Professional

My User Friendly 2008 Kick-Off Presentation

by Paul Sherman on November 3, 2008 · 9 comments

Long time no post. Sorry. Been too busy obsessively following the U.S. election at www.FiveThirtyEight.com. If you’re a hardcore stats junkie, this is – or was, after Tuesday – the site for you.

Anyway, since my last post I traveled to Hong Kong and Shenzhen to take part in the User Friendly 2008 conference, put on by UPA China, a group of China-based UPA chapters.

As current UPA President I was asked to give the kick-off talk. I took the invitation as an opportunity to focus the audience on how far our discipline has come, and how far it has to go to be truly strategic in scope and reach.

You can download the presentation from this link or the one below.

User Experience: Drive Change, Become Strategic ::? Paul Sherman

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Stanford HCI Lectures in iTunes U.

by Paul Sherman on May 7, 2008 · 0 comments

in Everything Else

A contributor to the IxDA discussion list posted about the availability on iTunes of Stanford University lectures in human-computer interaction.

I just browsed the list of lectures. Looks like real good stuff. Some lectures I’m particularly interested in hearing:

  • The Design of Implicit Interactions, Wendy Ju, Stanford, Spring 2007
  • Designing Interactions, Bill Moggride, IDEO, Winter 2007
  • Innovation on User Research Methods During the Development of Windows Vista, Gayna Williams, Microsoft, Fall 2006

You can point your browser to this link to get to the class listings within iTunes.

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The Case Against Software Patents

by Paul Sherman on February 28, 2008 · 0 comments

in Design

Ars Technica is reporting that several patent reform advocacy groups have banded together to collaborate on the effort to abolish software patents.

Says Ars:

Supported by the Free Software Foundation, the Public Patent Foundation, and the Software Freedom Law Center, the End Software Patents (ESP) project aims to challenge the legal validity of patents that do not specify a physically innovative step. In addition to helping companies challenge software patents in the courts and in the patent office, the ESP project will also work to educate the public and encourage grass-roots patent reform activism in order to promote effective legislative solutions to the software patent problem.

This is an important effort, and one that UX professionals should support. As I described in my article a few months back in UXmatters, software patents do more harm than good. They stifle innovation rather than protect and nurture it. As I wrote in UXmatters:

The sad fact is that companies often file for and the US government actually grants patents for user interface and interaction design “innovations” that are either strikingly obvious or have appeared before in other systems—that is, when prior art exists, as someone in the field of intellectual property would say. This means, as user experience practitioners, we are at risk of litigation every time we design an application. Each time we fire up Visio or Photoshop, create a new design, then put it out into the world, there’s a good chance we’re infringing on someone’s patent.

I hope that those of you who are active in the user experience field will learn more about this issue and choose to stand with the ESP project. Even if you don’t agree with me (and them), it behooves you to learn more about the issue. It’s quite easy to ignore – until you find yourself staring down the barrel of an injunction or subpoena.

Patent Reform Coalition Aims to Abolish Software Patents

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The Gender Gap In UX Is Narrowing

by Paul Sherman on February 21, 2008 · 1 comment

As a member of Usability Professionals’ Association Board of Directors (and now President), I have been fortunate to be involved in the UPA’s user experience salary survey project. I actually wrote the 2005 report and just finished the 2007 report, the full version of which is now available to UPA members at this URL. (A free version is available to the entire UX community here.)

One thing we noticed back in 2005 was the marked difference in salaries between men and women in the UX field. In 2005 we found that the gender gap was about $8,500 USD: the median salary for men in the UX field was a bit more than 80K; for women, 72K. This finding got a bit of attention in the part of the blogosphere concerned with user experience.

We also found upon further analysis that the gender gap seemed to have narrowed slightly between 2000 (when UPA last did a salary survey) and 2005. But the gap narrowed by only $1,000 USD in those five years.

With the 2007 report in the can I am happy to announce two findings: One is that average and median salaries in the UX field increased since 2005. The average salary in 2005 was $78,466 (median = $75,000); in 2007 the average salary was $83,297 (median = $80,643), representing an increase of $4,831. (The median salary increased $5,643.)

