Usability Center News

Events | Interviews | Press Releases | Usability Makes News | Usability Humor

• Carol Barnum and former student Yina Li presented the findings of the Holiday Inn China website study at the STC Summit in May 2009.
• Carol Barnum and her former colleague David Dayton publish study results on the impact of agile on user-centered design.
• Barnum speaks twice at the Usability Professionals Association Conference, Baltimore, June 18-20, 2008
  • Carol Barnum and former usability associate David Dayton report survey results on attitudes of developers towards usability testing.
  • Barnum joins Steve Krug and Randolf Bias on a panel that debates the hot topic: Usability by Amateurs: Threat or Menace? Barnum takes the position of the "voice of reason." View the slides from the three speakers (see attached PowerPoint) or listen in on the taped audiotrack of the session.
  • Carol Barnum speaks at the Society for Technical Communication Annual Conference, Philadelphia, June 1-4, 2008, about the results of a usability test of an e-learning course management tool
• Read two articles Carol Barnum wrote for eLearn Magazine about usability testing and e-learning
  • What do you mean when you say; Usabilty?
  • Usability Testing of E-Learning: Easy, Effective, Affordable

    Barnum and Dayton present usability case study at Society for Technical Communication conference, Minneapolis, May 12, 2007.

• Carol Barnum shares further thoughts on a company's loss of usability focus with a switch to agile programming
• Carol Barnum and David Dayton speak at the STC Annual Conference, May 2007, on the impact of Agile on usability testing with a software client. Based on their usability work with Ipswitch, Barnum and Dayton presented the results of two surveys of Ipswitch employees, designed to get feedback on their attitudes about usability before and after the implementation of agile programming. The results proved very interesting. A research paper is in the works.
• Carol Barnum invited to share her predictions for e-learning for 2008
• Carol Barnum speaks in Wellington, New Zealand, Friday, May 12, 2006, "Is UA in your QA?"
• Carol Barnum speaks at Australasian Online Documentation and Content Conference, AODC 2006, Friday, May 5, 2006, "Search vs. Look-Up: Results of Usability Testing"
• Carol Barnum invited speaker at Nov 3rd Michigan State World Usability Day event
• Usability Center invited to present usability results at IEEE Professional Communication Conference Limerick, Ireland July 11, 2005

Usability Center hosts Steve Krug, author of "Don’t Make Me Think."	Steve Krug entertains standing room-only audience with usability stories.

Return to Top

• Carol Barnum joins the ranks of UX pioneers. Read the interview ( www.uxpioneers.com)
• Radio NZ - One In Five Podcast Feed
  Podcast of a radio talk show Dr. Barnum participated in while in New Zealand, focusing on web accessibility and usability. From the program One in Five, airing weekly on New Zealand radio, focusing on usability and accessibility. "One in five" refers to the estimated number of people around the world with some sort of disability. Program date was Sunday, July 2, 2006.
  

Return to Top

• Limerick, Ireland — July 11, 2005, Ipswitch, Inc. —
  "Academic-Industry Collaboration Allows Company to Reach Customer Satisfaction Goals"

Return to Top

• Tell Me What You're Thinking
  Usability testing no longer an afterthought
  Georgia Department of Transportation brings its usability testing need to Southern Poly.
• Cultural divide in e-mails
  from the Wellington, New Zealand Dominion Post, InfoTech section
  
• Cross-cultural communication on the Web: four practical steps
  Article inspired by Dr. Barnum's New Zealand seminar, created by Rachel McAlpine, a New Zealand author and web content developer, who attended.
  
• Scientist finds complexity causes 50% of product returns
  The average consumer in the United States will struggle for 20 minutes to get a device working, before giving up, the study found. Product developers, brought in to witness the struggles of average consumers, were astounded by the havoc they created.
  
• Hotels dumb down alarm clocks
  Weary travelers soon to find them more user-friendly
  
• Unexpected Search Results
  It's a common feature to send an e-mail to share an article you have read. Clearly, there is a usability problem when the top response to a search request is “page not found.” It wouldn't take many users in a usability evaluation to uncover this big problem.
  

Return to Top

• Designing the Stop Sign
  Here's what happens when marketing gets involved in design. Enjoy!
• Police Excuse Angry Computer User
  Have you ever felt like throwing your computer out the window? Read about one man who did and made the news for not getting arrested.
• Calendar of usability
  Norwegian usability specialists Netlife Research give us their take on calendar usability.
• Frogs reviewing web content
  Enjoy the humor in this situation but can you see the usability problem here?
  
• Costello calls to buy a computer from Abbott
  Bud and Lou's comical conversation pokes usability fun at familiar computer names and terms.
  

Return to Top