http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd hourly 1 1901-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://gmane.org/img/gmane-25t.png http://gmane.org http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/431 <pre>(This email can also be read online at https://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/blog/?p=242) May Update – Card Sorting and Guerrilla UCD We’re having a Spring Sale on the world’s most comprehensive card sorting analysis package, SynCapsV3 for Windows. When you buy a license, enter the promotion code ‘SPRING13’ before the end of June and you’ll receive a 25% discount. The normal price is €240 / £200 / $320 but with the sale the figures are €180 / £150 / $240 (plus VAT where applicable). You can choose the billing currency during checkout. Visit http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/cardsortdl.shtml#syncapsv3 to download the software and click ‘Buy’ in the licensing dialog to purchase a license. Don’t forget to enter the promotion code! In our Guerrilla UCD webinar series, we are just coming to the end of the first five strategy webinars. Last week’s session was on human error and error handling (messages and feedback). Coincidentally, Jakob Nielsen has just published an Alert Box artic</pre> William Hudson 2013-05-13T14:07:53 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/430 <pre>(Apologies if you receive more than one of these.) Don't forget that our second Guerrilla UCD webinar, on visual design (for non-designers), is this Thursday at 16:30 London time. Visit bit.ly/gucd-2 for details and to register. Also, please complete our 30-second user requirements survey if you haven't already (and don't forget that user requirements are the things that you start with to identify needs - so chances are that if you're using use cases AND user stories on the same project, the use cases are being used for specification, not user requirements). The survey is at bit.ly/ur_survey. Please circulate/RT to friends and colleagues, especially anyone on the development side (I've tweeted this on &lt; at &gt;guerrillaucd). Regards, William Hudson User Experience Strategist , Syntagm Ltd Courses Co-Chair, CHI 2013 (Paris) Conference Committee, UCD 2013 (London) Guerrilla UCD - Usability and User-Experience Webinars for the Whole Team &lt;http://www.guerrillaucd.com/&gt; www.guerrillaucd.com | &lt; at &gt;guer</pre> William Hudson 2013-04-09T11:02:38 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/429 <pre>(Apologies if you receive this more than once.) We are running a very brief (30-second) survey on user requirement methods such as use cases and user stories for an article I'm writing. It will take less than 30 seconds. Please distribute it widely; it's intended for both UX professionals and developers. Survey link: http://bit.ly/ur_survey Thanks in advance! Regards, William (Hudson) User Experience Strategist , Syntagm Ltd Courses Co-Chair, CHI 2013 (Paris) Conference Committee, UCD 2013 (London) Guerrilla UCD - Usability and User-Experience Webinars for the Whole Team &lt;http://www.guerrillaucd.com/&gt; www.guerrillaucd.com | &lt; at &gt;guerrillaucd Syntagm is a limited company registered in England and Wales (1985) Registration Number: 1895345 | 10 Oxford Road, Abingdon OX14 2DS (UK) </pre> William Hudson 2013-04-04T13:31:48 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/428 <pre>(Apologies if you receive this more than once.) April Update - Card Sorting and Guerrilla UCD Our latest card sorting analysis package, SynCapsV3 for Windows, was released a few weeks ago. It provides a number of new features currently unavailable elsewhere, including nested groups and the ability to filter and partition results according to how similar participants were in sorting. For more details, follow the links below. . Three, free one-hour webinars on card sorting &lt;http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/cardsortvideos.shtml&gt; (the last covers the latest features) . Card templates (for paper sorts), instructions and software for download &lt;http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/cardsortdl.shtml&gt; (including our entirely free SynCapsV1) On the Guerrilla UCD front, we ran a free, one-hour overview in March. The recording and slides are available here: . &lt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ3up_zIgXI&gt; YouTube . Download the &lt;http://www.syntagm.co.uk/guerrillaucd/gucdov</pre> William Hudson 2013-04-03T09:40:59 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/427 <pre>We ran three free webinars on card sorting a few weeks ago. All of the webinars (plus some earlier videos and slide shows) can now be viewed or downloaded from www.syntagm.co.uk/design/cardsortvideos.shtml PDFs