The second finding is that the difference in average and median salaries between men and women has narrowed. The average salary for men increased $2,878 from late 2005 to late 2007; women’s average salary rose more than twice this amount, or $6,384. (Median salary for men increased $5,000; for women, $7,000.)

I am of course happy about this from the social justice perspective. And I have more personal reasons to be happy: my wife also works in the user experience field.

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Interesting Times

by Paul Sherman on November 26, 2007 · 0 comments

Over the last six days I have had the pleasure of traveling, presenting, and sightseeing in Beijing. The occasion was the User Friendly 2007 conference, where over 700 user experience professionals from around the world gathered to present and share with one another. It was another excellent and enjoyable event.? As per most professional conferences, there were good presentations, a few outstanding presentations, and also a few less-than-good ones.

But by far the most enjoyable part was the hallway chatter – the impromptu conversations, informal gatherings, etc.? Looking back, I realize that nearly every conversation I took part in eventually touched on how much energy and growth user experience is seeing in China and Asia Pacific. The UPA China chapter has leveraged this by recruiting young volunteers, often fresh out of school, to help organize and run chapter events and the UF conferences.

In return, the young volunteers are able to network with potential mentors and more experienced peers from in-country, as well as UX professionals from outside China. Clearly this is a golden opportunity for UX practitioners at the beginning of their careers. I would’ve loved to have had this opportunity when I was coming up. ?

These are interesting times in the UX field. China and India are coming into their own. While most native people I meet who hail from and work in Asia Pacific are individual contributors or first-line managers, I fully expect that as UX becomes more integrated into the systems development life cycle processes I will meet more and more homegrown Directors, Senior Directors, and VP’s. The same progression has happened here in the US over the past 15 years. It is happening in these regions now.?

The real interesting thing I am seeing is that the the UX communities in Asia Pacific are not simply adopting the old methods and processes. They are adapting them, changing them, improving them. I can’t substantiate this with quantitative data, it’s more a combination of gut feel and some anecdotal data. I promise to explore this in future posts. For now, I’m content to just set it down here and pick up on it at a later date. ?

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Good Article On Doing IA In The Enterprise…

by Paul Sherman on April 19, 2007 · 0 comments

in Web

There’s a good article on information architecture in the enterprise over at Boxes and Arrows. Written by James Robertson, it talks about how an IA has to work at different levels of analysis to be effective in an enterprise setting.

Quoting James:


In a typical web or design project, the information architect is given a task…the problem is known, and the challenge is to work out the best way to design the solution.

However, within the enterprise space, the problem to be solved is often not well understood. For example, information architects may be approached with ill-defined “problems� such as:

  • Improve the effectiveness of the intranet

  • Help call center staff to access required information

  • Increase the uptake of the document management system

  • Support sales staff with better online resources

The first task for the information architect in this context is to better understand the problem. Only then can an overall approach be defined, and the normal user-centered design process initiated.

In all, a good read. Full article at “Enterprise IA Methodologies.”

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Great IA Interview At UXPod

by Paul Sherman on April 4, 2007 · 0 comments

in Web

Gerry Gaffney of UXPod fame posted a great interview with Karen Loasby of the BBC. The interview is from November; but I’m so scandalously behind in my reading/listening I’m just now getting around to it.

It’s worth a listen; it provides her unique perspective on what it’s like managing the information architecture for a major media web property. You can get the podcast here: UXpod – User Experience Podcast – Interview with Karen Loasby.

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Degreed Or Not?

by Paul Sherman on March 8, 2007 · 0 comments

Interesting article on how customers in the UK and EU evaluate potential user experience vendors: http://www.creativematch.co.uk/viewNews/?93407

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Project Managers on Usability

by Paul Sherman on February 4, 2007 · 0 comments

in Everything Else

It’s always nice to see our colleagues in neighboring disciplines talk about usability. Here’s an article from PM Toolbox that, although brief and a bit simplistic, at least shows that our colleagues understand the value of a well-designed user experience.

