training

Gathering Data from Training

Hi Everyone,

I work with a lot of developers who give training on the system they
develop, recently they noticed that a lot of their recommendations in
usability issues come from their previous experience training people.
They are trying to setup a system of gathering useful information from
there trainings, they already hold diary during the training in which
they collect :

- Observations of users doing a task
- Observations of a user helping another user
- Questions

The training is quite long, so they are very hesitant to run usability
tests just behind a training session.

Interaction design for developers

Hi all,

I'm in charge of a 2 day workshop with a bunch of skilled developers
regarding user experience. I want to show that an understanding of the users
interaction flow and the user goals are as important as technical knowledge.

One of the things I want to try out is focusing on a top down approach for
development to break away from the usual focus on the platform and
architecture.

One idea I have is to split them up in smaller groups, hand over a pack of
feature requests to half of them, and a few user scenarios to the other
half.

Rockstars and Professional Development (was: Hiring Strategies)

Hi Will,

Yes, I've seen that too. Unfortunately, with the current state of the
market how can someone hire rock stars when there are more jobs than
candidates to fill the shoes. That, and rockstars normally have egos
that decimate the team they join (I've witnessed this) because no one
wants to work with an arrogant person in a team environment.

>From my experience, a company who doesn't contribute to professional
development is not one worth working for.

Conflict of Usability goals with Training objectives?

This is a question more from overall product strategy point of view.
The scenario is a typical product redesign initiative with full UCD
recommendations. This involves the whole 9 yards with close
interactions with users. Also, the same team is assigned to carry out
research for training needs too. This is causing some to be skeptical
about the approach.