Contemporary Views
on
User Experience Design
(UXD)

This 10-month series of presentations focuses on the role of User Experience Design within a variety of contexts: from the business of UXD to its role in life-critical applications. After setting the stage for the role of UXD in the business of design, the series introduces theoretical frameworks for UXD: the very real human requirements that must be satisfied for an interface or product to be engaging and acceptable.

Several presentations then focus on the specific domains in which UXD is a structural requirement: community planning, ergonomic furniture design, educational technologies, air traffic control, accessible Web design, heavy equipment training, and surgical simulation tools.

While the series does not directly focus on Computer Human Interaction, each presentation provides a view into allied fields of design. By presenting familiar problem sets within potentially unfamiliar contexts, the series hopes to provide User Experience Designers the opportunity to learn novel and creative approaches to the challenges they face in their own practice.

Printable brochure PDF here.

Principals Forum: The role of UXD in practice

January 2004

What is the role of UXD -- past, present, and future -- in the business environment? Principals from web, graphic and industrial design firms discuss end-user involvement in the design process and its relationship to the bottom line. The 2003 series begins with a grounding in the business case for UXD and how it makes dollars and sense.

Quick! What do you want to say?

February 2003

Your organization is suddenly center stage in front of hundreds and potentially thousands of people. Quick! What is it you have to say?

Web enterprises invest exorbitant amounts of resources developing the mechanics and information architecture behind their online resources, but often produce some of the most mundane, mediocre, and inappropriate pre-sentations of information in any medium. Has our advancement in technology caused us to forget centuries of principles of effective human communication?

Experiences for Understanding

March 2003

While interface, information, and interaction designs have made interfaces and experiences easier to use, navigate, and understand, they are still a far cry from what meeting our expectations of interfaces. Surely, looking at interfaces in Science Fiction throughout the past even just the credible ones we aren't realizing the potentials nor the fruits of our imaginations.

Citizen Participation in Neighborhood Planning

April 2003

Is it possible to apply principles from urban planning and community development to our world of User Experience Design? Michael Pyatok shared his ideas on citizen participation in community and neighborhood planning. When low-income residents participate, they create more livable neighborhoods - User Experience in the real world

User Experience Design as Applied to Education

May 2004

Can concepts in user experience design be usefully applied to technology-mediated learning? We are a panel of educational technology specialists and enthusiasts who will present a multi-faceted exchange on this topic.

A panel of local educational technology specialists take a page from the film industry and discuss how technology, educational theory, and user experience design can promote deep engagement in learning.

Work Space/Body Space: Creating a healthy user experience through participatory design

June 2003

Furniture manufacturers face increasing pressures to provide ergonomically designed products. Workers, especially those faced with repetitive processes, face increasingly stressful physical environments. White, a human factors engineer and ergonomist discusses his work in applying "functional anthropometry"to workplace environments. He will present recent work in the UCSF Ergonomics Program along with rapid prototyping techniques that demonstrate an integration of standards and metrics with user participatory design.

A Problem in Air Traffic Management (ATM):
The Operation of Unpiloted Air Vehicles (UAVs) in Populated Airspaces

July 2003

Unpiloted Air Vehicles-the newest and arguably most radical addition to the civil and military aviation community-must be seamlessly and safely integrated into all facets of routine airspace operations.

But how shall this be achieved? How will Air Traffic Control's management of the airspace need to be modified?

Stephen Hawking and Me:
Accessibility, practicality and standards

August 2003

Flash and accessibility, two words that don't often play together well. Byron, a nationally recognized web developer, demonstrates, on his own site, working examples of making a site accessible, standards based and incorporating the latest technology. Byron reveals how CSS, XHTML, and Flash MX all coordinate to create a site that creates a usable and engaging experience.

Developing Training for Users in Heavy Industry

September 2003

Heavy process industries, whether chemical processing, pulp & paper, power, food & beverage, all have similar characteristics in terms of content -- work rules, process systems technology, human-machine interface -- and the characteristics of operations and production-line learners, whose backgrounds range from junior internet/technology-savvy to senior not-high-school educated.

Developing Requirements for Surgical Simulations

October 2003

As a challenging and potentially risky procedure, endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) is a prime candidate for VR simulation training.

Weghorst presents an on-going research effort at the University of Washington HITLab