Brooke Baldwin

The art of self-promotion can be such a razor’s edge that is so easily crossed into embarrassing and bloated ego stroking.

But whatever.

Since my older brother always puts his article pickups onto his blog I figured that I can too.

Scroll down a bit on the page and you’ll see me!

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I’ve spent the better part of last week in New York at a usability class. It was put on by Human Factors International by this guy.

For the most part I really enjoyed myself, save for a few people who sat in the back, talked with each other, answered their phones, and appeared to be doing their regular work. What can you do?

But about the class. It’s been several years since I’ve taken one on usability and what a great refresher. New research was presented and old ideas both challenged and reinforced. Today I ordered a great text book that we discussed that has compiled a lot of cognitive psychology and interactive design research.

Maybe what I liked most about the class was being in an environment where it was welcomed to bring up ideas and discuss different view points without the usual office politics. Maybe the biggest drawback (aside from the before mentioned) was that it seemed like I was one of the more experienced practitioners in the group - or at least the one most willing to discuss real-life experiences out loud.

But we covered new eye-tracking research and I learned that it really shouldn’t be relied upon as primary research for a design. It’s such a hot topic right now that I’m glad to have empirical evidence to finally support my own theory. And I was surprised to learn that testing reveals remote testing can really be effective to subsequent rounds of usability testing but shouldn’t be used for the first iteration.

All told, I’m glad to have taken the time and expense of going up to New York for the class. Maybe a day course from Edward Tufte is next.

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