Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) 14th Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada, 2005
New technologies, reduced workforces, and higher expectations from the public are transforming the way that businesses and government agencies deliver online services. However, online services are not just forms. We describe ways to improve user experience by providing integrated services, preventing errors, using appropriate tone and language, and structuring the interaction.
Aging by Design II Conference, Bentley College, Boston, MA, 2005
Both to meet the needs of an aging public and to ensure that staff members nearing retirement age can continue to work productively, information technology must be usable for older adults. Usability specialists have been at the heart of analysis, design and testing activities that help the agency respond, both internally and externally.
GSA Workshop on Usability and the Federal Enterprise Architecture, 2003
An analysis of users and their tasks typically generates a lot of rich information… but the process of translating that information into design solutions may seem like “magic.” The truth is that user-centered design is iterative, and requires a mixture of art and science—it takes a series of small steps that both transform and refine the collected information into design solutions. This presentation uses the analogy of building a house to illustrate the process from high-level visioning all the way through detailed design.
Award of Excellence, 2001 Performance Centered Design Competition
KnowledgePlanet provides a learning and performance management application used by a number of Fortune 100 companies to support their organizational learning. IPGems was asked to look at the opportunities to improve the interface that hundreds of thousands of people use to plan and keep track of their learning and performance activities. The goal was to increase the user's ability to be in control without having to learn the application, and for KP's customer companies to simplify and reduce implementation time and cost. The result received the Award of Excellence at the 2001 Performance-Centered Design Competition.
Performance Improvement, ISPI, 40(7), August 2001
As more people gain access to computers and the Internet, it has become increasingly important for designers to meet the needs of a diverse international user population. "One-size-fits-all" is no longer accepted by users. This article outlines many of the things that the designer needs to consider for both internationalization of software (making an interface understandable in many cultures) and localization (changing aspects of the interface, such as language and icons, to match the local cultural expectations and experiences).
Platinum Award of Excellence, 2000 Performance Centered Design Competition
We developed a prototype application to support the management of large public retail events. The application allows both regular and temporary staff to manage large volumes of sales inventory, suppliers, guest lists, and press communication from a simple, easy to understand, flexible interface. The goal was to increase the user's ability to respond quickly to the needs of different groups of people, often at the same time, in a chaotic environment. The result received the top honor, the Platinum Award of Excellence, at the 2000 Performance-Centered Design Competition.
Society for Technical Communication (STC) Conference, Orlando, FL, 2000
Many of the same types of content that have traditionally been placed in manuals or online help systems can actually be incorporated directly into the user interface. Connecting the necessary instructions and information directly to the tasks that they support helps users to perform their work more successfully. An analysis of existing content types can be done to identify opportunities for moving content into the user interface.
Online Learning and Performance Support '99, Anaheim, CA, 1999
This case study describes how a leading publisher of commercial labor management software worked to improve the usability of its software. The user support components integrated into the software evolved over time, from an initial online help system to an electronic performance support system (EPSS) to a performance-centered user interface design (PCD).
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