of the slides are also available on that page. I have two news further items to share. The first is that the latest version of our card sorting package for Windows, SynCaps V3, is now available for download and free trial. We think it's the most comprehensive card sorting analysis application available and will dramatically increase the value you or your colleagues get from card sorting (with relevance to web, intranet and user-centred design in general). There is a long list of new features, but the most notable are nested groups - so participants can build their own hierarchies - and participant analysis. The latter allows you to omit wayward participants or to identify groups who have substantially different requirements. It is a free upgrade for SynCaps V2 users. &lt;http://www.syntagm.co.uk</pre> William Hudson 2013-03-14T13:13:51 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/426 <pre>(Apologies if you receive more than one of these.) Guerrilla UCD for 2013 - Lower cost, better value We're kicking off our 2013 season of 16 x 90-minute Guerrilla UCD webinars with a free one-hour overview on 21st March. It starts at 16:30 London time but, like all of the webinars, you can take part from anywhere in the world and if you miss it, download a recording and slides. To register for the free overview, either visit GotoWebinar &lt;https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/617856046&gt; or add it to your basket at the GuerrillaUCD web site &lt;http://www.syntagm.co.uk/guerrillaucd/gucdoverview.shtml&gt; (there is a short checkout process but nothing to pay if that is the only thing you add). The really exciting news is that this year, all webinars are 20% cheaper, plus you get immediate access to last year's recordings and slides (as well as this year's live webinar, recording and slides as they become available). The full list of webinars is: Getting Started 0. Free One-Hour Overview &lt;ht</pre> William Hudson 2013-03-05T11:38:49 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/425 <pre>(Apologies if you receive this more than once.) Reminder - Free Card-Sorting Webinars Just a brief reminder that our third and final card-sorting webinar is coming up this Thursday. It's free and covers a new approach to analysis to help you get the most from card sorting, whether from paper or online sorts. Recordings and slides are available at http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/cardsortvideos.shtml (there is also a link for registering for the remaining webinar on that page). Full details can be found on my blog at http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/blog/?p=208 Regards, William (Hudson) User Experience Strategist , Syntagm Ltd Courses Co-Chair, CHI 2013 (Paris) Conference Committee, UCD 2013 (London) Syntagm is a limited company registered in England and Wales (1985). Registered number: 1895345. Registered office: 10 Oxford Road, Abingdon OX14 2DS. Author of Lighting the Road Ahead - The 55 minute guide to usability, accessibility and SEO www.lightingtheroadahead.com Guerrilla UCD - Usability and User-</pre> William Hudson 2013-02-04T15:26:26 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/424 <pre>(Apologies if you receive this more than once.) Reminder - Free Card-Sorting Webinars Just a brief reminder that the second of our free card-sorting webinars is coming up this Thursday. So if you're trying to improve the navigation of your web or intranet solutions (or just find out where the rough spots are) do tune in. Recordings and slides are available at http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/cardsortvideos.shtml (there are also links for registering for the remaining two webinars on that page). Full details can be found on my blog at http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/blog/?p=208 Regards, William (Hudson) User Experience Strategist , Syntagm Ltd Courses Co-Chair, CHI 2013 (Paris) Conference Committee, UCD 2012 (London) Syntagm is a limited company registered in England and Wales (1985). Registered number: 1895345. Registered office: 10 Oxford Road, Abingdon OX14 2DS. Author of Lighting the Road Ahead - The 55 minute guide to usability, accessibility and SEO www.lightingtheroadahead.com Guerrilla UCD - U</pre> William Hudson 2013-01-29T11:16:31 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/423 <pre>(Apologies if you receive more than one copy of this.) Reminder - Free Card Sorting Webinars In the run up to the release of our new card sorting analysis package, SynCaps V3, we are hosting a series of free one-hour webinars on card sorting for user experience design. These will cover a range of topics and deal with both paper and online sorting. You do not have to be a current SynCaps user to attend or to