CHI 2007: Day 2
(flickr tag: chi 2007)
It’s only 6:30pm, but I feel so worn out that I just want to go to bed. Maybe it’s the jet-lag that’s getting to me.
Today was a really good day at CHI, though I was only able to attend two sessions:
- Interactive Session: “Get Real!” What’s Wrong with HCI Prototyping & How Can We Fix It?
- Interactive Session: Moving UX Into a Position of Corporate Influence
The first session was an interesting look at prototypes and some of the problems with using them. However, most of these issues were those of academia vs. industry. For instance, in academia, people can spend years working out a good prototype without any real concern for money, but in industry time is a luxury you don’t have and money is an issue you always need to think about. I think this is true for many things, not just CHI research. Academic research has its uses, but it does often fall apart when people try to use it in a real work environment.
One of the more interesting ideas from this session was that people need to publish more failures. You can learn just as much from a failed prototype as from a working one and if we’re only exposed to things that succeeded, we get an unrealistic, biased point of view that is difficult to apply in other areas. I kind of like the idea of “morbidity and mortality” conferences, where a bunch of researchers and practitioners get together and talk about all their fabulous failures.
Oh yeah, and the panelists had funny signs:
The second session, about moving UX into a position of influence, was one close to my heart and I enjoyed it very much. The questions asked were about the importance of the following factors in overall success of UX at a company:
- Documentation and evangelizing of UX work
- Ownership of UX
- Organizational positioning
- Calculating ROI
- Conducting “ethnographic” research
As expected, the answers were a big “It depends”. A lot of the panelists believed that it’s more important to do something than to talk about something and I strongly agree with this. People respond a lot better to results than to hand-waving. There certainly is a time and place for evangelism, but that’s usually only necessary at the early stages of introducing UX into a company. From my experience, people understand that user experience is important to a product’s success, so there’s no need to tell them how great it is.
Now I am going to get some dinner, change into my PJs, and spend the evening reading. Two more days to go…
