There's a fun demonstration technique called [EMAIL PROTECTED] Here's the gist. You demonstrate usability techniques by running a few quick task-based tests with volunteers from the crowd serving as participants. The rest of the audience picks a web site and provides the tasks. The drama unfolds as the participants do things on the site while the audience watches everything projected on a screen.
Paul Marty (Florida State University) and Michael Twidale (University of Illinois) developed the technique with museum and library web sites in mind, but it could probably be adapted for any type of site. I've seen them run sessions at conferences and the audience has a blast. The volunteers do, too. Full paper here: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1260/1180 Abstract: This article documents the authors%u2019 attempt to develop a quick, inexpensive, and reliable method for demonstrating user testing to an audience. The resulting method, [EMAIL PROTECTED], is simple enough to be conducted at minimal expense, fast enough to be completed in only thirty minutes, comprehensible enough to be presented to audiences numbering in the hundreds, and yet sophisticated enough to produce relevant design recommendations, thereby illustrating for the audience the potential value of user testing in general. In this article, the authors present their user testing demonstration method in detail, analyze results from 44 trials of the method in practice, and discuss lessons learned for demonstrating user testing in front of an audience. While I agree completely with Jakob Nielsen that "user testing is not entertainment" (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/user-testing-showbiz.html), [EMAIL PROTECTED] seems like a fun and engaging way to introduce usability concepts to an audience because they actively participate in the exercise. Plus, you can take a break from the PowerPoint deck for a little while. 2-3 hours seems like a long time. Good luck! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24171 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