benefit from the content. Follow these links to register for the webinars: 1) &lt;https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/343713742&gt; Card Sorting Part 1 - Paper Sorting (24 Jan &lt; at &gt; 16:30 GMT) 2) &lt;https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/376921310&gt; Card Sorting Part 2 - Basic Analysis (31 Jan &lt; at &gt; 16:30 GMT) 3) &lt;https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/119654838&gt; Card Sorting Part 3 - Advanced Analysis (7 Feb &lt; at &gt; 16:30 GMT) Part 3 deals specifically with a whole range of new facilities in the upcoming release of SynCaps V3. These are designed to make it easy for you to make sense of card sort data (including exist</pre> William Hudson 2013-01-22T09:08:09 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/422 <pre>(Apologies if you receive more than one copy of this.) Free Card Sorting Webinars In the run up to the release of our new card sorting analysis package, SynCaps V3, we are hosting a series of free one-hour webinars on card sorting for user experience design. These will cover a range of topics and deal with both paper and online sorting. You do not have to be a current SynCaps user to attend or to benefit from the content. Follow these links to register for the webinars: 1) Card Sorting Part 1 &lt;https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/343713742&gt; - Paper Sorting (24 Jan &lt; at &gt; 16:30 GMT) 2) Card Sorting Part 2 &lt;https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/376921310&gt; - Basic Analysis (31 Jan &lt; at &gt; 16:30 GMT) 3) Card Sorting Part 3 &lt;https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/119654838&gt; - Advanced Analysis (7 Feb &lt; at &gt; 16:30 GMT) Part 3 deals specifically with a whole range of new facilities in the upcoming release of SynCaps V3. These are designed to make it easy for you to make sense of card sort data (including existing online </pre> William Hudson 2013-01-09T12:14:33 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/421 <pre>(Apologies if you receive this more than once.) Half-Price Guerrilla UCD Webinars Extended Just a brief note to mention that our Guerrilla UCD webinar sale has been extended to 7 Jan. So if any of your New Year resolutions involve improving user experience or the understanding of user-centred design in your team pay a visit to www.guerrillaucd.com for full details and a free one-hour overview. With best wishes for the New Year, William (Hudson) User Experience Strategist, Syntagm Ltd Courses Co-Chair, CHI 2013 (Paris) Conference Committee, UCD 2012 (London) Syntagm is a limited company registered in England and Wales (1985). Registered number: 1895345. Registered office: 10 Oxford Road, Abingdon OX14 2DS. Guerrilla UCD - Usability &amp; User Experience Webinars &lt;http://www.syntagm.co.uk/guerrillaucd&gt; www.syntagm.co.uk/guerrillaucd | &lt;http://twitter.com/guerrillaucd&gt; &lt; at &gt;GuerrillaUCD </pre> William Hudson 2012-12-31T11:28:39 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/420 <pre>(Apologies if you receive this more than once.) New Book and Half-Price Guerrilla UCD Webinars I've got two exciting items of news. My 55-minute guide to usability, accessibility and search engine optimization is in the final stages of production and should be available in January. It's a good introduction to all three topics (and it's not just me saying that - see the reviewers comments at www.lightingtheroadahead.com &lt;http://www.lightingtheroadahead.com/&gt; ) plus can help to explain their need to colleagues and customers. Visit the site to join our mailing list and be among the first to get hold of a copy. The second news item is that we've finished recording this year's 16 Guerrilla UCD webinars. They are now available at half price until the end of the year. For each webinar you'll be able to download a PDF of the slides and a WMV video file. Both can be shared within your team and are yours to keep. Visit www.guerrillaucd.com to see the full list and to start taking advantage of this money-sa</pre> William Hudson 2012-12-17T10:49:55 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/419 <pre>(Apologies if you receive this message more than once.) Agile UX: Conceptual Models Most development teams wouldn't dream of building a system without at least a block diagram of its constituent components. Yet, this is very rarely done for the user experience - what are the main concepts in a system and how are they related? Users' conceptual models help the whole team to understand more about the mechanics of the user experience and give focus to the development effort. This webinars builds on an approach to user-centred development originally conceived at IBM, called OVID - Objects, Views and