Going Hollywood
by Dick Miller, Hewlett-Packard
“These folks just don’t understand what usability is about!” How many times has that thought run through your mind? It might have been when you were meeting with a new client, working with a new team of software developers, addressing a group of students, or trying to make what you do at work understandable to some of your coworkers. Now you have a chance to do something about it. Some of us in the Usability SIG have recognized the need for a brief (5-10 minute) video that touches on some of the basics of usability, to be shown to groups such as those mentioned above, and have a proposal for action. Here’s where you come in.
We need your ideas and participation. Would you be willing to join an email-based virtual team to get the project started? We’d like to consider some basic questions such as: What basic ideas should we try to get across in just ten minutes or less? Where can we get royalty-free footage of actual usability experiences? How should we make this video available: loan, rent, sale, free? How can we fund the cost of producing it? Do we need more than just a brief intro? If so, what? Total participation time shouldn’t be more than an hour or two spread over a couple of months, just exchanging email ideas and coming to consensus on some design considerations.
If you’d like to be part of the virtual team that puts this together, please contact me at dick_miller@hp.com, or at the Conference in Orlando. I’ll be discussing the project at the SIG business meeting on Tuesday morning. Sometime after the conference, perhaps in early June, we’ll pull together the virtual team and take it from there. Sorry, but we’re on a budget: you’ll have to supply your own jodhpurs, riding crop, beret, and shades.
