#27791
Why a Completion Rate is Better with a Confidence Interval
Confidence intervals have been lauded by the APA (American Psychological Association) as the preferred technique when presenting data for any size sample, and this has been echoed in the usability literature as well.
Sauro, Jeff. Usability Professionals Association (2006). Articles>Usability>Statistics>Methods
#21090
The Why and How of an Effective Workshop
I've held several workshops for my company and I've done a mess of workshops at CHI and UPA. Workshops are a uniformly great experience: Put a bunch of usability professionals in the room, propose a topic, and magic always happens. The major benefit of a good workshop is, of course, the training opportunity. In a year when we won't be able to get everyone to the UPA conference, workshops provide us with a low-cost alternative. But that's only the most obvious benefit.
Rettger, Mary Beth. Usability Professionals Association (2003). Articles>Collaboration>Usability
#19338
Why ask Why in a Usability Evaluation?
If you've ever kept company with a 5 year-old you have experienced how their incessant desire to understand life results in an unending stream of 'whys?' Over the years I've found myself becoming impatient with my children and grandchildren. So I was surprised to find that 'asking why' in a usability evaluation had a more profound effect on the outcome than I had anticipated.
Wood, Larry. Usability Professionals Association (2000). Articles>Usability>Methods
#25600
Why Listening to Users Can Damage Your Website
The first time I noticed that people tend to say one thing and do another in a usability test was back in 2000. We had been building a new company website and testing it with real users brought us an unexpected problem. All the users liked the new design a lot more than the old one, but nobody could work out how to use it.
Unsworth, David. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#31632
Working to Improve the Civic Experience
What has UPA done to encourage more useable and accessible government? Quite a lot, it turns out. UPA supports efforts to improve the usability of elections, support plain language, and remove barriers to civic access for people with disabilities through an alphabet soup of projects and events.
Scott, Josephine. Usability Professionals Association (2008). Articles>Usability>Accessibility>Government
#26612
Boston's little-known secret is that regardless of how renowned its citizens are for their literacy and tech savvy, we find consumer electronics just as hard to use as everyone else. The World Usability Day planning committee knew that as we raised awareness of usability and its related fields.
Blostein, Judy. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Usability>International
#26613
Curitiba, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte were the three cities in Brazil that had events for World Usability Day (WUD) on November 3, 2005. These events marked the formation of the UPA Brazilian chapter.
Holtz Betiol, Adriana. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Usability>Regional>Brazil
#32893
The following is what has been collectively pulled-through as the main points from Ella Tallyn's and Jon Pettigrew's respective presentations. These points should serve as introductory guidelines for UCD with children.
Demming, GiGi. Usability Professionals Association (2004). Presentations>User Centered Design>Accessibility>Children
#32980
Just as a romantic poet might choose to pen an ode to a single rose as opposed to the entire garden, perhaps we should look to the simplest elements of usability for inspiration. Perhaps it’s time to recognize the contribution of a single humble helper. Yes, it’s time for an ode to Balloon Help. You may smile, but it can be argued that Balloon Help is not only one of the most ubiquitous implementations of modern technological performance support but it is also one of the most underappreciated.
Cavanagh, Thomas B. Usability Professionals Association (2004). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#33249
UPA Code of Professional Conduct
The Code of Professional Conduct of the Usability Professionals' Association expresses the profession's recognition of its responsibilities to the public, clients, employers, and colleagues. The Code guides members in the performance of their professional responsibilities and express the basic tenets of ethical and professional conduct.
Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Usability>Professionalism>Ethics
#33250
Member Profile and Salary Survey
The goal of the 2000 Usability Professionals' Association (UPA) Member Profile and Salary Survey was to gather information that would enable the association to understand the make-up of the membership in order to ensure their needs are being met.
Usability Professionals Association (2000). Careers>Salaries>Usability
#33251
This year, for the fi rst time, we've included results by employer as well as information on the types of technique in use today and a breakdown of salary by experience. Members of the Usability Professionals Association are, of course, entitled to the raw data so that they can conduct their own analysis.
Usability Professionals Association (2004). Careers>Salaries>Usability>United Kingdom
#33254
Salary Survey Reveals Truth About UK Usability Market
Most people looking for the first time at the results of the UK Chapter's recent salary survey will rush to find out where they come on the overall pay scale. But the survey asked far more than just 'how much do you make' and because it was widely publicised and open to all, the results have some interesting things to say about the state of our industry.
Colborne, Giles. Usability Professionals Association (2003). Careers>Salaries>Usability>United Kingdom
#33343
A Comparison of Questionnaires for Assessing Website Usability 
Five questionnaires for assessing the usability of a website were compared in a study with 123 participants. The questionnaires studied were SUS, QUIS, CSUQ, a variant of Microsoft’s Product Reaction Cards, and one that we have used in our Usability Lab for several years. Each participant performed two tasks on each of two websites: finance.yahoo.com and kiplinger.com. All five questionnaires revealed that one site was significantly preferred over the other. The data were analyzed to determine what the results would have been at different sample sizes from 6 to 14. At a sample size of 6, only 30-40% of the samples would have identified that one of the sites was significantly preferred. Most of the data reach an apparent asymptote at a sample size of 12, where two of the questionnaires (SUS and CSUQ) yielded the same conclusion as the full dataset at least 90% of the time.
Tullis, Thomas S. and Jacqueline N. Stetson. Usability Professionals Association (2004). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Surveys
#33429
Persuasive Design and Usability: What Is Our Role as Usability Professionals?
Changing people's attitudes and behaviors for the good could help us to make this world a better place. And turning this world into a better one is one of the key drivers for most of the usability people I know. Most of them don't advocate usability for the money; they want to help make things and consequently life easier.
Zimmermann, Silvia. Usability Professionals Association (2007). Articles>Usability>Persuasive Design
