This week I had the privileged of speaking at the Michigan Usability Professionals Association (MIUPA) (opens new window) meeting. I can't explain what a great group of people they are, I feel humbled being around so many people with much more formal experience and training than myself.

[slideshare id=1884615&doc=miupa-focus-on-users-090820053609-phpapp02&w=500]

My Approach

Although I come from a computer science background I love usability, user interaction and user interfaces. My approach has always been ad-hoc and unscientific. I like to just sit back and watch or ask random people in their natural settings and see how they react. Which ultimately leads to an ever evolving UI based on these observations and actions.

This method comes from my belief in the release early, release often (opens new window) agile development methodology. Small incremental steps that lead to the full result while making improvement along the way.

Usability Professionals

The audience was primarily usability professionals who pretty much do this for a living. So although I created the presentation above it really did not get used. I made the presentation more of a discussion about everyone's experiences and how mine synced or collided with theirs.

The best part was a group from MSU's Usability & Accessibility Center (opens new window) came all the way from Lansing. It was great to hear and talk with them about similar struggles higher education web professionals have.

Thank You

Overall it was a great meeting with most people staying after to talk further. I wanted to thank the MIUPA (opens new window) again for hosting me and the Southfield Public Library (opens new window) for providing a rocking facility.