Pat’s Point of View

Adelaide put on some lovely weather for the first day of the conference—if a little hot for those of us with pale Celtic skin—and there was a good vibe in all the sessions.

One thing was obvious this year, there are quite a few international delegates that made their way to our distant country to attend OzCHI. And over all there was quite a diverse mix of discussions taking place. Although I didn’t really understand what was being said around some of the more academic topics :)

The things of interest for me included the talk on probes by Mark Rouncefield, measuring cognitive load using speech features by Natalie Ruiz, and the talk on the link between spatial ability and the use of site maps on websites by Chris Pilgrim (he found there is a link, which might sound obvious to experienced practitioners but it’s worth having some science to back that up).

Topping off the day was a great conference dinner at Adelaide Zoo. Under the ‘big top’ and surrounded by all sorts of dangerous critters, plenty of healthy discussion took place (and it wasn’t as nerdy as you might think). I think the quote of the night had to be Shane Morris saying “I’m going to make you a star!” once he found out someone at our table actually liked using Microsoft Expression, and was willing to admit it :)

See what people are blogging about: ozchi2007, Adelaide, chisig

Popularity: 16% [?]

As I sit here in Adelaide, I find my thoughts turning to the strange goings on in my wife’s belly. Our little baby (who has a mere 15 weeks to go) seems to like nothing better than to see how far she can push mum’s belly beyond its normal shape. My favourite of all are the scrapes, rather than the punches, because you can clearly feel those little knuckles rubbing along the inside.

From what I hear, we will soon be able to make out elbows and other body parts as my baby attempts to redecorate her steadily shrinking accommodation. If the current prods, pokes and scrapes are anything to go by, we’ll probably be able to make out fingerprints pretty soon!

Popularity: 24% [?]

Today I attended a pre-conference tutorial at OzCHI. The topic was Cultural Probes and it was run by Gerry Gaffney and John Murphy. It was very interesting and I can’t wait to use the technique on a real project.

I’ve blogged about the technique before, but in summary it’s a form of longitudinal user research for situations where you can’t normally go. For example, you might get your participants to keep a diary for a few weeks whilst they are renovating their house. Analysing what they give you back will give you very rich information about who they are, what they go through and what they think. (You’ll find a very good intro on Gerry’s Information & Design website)

I can see lots of situations where I could use this, along side other research techniques, to gain a much better understanding of an audience. Whilst the costs of producing the ‘kit’, and the participant incentives, might be higher than methods such as contextual enquiry, the amount of effort and person-hours required on the part of the design team are less (ie compared to direct observation). And of course the level of detail you get is much higher than techniques such as interviews or focus groups.

Anyway, off to finish my presentation for Friday.

See what people are blogging about: ozchi2007, cultural probes, UX

Popularity: 23% [?]

The recent hot weather has paid off, we had some fairly good thunderstorms last night. I’ve worked out some good settings for my camera to capture lightning strikes, one for storms to the south and one for those to the north. The required difference in aperture and zoom is due to the presence of nearby lights on one side, which I have to work around.

I really like photographing lightning. When you capture a good strike—particularly if you happen to be looking through the viewfinder—it’s like looking into the eyes of a monster. Such power and menace, but only a fleeting glimpse.

See more photos in my natural world album.

See what people are blogging about: lightning, photography

Popularity: 33% [?]

On more than a few occasions recently, I’ve been quite surprised by the level of knowledge—and apathy—surrounding tracking website usage.

Then I read Karl Groves’ recent article The Limitations of Server Log Files for Usability Analysis on Boxes and Arrows. Here’s a snippet:

Server log files are inappropriate for gathering usability data. They are meant to provide server administrators with data about the behavior of the server, not the behavior of the user. The log file is a flat file containing technical information about requests for files on the server. Log file analysis tools merely assemble them in a conjecture-based format aimed at providing insight into user behavior.

When speaking with the owners and managers of websites and intranets, I’m often told that they have ‘tracking’ on their website, but probing deeper I find they are referring to simple web statistics (read “hits”). Looking at the kind of information they are getting from their reports, I am usually disappointed. This old style web stats is just not sufficient these days, and I thought we had got past this.

I’m no expert in web analytics (might I suggest Hurol Inan for someone who is) but I don’t need to be, since most people I’m working with are still struggling with the basics. Like getting any sort of reporting at all. If you don’t know how people are using your website, you’re flying blind.

Don’t get me wrong, no matter how good your web analytics are, it’s still at most, only half the picture. To understand why your audience is doing what they’re doing you’ll need to brush off those ’soft skills’ and meet your users; user testing, observation and other ethnographic techniques can give you all the data you’d ever need in this regard. But, as with all things, you need a balance. Especially since they can be so easy to gather, web analytics are a good nominee for ‘quick win’ status. It should be a “no brainer” to know what users are doing on your site, even if you don’t yet know why.

The main culprit for this situation, beyond ignorance of anything better, seems to be IT administrators refusing to play ball. I’m never that surprised to hear that no better information about site usage is possible, because some guy in IT said so. However, there is a simple solution to this: build a business case for better analytics and use business to trump technology! It’s not that hard, look for ways in which good web analytics can empower decisions regarding the website. No other part of the organisation (I hope) is operating without some meaningful form of measurement, so if your website is a key channel for your organisation—be it sales, marketing or another objectives—you can’t keep flying blind.

I have started to become quite an advocate for Google Analytics. Not because I think it’s the best thing out there, but because it works well and the value for money on offer is phenomenal. Particularly if you’re generating uninformative ‘reports’ using Analog or something similar, that honestly tell you nothing useful. So I’m amazed that some people haven’t heard of Google Analytics. Like I said, I’m not expert in this field, but if I was shopping around for a web analytics package, I might not choose Google for this purpose (there are good reasons why one might not) but it would surely be my benchmark.

