June 24, 2009 iPhone Ergonomics and Designing for a Dynamic Form Factor
how should a designer accommodate the various use cases for the iPhone? What cues can we take from Apple? When designing for the iPhone, ergonomic challenges normally encountered during hardware design are often overlooked. The primary interface to the human is through software and this provides direct access to the software designer for precisely defining device interaction. With great power, comes great responsibility. This talk will discuss ergonomic concerns related to the iPhone application design and enumerate the various contexts where applications are typically used.
If you know of an upcoming usability-related event that our chapter members might be interested in, please send details to the
May 6, 2009 Finding Your Place: Solo Practitioners, Big Teams, and
Other UX Roles
Does the structure of your company and the size of your UX
team affect your role and responsibilities? Absolutely! Solo
practitioners face the challenge of wearing too many hats,
and the fun of having the chance to try everything. Members
of a large team sometimes feel they are forced to
specialize, but have the fun of colleagues and peers to
collaborate with. Find out how the roles of usability and UX
practitioners vary in different organizations, and the pros
and cons of different team structures, before you hunt for
your next job. Our panelists will share stories and
perspectives based on their diverse backgrounds.
March 19, 2009 User Interfaces for the Semantic Web
This is a tangible guided tour of innovative semantic web applications and user interfaces. This talk is relevant to designers, semantic web developers, usability professionals, and business people.
December 10, 2008 Holiday/Networking Event
UPA-DC would like to thank our volunteers and members for another wonderful
year! Join us for networking, food, and fun to celebrate the holidays.
November 13, 2008 World Usability Day
Fourth annual celebration, organized by the international Usability Professionals’ Association. This year’s theme will be transportation.
November 7, 2008 Plain Language Success Stories--Financial, Health, and Beyond
(Not a UPA-DC event)
This is the Center for Plain Language's 3rd Annual Symposium. Seven speakers
from private companies, foundations, and consultancies will explain how their
organizations or clients have changed documents into plain language – and the
bottom-line benefits they achieved. You'll see befores and afters and get hard
data on the value of plain language.
October 27, 2008 Participatory Design at a Distance
Carol Smith offered techniques for running participatory design sessions
successfully, even when team members are not able to come in person.
She provided coping methods for dealing with the challenges
of preparing for and facilitating these sessions.
September 30, 2008 Designing a new User Interface for the TV
Negar Moshiri shared her work designing a new User Interface paradigm
for the TV that replaces the '50-button' remote control and text based
guides. She shared how her team applied the practice of usability
to their process of innovation.
July 29, 2008 UPA-DC Summer Networking Event
Celebrated summer and UPA-DC with help from mediabarn! Your UPA-DC colleagues
and friends at Oyamel and shared experiences, insights, and trends. Free; no
registration required.
June 16-20, 2008 International UPA Conference
The Usability Professionals Association held the 2008 International UPA Conference, “The
Many Faces of User Experience: Usability through Holistic Practice,” in Baltimore,
Maryland, June 16-20. Conference details: www.usabilityprofessionals.org/conference/2008/. Some proceedings are available and free for UPA members to download.
June 26, 2008 What I Learned at the Usability Conferences—2008
Our annual round-up of the usability conferences. Attendees talked about what
they learned and had the opportunity to find out what they missed.
May 14, 2008 How to Break Consistency for Glory & Riches
How many times has a developer quipped to a usability designer, "We can’t make it look pretty because you made us make it accessible and usable?" The
purpose of this talk is to invigorate designers and encourage them to challenge
the tried and true, while not forgetting the conventions built upon from the
last 20 years of the personal computer.
Presentation file: Breaking Consistency for Glory & Riches (9.85 MB PDF)
April 22, 2008 Revolving Door Technique: a low-planning, multi-topic rapid data collection approach
Leah Rader and Beth Toland will discuss how to fit usability into the development
cycle with short turnaround time and last-second requests. Rader and Toland will
walk you through a case study and provide examples of how to provide agile, rapid
research with confidence.
