August 8, 2002
Attendance:
- Jim Barrett
- Matt Becker
- Pam Boehmer
- Amy Briggs
- Libby Cecchi
- Veronica Cimperman
- Alice de la Cova
- DeeDee DeMulling
- David Dixon
- Peter Eisenberg
- Matt Gregg
- Joann Grof
- Dean Gulstad
- Mitch Hiveley
- Lyle Kantrovich
- Tana Kishel
- Judy Kistler-Robinson
- Brian Linzie
- Jack Lynch
- Debbie McConnel
- John Neenan
- Peggy Sanchez
- Nate Schutte
- Royce Shin
- Katie Ware
- John Wooden
Hosted by:
Pam Boehmer and Libby Cecchi at the Target Usability Lab
Minutes:
The meeting started off with delicious pizza provided by Target. We then were split up into to groups to tour the lab. Target has just recently built a new usability lab and it was great.
The testing rooms are very large to accommodate different types of testing. There was a ceiling camera and 2 other cameras that could be moved from side to side. Virtually every part of the room is covered by a camera angle. The Observation room has flat screen monitors for each observer, in addition to a large flat screen monitor for those viewing from behind. With the new digital recording, Target has eliminated the need for a scan converter. This means the resolution is crystal clear. Target has the capabilities to record both digitally and with VHS.
Along with two fully usability labs, Target also has:
- Logging Software
- Video Editing equipment
- SmartBoard/Conference Room equipment.
Thanks again to Pam and Libby, the tour was wonderful.
2002 UPA National Conference Highlights
Provided by DeeDee DeMulling
Conference Attendees: Lyle Kantrovich, Debbie McConnell, John Neenan, Katie Ware, Alice Delacova, Delight DeMulling
- Lyle, Debbie and Katie wrote a summary which was published on the Boxes and Arrows site: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/002909.php
Things not covered in the summary but came up in MN UPA discussion:
- Jared Spool thought it was fun to pop into presentations and disrupt the speaker to get his point across. While his point may have been valid, his delivery mechanism was unprofessional and left me thinking less of him. Interestingly Jared was not speaking this year. Was he invited to speak?
- The invited speaker, Henry Lieberman, Research Scientist, Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave a demonstration of a Simple Interface to Complex Stuff. He discussed how complex digital cameras were and our (in)ability to organize all of the photographs we take. His tool auto-generated metadata based on the text that was being used to describe the photo when it was placed in the context of an email message.
For example, if you were sending an email to your friend describing John and Mary's wedding and then inserted the photo, the photo would now have several key word identifiers. The attributes for this photo would now include John, Marry, and Wedding. Fascinating stuff and really made me think about how I could apply this thinking to other products!
The invited speaker descriptions can be found at:
http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/conferences/2002/program/presentations/speakers_index.php
Henry also has a book: http://web.media.mit.edu/~lieber/Your-Wish/
- Accessibility was well represented, possibly over represented at the conference. Alice found the idea of performing Usability Testing rather than just Heuristic reviews an interesting approach they may try on the next phase of their accessibility projects. One of the session she attended focused on the fact that usability testing for accessibility with otherwise abled individuals requires you to go to your users environment, because it would be nearly impossible to re-create the correct environment and software configurations for each type of assistive technology.
Deborah Friese, Director