Re: Notes from 1/27 UE BOF Meeting?

On Jan 28, 2009, at 8:29 AM, Mitchell Gass wrote:
> I wasn't able to make it to last night's Usability Engineering BOF
> meeting, and I'm curious to know what was covered. Does anyone have
> notes that they'd be willing to share?

Mitchell (et al.):

I took partial notes.  Perhaps this will stimulate someone else to
fill in the blanks and/or correct what I may have abbreviated too
much.  The program was also webcast using WebEx, but I'm not sure if a
replay is available.  Several of us got a chance to try out the
Telepresence product in the building's 2 open rooms.  It was
delightfully high fidelity.  The price quoted for facilities that are
commercially available was $500.  I assume that means $500/hour (not
per minute, nor per day), which when contrasted with the costs of
sending a team to a remote international location is cost effective,
especially when you think about remote testing in multiple countries
in a single day.
BayCHI Usability Engineering BOF at Cisco "Collaboration & Remote
Testing"

Lin Brown, Director, Central UX team, Cisco

Newest digital tools for collaboration will change the way we work,
live, play: convergence

Cloudworker (someone who works from anywhere)  changes the way you
work and your lifestyle

Communication:  7% Words, 55%visual, 38% Voice

(Refs:  Blink (Gladwell), Social Intelligence (Goleman), Emotions
Revealed (Ekman))

(None of these is a primary reference, except perhaps Ekman)

Cordell Ratzlaff, UCD, Voice Technologies

Business is moving from asynchronous to real-time communications

Email is a great tool, but by itself it doesnt do what needs to be
done in the workplace today (tracking tasks, contacts, etc.)

Less UI is more (several examples)

Communication sessions often cross media and devices

(E.g., IM discussion moves to phone; e.g., mobile phone conference
call to desk-phone + computer requires unnatural acts)

Let at least some of the negotiation around turn-taking and other
human communication tasks be handled by human communication protocols
(politeness, conventions, discussion), rather than machine-aided.

Goli Jendreski, Insight Research, Remote User Research

Goal of user research: communicate, share, listen, observe

Benefits of remote: Tools are faster today, easier to use, integrated
audio & video, browser-based, widely available, support for (N)
(distributed) observers; and, users are more receptive

Challenges with remote: cant hide number of observers; inability to
see participants non-vocal expressions; performance issues; set up
required; requires prep (learning curve; time zones)

Martin Hardee, Director, Customer Experience, Cisco

Live test with Paul B in OZ, who demo'd how to get to the Australian
Open (after assuming the request "How do you get to the Open?" was a
request to show how to buy tix). "Everyone knows where the venue is."

Blogs.cisco.com/web-experience

Alison Ruge, Senior User Researcher, Voice Technology, Cisco

Telepresence aided by camera with greater depth of field than prior,
table placement relative to screen, light shining from behind the
screen (of those remote) improves 2.5D of those in the room by
removing shadows

Advantages of f2f (intl users; multiple countries in a single day;
show without infringing on their space; tech fixes;

Advantages of Morae/WebEx/etc. (witness gestures & expressiveness;
backchannel indicators of interest easier)

Alison's habit is to take notes furiously during the session, complete
multiple sessions back-to-back, and code data the following day.

Q/A:

Incentives to users?  electronic incentives (Amazon gift cards, or
AmEx check by mail).   Watch out for spam filters that might eat the
gift card.  Issuing in US dollars can be converted to other
currencies, but generally welcome in US $.

How to use WebEx and Morae together?  Done by firm in Tx, need to
consult them for details of set up

How to protect IP:  Typically share own desktop with prototypes or
proposals rather than sending a file, and with an NDA, theyd be
violating if they take screenshots

Live recruiting?  Some in audience have had great success.  Recruiters
seek consumer (@$100) to senior executives ($N000)

Paper prototyping via remote testing? Sure, but can also do wireframes
easily

Client real estate?

How to debrief with users?  And with observers?

Alison uses chat with distributed team as her method of understanding
priorities for report, along with her own notes synchronous with the
test.  She still has the challenge of preventing team members from
jumping in: just let me fix that one thing before the next session.

Focus groups?  Customer councils via telepresence makes it possible in
the time of travel budgets being constrained.

Completely interactive (over 100 participants for sure) vs.
presentation style (hundreds of viewers);

Online focus groups via chat (gives you a transcript immediately);
showing examples via chat is good, because you need to identify who
said what and what their reasoning was (I agree with Jim, because/
but)

Multiuser system being evaluated:  And the process is evaluated at the
same time.  How about operation evaluation of e.g. CRM system and
evaluation of people within the process?

Doing testing in context, with person using their own tools, desk,
familiar space, and youll see more than in a bare, unfamiliar lab

-- Nancy

Nancy Frishberg +1 650 804 5800 mobile
[email protected]
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