• That not everyone who is a member of NUX wants to help organise events
• That people from outside NUX might be interested in attending particular events but not in organising events
• That there are different channels that NUX might operate through (email lists, events , a large annual event etc)
• That conversations (by email etc) between events would be good
• That people want a variety of event type
• That we may want some presenters from outside NUX
• That we need a larger average attendance for it to be worth a speaker preparing a presentation
• That people might be more inclined to help organise events if they are only committing themselves for a limited period
• That it might be good if there was a flow of people organising events
• That whoever organises the events should represent the people who are members of NUX
• That it might be worth reviewing the purpose of NUX (see http://northern-user-experience.org/about/)

After some discussion the following was agreed:

• That a Shadow Steering Group be established immediately to operate between now and the end of 2010
• That the Shadow Steering Group be responsible for the following:
• Organise NUX events etc. between now and the end of 2010
• Find out from members of NUX what they want the purpose of the group to be and how they think it should be organised (including what we mean by a ‘member of NUX’)
• That the Shadow Steering Group write a proposed Terms of Reference based on the views of the whole of NUX
• That before the end of 2010, a meeting be held with the whole of NUX to agree Terms of Reference
• That whatever is agreed by the whole of NUX replace the Shadow Steering Group from the start of 2011
• That the membership of the Shadow Steering Group be no less than 3 volunteers who put their names forward
• That at least one member of the Shadow Steering Group should attend each event

What happens next?

• Please email Keith [keith (at) consequencing {dot} com]  if you want to put your name forward to join the Shadow Steering Group. The commitment is just to help organise events and help write the Terms of Reference between now and the end of 2010. The Steering Group needs at least three members in order to operate. I will keep you posted on who has volunteered so you know who to contact if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions.
• If anyone has an idea for an event, please email me. Note that we urgently need to plan the next couple of events, so if you have ideas for June & July, that would be fantastic.
• The Shadow Steering Group will be in touch with you to ask your views on the purpose of the group and how it should be organised
• A full meeting will be held before the end of 2010 to agree Terms of Reference (purpose of the group & how it is organised)

Kind regards

Keith, Judith & Peter

The venue Code Computerlove’s Ducie House office, Ducie Street, Manchester.

Update: Venue corrected.

Please add a comment for agenda suggestions.

Our verdict? There’s a lot of good ideas in here, let down a bit by the woolly prose that he closes most chapters with. To be fair, the book seems largely an attempt to provide a accessible introduction to the ideas of information architecture, so perhaps it is better suited to those unfamiliar with user experience design concepts.

A key theme of the book is the clash between our slowly evolving human mind and the rapidly expanding mass of digital information. In discussion of these topics the book provides a lot to think about. It was certainly enjoyable to spend a couple of hours talking around these ideas with like-minded people, which to me is what these meetups are all about.

It’s also good to know there’s interest in keeping thing going, with another meetup planned for next month. Further details will be posted when things are confirmed.

Update: The venue has changed to Code Computerlove’s Ducie Street office – “there’s a sign with a picture of a robot over the door”

One suggestion for the agenda is

• Book club – this month looking at Ambient Findability

Any other suggestions, comment here or on the mailing list.