New York City Chapter: Usability Professionals' Association

Negotiating Your Usability Testing Results

You know the story all too well. You conducted an expert review or usability test, but can't seem to get the acceptance and budget to get your recommendations implemented.

Mona Patel, an Executive Director at Human Factors International, Inc., will discuss how to negotiate the acceptance of your usability solution with audiences as diverse as marketing, development, business, and even legal departments.

Mona will show examples of formats for delivering usability results and present textbook negotiation techniques that are proven to increase your power in a decision setting. She will relate actual situations where these techniques made the difference in the acceptance of a user-centered solution.

For example, a legal department in one company designed a site that forced users through four pages of legal text before getting to the core content. Why did that usability person fail to get changes implemented that would have had obvious benefits for their users? Mona will share insights into how and why this happens with all too much frequency, and through an interactive presentation, you'll learn how to negotiation can lead to a more optimal solution.

Speaker:		Mona Patel At Human Factors International, Mona has developed user interface designs and conducted usability testing for a variety of organizations. She co-authors and teaches HFI's Practical Usability testing course. Mona is also currently leading a Standards and Institutionalization project for the NINDS Intranet and Internet sites. Having graduated from Tufts University in Human Factors and Ergonomics and receiving her Masters in Communication from Boston University, she has been an active practitioner since 1999.

Date:		March 22, 2005

Time:		Registration: 6:00pm to 6:30pm (refreshments served) Presentation: 6:30pm to 8:00pm (includes Q&A) Networking: 8:00pm to 8:30pm Dinner: 8:30pm to whenever Please note that dinner is an optional, post-event social activity and is not included in the event fee. It will be the responsibility of each individual who chooses to attend the dinner to pay for their own food, drink and any other expenses that may be associated with the dinner.

Location:		Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, Laura Parsons Pratt Conference Center, 281 Park Avenue South (at 22nd Street). Ring the "Night Bell" which may have a sign saying NYC-UPA next to it.

Cost:		$10 for NYC-UPA members if pre-registered, $15 if not pre-registered $20 for non-members if pre-registered, $25 if not pre-registered $5 for full-time students if pre-registered, $10 if not pre-registered (please provide valid ID) (payable, by cash or check only, at the door only) Please note: there is a $5 additional charge if you do NOT pre-register by 5:00pm the day BEFORE the event; this applies to NYC-UPA members, non-members members and students equally. See the next section for registration information. If you do not get a registration confirmation e-mail (this usually takes no more than a day or two) then you are not pre-registered. Note: members of our parent organization, the Usability Professionals' Association, are not automatically considered members of the NYC Chapter and will be required to pay the full event fee. Please view our membership information if you wish to join.

Reserve:		Please send your registration to rsvp@nycupa.org. So that you pass our spam filters please make sure the subject line indicates you are registering for a NYC-UPA event and please try to send the mail in plain text. You will get an e-mail confirmation. If you have not received this confirmation within 2 days, please register again to insure your place at the event. Seats are limited and reservations are first come, first served. We advise you register early as previous events have sold out and we had to turn people away.

Questions?:		If you have any questions, e-mail the Web Site Director at webdirector@nycupa.org.

Mona Patel's presentation slides in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format (1,806KB).

Note: this file can take 5 minutes on a slow dial-up line, while taking 30 seconds on a fast connection.

You may also view Alan Seiden's presentation summary in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format (32KB).

Requires Adobe® Reader®.