Event: Speaking their language: Placing usability on the board room table

Date:
November 24, 2003 (Monday), 7:00 p.m.
Dinner at 6:00 pm at:
  The 4th Estate Grille
  1101 17th St. NW, Washington, DC 20036
  Phone: 202-296-8075

Brief description of the restaurant: "It's a bar, but they have meals plus a free happy hour buffet in the evening, have good food, and very close to the meeting location"

Location:
APCO Worldwide
1615 L Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036
(Go to the 6th floor, not the 9th floor. APCO's main reception area is on the 9th floor but our event will be on the 6th floor)

Description:
As a profession we need to stop talking to each other about the benefits of usability and demonstrate to people who have power and money how we can help them secure long-term revenue streams and shareholder value.

We all know that usability is essential and can deliver huge return on investment. Unfortunately many of our potential paymasters don't. We need to communicate the value of usability in ways that are accessible and understandable to them. Essentially we need to do some usability of our usability.

This presentation will relate how Jon's company, Bunnyfoot Universality, now attempts to put usability (and accessibility) on the agenda to those who hold the purse strings.

Topics include:

• Toning down the language that we use,
• Presenting deliverables more effectively,
• Adding WOW factors,
• Designing quick tests to demonstrate the potential of more in-depth work,
• Extending standard user testing with techniques that talk to marketers - 'emotional involvement' and 'brand communication'.

Speaker:
Jon Dodd, Bunnyfoot Universality, UK

Jon Dodd holds a PhD in Visual and Computational Neuroscience from Oxford University. While in academia, he worked on a wide range of projects that investigated human perception. This work included, among other things, the psychological basis of facial attractiveness, and quality and shape perception of products.

In 1999 he co-founded Bunnyfoot - a business-focused usability consultancy. Bunnyfoot advise and support customer-facing clients in order to drive desired behavior from their online and interactive customer relationships. The majority of this work improves the customer experience and customer loyalty via the web, but includes other channels such as mobile phones and kiosks. Recent clients include Microsoft, Orient-Express hotel group, British Telecom, Rolls Royce, and several online banks. Jon is an invited expert for the W3C WAI education and outreach group, and speaks regularly at conferences and seminars, including UPA 2003. He is an enthusiastic evangelist for the benefits of usability and accessibility to those who don't normally listen. In this vein he has recently featured in many press articles, including the UK national papers The Times and The Guardian.

Registration:
Please register in advance for this event.

To register:
Send email with your name to our by Monday, November 24 at 1 pm. After that time, walk-in registration is required.

Cost:
$5 for UPA DC chapter members
$15 for non-members (including national members who are not chapter members) who register in advance by 1 p.m. Monday, November 24
$20 at the door

Payment options:
We can take cash or check at the event. We prefer that you pre-pay by sending your check to:
UPA-DC Metro
c/o Lynn Baumeister
9039 Sligo Creek Pkwy #1715
Silver Spring, MD 20901

We can give you a receipt if you like at the event.

Directions:
View the MapQuest map
To take the Metro:
Either take the Red line to Farragut North (exit L Street, go east)
or take the Blue/Orange lines to Farragut West (exit 17th Street, go north).
Street and garage parking is also available nearby. The meeting room is near APCO Worldwide's reception area.

Directions to dinner:
TBD

Contact the for events-related issues.

UPA DC Metro maintains a code of professional ethics to encourage the free expression of ideas and assure the security of our members and guests. We reserve the right to exclude or remove any individual and to limit meeting attendance if necessary.