We are doing something different with workshops for CONDUIT 2018. We are offering several choices, not just one or two!
Each workshop is a half-day event.
UX Methods Made Easy: Heuristic Review and Expert Evaluation
Cheri Mullins
Expert review and evaluation is a powerful yet quick and relatively accessible method for user experience (UX) research. It can be used early in the design process and can be repeated throughout the product or service lifecycle to confirm and qualify results of implemented changes or changing user demographics. As the name implies, expert evaluation generally is led by a UX expert research analyst and includes reviewers who are UX experts.
Not a UX analyst? This UX Methods Made Easy workshop can help. Not every team has a panel of experts steeped in user experience research and analysis readily available to them, and not every project that could benefit from this type of research has an expert UX research analyst to lead such an effort. In order to make this useful method of UX review more broadly accessible to designers, content creators, developers, engineers, and other non-experts and to help ensure that the evaluation of the review results is relevant and provides meaningful insights, an expert review can be combined with heuristic review. This half-day workshop shows non-analysts a framework for preparing, conducting, and analyzing the results of a UX review of a
product, site, or service using a combined-methods heuristic and expert review approach.
The workshop will present some terms and concepts related to user experience and usability analysis, provide an overview of the two methods, and describe the combined method proposed. We will conduct some hands-on exercises that non-UX professionals can adapt for their own situations, with tips for gathering and analyzing the results of heuristic and expert reviews. The workshop will include some useful guidelines for where expert evaluation can be a useful tool in day-to- day contexts. We also will touch upon some other research methods that complement and extend expert evaluation.
Any workshop participant can offer a research site or product to use in the hands-on exercises by contacting me at cherimullins@yahoo.com not later than March 7. Provide a public link to the site and an overview of your research objectives. Due to security, access, and copyright concerns, we cannot use any restricted-access site.
This session is part of my UX for TCers Series and builds upon UX for TCs: User Experience Primer for Technical Communication Professionals, which I presented at
Conduit 2015 and UX Methods Made Easy: Card Sorting, which I presented at Conduit 2016.
Cheri Mullins Cheri Mullins is a user experience (UX) research strategist, taxonomist, analyst, and educator. Mullins has a long-time background in content and UX leadership, strategy, management, and creation. Her primary experience is in the technical domains of engineering and development, telecommunications and networks, semiconductors, computers, and complex systems and in the user domains of banking, finance, insurance, health information management, databases and records management, academia, and information architecture. She has practiced, analyzed, and taught UX, critical thinking, and communication in academia, industry, military, and non-profits. Her research lies at the intersections of technology, culture, and language. Contact Cheri at cherimullins on Yahoo!, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.
Inquiry as an Influence Strategy
Ron Hurst
This workshop is designed to challenge participants to consider the more powerful form of communication “inquiry”. Using a number of interactive exercises Ron will engage participants to rethink their assumption that answers are valuable. In the age of google, knowing has been commoditized, asking powerful questions is the scare resource. Be prepared to change the way you communicate.
Ron Hurst is an average guy from humble working class roots. He was a successful business executive who gave all up to start a leadership development firm at 45. He is an entertaining keynote speaker and trainer. He has authored 2 books that share how you can become an effective leader and communicator. Ron is an adjunct business professor and teaches leadership and organizational behavior. Ron is a passionate man with a unique ability to tell stories that captivate and move audiences. He regularly receives rave reviews for his talks. He has spoken to groups numerous throughout southern California.
How to Attract Opportunities to You
Janice Summers and Liz Fraley
Maybe you’re thinking it’s time to branch out on your own, maybe it’s time to move up in your company, or maybe it’s time for something different. No matter which scenario, for someone to hire you or your company, you must be THE solution that fills a NEED.
Clearing your vision of who you are and defining your brand allows you laser focus to attract customers. More than your technical resume or CV, the how and what makes you unique.
When you start your own business or start treating your career like a profession, you want to attract opportunities to you instead of having to always chase them down.
In this half-day workshop, attendees will learn:
- How to gain customers by attracting them to you
- How to identify who your customer is (and is not)
- How to identify the keys that distinguish you from others
- How to come up with a concrete, shareable plan
In this session we will cover all of the above through exercises to create a foundation for action. Plan your path to independence, to promotion, or to a new field.
Come prepared to roll up your sleeves, dig in, and take action. Ask questions about your individual goals and situations. This half-day workshop will provide a forum for you to get the answers you seek!
Janice Summers, CEO of JLS Coaching, has founded two companies and is on the verge of launching another. She’s a co-founding collaborator on a third and sits on the board of a non profit. She has been a top recruiter in technology and finance and has been in human resources management. In between running two companies, Janice provides coaching and mentoring for individuals and companies looking to improve their marketing and sales. She helps them build their brands to expand exposure and awareness.
Liz Fraley, CEO of Single-Sourcing Solutions, is a serial entrepreneur. She’s founded two companies, sits on the boards of three non-profits, and is constantly coming up with new ways to share knowledge in the technical communications and content industries. She has worked in high-tech and government sectors, at companies of all different sizes (from startups to huge enterprises). She advocates approaches that directly improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and interoperability. If you ask her, she’ll say she’s happiest when those around her are successful.
Collaborating and Contributing in GitHub for Tech Comms
Nicky Bleiel
GitHub is a web-based repository for software projects that uses Git as a repository. In GitHub, docs live with the code, follow the same workflow as the code, and are reviewed with the code, making it an excellent choice for version control of documentation files and management of issues. Companies are rapidly adopting GitHub Enterprise for internal use, so tech comms need GitHub skills. In this workshop, we’ll learn about GitHub’s features, terminology, and about documentation workflows. Bring your laptop – we’ll create GitHub accounts, explore features, and look at productivity tools.
Workshop overview:
- Overview and Tour of GitHub
- Terminology
- Working in GitHub
- Project Documentation options
- Issue Tracking
- Version Control
- Social Features
- Integrations with other tools
Nicky Bleiel is a Watson Information Developer at IBM. She is a Past President and Associate Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication and has more than 20 years of experience writing and designing information for software products in a variety of industries. She is a popular speaker at many conferences, including the STC Summit, tcworld, CIDM (Content Management Strategies/DITA North America), IEEE ProComm, WritersUA, and CPTSC; and has been published in STC’s Intercom, tcworld magazine, ISTC Communicator, and more. See www.nickybleiel.com for a list of her talks and articles.
Markup for Dummies
Russell Ward
By now, you have heard how important structured content is. But, maybe you poked around with something like DITA and were baffled by the complexity. Or, maybe you still aren’t sure what XSLT stands for. This workshop will take participants back to the basics, to provide a foundation for higher-level concepts that have taken hold of our industry. Topics will include:
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- What XML looks like, what it does, and how to create it.
- How to define a structure model, including whether to use a DTD, Schema, etc.
- What XSLT looks like, what it does, and how to make it work.
- What DITA and DocBook really are and whether one is right for you.
REQUIREMENT: Bring your laptop, as we’ll be doing a lot of hands-on activities!
Russ Ward is an experienced technical writer and structured technologies developer. He has spent many years working with structured content to maximize efficiency in the techcomm environment, both as an employee and as an independent consultant. He is also an experienced trainer and speaks periodically at conferences and other peer events.
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