Category: User Research

Posted on

Easy-to-Read Guide Turns User Experience Research into Practical Tool for Any Business New Book Gives Comprehensive Overview, How-To Tips

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Dorothy M. Danforth
Danforth Media
215-439-8173
dorothy@danforthmedia.com

Easy-to-Read Guide Turns User Experience Research into Practical Tool for Any Business
New Book Gives Comprehensive Overview, How-To Tips

PHILADELPHIA, PA, Dec. 17, 2009 – For software professionals who want to dip their toe in user experience research, Dorothy M. Danforth has produced a comprehensive, yet highly readable guide that relies on real-world examples from Fortune 500 companies to highlight key concepts and outline practical applications.

Written in plain English, User Experience Research: Stories from the Field uses examples, anecdotes, resources, and practical templates from completed and on-going research efforts to provide an easy-to-understand overview of the field and its usefulness in software design.

“Professionals can read this on a plane or in a day or so and come away with not only a foundational understanding of the methods, but also ideas, tips and tricks to help them start using these techniques in their own organizations,” said Danforth.

The easy-to-read guide provides a framework for using multiple types of insight-generating research that will reveal a more holistic and realistic view of how users will likely respond to a system. It includes an overview of the most common user experience research methods. Each overview is supplemented with context for when and how to use each method, and what insights that method might offer.

Software developers, graphic designers, information architects, product managers, and other information-technology professionals who produce, design, or develop software can purchase the eBook, published by the IEEE Computer Society, at http://www.computer.org/portal/web/readynotes.

So far, the guide has garnered good reviews. One independent reviewer called the guide, “A very interesting read with well-presented positions.” Another wrote that, “There’s a lot of good content in there, and I really like that [it summarizes] each technique with strengths, weaknesses, and further references.”

About Danforth Media

Danforth Media is a Philadelphia based software design consultancy specializing in User Experience Design (UXD) for desktop, Web, mobile, kiosk, and set top devices. Services include user centric research, interface design, prototyping, and software vendor analysis. Dorothy M. Danforth, founder and principal consultant for Danforth Media, has fourteen years’ experience in software design and usability research for Fortune 500 and emerging technology companies. An experienced speaker and UX evangelist, Dorothy has authored an eBook on user research methods through the IEEE Computer Society. In addition to research methods, the guide offers a number of vital tips and tricks for fostering UX best practices within an organization. For more information, go to www.danforthmedia.com.

Posted on

International User Experience Conference Draws 316, Showcases 47 Speakers

Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) November 25, 2009

More than 300 programmers, information architects and designers from around the globe met in Moscow to discuss emerging trends and best practices in User Experience Design, an approach that gives the needs, wants, and limitations of end users top priority at each stage of the design process.

“It was interesting to see the complementary approaches taken by different designers around the world,” said Dorothy M. Danforth, a keynote speaker at the conference. “The Russian presentations tended to focus on hard data points, while U.S. designers look a bit more at accounting for intangibles.”

Danforth spoke at the conference on the foundational elements of user focused research strategies for new products and ventures. She outlined various low-cost, high-impact methods available to Web designers and UX professionals when creating new products, scenarios for when and how to use these methods, as well as insights on how to get the most out of early state R&D processes.

Other speakers included Bill Buxton, Microsoft; Dmitry Satin, UsabilityLab, Russia; Silvia Zimmermann, UPA International; Andrew Sebrant, Yandex; Theo Mandel, Consultant, Thyra Rauch, IBM; and Alexander Oboznov, Russian Academy of Science Institute of Psychology.

Moscow hosted UPA Europe, the 3rd annual User Experience Russia on Oct. 26-28. With a theme of “User experience design: the journey from discovery to advocacy”, the conference drew 316 attendees to the main conference sessions and 44 participants in specialty workshops that were transmitted as webinars.

“The conference pulled in top names from around the world to assess the current state of User Experience Design and talk about the future possibilities of focusing on the user,” said Danforth. “While still a growing field, over the past ten years or so user-centered design has emerged as the predominant approach to software design. With a user-focused approach, we are able to maximize ease-of-use when we roll out new products, reducing transition time and increasing productivity.”

About Danforth Media
Danforth Media is a Philadelphia-based software design consultancy specializing in User Experience Design (UXD) for desktop, Web, mobile, kiosk, and set top devices. Services include user centric research, interface design, prototyping, and software vendor analysis. Dorothy M. Danforth is founder and principal consultant for Danforth Media. An experienced speaker and UX evangelist, Dorothy is currently authoring an eBook on user research methods through the IEEE Computer Society. In addition to research methods, the guide will offer a number of vital tips and tricks for fostering UX best practices within an organization. For more information, go to http://www.danforthmedia.com/about.

###