I particularly like the ability to establish goals and track conversion rates along paths that feed that goal. So if you have a website which sells products, you setup the sale of each product as a goal, then identify the paths people might take to get to the point where they actually buy the product. The reports will then tell you not only how many people achieve that goal, but where they fall off the path along the way. This would be very handy for evaluating potential usability problems with shopping cart processes etc. This is the most obvious use; the more complex your website is the more goals and paths you could monitor.

Hopefully, this will help some of you gain better intelligence, in that CIA kinda way, regarding what is happening with your website (or intranet for that matter). And this is just the tip of the iceberg, there are many more sources of data which you can use to find out what’s going on, and why. Web analytics just happen to be a good place to start.

See what people are blogging about: web analytics, web stats, traffic stats, usage tracking

Popularity: 18% [?]

I spent the day today at World Usability Day in the Telstra Experience Center in Sydney. We had setup a little exhibition stand for Step Two, showing what we do and giving away some articles and information packs related to usability. It was an interesting experience and I have a few ideas for next year, to make the stand more effective.

The Experience Center is pretty nifty, if not completely finished. The testing and observation labs were well setup and the whole place was a pleasant place to spend some time. The auditorium was decked out with comfy chairs that had built-in power and networking sockets for laptops, although the foldaway desks were absent.

Throughout the day there were presentations in the auditorium, and demonstrations of usability testing and eye-tracking software. A tour of the facility was a big hit and so were the ‘door prizes’ and raffles which exhibitors and sponsors were giving away. Our own contribution, a cool little iPod Nano, was raffled towards the end of the day and won by Joanne from Objective Digital, with whom we shared out exhibition space.

I suspect the bad weather in the morning kept some people away, but there was a steady flow of people dropping in throughout the day. Overall it was a great success for the newly formed UPA Sydney chapter, and due reward must be paid to Susan Wolfe and the rest of the organising crew.

Immediately after the event I had to pack up and get to the airport for a flight to Albury, to do some user research. I flew Regional Express out of Sydney’s Terminal 2. It was not quite the experience I’m used to with business travel (Qantas’ CityFlyer was sorely missed, I can tell you) but I got here OK. I found out I am sharing a hotel with the boys from WheelsMOTOR magazine who are busy compiling the next Performance Car of the Year (PCOTY) awards. This made for an interesting discussion over breakfast, and pork seemed to be the order of the day, if you know what I mean.

See what people are blogging about: wud07, World Usability Day, Telstra Experience Center

Popularity: 27% [?]

This year, WUD is on November 8th, and I’ll be manning the Step Two Designs booth at the Sydney event. If you have some time, drop in and say hello. There will be lots of interesting things going on, and at our booth we’ll have lots of information to give away, as well as a lucky dip prize. I hope my t-shirt fits this year :)

Here are all the details:

The Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) has proclaimed that World Usability Day 2007 will take place on November 8, 2007. This year’s focus will be on healthcare. World Usability Day was founded in 2005 with a global mission to increase the public’s awareness of the need to make services and products easier to access and simpler to use. Universal issues such as healthcare, education and government will be addressed through expert forums, exhibits, events and initiatives in over 35 countries.

The UPA Sydney chapter is organising a local event, which will take place at Telstra on Level 4, 400 George Street, Sydney, from 9am - 5pm.

The November 8th event will feature an impressive lineup of speakers addressing the importance of usability across all aspects of healthcare. The program will include presentations on:

• The importance of customer experience to a large corporate (Holly Kramer, Group Managing Director, Telstra Product Management, Telstra)
• Advanced telemedicine - Accessing health services remotely (CSIRO)
• User experience design of a hospital-based managed healthcare service (Telstra)
• The risks of medical equipment failing and why usability is important (Moray & Agnew)
• The impact of poor usability on people’s lives (Objective Digital)
• Accessibility - opening a new world to disabled people (Scenario Seven)
• Usable website development process - NSW Guardianship Tribunal case study (Web Usability)
• Trustworthy technology - Privacy and identity in the healthcare industry (Edentiti)
• Design thinking and usability (Telstra)

The day will also include interactive sessions and demonstrations of techniques such as usability testing and eye tracking, and will provide ample time to chat with people in the field of usability to learn more about it.

You are invited to attend any part or all of the day, and no pre-registration is required. The event is free, and open to the public.

For details of the program, please visit the UPA Sydney website or the World Usability Day website and look for the Sydney event.

A special thanks to the sponsors for this year’s Sydney event:

• Telstra Corporation
• Boomworks
• CHISIG
• CSIRO
• Digital Tsunami
• Epilepsy Action Australia
• Objective Digital
• PTG Global
• Step Two Designs
• The Hiser Group

See what people are blogging about: WUD07, World Usability Day

Popularity: 23% [?]

I’m very happy indeed to be speaking at OzCHI this year. My short paper on mentoring and collaboration in information architecture was accepted after the blind peer review process, to my surprise. It’s the same topic I presented at OZ-IA, but thanks for the feedback I received from that experience I hope to improve it substantially.

All this week I’ve been working hard to become nationally accredited in workplace training and assessment, which will no doubt also allow me to improve my presentation. Although I’ll only have about 15 minutes, so I don’t think there will be any audience activities :)

So I get another trip to Adelaide, which I visited a few times for work last year. I’m looking forward to it, although I’m not keen on being away from home (felt my baby kick for the first time yesterday!). However, it’s a lot better than if I had to go overseas.

See what people are blogging about: OzCHI 2007, mentoring, collaborative IA

Popularity: 28% [?]