Presentations
Would you like us to present at your conference or to your internal team? We love talking about why human characteristics and goals need to be considered when designing technology. We have made presentations on accessibility, internationalization, and the usability of everything from DVD players, photocopiers, doors and websites. We generally make presentations without charging a fee. (The exception would be if the particular subject that you would like us to cover required research, or required us to travel to get to you).
Previous presentations
These are some of the presentations that we've made, with the most recent at the top.
Organising Your Content: Tools, Tips and Lessons Learned - GOVIS, May 09
15 May 2009. Dave O’Brien and Ruth Brown dip into the field of Information Architecture to look at 3 simple and effective techniques:
- card sorting (discovering how your audience classifies content)
- tree testing (evaluating a classification scheme to see how well it performs)
- first-click testing (evaluating navigation and layout of your site pages).
How to create online ads that people don't hate - Trademe Revolution Tour, April 09
Information architecture - Making it easy to find stuff (25-page PDF, 5.6MB)
1 September 2006. In this one hour breakfast briefing, Trent Mankelow and Donna Maurer covered some of the basics of information architecture, including organisation systems (how we categorise information), labelling systems (what we call things) and navigation systems (how we browse through information). We also discussed the difficulties of card sorting, focusing on how to choose cards and perform analysis.
Self-Service Usability: Making it easy for people to help themselves (16-page PDF, 7.8MB)
19 July 2006. In this Wellington breakfast session, Trent Mankelow (Optimal Usability) and Paul Munkley (Vodafone) talked all about self-service. We looked particularly at kisoks and phone self-service, but covered issues relating to all channels, such as creating a cross-channel strategy, how to avoid customer backlash, and the future of self-service.
The Usability Toolbox: Techniques for Understanding Your Users (32-page PDF, 5.6MB)
10 May 2006. In this breakfast session, 90 people heard from Trent Mankelow (Optimal Usability) and Gerry Gaffney (Information & Design, Australia) talk about the most important tools in the usability professional’s toolbox. We discussed the pros and cons of user testing, expert reviews, card sorting, style guide development and persona development.
World-class customer experience with usability (38-page PDF, 4.2MB)
3 May (Wellington) and 4 May (Auckland) 2006. This breakfast talk was about how to get up close and personal with your customers using usability research. We explained how usability is key to world class customer experiences online and how organisations can apply simple, practical principles to improve the customer experience. You can read what the Marketing Asoociation thought of the presentation by reading their session summary (PDF, 2-pages, 84KB).
Introduction to Usability (57-page PDF,
3.9MB)
Special Libraries Association (Wellington), 2 March 2006. The aim of this 45-minute presentation was to provoke librarians to think outside the confines of the information industry. Using plenty of examples from pyschology, Nikki Bristol talked about how people interact with the web and use information.
Walking a Day in Your User’s Shoes - User Testing for
Increased Usability (40-page PDF, 1.2MB)
5th Annual Strategic Intranet Management Conference, 15 & 16 August 2005. This Auckland-based two day conference was a "summit on developing, managing and implementing intranet strategy and discovering how your organisation can benefit from a more efficient and effective intranet." No surprise on what our 45-minute presentation covered - how to go about user testing your intranet and common intranet usability problems.
Reviewing your website for profit, service, and performance (19-page PDF, 1.5MB)
16 June (Wellington) and 17 June (Auckland) 2005. Approximately 80 people attended day-long seminars in Wellington and Auckland, organised by the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand. There were seven speakers and in the morning Optimal Usability ran a half-hour introductory session. In the afternoon we spent just over an hour doing a hands-on audit of attendees' websites using the usability.gov guidelines. Download Session 2 slides (5-page PDF, 195KB).
"Trent's presentations were very informative and he came across as being very professional and knowledgable."
"I found the session on usability both entertaining and immediately applicable to my current projects."
"The hands-on component with Trent Mankelow was by far the most rewarding. To be able to apply the compliancy and best practice guidelines directly to our company website was invaluable."- seminar attendees
Website Usability - Making Things Easier For Your Audience (33-page PDF, 3MB)
24 May 2005.This breakfast session for the Wellington chapter of Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI) was a general introduction on how to improve website usability. Twenty-five people managed to get up for the 7:15am start, where they were told that to improve their websites they should be consistent, provide goal-driven content, and design for wayfinding.
"Very interesting – some great ideas to go away and think about in redevelopment of our site."
"Trent very easy to listen to and informative."
"Very good overall – Trent was very knowledgable."- seminar attendees
Tell us what you think of the way that we've put these presentations online. Are the presentations too big? Should they include the notes pages? Would you like to see them in a different format? You can get in touch with us at feedback@optimalusability.com.
