From: Jim Sneeringer [Jim@Sneeringer.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 8:47 PM
To: UserExperience
Subject: UPA Conference Report to Date

Tutorial on Pattern Libraries

a. The main think I learned here is that Sara did a great job of setting up or template.
b. They talked about what they call the “Scale” of a pattern. They use four values for scale: a sequence of pages, a page, a sub-page (or panel), a widget. This helps the user quickly understand what sort of thing the pattern is about.
c. Having a version history for each pattern was suggested.
d. There was some discussion about how big a pattern library should be. At first the presenter would only say that 10 is too small and 350 is too large. Finally, he said that 100 is about the right order of magnitude.
e. I talked to Michael Rawlins of Open Solutions, and he highly recommended a product cal Usability Central from Human Factors International (HFI). Apparently it is a program with a pre-defined pattern library that you can modify. The exhibits will be open tomorrow, and I’ll try to find out more.

Designing a Task-Focused Conceptual Model, Jeff Johnson, UI Wizards

This was an incredibly good session about making a conceptual model of your software before you begin to build it. I would like to get a video recording if I can, or get him to do it for us, or I could present it from his slides. It’s hard to describe concisely, but very good stuff. [Handout attached.]

Beyond ROI: UCD as a Catalyst for Organizational Change, 6 presenters

This was a group of experienced people discussing how organizations use or resist UCD.