Baruch Sachs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> My company has given me the opportunity to teach incoming technical and
> project management type folks about what it is that we do. The goal is to
> help these folks understand where we come in in the overall product
> development methodology.
>
> I have about 2-3 hours to give these folks a sense of what our profession is
> about, our activities and the value it adds when properly incorporated into
> a project. So I am curious: given those admittedly loose parameters what
> topics should I be sure to cover?
First, I'd recommend putting yourself in their 'shoes'. What would you give a
crap about wrt IX if you were a project/technical manager. At the simplest
level, you'd probably want to know how us types makes your managerial life
easier, better, more efficient, save money, etc. Reflecting that in whatever
you present should help keep their interests piqued.
Another approach is to tap into their own usability experiences, especially
those they unknowingly struggle with everyday.
For example, when I teach usability to folks who work in a tech environment, I
find out how many accounts and passwords they have to manage. In one company,
between building, phone, computer, various networks, multiple email accounts,
bug reporting account, special security accounts, each employee averaged about
16 UIDs and password pairs just to do their daily tasks. This was something
they couldn't believe and actually denied until I tallied them up on the spot.
Perhaps, within your audience there are cell phones with clear examples of
great and crappy interaction models.
When your audience gains a new perspective/insight into their familiar world
and sees how poor UI design impacts their daily activities, you'll have most of
them hooked.
So fine. They can see how usability could impact them personally. Now address
how these activities can impact them professionally. There many great product
design stories and how companies who used the proper methods and strategies to
produce those great products reaped lots of money, improved their reputation
and businesses.
As managers, they'd probably like to hear a couple of those tales.
Once you feel they're putty in your hands, they digest the details of how you
need to integrate your methods and tasks into the product lifecycle.
Good luck.
desiree
Desiree McCrorey
UI Architect/Web Producer
www.healthline.com
desiredcreations.com
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