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WTF?!? Amazon Selling USS For $59.95?

by Paul Sherman on January 26, 2007 · 2 comments

in Everything Else

Oh. My. God. Amazon.com actually updated the price of “Usability Success Stories“.

Maybe some peeps will buy it now…

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My UXmatters Article Published

by Paul Sherman on January 21, 2007 · 0 comments

in Everything Else

I just noticed that the article I wrote for UXMatters.com was published yesterday. The title of the article is “Connecting Cultures, Changing Organizations: The User Experience Practitioner As Change Agent.” Quoting myself:

As UX professionals, we have many tools and techniques available to us, and we contribute to our product teams in many ways. However, while having good UX skills is necessary, it is not alone sufficient. No matter the size of our organizations or the domains we work within, our most valuable contributions are not our design or user research efforts. Rather, our most valuable contributions occur when we function as change agents.

I had fun writing. I hope you have fun reading it. The full article can be found here.

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Shameless Self-Promotion: “Usability Success Stories” Now Selling For Less Than US$60

by Paul Sherman on December 22, 2006 · 0 comments

in Everything Else

I’m happy to report that the publisher of “my” book “Usability Success Stories“, has lowered the price to US$60.00. With a 15% discount from purchasing via Gower’s web site, the price falls to US$51.00 plus shipping.

Yeeha.

You can click here to purchase it direct from Ashgate/Gower, or you can download the order form from this link.

(I put airquotes around “my” because I wrote 3 of the 10 chapters, edited the other contributors’ chapters, and produced or reworked the images and illustrations. So technically the book isn’t all mine. Just trying to avoid megalomania…)

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First Chapter of “Usability Success Stories”

by Paul Sherman on December 6, 2006 · 0 comments

in Web

I just found out that Gower has posted the first chapter of the book I edited.

The PDF of Chapter 1 can be found here: http://www.gowerpub.com/pdf/Usability_Success_Stories_Intro.pdf

I still don’t think you should buy it at 100+ dollars, though. (If you want to know why, you can read my rant.)

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My User Friendly 2006 Presentations

by Paul Sherman on November 24, 2006 · 0 comments

in Everything Else

A few people have asked me about the presentations I gave at the User Friendly 2006 conference in Hangzhou, China earlier in November. If you’re one of them, or are just interested in seeing the PowerPoint decks, you can access them at this URL: http://www.usabilityblog.com/UF2006/.

The file starting with “Talk…” is the slide deck that accompanied my invited speaker talk. I presented about the project I led redesigning Peachtree Accounting’s user interface. Direct link is here.

The files starting with “Panel” are the slides and schedule for the panel I led, “Some Right – and Many Wrong – Ways to Incorporate Usability into an Organization.”

Enjoy.

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The Usability Kit: Frak Yes

by Paul Sherman on November 17, 2006 · 6 comments

in Web

I just looked at the sample chapters for The Usability Kit, a comprehensive resource for web site designers that explains critical usability concepts and also provides actual templates for common interactions such as login pages, help and FAQ areas, My Account pages, etc.

I really like it. It’s a great idea, and it appears to be very well executed. I downloaded the sample from SitePoint, the kit distributor, and the sample chapters read great. Dan Szuc and Gerry Gaffney cover all the right topics. I’m really glad they covered the critical information architecture concepts of faceted classification, tagging, and folksonomies.

Let me do the full disclosure thing at this point: I’ve known Dan Szuc for a few years now, and consider him a friend. And I’ve recently met Gerry Gaffney. So I’m not an impartial observer. However, I consider myself a reasonably ethical person, so if I didn’t truly feel that this resource was worth your time, I would say so. (Or more likely, I just wouldn’t blog it.)

By far the best thing about The Usability Kit is the blueprints. In providing what amount to templates for common interactions, Gerry and Dan have gone where many others fear to tread. Let’s face it: there’s only so many *good* ways to design a login box or a “Subscribe To Our Newsletter” form. And if I’m reading SitePoint’s blurb page correctl, you actually get electronic copies of the blueprints, so you can build pages from the templates. (I could be wrong about this; and besides, who builds sites with static HTML anymore? That’s so 1998…)

Unfortunately, the SitePoint sample didn’t include the chapter about user research. I am very particular about how user research is done, because I’ve seen so many ill-conceived, inefficient and biased user research projects performed by well-meaning people. So I can’t speak to how well Gerry and Dan covered this topic.