Interaction Design. In this session you will learn about the benefits of conceptual modelling and how to elaborate a conceptual model into a full, coherent and well-structured user experience using the tools and techniques introduced in our other Agile sessions (14 &amp; 15 in particular). Join the live webinar Thursday 13 December &lt; at &gt; 16:30 London time. Or if you can't make it download the recording which </pre> William Hudson 2012-12-11T11:33:25 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/418 <pre>(Apologies if you receive this more than once.) Agile UX: Use Cases, Stories &amp; Scenarios Use cases and user stories are both vying for the affections of development teams even in Agile approaches. While user stories are more frequently mentioned in the Agile literature, use cases have an important contribution to make, particularly in getting the balance of design right - too much design up front is bad, but too little leads to unpleasant surprises and poor user experience. In this webinar we'll be looking at the relative merits of use cases and user stories as well as the overall picture of how to deal with requirements effectively. You will learn how to adapt use cases to Agile working and how scenarios (in the user-centred design sense) can help ensure a good user experience. Join the live webinar Thursday 6 December &lt; at &gt; 16:30 London time. Or if you can't make it download the recording which is usually available the next day. We'll be covering · Brief introduction to requirements </pre> William Hudson 2012-12-04T10:03:58 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/417 <pre>(Apologies if you receive more than one copy of this message.) Agile UX: Users, Personas &amp; Design Maps To design a good user experience we need to talk about our different user communities in meaningful ways. Personas are ideal for this job but unfortunately the term has become over-used and to some extent lost its original meaning. A further complication is that personas are not always readily accepted by more technology-focused members of a team. In this webinar we look at the psychology behind personas, the problems they are trying to address and why they work when used effectively. You'll learn about behaviour-based personas and how they differ from those used elsewhere in an organization. Finally, we introduce a practical approach to collaboration on user experience design across the whole team called design maps. Join the live webinar Thursday 29 November &lt; at &gt; 16:30 London time. Or if you can't make it download the recording which is usually available the next day. We'll be covering *The</pre> William Hudson 2012-11-27T10:12:58 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/416 <pre>(Apologies if you receive this more than once.) Agile &amp; Lean UX Webinars: Integrating UCD &amp; Agile Lean and Agile development approaches focus on delivering working code, not good user experience. While it's not impossible to do both, traditional roles and dynamics make this difficult, with user experience practitioners often only marginally involved during design and development. In this session you will learn the basics of the Agile development philosophy and its implications for user experience as well as the parallel-tracks method of integrating user experience activities which has good reports from the field. Join the live webinar Thursday 15 November &lt; at &gt; 16:30 London time. Or if you can't make it download the recording which is usually available the next day. We'll be covering *Origins of philosophy of Agile (and the Agile manifesto) *Tensions between Agile and user-centred/user-experience design *Empathetic design *The parallel-streams approach *Making users the focus of development *D</pre> William Hudson 2012-11-13T15:28:17 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/415 <pre>(Apologies if you receive more than one of these.) Reminder: Agile &amp; Lean UX Webinars This week sees the start of our series of 5 Lean &amp; Agile UX webinars. The first, Making the Case for UCD in Agile, is aimed at UX &amp; UCD practitioners. The remaining four are intended for the whole team. Take advantage of our 5-for-the-price-of-4 discount to book the whole set. Note that webinars in the Agile series are only one week apart (being Agile and all that!). # # # In most discussions of Agile approaches to system development, the issue of usability and user experience are left to the imagination. In this session we'll look at some of the arguments both for and against a significant effort in user experience (so you'll be prepared). You'll also learn how to present your own case based on demonstrable improvements that will be made in customer satisfaction, reduced customer support and