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May 09, 2004
STC and teaching usability
Well, the STC conference officially starts tomorrow (save for tonight's welcome reception), but it's already off to a good start. Besides other administrivia, I was invited to a colloquium of sorts hosted by Steve Krug and Caroline Jarrett, and attended by other fun usability folks like Carol Barnum and Carolyn Snyder, among others. Our conversation was whether you could teach a useful version of usability testing in a day, and if you could, whether it would be beneficial or hurtful to the profession. Very interesting conversation! I bumped into at least one DC IA/UXer, and hope to see more through the next three days.
Comments
I'd love to hear what you concluded (if anything ;) I teach usability testing in a day, but it took me a *lot* of thinking to figure out how I could cover the key aspects and make it practical. Something that was important for me was to remember that I wasn't trying to turn out a usability professional in a day, but to teach enough about testing that people can go back to work and learn something useful about their systems. It was also important to realise that if we don't attempt to make things approachable then people won't attempt them - in the end it is good to have people interested in making things better and giving it a go rather than it all being too hard... Participants in my workshop give great feedback about the class, but I still wonder how well they'll go when they have to do it themselves (I have written a lot of supporting material to send them away with). Interestingly, in feedback they all tell me they are interested in an advanced course - as if this will teach them more than going away and practicing ;) -- Posted by donna maurer on May 9, 2004 11:27 PMI am hoping to see more of the DC and Baltimore folks. The schedule is jam packed with enticing sessions. I wish I could be around for everything and catch everything. -- Posted by vanderwal on May 11, 2004 10:29 AMIt was great seeing you and Phylise and Bogo and so many others in Baltimore. Overall, I think it was a better conference than I had anticipated. -- Posted by on May 17, 2004 08:45 AM
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IDblog is Beth Mazur tilting at power law windmills. A little bit Internet, a little bit technology, a little bit society, and a lot about designing useful information products. Send your cards and letters to .
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