Northern User Experience

This is a free, public event

Date & Time:  Monday 4 July 7.00pm to 9.00pm

Venue:  Code Computerlove
Ducie House, Ducie Street, Manchester, M1 2JW (The entrance is on Peak Street, look for the cartoon robot sign above the door)

User Experience: How people make judgements about design quality

User experience (UX) is a topical interest in Human Computer Interaction research and commercial design of web applications; however, there is little agreement about just what good UX is and few design guidelines for improving user experience. The talk reviews user experience and aesthetics research in the University of Manchester over several years.

UX is influenced by several criteria ranging from functionality and content to usability and aesthetics. We know from several experiments that users’ overall judgement of experience is context dependent, so it is influenced by the task, domain and their prior knowledge.

Judgement criteria (usability, content/services, aesthetics, customisation, engagement and brand) are prioritised according to the decision domain and users’ background and then influence the decision making process, e.g. for entertainment applications, aesthetics and engagement will dominate, whereas for business oriented domains, content, services and brand will be more important. The findings from recent studies on the role of different media, avatars, and interactive metaphors will be discussed with plans for current studies investigating how UX may change over time.

Alistair Sutcliffe

Alistair Sutcliffe is Professor of Systems Engineering, in Manchester Business School, University of Manchester. 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, and safety critical systems; 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. He serves on the editorial boards of  ACM-TOCHI, REJ and JASE. Alistair Sutcliffe is founder of IFIP TC-13 Working Group 13.2 ‘Methodology for User Centred Design’ and member of IFIP working groups 8.1 (information systems) and 2.9 (requirements engineering) and is the editor of the ISO standard 14915, on Multimedia user interface design. He has over 200 publications  including five books and several edited volumes of papers and was awarded the IFIP silver core in 2000.

This is a free, public event

Date & Time: Monday 25 July 6:30pm to 8:30pm

The next event in Leeds will feature a great session on:

• Mobile Usability with Kimberley Bottomley

We will also have Nick Antram coming. He is UPAUK UK Liaison Officer and will tell us a bit about what is happening with UPAUK at the moment. You’ll be able to catch up with him during the break or in the pub after the event.

Reserve a Place

Although this is a free, public event, please reserve a place so we have an idea of numbers.

Mobile Usability with Kimberley Bottomley

With regards to the rapidly developing arena of mobile technology, this is an area she has spent a considerable amount of time researching and learning about in the past 12 months. From attending conferences on the subject to hapenning mobile Usability Guidelines, Kimberley is looking to share her knowledge of mobile so far and wants to use the NUX space as an opportunity for other user experience and design professionals to discuss their mobile experiences.

About Kimberley

Kimberley is a User Experience and Design professional with 5 years commercial eCommerce experience. Currently working at Aviva in their in-house design and usability team, her previous roles have included UX and design positions at Lloyds Banking Group as well as freelance contractor roles. Academic studies have covered the broad discipline of communication studies, incorporating psychology and sociology as well as a 1st Class Honours degree in Visual Communication (digital design).

Venue

Simple Usability
Round Foundry Media Centre (front entrance)
Foundry Street
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS11 5QP

Twitter Hashtag

#nuxuk

This is a free, public event

The next event in Leeds will feature a couple of great sessions on:

• 5 Barriers (and Solutions) to Client Conversion Success – Matt Clark, userflow
• HTML5 and friends – Patrick Lauke, Opera

Reserve a Place

Although this is a free, public event, please reserve a place so we have an idea of numbers.

5 Barriers (and Solutions) to Client Conversion Success with Matt Clark, userflow

Matt will cover some of the main objections and stumbling blocks to implementing a good conversion strategy with clients and how to break them down, with examples to illustrate the points.

About Matt

Matt Clark has 11 years experience in online marketing and e‑commerce. Developing a keen interest in results focused strategies, Matt now specialises in Conversion Rate Optimisation, helping clients to unleash the potential from their websites by using data, research and testing. During this time Matt has worked with brands including Comet, Hallmark, Clarks, Harvey Nichols and to help them better measure, understand and improve their online activity. He is an Strategy Expert at Concept Feedback and consults with a range or agencies and clients in the US and Canada as well as the UK.

HTML5 and friends with Patrick Lauke, Opera

There is currently a lot of buzz around HTML5, the next evolutionary step of the very foundation on which we build our websites. New markup constructs, new JavaScript APIs, and the prospect of powerful functionalities built right into modern browsers to make our lives as developers that much easier.

But with new technologies also come new challenges: when will all these features be available in all browsers? And what about older browsers? Is it safe to start using HTML5 now, or should we wait until the specification is final? Do we have to re-learn everything we know about HTML?

In this talk Patrick will take us on a whirlwind tour of HTML5 (and other associated technologies often lumped together under this term), addressing the most common concerns that developers may have about it, and offer a glimpse of the new possibilities offered by this exciting new web standard.

About Patrick

Patrick works as Web Evangelist in the Developer Relations team at Opera Software ASA.

In a previous life, he was Web Editor for the University of Salford, where he headed a small central web team. In 2003 he implemented one of the first web standards based XHTML/CSS driven UK university sites.

He has been engaged in the discourse on accessibility since early 2001, regularly contributing to a variety of web development and accessibility related mailing lists and forums. He also takes an active role in the running of Accessify.com, moderates the Accessify forum, and is co-lead of the Web Standards Project Accessibility Task Force (WaSP ATF), which he joined in June 2005.

Published works include a chapter in “Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance”, released by Friends of Ed in 2006.

Venue

Simple Usability
Round Foundry Media Centre (front entrance)
Foundry Street
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS11 5QP

Twitter Hashtag

#nuxuk

Topic: how can we make the UPA  Less London-Centric?

In a slight departure from our usual format we will be discussing how NUX relates to the Usability Professionals Association.

The UPA has recently appointed a regional liaison officer charged with making the organisation less london-centric.  I’m waiting for some details on specific feedback that he wants to gather, but some points to consider might be:

• What are our experiences, good and bad with the UPA so far?
• If the UPA does expand its activity in the North, is there still a role for NUX?
• If the UPA were willing to fund speakers, regional conferences etc, would you be willing to merge NUX into a regional arm of the UPA?
• If you are a member, how valuable do you find membership? If you’re not a member or are a lapsed member, what are the reasons?

As usual, everyone is welcome but the session is of particular relevance to UX practitioners, whether  UPA member or not.

We will be in our usual venue:

Code Computerlove Ltd
Jutland House
15 Jutland Street
Manchester
M1 2BE