Bottom line: would I buy yet another *book* about usability for US$197? Frak no. Would I buy this kit, with all its templates and other goodies? Frak yes.

So you decide. Am I logrolling (or shilling), or pointing y’all to a quality resource?

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A Water-Efficient Toilet That’s Just A Bit *Too* Efficient

by Paul Sherman on November 15, 2006 · 2 comments

in Everything Else

As I continued browsing the Making Life Easy site, I stumbled across a picture of the low-flow toilet they praise as very usable.

I’m almost certain that this reaction is coming from my US-centric, don’t-like-to-think-about-or-acknowledge-bodily-functions cultural baggage…but does this particular potty make anyone else go “yuck!”?

I mean, I know intellectually that the water going into the toilet tank up top is as clean as the water coming out of a faucet tap, or for that matter, a drinking fountain. But there’s something skeevy about this design that adds up to a negative user experience for me.

I’m sure it’s a me thing…

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Happy World Usability Day

by Paul Sherman on November 14, 2006 · 0 comments

in Web

Happy World Usability Day.

This event, now in its second year, was intended to raise awareness around the globe of how important usability is to our everyday lives. It’s succeeding beyond our wildest dreams. And that’s great.

But I’d like to introspect for just a moment here. Those of you who work in the field, stop and give yourself a mental pat on the back. And then tell yourself how fortunate you are to have stumbled upon a field that is so engaging, fulfilling, and exciting. Admit it. Every day when you wake up and go to work, you’re secretely thankful that you’re not a lawyer, a doctor, a software developer, and so on. You’re a soldier in the user experience army. And it’s the best damn career you can imagine.

You know it’s true. You tell yourself that at least once a week, don’t you?

I know *I* do…

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Good Article on Voting and Usability, Accessibility

by Paul Sherman on November 13, 2006 · 0 comments

in Everything Else

There’s a very good article on voting, accessibility and usability over at UXMatters.

Whitney Quesenbery, former President of the Usability Professionals’ Association, describes her experiences serving on the Technical Guidelines Development Committee crafting standards for usable, accessible voting systems.

The article is at this URL: http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000136.php. Or follow this link. Enjoy.

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World Usability Day 2006 – November 14

by Paul Sherman on November 11, 2006 · 0 comments

World Usability Day 2006 is coming up fast. If you haven’t found an event to attend or participate in, go here to find an event near you.

This is looking to be the biggest World Usability Day ever. There’s going to be over 200 events in more than 35 countries. That’s big!

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Usability Around The Globe: A Pitch For Contributors

by Paul Sherman on November 10, 2006 · 0 comments

I guess books are like potato chips. It’s hard to stop at just one. I’m planning a second book about usability and user-centered design, and I’m looking for a few more people who are interested in contributing chapters. If you’re interested, contact me.

The book I am planning is a follow-on to the book that I just finished editing, “Usability Success Stories: How Organizations Improve By Making Easier-To-Use Software and Web Sites.”

I am planning a follow-on to Usability Success Stories because usability engineering and user-centered design are growing in importance worldwide. While the case studies in Usability Success Stories are quite compelling, all of the contributors are based in the US. (This was due to the fact that I had relatively few contacts outside the US when I began planning the book in 2002…)

I believe that the high-tech industry would benefit from hearing about the great work being done by usability and user-centered design practitioners around the globe, not just in the US. I am confident that there are many compelling stories to tell.

Like Usability Success Stories, the follow-on book will contain case studies of how user-centered design contributed to a successful outcome, be it a web site, software product, or hardware product. The authors will also explore the organizational factors that helped or hindered the application of UCD. Because this will be a collection of stories from different nations and cultures, I would also like the contributors to explore how their national or regional culture played a role – positive, negative, or a bit of both – in the success.

If you’re interested, let me know!

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