MiUPA Events
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The Rathskeller in Ann Arbor
The Michigan UPA in collaboration with UXNet invites you to an evening of networking and fun on Wednesday, December 17th in Ann Arbor. This is your chance to skip the speaker and enjoy the company of fellow usability professionals.
This year’s networking and mixer event will be at the Rathskeller bar, located under the Heidelberg on Main Street in Ann Arbor. There is parking conveniently located around the corner at the Ann & Ashley Parking Structure.
This is a free event and a great opportunity to catch up with other people in the field and meet new people. We hope to see you there!
Posted on December 7th, 2008
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We had 6 speakers, 50 attendees, free giveaways from TechSmith, gourmet pizza from Cottage Inn, and a great World Usability Day event in Ann Arbor. We even had a few hardy souls come down from the daylong MSU event in East Lansing.
Photos available in the World Usability Day flickr pool.
Posted on November 16th, 2008
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Thursday, November 13, 2008
Soar Technology in Ann Arbor
How well does your product or website meet your customers’ needs and expectations? Does your product simplify or complicate your client’s workday?
This evening session, open to the general public, will explain this thing called “Usability”. Using a combination of presentations and demonstrations with products ranging from alarm clocks to speeding cars to the high tech hands free voice activated SYNC that was jointly developed by Ford and Microsoft, attendees will walk away with a clear understanding of the value of designing an excellent, compelling, and safe user experience into products. It will also drive home the point that usability is a rigorous design practice that is applied to much more than just web sites.
Usability in Your Life and in the Products You Use is one of many events around the world on World Usability Day, November 13, features speakers from the worlds of software development and technology integration. This event will equip you with an overview of how to listen to your users and find out what they need. It is perfect for people and companies interested in making products that really work for users.
Speakers
R. Jeffrey Benko, Lead Technical Service Engineer at ANSYS, Inc.
Multi-physics Simulation: More Fidelity, Less Effort
Jeff will speak on how Ansys streamlined the workflow for multi-physics simulation activities, replacing the human-powered, laborious, and error-prone linking of disparate software components within a common user environment.
Widespread Adoption: The Key Metric for Design Success.
Richard will describe the focus and techniques of Menlo’s High-tech Anthropology® team. Sheridan will provide compelling industry examples as evidence of the power of an anthropological approach to design.
Brian Phelps, Tec-Ed
Can I hear you now? Designing the User Interface of a Product that Improves Cell Phone Reception.
A common problem in today’s wireless world is poor cell phone reception in one’s home. Tec-Ed’s client (Nextivity, Inc.) developed the technical solution and sought expertise to design the user interface and validate it with real users.
Automotive Human Factors:
What is it, who does it, how do we do it, and what we are working on at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.
Tom Hodges, SYNC and Digital Marketing Manager, Customer Service Division, Ford Motor Company
Usability in the development of the Ford SYNC:
an in-car communications and entertainment system that allows drivers to bring nearly any mobile phone or digital media player into their vehicle and operate them using voice commands, the vehicle’s steering wheel, or radio controls.
Nancy Shore, getDowntown Program Director
The Commuter Challenge: Competition, Prizes, and Consciousness-Raising about Sustainable Transportation.
Nancy will discuss getDowntown’s Commuter Challenge, a month-long competition that encourages employees to use sustainable transportation. She’ll outline the key elements of success and how these could be used to encourage people to use your product or service.
Although this event is free, please RSVP to events@miupa.org to ensure that there are enough food and beverages for everyone.
The Michigan UPA is still seeking sponsors for this event.
Posted on October 29th, 2008
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November 13, 2008
Ann Arbor, East Lansing, & Houghton, MI
World Usability Day is blossoming here in Michigan! We’ve grown from one event in 2007 to three events in 2008, spanning 555 miles within Michigan! Local events can be found in Ann Arbor, East Lansing, and Houghton. While it might be challenging to get to all three, please do join in the festivities, wherever you are located in Michigan!
Michigan Usability Professionals’ Association
The Michigan UPA chapter is offering Usability in Your Life and the Products You Use 6:00-9:30 p.m. in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Speakers from the University of Michigan, Ford Motor Company, Menlo Innovations, Tec-Ed, Ansys, and the getDowntown program of the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce will highlight usability in transportation.
