Internet User Experience 2009

Find out the answers to questions like: Does the order in which you provide choices have an unconscious effect on which one is chosen? If you are providing free info as an incentive to have someone fill out a form should you provide the free info first or the form first? And much, much more.

About the Speaker

Dr. Susan Weinschenk is Chief of Technical Staff at Human Factors International. She manages and mentors the HFI USA consulting staff, and oversees all training and consulting services in the USA. She has been an industry leader in the field of usability and user experience for over 30 years. Dr. Weinschenk has a Ph.D. in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University. She is an international speaker and author, and writes a blog called What Makes Them Click. Her most recent book, Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click is published by Pearson/Peachpit.

Linda will talk about how to create a well-optimized, engaging site, touching on coding best practices, usability principles, and social media.

About the Speaker

Linda Girard, Co-Founder & Visionary of Pure Visibility, is responsible for leading the aggressive growth and business direction of the company. Her unparalleled experience in Internet marketing includes over a decade's work in aligning client goals with search marketing strategies that deliver meaningful, measurable results. Linda's expertise has resulted in numerous awards, including recognition by the National Association of Women Business Owners as one of the "Top 10 Women in Business in Michigan." Linda is a frequent speaker, author and widely recognized expert on Internet marketing. She currently serves as education chair of the Ann Arbor Ad Club and an advisory board member of the Eastern Michigan University CIS program. She is also on the board of directors for the Arbor Chamber of Commerce as well as Michigan Innovators, and serves as a judge for the annual international WebAward competition for web site development. Linda earned a bachelors of science degree in Telecommunications and Psychology, Eastern Michigan University.

The value proposition is obvious, but the critical success lies in the design of the user experience. Ed Vielmetti will provide practical examples of how to organize and improve community information systems using mobile and Internet technology for public transportation, and how these efforts can include libraries, civic associations, and professional groups in identifying opportunities for building small solutions for specific problems that can grow and scale to a city, urban, metropolitan and regional level. These examples will translate well as you consider how to leverage mobile and Internet technologies for your business needs.

About the Speaker

Edward Vielmetti is a community organizer who specializes in the application of mobile and Internet technology to address the needs of library, transportation, civic and professional associations. He has been involved in the development of the Internet since 1985, and was the subject of a 1993 Forbes Magazine article on the commercialization of the net. His weblog "Superpatron" earned him a feature in the American Libraries magazine in 2006, and now he's trying to figure out which obscure public transportation trade journal to get his picture in.

Ed is a graduate of the University of Michigan (AB Econ '88) and rides the AATA Route 5, which arrives at his stop on the quarter hour. He took the bus to this event.

Kumi will discuss design leadership strategies for keeping the original vision on track while collaborating with various stakeholders. She will address:

• What are the qualities of a remarkable visceral experience?
• What is a delightful experience?
• How to present visual work
• How to keep the spirit up and positive during the design critique
• How to collaborate for the best result
• How to define goals
• How to build rapport with the client and the project team
• How to disarm a difficult client
• How to disarm non-qualified input
• How to manage feedback

About the Speaker

Kumi is a visual practice lead at Adaptive Path. She has more than ten years of visual design expertise with mobile devices, interactive platforms, and desktop applications. An integral part of her design philosophy is to bring humanity to high-tech product design and create meaningful brand experience that communicates emotionally with people.

Prior to joining Adaptive Path, Kumi served as the Creative Lead at Microsoft. There, she led efforts to refresh the brand system for MSN and then launched the new brand system for Windows Live targeting Microsoft's 400 million users worldwide.

Past clients and employers include !ndigo, Dorling Kindersley, Microsoft, and Philips Interactive.

In addition to her project work, Kumi teaches interactive visual design workshops and created innovative ambient music media work exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. Kumi was born and raised in Japan, absorbing the rich tradition of refined aesthetics of her native culture. From there she received her education in London graduating from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design with honors where she majored in communication and graphic design.

Marta will touch most of these topics in her talk:

• The state of social media in 2009
• Common challenges brands are facing
• Three case studies showing why it's worth it
• How did they do it?
• Best Practices
• Launching a program
• Sustaining a program
• How this is going to get easier (Web 3.0)
• What is Web 3.0?
• Better matchmaking, getting the community to you
• Better measurement, understanding your community
• The future of social media

About the Speaker

Marta Strickland is the Manager of Social Media Strategy at Organic Detroit. She joined Organic over a year ago, and has since worked on a variety of brands including Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Bank of America, and Geek Squad. In her role, she has made it her mission to define best practices on emerging technology trends and discover new ways to leverage social media to connect with consumers. She frequently voices her mind and evangelizes the power of social media as Editor-In-Chief of the Organic blog, ThreeMinds.

Prior to joining Organic, Marta was Interactive Strategist for Q LTD, a strategic design consultancy in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There, she played a leading role, managing diverse interactive teams for several clients, including University of Michigan and SIGGRAPH.

The rest of Marta's story can be pieced together from her growing digital lifestream, 5000 Flickr photos, 1000 delicious bookmarks, 600 Twitter updates. She began her life on the sandy dunes of Lake Michigan, where she returns every summer. Her passions include the world of wine, the web, and whatever comes in between. And she claims the unofficial title of "Organic Strategist with the largest collection of 'so bad, they're good' 80s horror movies."

About the Speaker

Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus is the Owner and Principal of UsableWorld, LLC, a company that conducts user research, user interface design, usability evaluation, and training. He has designed user interfaces for hand-helds and kiosks and web sites and production machines, and has conducted evaluations in the lab, on the web, in the field, and in the homes of consumers. Dave has held usability consulting, sales, and management positions in both company product development and in consulting groups. He has led corporate initiatives to standardize user interfaces, improve usability, and achieve Section 508 compliance. He has also focused on dramatically improving usability and conversion rates on Business-to-Consumer websites and on achieving usable and useful IT software.

Dave has a Masters degree in Human Factors Psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Dave has written papers and given presentations, tutorials, and consultations on usability, web site design, product design, and home product testing. He is a chapter author of, "Design by People for People: Essays in Usability".

Dave is a member of HFES, ACM SIG-CHI, and a former board member of UPA, and is a founder and officer of the Michigan UPA.

About the Speakers

As the Director of User Experience for pogo.com, Lisa uses her cumulative experiences to be an advocate for user experience on all Pogo.com sites. Lisa and her team collaborates with multi-functional project teams across the organization, leveraging user experience methodologies to make sure Pogo’s users have the best game experience possible.

Lisa joined EA in 2008 and previously held UX positions in a variety of industries ranging from travel (Telluride Ski Resort, Cheaptickets.com), to non-profit (CPG/Episcopal Church), to technology (Cisco) and entertainment (CBS Interactive).

Lisa is very proud to say that she has 5 adult* children. She is the proud mother to five children and currently resides in Redwood Shores with Keoni, her Great Pyrenees.

Rich Briggs, Producer, Electronic Arts - Redwood Shores.
In his role as Producer, Rich is responsible for the execution and quality of scripted events for the Dead Space franchise. He also manages and reports findings from all internal and external focus groups, which are used to evaluate the overall game experience and test various features.

Rich joined EA in 2003 as a Senior Product Manager in the Marketing department. He worked on and launched a number of successful franchises including The Sims, Battlefield, and The Simpsons Game. He previously was a Product Manager at SEGA and worked on several franchises including Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star Online, Panzer Dragoon, and Jet Set Radio. Rich graduated from Georgetown University with a BSBA in Marketing. An avid gamer since the age of five, Rich can often be found saving the world at 2am after his family is asleep.