Society for Technical Communication

Mid-South Chapter

Detailed Description of

“Conducting a Hands-On Usability Study” Workshop

Hosted by the STC Mid-South Chapter

During this workshop, Leanne Logan will teach you the what, when, where, why, and how of conducting full-scale, low-cost formal usability testing on your hardware, software, or web-based products.

You will learn tips for convincing management that spending the time and money to conduct a low-cost formal usability test will improve the bottom line.

Then you and the other attendees will be divided into small teams that will each plan and conduct a usability test with an assigned product. You will practice each step in the end-to-end process for conducting a formal hands-on usability study: initial planning and project definition, recruiting appropriate customers as subjects, preparing the materials and readying the test, employing the usability test team effectively, and sharing the results.

At the end of the day, you will walk away with practical experience, a comprehensive workshop manual, and documentation of your usability study, which you can add to your portfolio and use as a model for your own usability assessments at work.

Equipment:

Participants should bring a recording device if possible (e.g., video recorder, tape recorder, digital camera) to help record their team’s usability test. All other equipment will be provided.

Audience:

Beginner to intermediate usability experts, including:

• Marketing specialists
• Technical communicators
• Programmers and other IT professionals
• Wanna-be usability specialists
• Product developers
• Anyone else responsible for designing, developing, and/or documenting products or technical services for market

The workshop is not web-based or online-focused, though the lessons learned can be applied to websites, documents, or products being developed for local or global clients and internal or external clients.

This workshop was created by Leanne Logan and others at Quarry Integrated Communications. It was originally offered at the 2001 & 2002 Usability Professionals’ Association annual conferences and subsequently at Society for Technical Communication (STC) annual conferences.

More information about the workshop leader:

Leanne Logan works as a business consultant identifying the needs of Global Service Providers for FedEx, then developing tools and solutions to meet those needs of very diverse and international users spanning over 100 countries.

Prior to her employment with FedEx, Leanne was an account manager for Quarry Integrated Communications at FedEx, helping identify many user needs and proposed solutions for FedEx Marketing, Automation, and Branding teams. In her years at Quarry, Leanne contributed to the development of Quarry’s usability methodology and was involved in over 100 usability assessments for a variety of clients.

This is the fourth country that Leanne has worked in, as she continues to share her expertise with a focus on the user.

Leanne’s usability experience also includes:

• Founding member of the Usability Professional Association (1996–2004)
• Member of the STC Usability Special Interest Group (SIG) from its inception (1995–2004)
• Instructor of usability and technical communication courses in the University of Waterloo’s Continuing Education Department (1997–2003)
• Frequent guest lecturer on usability at the University of Toronto’s Continuing Education Department (2000–2002)
• Member of TorCHI (1998–2002)
• Involvement with the University of Waterloo’s usability lab at the Center for Professional Writing (1989–1991)

Leanne has also been actively involved in STC for many years. She was honored the award of Fellow of the Society for active involvement locally, nationally, and internationally. She has served as president of the Southwestern Ontario chapter, chairperson of the Canadian Issues Committee, and program manager for the Mid-South chapter.

More information about the workshop creator:

Quarry Integrated Communications is an award-winning brand consulting firm headquartered in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, with satellite offices in Toronto, ON, Canada; Dallas, TX; and Memphis, TN. Quarry’s Information Engineering Group works with a myriad of international and local clients to help them determine and solve their usability and customer experience issues. Quarry is engaged in low-, mid- and high-fidelity usability studies, both on-site and in a formal lab setting, with specific emphasis on hardware, software, and web-based online products.

Click here to register and pay online. It’s convenient and secure!

The registration deadline is Tuesday, May 9.

For more information or help with registration, please contact program@stc-midsouth.org.