Knowledge sharing for digital decision makers
Conference, 3-5 May 2011

User experience

On the user experience conference track you can learn from the bestThis years user experience track is a complete 1-day conference in itself, covering the key challenges facing UX professionals while enabling delegates to network with peers from around the world. Helped by our groups, we’ve found a number of thought-leaders who will come and share their experiences and UX vision.

The track opens with a down-to-earth keynote on common mistakes that UX leaders make and how to avoid them. In the sessions during the day you’ll hear presentations from industry experts and web professionals on search, iterative improvements, “begging forgiveness” internally, mental models and using elements of persuasion in your work. Among the case studies on the program are Erie Insurance with a presentation on how they implemented UX in the enterprise and Yellow Pages Group from Canada on searching socially and designing for social interaction. From the only user experience designer at Wyndham Worldwide you can hear how to improve search interface usability and University of Illinois at Chicago will talk about toeing the line or begging forgiveness in site adaptation.

With 3 other tracks going on at the same time, you can use the breaks, plenary sessions and popular evening social events to broaden your perspective and engage in conversations with peers from other industries. Finally, if you have time, come a day early to attend our tutorial day featuring 8 different 3 hour workshops, including one on mental models by UX guru Indi Young.

The user experience conference track is hosted by Volker Grünauer.

Conference Day #1, Wednesday May 4th
8.30 am
 Coffee and registration
9.00 am

Conference welcome
9.15 am

Opening keynote

Social Media and Information Strategy

by Bob Boiko, University of Washington
10.00 am
 Break
10.15 am

Common Mistakes that UX Leaders Make

If you are interested in how you can be a better UX leader, then come listen as I entertain you with some mistakes I have made leading UX teams. The goals is to learn from my mistakes and avoid making them yourself. With my background in business & industrial anthropology I will focus especially on cultural factors and how you as a UX leader can actively cultivate a UX culture that support (...) - read more.

by Dennis Schleicher, Red Privet
11.00 am
 Break
11.15 am

Searching Socially: How the Social Graph is Revolutionizing the Search User Experience

Search is all about relevance. But is relevance just matching words in a query and ranking by some abstract web-wide popularity, or can it be something more personal? Social search soups up typical relevance by mashing up a user's social graph with varying sources of metadata to make results more meaningful - what are my friends doing, reading, looking at, choosing? How can social data help us ran (...) - read more.

Case: Yellow Pages Group / Groupe Pages Jaunes – Canada
by Stephanie Lemieux
See slides online

Looking for X: Search Interface Usability

The key to a satisfying and effective search goes beyond the quality of your keyword matches and the facets, snippets, and sorts of your user interface. It depends on knowing your users and developing a mental model of their “information need.” That mental model involves their reasons for being in your system, what triggers them to search (as opposed to browse, or using another path), and wha (...) - read more.

by Lynn Leitte, Wyndham Worldwide
See slides online
12.00 am
 Lunch
1.00 pm

Politics or treason: Toeing the line or begging forgiveness in site adaptation

The fine art of tightrope-walking in site management and adaptation: when to toe the line, when to beg forgiveness. Playing politics can be dangerous, but it's sometimes beneficial—but it can also be beneficial to commit treason. Our landscapes have changed—now each customer and every person you work with has power. Improve the lives of both yourself and your site visitors: find out when in you (...) - read more.

Case: University of Illinois at Chicago
by Anne Petersen
See slides online

Implementing UX in the enterprise

We all know the pains of establishing something new within an organization.  We also understand the tactics involved in that, showcase projects, metrics, etc.  Although this is all necessary and must be done over and over again, what really interests me about User Experience is the ability that these teams bring to drive innovation and change within an organization. This talk will cover drivin (...) - read more.

Case: Erie Insurance
by Rich Warnaka
See slides online
1.45 pm
 Break
2.00 pm

Expert panel discussion
3.00 pm
 Break
3.15 pm

How Organizations Use Mental Model Diagrams

After you get back to your desk, how do you introduce a little of what you've learned at the conference? You're up against the same old budget, the same old office politics, and the same old non-believers. Mental model diagrams were created as a neutral data point, allowing your discussions with people to be more logical and less turf-like. I'll show you some examples how real people adapted thes (...) - read more.

by Indi Young,
See slides online
4.00 pm
 Break
4.15 pm

From information to motivation, firewall to no wall

Companies are intensely trying to wrangle their employees into living healthier lifestyles. But they’re still relying on old-fashioned techniques and ignoring the user experience. Join this session where we’ll explore how companies are learning from behavioral science and consumer markets how to entice employees and support healthy choices. We’ll talk about how environment and culture, socia (...) - read more.

by Fran Melmed, context communication consulting
See slides online
5.00 pm
 Break
5.15 pm

Web idol
6.15 pm
 End of Conference Day #1
6.30 pm

Social event

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