hFIDO Blog

Our next hFIDO business meeting will be this Sunday afternoon, 2/5 in Smith 122 from 3-4 pm.

Remote access:  https://online.bentley.edu:443/GA/main/000001f7ac9200000134d40836368483

All are welcome – our agenda is as follows…

1. Open/Intro

2. Approve our new hFIDO Boord for Spring 2012:

• Alyssa Boehm & Scott Furlong – Co-Presidents
• Brian Mills – VP of Communication
• Jessica Romeo – VP of Design
• Dilena Diaz – VP of Events
• Miriam Gerver Donath – VP of Research
• David Hoberman – VP of Alumni Relations

3. Lydia Sankey generously offered to help us blog:

• Expand frequency from 2 to 3 days/week (and cross-posts, nav, etc.)?

4. hFIDO presentations and/or alumni panels:

• Moderating – Susan Mercer in late February/early March!
• Statistical Research – Miriam Gerver Donath likely to present in…?
• Brainstorming – Alyssa Boehm likely to present in…?
• Academic Research? – David Hoberman in Spring and/or September?
• How HF (or UCD) Works with… – TBD?
• Happy Hour? – As folks are busy late in the semester, probably not?
• More: Accessibility, Education, etc. – TBD?

5. Discuss options for our new “H”FIDO logo:

• Jessica Romeo to continue (with Mike Kennedy)? – TBD!

6. Close/Thanks!

That’s it - hope to see you there!

“It’s Our Research” – an upcoming book from Tomer Sharon, MSHFID (2008) and UX Researcher at Google – describes a strategic framework and techniques to involve stakeholders throughout the process of planning, execution, analysis, and reporting UX research.

Getting UX research buy-in from product managers, engineers, and management is attained by making it theirs as much as it is yours. To dramatically increase the chance that they’ll agree to do UX research act upon its results, we need to involve stakeholders throughout the process of planning, execution, analysis, and reporting research.

Through the use of case studies, visuals, and videos, “It’s Our Research”…

• Features dozens of UX case studies and visuals from international research practitioners;
• Provides a toolset to justify work to stakeholders, deal with politics, and hone client skills; and
• Presents tried and tested techniques to reach positive, useful, and fruitful outcomes.

Learn more about the book and view video interviews from UX practitioners and researchers.

Seminar on Capturing Test Data – Tue., 1/31, 1-2 pm @ online Mad*Pow event
Our very own Dan Berlin is hosting a webinar covering “Best Practices for Consistent Capture of Usability Test Data” on Tuesday, January 31 from 1-2 pm. This seminar is for experience designers seeking to improve their data collection methods and foster straightforward data solicitation, moderation techniques, and capture of usability test data. Best practices will be shared for capturing usability test data in consistent and comparable ways to ensure that your collected data leads to actionable insights.

An Experience Research Director at Mad*Pow, Dan received his BA in Psychology from Brandeis University, spent seven years supporting hard-to-use interfaces at a cable technology firm, jumped into the world of usability through the MBA and MS in Human Factors in Information Design program at Bentley University, and then spent his first two years in the field at a digital marketing agency building a usability research practice and investigating neuromarketing techniques.

View presentation!
UPA Boston, February Meeting – Wed., 2/1, 6-9 pm @ One to One in Charlestown
A multidisciplinary panel from digital marketing agency One to One, “Mobile Mantras: An Experience Design Roundtable” discusses current experience design best practices for mobile development.

Panel Participants:

• Brian Assmus, Flash Developer
• Frank Dellario, Senior Mobile Producer – Mobile Technology
• Matt DiGirolamo, User Research Consultant
• Rob Fitzgibbon, Associate Director, Experience Design
• Hannah Liberty, Senior Information Architect
• Michelle McNulty, Lead User Experience Consultant
• Ryan Travis, Web Developer

6:00 – 7:00 pm Refreshments & Networking
7:00 – 7:30 pm Announcements
7:30 – 9:00 pm Presentation and Q&A

RSVP here.
Networking, Knowledge Sharing, and UX Methods – Wed., 2/8, 5-8 pm @ MathWorks in Natick
The MathWorks Usability Group invites you to spend the evening with a lively group of UX pros for knowledge sharing and networking. We’ll have short talks and displays to share research, design methods, and practices. You’ll have the opportunity to meet MathWorks UX team members as well as other regional UX professionals. We’ll also have lots of delicious food available, so come hungry!

RSVP by Wed., 2/1.

1. People make up their minds about you in the first 30 seconds of meeting you. Here’s the kicker: it’s an unconscious decision. They’ve already decided how they feel about you, but they just don’t know it yet.
2. Most people get nervous delivering speeches. Even thinking about delivering speeches makes people sweat. Unfortunately, they unconsciously communicate that nervousness to the audience, and the audience reads it as an attack, again unconsciously.
3. Once an audience believes it’s under attack, it stops listening and prepares (unconsciously) for flight.
4. Most presentations fail because the speaker presents information to the audience in a way that unintentionally ensures it will be instantly forgotten. Here is the surprising alternative: by changing a few sentences at the beginning of your talk, you can increase audience retention by four or five-fold.
5. To increase your charisma, focus on a single emotion that you feel about your content or the person you’re meeting, for three minutes before the beginning of your meeting, speech, or presentation.
6. BONUS! People believe non-verbal communication over verbal communication every time.

Learn more communication theory from Dr. Nick Morgan via his blog and videos.