Deconstructing Web Applications: Learning from the Best Designs

Hagan Rivers, Two Rivers Consulting

Designers are creating web applications to deliver powerful interactivity to users, while taking advantage of a browser-delivered, platform-independent implementation. We're seeing web applications in every possible industry and discipline. But up until now, nobody really knew how to implement them.

That’s why we’ve asked Hagan Rivers, a pioneer web application developer, to create a seminar that is a tour de force of existing web applications. Hagan will show dozens of examples of web apps—some great designs, some awful. She’ll look at many different domains ranging from banking and investment applications to educational software and system administrator tools.

In this seminar, you will deconstruct dozens of web application designs, giving you a head start when creating new designs and novel ideas for improving your existing ones. You will come away knowing more about the elements that make up a web application, how to choose different modes of navigation and orientation, what controls to use, and some of the best practices of the most successful web applications.

Getting the Most out of Prototypes    Sold Out!

Marc Rettig, Fit Associates

The work of creating and evaluating prototypes is one of the anchor activities for web site and product conception, design and development. Paper and electronic prototypes have many advantages for design teams.  They are tools for understanding a problem, evolving a design, improving team collaboration, and communicating effectively with stakeholders.

During this hands-on, interactive seminar, Marc Rettig will share an analysis of the prototyping tools currently available to design teams.  Attendees will have the opportunity to create prototypes of web sites, devices and services, and then conduct usability tests to see how well the prototypes holds up with users. You will come away from this full-day seminar understanding when, why, and how to create prototypes.

Creating Personas to Guide Design    

Kim Goodwin, Cooper

Are you designing for too many different users, each with conflicting goals? Is your team struggling to agree on a common design because everyone has a different opinion about what’s right? Do you have trouble communicating your users’ needs to the rest of your team?

To deal with these critical issues, Cooper’s Kim Goodwin created a new one-day seminar just for you.  After observing users in context and gathering user goals and attitudes through field studies, the next major focus for teams is Persona creation. The talented folks at Cooper invented the concept of Personas and Kim Goodwin has played a major role in developing and refining the technique. She is *the* expert to turn to for guidance when creating personas.

In this full-day seminar, you will learn to uncover user goals with interviews, to build an effective persona, to translate user observations into Personas, and to leverage Personas to persuade and educate stakeholders. This is the most detailed one-day Persona seminar you’ll ever attend!

How to Design a Task-Based Information Architecture

Gerry McGovern, Gerrymcgovern.com

Is your web site chaos? Do people have trouble finding their content? Are the people who create the content refusing to add the proper metadata? We often hear from designers that they have hundreds or thousands of pages, completely without organization or structure. To help you solve this problem, we looked to Gerry McGovern, a world-renowned expert in content management and author of two top-selling books, Content Critical and The Web Style Guide.

In Gerry’s full-day seminar, you will get a solid grounding in information architecture that will enable you to create designs that help users find what they want. Gerry will show you the classification, navigation, and search tools that will help meet your users’ needs. When you leave this seminar, you’ll have the basic foundation needed to create a logically organized web site and design a truly user-friendly navigation system.

Roadmap to Markup Success: Understanding Structure and Style

Molly E. Holzschlag, Molly.com & Eric A. Meyer, Complex Spiral Consulting

Are you spending too much time designing your pages to look the same across different browsers and platforms? Do simple layout changes take too much effort? Do you understand why some design changes seem simple while others require major rework? This seminar is ideal for anyone who wants to take control of the design back from the browsers.

In one of our most popular seminars from past UI Conferences, Molly E. Holzschlag and Eric A. Meyer, will show you how structured markup and CSS can work for you. You’ll learn how to separate the content of your pages from the structure, giving you better control over the look of your site. You’ll see how XML and XHTML will make your pages both extensible and portable, allowing you to create data-driven designs that function with ease and grace.

After spending a day with Molly and Eric, you’ll be ready to tackle the toughest of designs.

Advanced Methods for Usability Testing 

Rolf Molich, Dialog Design

Would you like to fine-tune your usability testing skills? Would you like to write reports that have more impact on the design? Would you like to ensure your working most efficiently, so you can get projects done quickly and efficiently? Here’s your opportunity to increase the effectiveness of your usability testing projects.

Since 1998, Rolf Molich has collected the methods, reports, and results of dozens of usability teams and scoured through them, in search of the best practices. He’s found radical differences in the teams’ methods – some very effective and some dreadfully ineffective. He’s culled the best and the worst and packed them into this day-long seminar, along with his amazing insights into the best practices.

This seminar will improve your skills in all areas of usability testing and facilitation, including planning and designing tests, identifying major usability problems, and writing reports. It’s the best tune-up you’ll ever get.

UIE Showcase Seminar Day

You have your choice between UIE’s two most popular seminars:

Web Site Usability 2005: The Big Picture

Jared M. Spool and Joshua Porter, User Interface Engineering

For 15 years, User Interface Engineering has researched and developed the most advanced, state-of-the-art usability strategies and techniques used today. UIE’s Jared M. Spool and Joshua Porter will share their outlook on the state of the web usability field today.

Jared and Joshua will present their insights on persona research, the latest usability testing techniques, the groundbreaking technologies impacting our design work, and the essential tools for understanding users.

Product Usability: Survival Techniques

Christine Perfetti, User Interface Engineering

In this comprehensive seminar, you will examine the most successful techniques for incorporating usability practices into your development process. Christine Perfetti, UIE’s Director of Instruction, will show how to build a working prototype of your web site or software application in a matter of hours.