Usability and User Experience 2009

Call for Proposals

Overview | Submission Types | Due Dates | How to Submit a Proposal

As usability professionals we face challenges that are unique to our field. We are often asked to perform detailed analysis with little time or resources. To be successful, each of us has to work creatively with what we are given. This conference is an opportunity to share your insights, successes, challenges, techniques, or findings with industry colleagues. We invite you to submit a presentation proposal. We encourage you to design a presentation that is as hands-on as possible and that uses creative techniques for involving your audience.

The Boston Chapter of the UPA is looking for presentations, panels, tutorials, workshops, and out-of-the box sessions in the following areas:

• Case studies and success stories
• Presentation skills
• Usability "disasters" and how to prevent them
• Getting noticed as a usability professional
• Starting up a usability program
• Getting started and setting up measures of ROI
• Tools, tips and techniques for consultants
• Research topics and advancements in methods
• Method validation
• Agile and extreme usability techniques
• Reasons usability fails (timetable, budget, personality, utility)
• Fitting usability into the product lifecycle
• "Out of the box" presentations
• How to hire a usability specialist: what do they do?
• Difficulties in working with UI professionals
• Client perspective of usability-related issues
• How usability relates to other disciplines
• ROI - Getting your money's worth from a usability professional
• (Other ideas are welcome)

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Submission Types

Presentation

Present ideas and experiences related to usability methods, skills, philosophy, design or other relevant, controversial, emerging or unresolved issues. Conference admission fee waived for presenter.
Duration: 45 Minutes

Panel

Panels feature three or four people presenting their ideas and experiences. Panels may be conducted in several ways, such as comparative, analytic, or historic. Conference admission fee waived for the panel moderator.
Duration: 45 Minutes

Tutorial & Workshop

Tutorials and workshops provide an active arena for advancements in the field of usability and design; providing the opportunity for experienced practitioners to develop new ideas about a topic of common interest and experience. Workshops should be highly interactive. Conference admission fee waived for the workshop/tutorial session leader.
Duration: Half-day (9-12 AM), Half-day (1-4 PM)

Out-of-the-Box

The Out-of-the-Box category is for presentations that do not fit into the other categories. These sessions may consist of activities like ten-minute talks, debates, brainstorming activities. Individuals/groups who have a method or topic they want to experiment with are invited to submit an abstract in this category. Conference admission fee waived for the session leader.
Duration: Varies from 45 minutes

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Due Dates

• Proposal submissions due: Midnight EST, Monday, March 23rd
• Proposal acceptance notification will be: Monday, April 6th
• Final Presentation materials due: Midnight EST, Monday April 27th

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How to Submit a Proposal

New for 2008! Submit your proposal online. Questions about the submission process should go to miniconf@upaboston.org.

All submissions must contain the following information:

• Contact Information (Name, email, phone number)
• Type of Presentation (choose from the list above)
• Title of Presentation
• Summary of your presentation (250-500 words)
• Describe how you will involve the audience (for example, hands-on, interactive
• discussions, role-playing, demonstrations, etc.)
• Audio-visual support needed
• Bio (150 words or less)

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