Usability Specialist

1
Usability Specialist

• Traci Allison
• Maureen Daley
• Jonathan Tweedy
• Jeff Yoder

2
Overview

• Job Description
• Skills Required
• Job Outlook
• Conferences and Professional Resources

3
Job Description

• Project Planning
• Attending project kick off meetings with key
  stakeholders clients
• Conducting user research
• Conducting design exercises, i.e., card sorts,
  other usability tests

Sourcehttp//www.nngroup.com/reports/prototyping/
video_stills.html
4
Job Description

• Project Planning (continued)
• Analyzing research, usability, and/or design
  exercises and writing detailed reports of
  findings
• Presenting results to design team, stakeholders,
  and/or clients

5
Job Description

• Project Development
• Executing a user-centered design (UCD) process
  and ensuring that best practices for UCD are
  followed during all stages of development
• Conducting usability testing of prototypes or
  systems

Source http//www.dtc.umn.edu/news/IA/photos.html
6
Job Description

• Project Deployment
• Surveying users for feedback
• Conducting further usability tests
• Conducting field studies or research to determine
  actual usage

Source http//www.thehfe.com/lab.htm
7
Job Description

• How does this mean Ill spend my time?
• In meetings
• Designing and administering tests
• Writing reports

Sourcehttp//www.nngroup.com/reports/prototyping/
video_stills.html
8
Job Description

• What will the work environment be like?
• Usually in an office setting, could be
• Relaxed dot-com, tech-firm office environment
• More formal, or business casual environment,
  especially if consulting
• Also likely to work in a usability lab, a
  specialized environment for conducting usability
  tests
• Travel
• May need to travel to client sites for conducting
  tests in users workplaces
• Doing research in the field
• May be able to work from home, likely traveling
  required for meetings, etc.

9
Salary

• Nationally, half of all people employed as
  usability specialists earn between 63,343 and
  80,348 annually. The midpoint of this range is
  76,101.
• Source http//www.learnmoreindiana.org/_at_parents/p
  arents_68/college_careers/exploring_and_choosing/c
  areer_profiles/235702.xml

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Skills Required - Education

• Courses on Human-Computer Interaction or Human
  Factors and Interface Design
• Bachelors/Masters degree in Human Factors
  Engineering, Human Computer Interaction,
  Cognitive Psychology, Information Science or
  related field
• Minimum of 2-4 years experience designing
  software interfaces

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Skills Required Project Mgmt

• Ability to effectively contribute to the
  planning, implementation, analysis and reporting
  phases of a usability evaluation project
• Ability to communicate effectively with
  colleagues and clients in both written and spoken
  formats
• Attention to detail

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Skills Required - Technical

• Familiarity with graphics tools to create rapid
  prototype designs
• Ability to effectively manage and maintain a
  small informational website
• An interest in learning about and sharing your
  understanding of designing with users in mind
• Technical proficiency with PC and Macintosh
  platforms and with MS Office

13
Skills Required - Other

• An interest in learning about and sharing your
  understanding of designing with users in mind
• Industry specific knowledge (banking, medical,
  etc.)
• Knowledge of current and emerging technologies

14
Job Outlook

• Computer systems analysts, database
  administrators, and computer scientists are
  expected to be among the fastest growing
  occupations through 2012.
• Source Bureau of Labor Statistics
  http//stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos042.htm

15
Usability Conferences

• ACM SIGCHI annual conference http//chi2005.org
• Portland, OR
• Theme Safety, Technology, and Community

Columbia River Gorge Portland, Oregon Visitors
Association Source http//chi2005.org/geninfo/po
rtland.html
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Usability Conferences

• Interact Conference http//www.interact2005.org/
• Rome, Italy
• Topics
• Context-dependent Systems
• Intelligent Environments
• Tangible Interfaces
• Usability Evaluation
• Location-aware Interaction
• Safety Issues and Human error
• Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing
• 3D and Virtual Reality Interfaces

Source http//users.abac.com/dkiel/italy/rome/rom
e.html
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Professional Associations

• UPA - Usability Professionals Association
• http//www.usabilityprofessionals.org/about_upa/

• ACM SIGCHI (Association of Computing Machinery
  Special Interest Group on Computer-Human
  Interaction)
• http//www.acm.org/ sigchi/

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Professional Associations

• Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
• http//hfes.org/

• Society for Technical Communications Usability
  Special Interest Group (SIG)
• http//www.stcsig.org/usability

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Online Resources

• Usability News
• http//www.usabilitynews.com/
• Society for Technical Communications Usability
  Special Interest Group (SIG) Usability Toolkit
• http//www.stcsig.org/usability/resources/toolkit/
  toolkit.html
• Usability First
• usabilityfirst.com
• Jakab Nielsens Website
• useit.com

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Journals

• International Journal of Human-Computer
  Interaction
• International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
• ACM Interactions
• Behaviour and Information Technology (BIT)

21
Sources

• http//www.usability.gov
• http//www.indiana.edu/uits/humres/Usability.html
  
• http//www.dice.com
• http//www.upassoc.org
• http//www.clemson.edu/caah/mapc/use.htm