CHI*A NewsFeed

May 2008 Event

Thu, 08 May 2008 02:35:41 GMT

Liz Sanders, Ph.D. -- Designing With Your Users: Generative Tools for Collective Creativity

There has been significant interest lately from the business community in the value of design research and design thinking. This is particularly true when it comes to the very early front-end of the design process. Generative Tools help create a shared design language that designers, researchers and other stakeholders can use to visually communicate with each other. The design language is Generative in the sense that with it, people can express an infinite number of ideas (e.g., dreams, fears, insights, opportunities) through a limited set of stimulus items. This program will feature a hands-on experience using a generative toolkit.

The second hour will provide hands-on experience using generative toolkits. Participants will make collective artifacts with these toolkits and then present their creations. We will then discuss the "making" experience as well as other topics/questions suggested by those participating.

About the Speaker

Liz Sanders is the President of MakeTools, a company that explores new spaces in the emerging design research landscape. She is a visionary in applied design research, having introduced many of the tools, techniques and methods being used today to drive and/or inspire design from a human-centered perspective. Liz has practiced across all the design disciplines. Her current focus is on bringing participatory, human-centered design thinking to the planning and architectural design process.

Liz also speaks about and offers learning experiences in human-centered design research and innovation for clients, colleagues and students around the world. She has a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology and a B.A. in both Psychology and in Anthropology.

Date:

May 15, 2008

Time:

Refreshments: 6:30 pm, Program 7:00 pm

Location:

Avenue A / Razorfish
730 Peachtree Street NE
Suite 1100
Atlanta, GA 30308
(directions)

April 2008 Event

Thu, 08 May 2008 02:33:39 GMT

Melissa Read, Ph.D. -- How to Use Psychology to Influence Online Behavior

Psychology has long been used to explain, predict and manipulate human behavior in real-world environments. However, we have only scratched the surface with respect to its online applications. Melissa Read, vice president of research and innovation at Engauge Digital http://www.engauge.com/ (formerly Spunlogic), will provide insight into how to apply psychological principles to digital marketing strategies. Leveraging her expertise as a doctor of psychology, she will discuss how these principles can be used to influence behavior as it relates to sales and marketing, including such performance metrics as website visits and online transactions and how certain techniques can improve the perception of a brand online.

Dr. Read earned her doctorate in Psychology and is a former assistant professor of human factors psychology. Her work has been published in the Journal of Psychological Science and she has presented her research at Harvard and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

Date:

April 24, 2008

Time:

Refreshments: 6:30 pm, Program 7:00 pm

Location:

Roundbox Global
(directions)

March 2008 Event

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:11:03 GMT

Dan Brown -- Documentation Is Hard: An Apology

In the web business, nothing is stable: With new interaction paradigms, established UX documentation conventions (wireframes, flow charts, and personas) are no longer as effective as they need to be. All is not lost. In this session, Dan Brown, author of Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning, will dissect the new challenges and provide suggestions for addressing them head-on. You will come away with ideas on how to adapt documentation to different situations and design problems. The session will also include an overview of documentation systems and modular wireframing, techniques developed and perfected by EightShapes, LLC, where Dan is co-founder and principal. Finally, we'll end with Q&A -- be sure to bring your toughest documentation questions. (This does NOT include "What tool did you use to make that?")

Date:

March 11, 2008

Time:

Refreshments: 6:30 pm, Program 7:00 pm

Location:

Macquarium
(directions)