CHIFOO 2006 Program Series

Professional Strength: Enriching the Experience

Whether an established HCI practitioner, a newcomer to the usability field, or a professional from a related field, we all share the desire to stay on top of our game and delight our clients to keep them coming back. But how?

The 2006 CHIFOO Series presents the work of local and national practitioners via presentations, panels, and technical and professional practice workshops to help you master new techniques, broaden your industry perspective, make key connections through communities of practice, and take the lead in driving the profession forward. It takes the commitment of individuals working together toward higher standards to strengthen the professional as a whole. Learn. Practice. Participate. Lead.

LOCATION NOTE: To ensure that our programs are easily accessible by professionals throughout the greater Portland metro area, CHIFOO events will be held at a variety of locations over the course of the year. Please refer to each program's details to determine the venue.

PLEASE NOTE NEW PROGRAM TIME:
5:00 PM: CHIFOOd (dinner at a local restaurant, see event details for info)
6:30 PM: Registration, networking and announcements
7:00 PM: Program and Q&A

ADMISSION: Programs are free for CHIFOO Members; general admission is $5. Tutorial prices vary. Annual CHIFOO membership costs $20.

Wednesday, February 1
Tales from the field: Practice issues in home and workplace ethnography (Program)

Sara Bly, Sara Bly Consulting
Location: Tektronix, Bldg 38, Beaverton

Research in homes and work-places (i.e. the "field") provide insights for the design and evaluation of technologies by looking at the everyday activities and behaviors of people living their real lives. Find out what surprising issues come up when we try to study, e.g., reading in bed or learn how families deal with digital pictures.

Saturday, March 18
Expression into facts: Practical statistics in design research (Tutorial)

Tom Cocklin, Ph.D., CHFP, Human Factors Engineering, Hewlett Packard
Location: The Paramount Hotel, Portland

When to research and when not; how to ask questions; the scientific method; validity and reliability; experimental design; applying basic methods to usability work.

Fundamentals are tied to practical, real-world examples to illustrate the power and pitfalls of statistics in design research.

Wednesday, April 5
Time is money ... Can you $pare a minute? (Program)

Chris Bond, User Interface Consultant, Portland General Electric
Location: Two World Trade Center Auditorium, Portland

Every so often, a project comes along that provides the opportunity to demonstrate immediate, tangible savings. Chris Bond describes improvements to a Customer Information System (CIS) that decreased call times by a minute and reduced the need for 10 new hires and related training.

Wednesday, May 3 (Note date correction)
The Interaction Design Association (IxDA): Growing an international community (Program)

Elizabeth Bacon, Senior Human Factors Engineer, St. Jude Medical

Elizabeth Bacon introduces the new Interaction Design Association (IxDA), a non-profit, member-supported international organization dedicated to advancing the profession of interaction design. She explains its early history as a mailing list, growth as a group, and its recent formal incorporation.

Wednesday, June 7
Professional participation: When you reach beyond your job (Program)

Gene Lynch, Design Technologies, Inc.

Professional societies, industry consortia, and trade associations provide us with education, networking, standards, public policy, and professional development. Panelists provide a glimpse into what they did, when they did it, how they got involved, why they signed up, and their own view of the benefits and costs.

Wednesday, July 12 (Note date correction)
Tools of the trade (Program)

Panel of regional practitioners

A show-and-tell evening program focused on the tools and techniques HCI practitioners use to collect and analyze customer data. Learn about new or alternative techniques and technologies through a series of 15-minute presentations by regional practitioners showcasing real-world examples of these "tools of the trade" in action.

Wednesday, August 2
Networking made easy (Program)

Ann M. Marcus, Communication Strategist

Learn the five key factors that take the fear and confusion out of meeting new people and making lasting professional connections.

Saturday, August 12
Multi-faceted design principles (Tutorial)

Susan Palmiter, Design Technologies, Inc.

This half-day tutorial will introduce design concepts drawn from several sources such as the scenario-based approach of Carroll and Rossen, Gestalt principles, Williams' design principles for non-designers, and Tufte's work with visual displays of information. The group will discuss numerous examples, both good and to-be-improved, and consider additional information about designing for dynamic displays, errors, and feedback.

Wednesday, September 6
Reinforce your foundation: There's more to it than you may think (Program)

Tom Hewett, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Computer Science, Drexel University

Education and training should provide the foundation for our HCI-related practices. Tom Hewitt unpacks the HCI Curriculum to show us the breadth and practical relevance of our field's building blocks and provides guidance for our development through self-study and collaborative efforts.

Saturday, September 9
Designing with the mind in mind (Tutorial)

Tom Hewett, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Computer Science, Drexel University

The normal workings of the human mind should have some influence on our designs. Increase your store of information to make educated design choices and avoid some common errors. For interface designers, technical writers, and anyone who wants insight into mental processes and design, this course requires no psychology background.

Wednesday, October 4
Work practice modeling: A UXD technique for gathering customer data (Program)

Anne de Ridder & Tom Herceg, Tektronix, Inc.

Work practice models are effective and engaging tools for gathering product-independent information from users about their day-to-day challenges and the types of tools and resources they need to do their jobs. This program will combine presentation, case study examples, and hands-on exercises to explain how to: 1) identify and model your users' routine work practices, 2) understand and document users' conceptual models, and 3) use these tools to gather customer information to drive product design.

Saturday, October 21
Using scenarios to drive design (Tutorial)

Steve Calde, Principal Consultant, Cooper
Elizabeth Bacon, Senior Human Factors Engineer, St. Jude Medical

Learn techniques for creating meaningful and effective persona-based scenarios and how to prevent scenarios from becoming a tool of evil in your organization.

Former Cooper design teammates Elizabeth Bacon and Steve Calde reveal the power of scenarios as a requirements definition tool, a conceptual and detailed design tool, and a communication tool.