December 20, 2008 by Paul Rouke · 3 Comments
I though it would be useful to make available the list of subjects which we came up with at October’s meeting, where lots of ideas where brought forward.
Perhaps this list will be useful in getting people to consider doing a mini presentation as part of one of the 2009 monthly meetings.
- Complex business / manufacturing systems
- Rapid prototyping
- Pragmatic / shoestring usability
- Design evangelism / internal communication
- ROI and selling the benefits of usability
- Testing and observation techniques
- Engagement and organisational culture
- Open source / agile development
- Heuristics – do we need a rethink?
- Ethnography
- Non-standard design (mobile / accessible etc)
- Accessibility / WCAG 2
- Information architecture
- Words and language
- Interaction design
- Usability in news media
- Internal business systems
- Perceived vs. “actual” usability
- Attractiveness and visual design
- Employee engagement & involvement (internal comms)
- Personas
- Internationalisation
- Talking the language of business
In particular, subjects around ROI and commercial benefits of usability, complex business/manufacturing systems (MRP, ERP), usability for internal business systems, employee engagement, talking the language of business and open source, agile development methods are the type of things that are very close to our hearts at PRWD. We could therefore provide some presentations on these types of topics in due course.
Its a comprehensive list, but shout up if there are more suggestions for topics!
Categories: Meetings
Tagged: business case, event, manufacturing, ROI, topics
December 18, 2008 by judithg · No Comments
All,
Good to see some new people at the last meeting.
Following our discussion here is a link to some AbilityNet videos of assistive technology users
http://uk.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3CD45E862B50C925
Some of these are also available on Easy Youtube which was developed by Chris Heilmann
http://scriptingenabed.pbwiki.com/AbilityNet-Videos
Judith
Categories: News
October 29, 2008 by petebagnall · 1 Comment
For our next meeting I’ll be talking about a pet topic of mine. I’ll be looking at the car user’s experience and seeing why it’s so difficult to get people to switch to public transport. Then I’ll be looking at how we might design a public transport system in such a way as to make the experience as good as (or better) than using the car.
I’ll also look at other modes of transport, and see where they fit in a transport policy based heavily on user needs.
Some of the solutions I’ll mention already exist in early form, some are much more futuristic, but most are achievable with current technologies. This isn’t sci-fi, but full implementation would be expensive. So I’ll talk a little bit about how we might afford these systems, and the other social benefits which might arise from moving beyond the car.
Right – now I’m going to drive over to York! See you all next time.
Categories: News
October 14, 2008 by Paul Rouke · 5 Comments
I’m delighted to confirm that I’ve had final clarification from Manchester Digital and Manchester Digital Development Agency that we can use the Portland Street offices (for FREE) for our next 3 monthly meetings. Thanks to John Keys at the MDDA for his assistance on this..
Dates
The dates are confirmed as:
- Tuesday October 28th
- Tuesday November 18th
- Tuesday December 16th
Venue
For people who aren’t familiar with these offices take a look at the location details for MDDA.
I have also been speaking with Shaun Fenson, head of Manchester Digital, and he is keen to explore how the NUX group can be more widely promoted to the Manchester Digital community. Perhaps we can discuss this at the next meeting.
As usual it will be worth someone adding these dates into Upcoming if possible.
See some of you on the 28th October!
Paul
Categories: Meetings
Tagged: manchester digital, mdda, meeting
October 4, 2008 by judithg · 4 Comments
We are going to be able to use Manchester Digital/MDDA offices on Portland Street for our next meetings. – Thanks for sorting venues Paul.
I’ve set up a poll on Doodle to see what dates are the best for everyone, we are still looking at meeting every month. http://www.doodle.ch/participation.html?pollId=b4ss63xhtx24m8iw
We’ve also had offers to talk on a range of interesting topics so we can set up an agenda for the next six months or so.
Thanks
Judith
Categories: News
September 16, 2008 by Mike Little · No Comments
I encountered this pop-up notice on a Flash-based T-Shirt editor application last night.
It reads
Loading Error
A loading error occured [sic]. This might negatively influence the use of the application. Please reload the application if this occurs.
Beside the spelling mistake, the euphemism for ‘the application might break’, it’s also not clear after which ‘this’ occurring one should reload the application. And will I lose my work so far?
Categories: Usability · User Experience
Tagged: error, funny
September 14, 2008 by Rachel · No Comments
When we met on thursday, we agreed it would be nice to do something a bit special for world usability day, but it’s not far away so we will need to move quickly. The plan so far is:
- Try to get an outside speaker.
- Try to get a small sponsorship / donation to fund a speaker / food / drinks – either from a commercial organisation or possibly from a local government / quango source.
If you can help us achieve either of these, please get in touch.
If you have any other ideas for how the event could take shape (bearing in mind the short timescale and our very limited resources), please share. The theme of this year’s day is “Transportation” which is possibly a little bit outside of the box for most of us, but let’s see what we can do with it.
All suggestions gratefully received…
Categories: News
September 12, 2008 by Mike Little · No Comments
Having just uploaded Judith’s presentation, I remembered that I had forgotten to upload all the others previously sent to the mailing list (current or old) and/or added to the files section of the old list.
Anyway, I’ve done that now and given them all the resources category. You can see them all by clicking the resources category link in the side bar (or here).
Categories: Resources
September 12, 2008 by Mike Little · No Comments
Judith asked me to put her presentation from Yesterday’s meeting up on the blog. So, here it is: Personas Presentation (280K).
I had to convert it to PDF to get it uploaded into WordPress. If anyone would prefer it in the original PowerPoint format, just let me know.
Categories: Resources · Usability
Tagged: personas, presentation
September 9, 2008 by Rachel · No Comments
It looks like we have (just) enough people to proceed, so following an unplanned summer break NUX is back, back, back.
We will be meeting 6.30 at the Waterhouse pub, just near St. Peter’s Square metrolink (walkable from piccadily station).
http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/pubs/pub-details.php?PubNumber=2103
Judith will be talking about personas and how she uses them in her work. There’s been a lot of interest from the group on this, so for those that can’t attend, we can put the presentation and any other content here on the blog.
Since the group is currently homeless again, we can also discuss possible venues (MDDA and so on) and decide whether we prefer meeting a) somewhere with a projector or b) somewhere that serves beer.
See you there.
Categories: Meetings · News