increased productivity. Join the live webinar Thursday 8 November &lt; at &gt; 16:30 London time. Or if you can't make it download th</pre> William Hudson 2012-11-06T09:45:47 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/414 <pre>(Apologies if you receive more than one of these.) Agile &amp; Lean UX Webinars Next week sees the start of our series of 5 Lean &amp; Agile UX webinars. The first, Making the Case for UCD in Agile, is aimed at UX &amp; UCD practitioners. The remaining four are intended for the whole team. Take advantage of our 5-for-the-price-of-4 discount to book the whole set. Note that webinars in the Agile series are only one week apart (being Agile and all that!). # # # In most discussions of Agile approaches to system development, the issue of usability and user experience are left to the imagination. In this session we'll look at some of the arguments both for and against a significant effort in user experience (so you'll be prepared). You'll also learn how to present your own case based on demonstrable improvements that will be made in customer satisfaction, reduced customer support and increased productivity. Join the live webinar Thursday 8 November &lt; at &gt; 16:30 London time. Or if you can't make it download the recordin</pre> William Hudson 2012-10-30T12:17:25 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/413 <pre>(Apologies if you receive more than one copy of this.) Persuasion, Trust and Seduction Webinar Don't forget the UCD 2012 Conference coming up in London on 9th &amp; 10th November. See www.ucd2012.org for full details and to book places. Our Lean &amp; Agile series of webinars starts on 8 November. If you're trying to improve user experience in an Agile environment you'll want to take a look. See bit.ly/gucd-12 # # # In real life we spend a lot of time building relationships and fostering trust. How do we do these things in computer-mediated environments like e-commerce or public health sites? This session is a basic introduction to persuasive design and particularly how design impacts users' and customers' trust in our products and services - particularly important for e-commerce sites, among others. We will also investigate the enticingly-titled topic of seductive design and how we can use the 'halo effect' to enhance user experience. Join the live webinar Thursday 25 October &lt; at &gt; 16:30 London time. Or if </pre> William Hudson 2012-10-23T14:57:24 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/412 <pre>(Apologies if you receive more than one of these.) Persuasion, Trust and Seduction Webinar We're running some of our Guerrilla UCD webinars in private sessions for one of the world's best known telecoms companies. Let us know if you need something special: you can pick the time, tweak the content and share the recordings with your whole organization (rather than just an individual team). # # # In real life we spend a lot of time building relationships and fostering trust. How do we do these things in computer-mediated environments like e-commerce or public health sites? This session is a basic introduction to persuasive design and particularly how design impacts users' and customers' trust in our products and services - particularly important for e-commerce sites, among others. We will also investigate the enticingly-titled topic of seductive design and how we can use the 'halo effect' to enhance user experience. Join the live webinar Thursday 25 October &lt; at &gt; 16:30 London time. Or if you can't make i</pre> William Hudson 2012-10-16T15:25:11 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.ucd/411 <pre>(Apologies if you receive more than one copy of this.) Reminder – Designing for Advanced Users Webinar We're running some of our Guerrilla UCD webinars in private sessions for one of the world's best known telecoms companies. Let us know if you need something special: you can pick the time, tweak the content and share the recordings with your whole organization (rather than just an individual team). # # # While the web has brought technology to a very broad audience not all systems are intended for casual use by the general public. In this session you will learn the important differences between designing for ease of learning as opposed to efficiency of use. We will cover important principals of effective user interface design with an emphasis on frequent or expert use. You will be able to identify and apply strategies for reducing the number and length of interactions required by experienced users. Join the live webinar Thursday 11 October &lt; at &gt; 16:30 London time. Or if you can't make it download t</pre> William Hudson 2012-10-09T14:02:15 Search the mailing list at Gmane query http://search.gmane.org/?group=$group=gmane.comp.web.ucd