March 12, 2008 Web 2.0 Design: The Agony and the Ecstasy
Lillian Christman will discuss usability goals, Web 2.0, salient features of Website redesign and lessons learned.
February 20, 2008 Health 2.0
Susannah Fox will discuss the future of health communication as it relates
to participatory Web (blogs, social networking sites, online repositories
for photos and videos, wikis and other online resources)
December 12, 2007 Holiday/Networking Event
UPA-DC would like to thank our volunteers and members for another wonderful year! Please join us for networking and holiday cheer Wednesday, December 12 at Sesto Senso.
November 8, 2007 Health Records Usability: Supporting the Shared Responsibility for Care
Evening panel and discussion as part of World Usability Day. This event gathered
usability and healthcare practitioners and the public in a discussion about the
issues and opportunities to make electronic health records usable for health
care providers and patients. We also invited proposals for posters to be
displayed at the event.
September 5, 2007 Refreshing the Federal Accessibility Standards
The Electronic and Information Technology Standards, known by most as Section
508, were under review. The Telecommunications and
Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC) convened
in 2006 to evaluate the original standards and draft
new standards in response to the rapidly changing technology landscape. Attendees
learned about activities of TEITAC, the Section 508 refresh,
what lie ahead, and how to get involved!
August 8, 2007 Web 2.0 and the User Experience
Attendees learned more about Web 2.0, including some of the latest developments.
How Web 2.0 impacts the user experience for users and usability professionals
was also discussed.
July 10, 2007 What I Learned at the Usability Conferences—2007
Our annual round-up of the usability conferences. Attendees talked about what
they have learned and found out what they have missed.
April 21, 2007 IA Resume Roundup
The User Experience Network (UXnet.org), DC-IA, and UPA-DC facilitated a panel
discussion and workshop to help better define the language used by IAs in resumés
and clarify to employers what that language means.
February 10, 2007
(Not a UPA-DC event) Whitney Quesenbery at the STC (Society for Technical Communication) awards banquet.
Each year, the local STC chapter sponsors
a competition to determine the best examples of technical communication (software
documentation, online help, technical articles, technical art, and so on). This
year, Whitney delivered the keynote address (“Working with Diverse Audiences:
Content, Culture and Usability”) and lead a workshop (“Choosing the
Right Usability Technique”). Details of the 2006-2007
Competition Awards Celebration & Workshop are available.
February 21, 2007 Presentation by Duane Degler: Getting Our Hands on the Semantic Web
You may have heard about the semantic web — promoted as the “next
generation web” — but you probably don't have much direct experience.
However, that is likely to change over the next few years. This joint meeting
with the XML/SGML Users Group focused on current tangible examples of semantic
applications and sites and offered a guided tour of user interaction issues for
the semantic web. We also looked at some trends from the Web 2.0 world.
January 29, 2007 Discussion: How to Overhaul a Web Site
Redesigning a web site is a major undertaking that requires a carefully-planned
strategy. At this interactive session, attendees told their stories, heard
others, and gained insight.
December 7, 2006 Volunteer Recognition and Networking Event
UPA-DC would like to
thank everyone who has devoted their time and talents
to the chapter during the year. It was a event of food, drinks, and
mingling.
November 14, 2006 World Usability Day - Usability in Healthcare
This year’s observance showed the public and healthcare practitioners how
user-centered design results in safer products and error-resistant information
systems. Last year’s gathering was the best-attended event in 2006.
August 14-17, 2006 User Experience Week — 2006
(Not a UPA-DC event)
Adaptive Path returned to Washington DC to provide training, discussions
and networking. UPA-DC members get a 15% discount.
Sheila Campbell, of FirstGov.gov at the GSA with Cari Wolfson of Focus on
U!, discussing the FirstGov search redesign: Presentation
slides (1.5 MB PDF)
Whitney Quesenbery, Director of the UPA Voting and Usability Project and President of UPA, discussing Voting Usability successes with the Elections Assistance Commission.