Michigan State University’s Usability and Accessibility Center
MSU is celebrating World Usability Day with their sixth annual usability and accessibility event. The event is 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at the MSU Union, in East Lansing, Michigan. A distinguished speaker line-up will address usability and accessibility issues.
Michigan Technological University
Michigan Tech is hosting WUD-UP! World Usability Day in the Upper Peninsula at Michigan Tech featuring a poster session 3:00-4:00 p.m. and a panel discussion 4:00-5:15 p.m. in Houghton, Michigan. 
Posted on October 26th, 2008
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Monday, October 27, 2008
At ProQuest in Ann Arbor, MI
Barb Hernandez, Josephine Scott, and Casey Wright, ProQuest
User Experience Practitioners at TechSmith, maker of Morae and UserVue, Hernandez, Scott, & Wright have attempted a variety of unique methods of getting feedback from varied users in diverse locations. In their presentation, they will talk about how the practice of remote testing and field research has evolved alongside network technologies and conferencing tools. Now, researchers can visit and observe users in their offices or homes from their own offices or homes. The variety of networking tools available makes it less expensive and time consuming to gather more feedback from more users. They will discuss their own experiences conducting a variety of research methods remotely, as well as the tools and methodologies used, and challenges and successes experienced.
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Posted on October 20th, 2008
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Wednesday October 22, 2008
Steelcase Learning Center in Grand Rapids
If you are interested in learning the basics and benefits of user centered design and how to introduce it into your organization, then Introduction to User Centered Design is your chance! Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus, Director of User Experience at Perficient, and Mike Beasley, the president of the Michigan UPA, will lead a
discussion that gives you the opportunity to pose your questions to a couple of user experience experts. You can learn about such things as:
- What IS Usability? Can you touch it? Can you measure it?
- How can you incorporate it into your organization?
- “Usability,” “User Experience,” “Human Factors,” “Information Architecture?” What’s the deal with all these names?
- What can my website analytics tell me about the usability of my site?
- How you can use user tasks and goals to organize your website.
After an introduction to the basics of usability, they will open the floor to questions. You will set the agenda for this discussion through the questions you bring, so come prepared!
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Posted on October 8th, 2008
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Wednesday June 4, 2008
TechSmith, Okemos, MI
Joanna Markel and Serena Rosenhan, ProQuest
As members of the User Experience Design team at ProQuest, a company that produces information products for libraries, we wanted to know more about how our users approach research. While we routinely conduct usability tests and evaluations as part of our product development processes, we needed a new method to help us answer questions about the tasks and situations for which our products are designed. We turned to contextual inquiry and designed and conducted a series of field observations of college students doing library research. After conducting 13 rather time-consuming in-person observations, we modified our methods to remote online observations and quickly discovered that there were unexpected benefits to this approach in addition to time-savings.
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Posted on May 9th, 2008
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Thursday May 8, 2008
Farmington Hills, MI
Abstract
Stan Driskell presents Spider Controls, a new paradigm for the design of graphic user interfaces (GUIs) based on a universal graphic that displays menu, list/combo box, toolbar, palette, and dialog box options in a common format. This universal graphic makes it easy to embed any type of control, including list boxes, spin buttons, radio buttons, and check boxes.
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Posted on April 17th, 2008
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Monday, March 31st – Wednesday, April 2nd
Ann Arbor, MI
The Michigan Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association is collaborating with Washtenaw Community College’s Internet Professional Program, User Experience Network (UXnet), Refresh Detroit, and a growing list of others to sponsor the fourth annual Internet User Experience event – IUE2008 in Ann Arbor Michigan March 31-April 3, 2008.
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Posted on April 4th, 2008
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Ann Arbor, MI
An engaging talk on the role of human factors engineering in making medical devices safer and a tour of the National Center for Patient Safety’s hands-on museum of medical devices. Brought to you by The Michigan Usability Professionals’ Association and the University of Michigan student chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
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Posted on February 1st, 2008
Tags: health care, safety
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