Usability Specialist

1. Usability Specialist Group 2: Alison Baum, Erin McKiel, Lindley Shedd, & Jeff Welty December 4, 2006

2. Who Are They? User Experience Specialist Web Interaction Specialist Usability Manager Human Interface Analyst Usability Research Engineer Human Factors Specialist Usability Practitioner Usability Analyst User-Centered Design Specialist Technical Writer Business Analyst Software QA Specialist HCI Specialist

3. What Do They Do? • Observe how users actually use technology rather than how the designer thinks it should be used • Make technology invisible and approachable for users by enhancing comfort, convenience, and performance • Doing • Conduct tests and evaluations • Analyzing data • User profiling • User interviews • Task analysis • Participatory design • Focus groups • Contextual observation Teaching Informing team members, clients, users, etc. of usability concepts, their importance, and how they can be applied to improve design Promoting Using research and experience to advance concepts, tools, and techniques vital to the usability specialization

4. How Do They Do It? • Semiformal conversations • Focus groups • Surveys • Log analysis • Card sorting • Paper prototypes • Usability tests • Ethnographic studies • Maintains usability and design quality throughout product/information life cycle • Tracks trends and investigates new technologies Source: Calarco, P., & Bales, A (2006, November). DIY Usability Workshop: A Hands-on Approach. Presentation for the Fall meeting of the Indiana Online Users Group and the Indiana Chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Columbus, IN.

5. What’s in their job description? From one Digital Projects and Usability Librarian: • Coordinating and managing digital library projects • Help faculty, librarians, and DLP staff develop project plans and grant proposals • Coordinate and lead user studies • E-text development (document analysis, TEI encoding, TEI specifications and quality control) • Providing contextual information for digital library resources • Conducting research related to digital library interface development • Sharing research and project updates in local, national and international conferences and publications Source: From an email interview with Michelle Dalmau, Digital Projects and Usability Librarian, Indiana University Digital Library Program.

6. Usability Specialist at Work Pictures of a usability study conducted at the User Experience Group at IUB

7. Where Do They Work? From Local to Global: As in-house specialists within an individual organization As consultants on a project by project basis As generalists on project teams with cross-specialization experience From Private to Public: Corporations Universities Government Non-profit Usability Firms

8. What They Should Know? Knowledge Experience • User interface and visual design • Business operations • Management practices • Accessibility issues • Ethnography • Psychology • Rhetoric/persuasion • Business modeling • Creative problem solving • Varies according to specific job • 2 years work experience in usability testing and design for non-management positions • 5-7 years for mid-level and management positions

9. What Do They Study? “Balance of liberal education and professional specialization” Generally Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s preferred • Commonly suggested education backgrounds: • Human Computer Interaction • Information or Computer Science • Information Architecture • Cognitive Psychology • Behavioral Science • Human Factors • Information Design Source: http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/surveys/2005_upa_salary_survey.pdf

10. How Much Do They Make? Average Salary of 1,329 respondents to the UPA Member and Salary Survey = $78,445.05 Average Salary by Education Level Individual salaries are dependent upon experience, education, geographic location, employment level, etc. Source: http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/surveys/2005_upa_salary_survey.pdf

11. Average Salary by Years Working in the Field How Much Can They Make? Source: http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/surveys/2005_upa_salary_survey.pdf

12. What Do Employers Want? • Analytical skills • Flexibility • Independence • Time management • Oral and written communication skills • Knowledge of usability tests and evaluations • Problem solving skills • Ability to plan • Ability to appropriately implement findings • Ability to see beyond yourself and think about others. Source: http://www.upassoc.org/usability_resources/jobs/index.html

13. Are there jobs? Outlook is good! • “Employment of computer specialists...is expected to grow very rapidly as organizations continue to adopt and integrate increasingly sophisticated and complex technologies.” Source: Hecker, Daniel E. (2005). Occupational employment projections to 2014. Monthly Labor Review 76, 70-101. Retrieved on November 29, 2006, from http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/11/art5full.pdf

14. The Good, the Bad, and the Possibilities Travel Every day is different ! • A dynamic profession • Emerging and changing trends in the specialization: • Anticipated standardization in web design • Focus on “the total user experience” • Increasing emphasis on social psychology • Importance of business sense • Examining foundations of principles and methods

15. What Do They Read? Journal of Usability Studies http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/jus_home.html Interactions http://www.acm.org/interactions/ Usability News http://www.usabilitynews.com/ UPA Voice http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_publications/upa_voice/ useit http://www.useit.com/ brightlycoloredfood http://www.brightlycoloredfood.com/ A List Apart http://www.alistapart.com/

16. Where Do They Belong? Human Factors and Ergonomics Society http://www.hfes.org/web/Default.aspx Human-Computer Interaction Resource Network http://www.hcirn.com/index.php Usability Professionals’ Association http://www.upassoc.org/people_pages/consultants_directory/index.html American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) http://www.aiga.org/ ACM/SIGCHI http://www.sigchi.org/ STC/Usability and User Experience Community http://www.stcsig.org/usability/index.html

17. Sources Calarco, P., & Bales, A (2006, November). DIY Usability Workshop: A Hands-on Approach. Presentation for the Fall meeting of the Indiana Online Users Group and the Indiana Chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Columbus, IN. Chen, E., Krug, S, & Instone, K. (2001). Role: Usability specialist. The 4th AIGA Advance for Design Summit. Retrieved October 25, 2006, from http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm?contentalias=usabilityspecialist Dick, D. (2006). The career path for usability professionals: A review of the UPA DC June 7, 2006. Usability Interface,12(2). Retrieved November 27, 2006, from http://www.stcsig.org/usability/newsletter/0610-careers.html Hecker, Daniel E. (2005). Occupational employment projections to 2014. Monthly Labor Review76, 70-101. Retrieved November 29, 2006, from http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/11/art5full.pdf Learnmore Resource Center. (2006). Interview with a usability specialist. Retrieved October 25, 2006, from http://www.learnmoreindiana.org/careers/hitech/us.xml Sherman, P. (2006, June). 2005 UPA member and salary survey. The UPA Voice, 8(3). Retrieved November 13, 2006, from http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/surveys/2005_upa_salary_survey.pdf Wilson, C. (2005, Jan.). Usability and user experience design: The next decade. Intercom. Retrieved November 27, 2006, from http://www.stc.org/intercom/pdfs/2005/200501_6.pdf Job listings surveyed from Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com

18. Thanks • Special thanks to Jae Ho Kim from the User Experience Group at IUB and Michelle Dalmau from the Digital Library Program for taking the time speak with us concerning their work.