Usability NJ Presentation June 18, 2003 (Whitney Quesenbery Usability)

“The most difficult part of setting up a schedule for your user research plan is integrating it into the existing development system.” (Mike Kuniavsky – Adaptive Path)

“If the time is taken to FOCUS on the user through out the life cycle of a project it will assuredly be all the better for it.” (D. Keith Robinson) – courtesy of nick finck

“With this case study, I want to show how our team used the concept of personas – fictional, representative user archetypes – and the customer decision-making process model in a project, in order to capture the nature of customers and their needs and concerns as they progress through the customer decision-making process.” (Henrik Olsen – GUUUI)

“Every piece of user research is part of an ongoing research program, even if that program is informal. However, making a program formal provides a number of advantages: It gives you a set of goals, a schedule that stretches limited user-research resources, and results when they’re needed most. It also helps you avoid unnecessary, redundant, or hurried research.” – (Mike Kuniavsky – Adaptive Path)

“(…) when searching large web sites for information, there were some sites where users always seemed to know where to find the content. No matter what content they were seeking, every user somehow knew to make a bee-line for it. Not every site worked this way and we wanted to know what made these particular sites work so well.” (Jared Spool – User Interface Engineering)

“When new ideas and visions emerge from collective thinking and from a better understanding of current limitations related to technological achievements, the challenge remains as to ascertain how to put these ideas and visions into practice. That opens new research issues. My argument in this paper is that this principle is applicable also to the development of User Centered Design. UCD, of course, may contribute to the improvement, consolidation and verification of ideas and visions in the field. Yet, in order to be certain that UCD perspective is widely accepted and can properly influence the direction followed by technology and service development, we should be able to demonstrate that the approach will be useful and that it can be successfully implemented in relevant projects.” (Michele Visciola – ACM Ubiquity)

“(…) a construct wherein the focus is on the interactions and relationships among the user, the goals of the user, and the technology.” (J. Dawn Mercedes – Digital Web Magazine)

“The goal of user-centered design focuses on the actual users of the product, but the users of a process are the members of the product development group itself.” (Whitney Quesenbery) – courtesy of webword

“This article analyzes consumer behavior on the Web. The purpose is to research patterns that characterize consumer actions in this environment. The study employs Nielsen//NetRatings Internet panel data in Finland. The four-month data for 65 panelists suggest three interrelated Web usage patterns that are highlighted here. The text will outline how these conclusions were reached and present other observations.” (Nina Koiso-Kanttila – First Monday 8.4)

“Now is the time to change, to move from user to participant. And the same approach applies for terms such as consumer or customer.” (Josh Alkire – Thread Inc.)

“There is no such thing as sound user research without an airtight user-selection process behind it. No matter how good the observation and analysis, it’s all for naught if you’ve studied the wrong people.” (Peter Merholz– Adaptive Path)

“These are the notes I took, it’s a cross between transcription, commentary, summary, and BS.” (photo matt) courtesy of vanderwal

“Somewhere in the process of evangelizing user-centered design, user experience professionals seem to have forgotten the value of vision-driven design.” (George Olsen – Boxes and Arrows)

“The User-Centered Design Process is an attempt to take design as a competitive tool at least a couple of steps beyond ‘Nice!'” (Anders Norman – Ocean Observations)

“Somewhere in the process of evangelizing user-centered design, user experience professionals seem to have forgotten the value of vision-driven design.” (George Olsen – Boxes and Arrows)

“I recently conducted some online course usability reviews for a client when I came across a strange but, I suspect, not unusual phenomenon that I have encountered elsewhere in the past.” (Dave Smulders – ACM eLearn Magazine) – courtesy of elearningpost

“Interviewees are remarkably understanding, and your goal is not to become friends, but to exchange information.” (Mike Kuniavsky – Adaptive Path)

“A design critique meeting usually involves a small group of 3-7 to discuss a set of design sketches or prototypes.” (Scott Berkun – UIWeb) – courtesy of guuui

“Web site design for a large federal or state government organization can be chaotic and unpredictable.” (Christopher R usay – Digital Web Magazine)