On Wednesday 21st April 2010, we ran an open day here at the Interaction Lab which showcased our technologies and the work that we do, as well as having an array of guest speakers covering topics from UX consultancy through to usability testing with disabled users.
The event was a great success and we were pleased to meet some many interesting people from such a variety of backgrounds and disciplines.
In this post we aim to summarise some of the great things which were showcased on the day;
Guest Talks
We were fortunate to have a range or speakers on different topics on the day,
How to be a superhero UX professional:
Ian Fenn (Chopstix Media)
What separates an awesome UX professional from one that fails to meet the grade? Ian Fenn, a UX professional for fourteen years, shared his view. Attendees received pragmatic, practical tips on how to make the grade.
Diverse User Experience:
Kath Moonan (Accessibility Specialist)
Come Fly with Me: Airlines, Online & the Bottom Line:
Anja Klüver (Prospects)
Anja Klüver, Creative Director of Prospect, shared her insights into the user centred design process that helped BMI boost conversion rates by 20%. She demonstrated Prospect case studies of award-winning work on customer journeys for airlines and explained how insightful UX design and thorough usability testing of websites can help achieve remarkable return on investment. For slides and more information of this presentation click here.
10 Practical Tips on selling (great) ideas:
Max Choong & Kimberley Burdylo (LBi)
It’s not good enough just to have great ideas, and very often the biggest barrier to seeing your project become a reality is your own client. To help combat this, LBi presented their top 10 practical tips for selling in ideas. For slides of this presentation, please click here
Talks from members of HCID
End User Requirements Blogging with the Mobile iRequire Tool:
Dr Norbert Seyff
In this session, Dr Norbert Seyff presented a mobile requirements elicitation tool which enables end-users to blog needs in situ without analysts’ facilitation. [slides to be available shortly]
Cerebral Palsy and Online Social Networks:
Makayla Miranda Lewis
Today, online social networks are used by millions of people worldwide, but are in many cases directed at a board market i.e. users that do not have the physical disability ‘cerebral palsy’ (CP). These online social networks can be valuable resources for users with CP as they can overcome physical and social limitations imposed by conventional offline communication. We need to realize that individuals with CP are users too and who use online social networks to communicate with their family and friends. Thus, it is necessary to examine the involvement of people with CP within online social networks, to understand ways to better facilitate their participation.
During the presentation Makayla M. Lewis provided a background to her research, introduced her exploratory interview study, discussing its findings and listed the challenges faced when researching this population. [slides to be available shortly]
Empathic Modelling a Practical Workshop:
Dr Simone Stumpf, Tanya Ahmed, Angela Kounkou
What is Empathic Modelling? It is a combination of awareness raising and simulation that can be used by designers to educate themselves about the experience of an impairment. It is related to prototyping – it’s sometimes called experience prototyping – and role-playing – you assume the role of the user with an impairment. In this workshop attendees were given the opportunity to experiment with empathic modelling themselves by using everyday household items. For slides of this presentation, please click here
Creativity and Innovation:
Kristine Karlsen & Dr Sara Jones
This presentation focused on a generalized view on the topic of creativity with some real world examples, followed by guidance on how to support innovation and the creative process. For slides of this presentation, please click here
Agile Development Process for Sustainability Module:
Tanya Ahmed
This presentation looked at our involvement in the design and development of the web-based online educational module on sustainability for City University London. The agile user centred design process included background research, interviews, student workshops, persona development, user journeys, rapid iterative prototype development, usability testing and constant student and client feedback, and final evaluation with 180 students from City University. For slides of this presentation, please click here
HCI Challenges for an Internet of Services:
Angela Kounkou
We live in times of rapid changes; technological advances constantly alter our behaviour and expectations of online services. Speculations on the evolution of the Internet include visions of an “Internet of Services”, but what is it really? In this presentation we looked at definitions and examples of services and their uses, and explored the Internet of Services and the related challenges HCI practitioners can expect to face. For slides of this presentation, please click here
Interaction Lab Tours
Another popular part of the day – the Interaction Lab tours gave attendees an idea of the technical aspects of the department. There were several different technologies on display here including;
Eye Tracking Demonstration
Mobile Testing Demonstration
Head Tracking with Wii Remote Demonstration
Mezatop Interactive Surface Demonstration
Meirion Williams Explains How The Mezatop Was Built
Meirion Williams, designer of the Mezatop, was on hand to demonstrate the latest in interactive multi-touch computing. Visitors experienced the Microsoft Surface, and Williams’ own design Mezatop. They enjoyed exploring the possibilities that multi-touch interaction offers to games, entertainment and creativity applications. For the more technical minded there was the chance to get to grips with the nitty-gritty details and take look inside the Mezatop and behind the scenes at the software that powers these devices.
Microsoft Surface Demo - Air Hockey Game built by David Impey a MSc Student at City University
Creativity Stations Demonstrations
Networking
As Promised there was also a light networking session at the end of the day which allowed all the guests to meet and greet lectures, students, academics and the HCID team.
Networking Session
Networking Session
Did you attend the Open Day?
If so, we would love to hear what you thought about the event, if you have not done so, please take a couple of minutes to fill in our quick feedback form so we can make next year’s event even better!
Did you miss the open day?
If you were unable to attend for whatever reason, but would still like to know more about the Lab and the work that we do then please get it touch
