October 11, 2001
Presentation
Richard Sit opened the meeting just after 6:00 p.m. with introductions around the room. Liz Daube-Stanley, divine, was the invited speaker. Her topic was how she used the contextual inquiry technique in evaluating the processes of a small bakery. The technique used was based on information from Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt.
Liz conducted interviews with all people that touch different areas of the production, ordering, and supply systems of the bakery. After all the interviews had been conducted, Liz reviewed and interpreted the interviews based on the following perspectives:
- The communication lines were documented, modeled, and validated
- Task sequences were studied, compared, and grouped. The true intent was also taken into consideration
- An artifact model was created: this documented all the pieces that are created or used by the users when working with the systems
- A physical model was created, although it wasn't as important because of the small scale of the operation
- A cultural model was designed by listening and watching to find out the "peri-work" related tasks
For more information and clarification, please contact Liz Daube-Stanley.
Business
- Officer nominations were conducted. Below is a list of the nominations; if you weren't at the meeting and you would like to nominate someone or yourself for a chair, please contact Richard Sit before the next meeting.
President: DeeDee DeMulling, Caryn Zange-Josephson
Vice President: Nancy Bayer
Treasurer: Deb McConnell
Secretary: Deborah Friese
Program Director: Liz Daube-Stanley
Web Master: Marc Duisenberg -
Website announcements:
a. There has been a change in getting people added to our email distribution list. If you or someone you know would like to be on the distribution list, go to our site and sign up electronically.
b. There has been a suggestion to create an online newsletter on the MN-UPA website with submissions by us. If you find something usability-related in the news or have something interesting to share, please route that to Marc Duisenberg. -
Plans for the annual Holiday Party are underway. The committee consists of Pam Boehmer, Barbara Karyukina, and Liz Daube-Stanley. Please contact one of them if you'd like to help.
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The Carlson School of Management is hosting "A Day in the Life of a Business Analyst" - a presentation of their use of a contextual inquiry study. This is a FREE event. More details will be forthcoming from Katie Ware.
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The meeting ended at 8:15 p.m. The next meeting is on Thursday, November 8 and Deborah Friese, Leede Research, will be our host. The meeting's presentation will be a round table group discussion on these four topics:
a. e-Learning
b. Technical Writing
c. Usability Test Process [quick or in-depth, informal or formal, paper or plastic? (Low or high fidelity?)]
d. Rapid prototyping tools
Please come prepared to discuss the topics of your interest.
Attendees
- Nancy Bayer
- Pam Boehmer
- Liz Daube-Stanley
- Alice de la Cova
- DeeDee DeMulling
- Andrea Halverson
- Sara Hoeppner
- Lyle Kantrovich
- Barbara Karyukina
- Debbie McConnell
- John Neenan
- Alyce Neperud
- Kate Peterson
- Cecelia Regan
- Royce Shin
- Richard Sit
- Nina Tao
- Nicole Tollefson
- Katie Ware