NN/g Usability Camp

I just returned from my trip to NYC to attended NN/g's 3 day intensive usability camp. It was a great session with lots of useful information and real world examples. Much of the information just reinforced what I already subscribe to and apply, but there were several new jewels of wisdom that I was able to take away.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The presenters played a very large role in the success of the camp. Amy Schade, Hoa Loranger, Kara Pernice Coyne, and Dr. Jakob Nielson all spoke on different topics. It was great because each spoke on an area that they were clearly experts in. They were always willing to answer any question that was asked, and really answered the questions. For something that is so subjective to the situation in which it is being applied, they provided answers that seemed globally applicable. You were left with answers, not generalizations.

Jakob opened the camp by going over some basic topics and terminology. This really helped level the playing field and get everyone on the same page prior to jumping into deep more specific topics.

Prior to attending the 3 day camp, I was familiar with many usability testing concepts, but like many of us, rarely had a chance to apply them. Paper Prototyping is just one of these concepts. Paper prototypes are a very fast and cheep way to do low level testing of advanced concepts. It can quickly show you any gaps in logic, flow, labels, and inconsistencies in the design. If you want to try something new/different, paper prototyping is a great way to see if this new idea will make sense to the user, without spending countless hours designing and developing.

 When I have new project that I need to design an interface for, I often will begin by looking at the functional requirements, and drawing something up in Fireworks. I always felt that I was proficient enough with my design software to achieve basically the same thing as paper prototyping, but without all the paper....WRONG!  While at the 3 day camp we had an exercise to create a paper prototype of an application and then test it. My group quickly came up with some functional requirements, brainstormed how the interface should be organized, broke up the interface in to parts for the individual team members to create. We then quickly tested it and were able to identify any real usability issues with our new application. This was all done in about the same time it would have taken me just to mock something up in Fireworks.

Another big WOW for me was the statistics that Jakob presented showing the ROI on usability. He also presented on the emerging concept of "Discount" Usability methods. He showed us all how we could stretch a budget and get maximum impact from that budget... All great things to enable me to come back and evangelize the power and positive impact usability testing can have.

Over all I thought the conference was very valuable, and I can highly recommend it to developers, designers, and others who have some informal exposure to the concept, but want to learn more about how to actually do it.