Lone Star Community STC News for December 10, 2007--Meeting & Workshop

[R. Dale Erickson]

Lone Star Community STC News for December 10, 2007--Meeting & Workshop
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December Program and Workshop Real HOLIDAY Treats!

Back by popular demand, Lone Star STC and the DFW UPA present Canada's own
Patrick Hoffman, by way of Australia. The last time he was here, Patrick
gave a presentation called "Away with words: using and improving pictures
in our documents." For this visit, Patrick has agreed to present to the
chapter on Thursday night, December 13, AND offer a one-day workshop on
Friday, December 14.

Both events will take place at the Crowne Plaza in Addison.

December 13 Meeting: Pictures and profits: the ROI of visual information
design

Through real and recent case studies, discover how using fewer words and
more pictures can improve your product documentation, training, and
usability -- to not only save costs but generate revenue for your employer
or your company. From wordless manuals to visual help, from product decals
to packaging, creating usable, visually helpful information can please
your users and your company's bottom line.

Furthermore, learn usability testing techniques and customer
insight-gathering strategies that are not only affordable, but in some
cases, free. From recruiting to rewarding test participants, to conducting
and recording the usability test, there are countless proven ways to
evaluate your products and services with users from around the world, with
little to no investment.

Patrick Hofmann
As a trained technical writer and now a visual interaction designer,
Patrick Hofmann has turned into "a man of few words." For over twelve
years, this vibrant Canadian has helped clients like Nokia, Motorola,
Philips, FedEx, HP, BASF, and AGFA improve the usability of their
products--often by visualizing their online, hardcopy, and interface
information. His award-winning work and undying passion for visual
language have sent him around the world, as he teaches workshops on using
pictures to improve communication. He now is working at Google in Sydney,
Australia, helping design the user experience for Google's popular mapping
applications.

Registration
Register online by noon on Monday, December 10, and get a discounted
dinner price! With timely online reservations, the dinner and program cost
is $20 for STC members, UPA members, and students with student IDs, and
$25 for guests. Without timely reservations, the dinner and program cost
is $25 for STC members, UPA members, and students with student IDs, and
$30 for guests.

The cost for program only attendance with timely online reservations is $5
for STC members and UPA members and $10 for guests. Without timely
reservations, the program-only attendance is $10 for STC members and UPA
members and $15 for guests. Program-only attendance is free for students
with valid student IDs.

SIN SIG
If you are shy, inactive, or a newcomer, don't miss another intriguing SIN
SIG session, hosted by Jeanne Foster. SIN SIG meets at 5:45 PM in the same
room as the dinner meeting.

Location:
Crowne Plaza North Dallas/Addison Hotel
14315 Midway Road
Addison, Texas

Agenda:
5:45 PM--Registration and Networking, Newcomer (aka SIN) SIG
6:15 PM--Announcements and Dinner
7:00 PM--Program
8:00 PM--Wrap-up
8:15 PM--Additional networking

For more information, go to http://stc-dfw.org/pages/meet_monthly.htm.

Register online at http://www.stc-dfw.org/pages/meet_reserv.htm by noon,
Monday, December 10.

For menu information, go to
http://www.stc-dfw.org/pages/meet_monthly.htm#menu.

We hope you can join us. If you have any questions, please contact
programs at stc-dfw.org.

December 14 All-day Workshop: Intuitive images: creating and evaluating
usable graphics

Workshop Description: 
In our end-user manuals, web pages, portable digital devices, and
interface designs, our pictures always seem to play a subordinate role to
our words. We find them too hard to illustrate; we encounter too many
resolution and incompatibility issues, and we can never seem to make them
attractive enough, meaningful enough, and usable enough.

In this workshop, we will get very graphic (ha ha) with these challenges.
We will spend a fun-filled session sharing common problems, evaluating
your existing design challenges, visualizing different types of
information, and working on some innovative hands-on exercises. In the
end, the workshop's goal is to help both information developers and
usability professionals evaluate and boost the visual appeal and usability
of the information that they produce, and to empower them with simple tips
and tricks to become visually and graphically savvy.

In the past, this workshop has attracted more managers and information
specialists than illustrators and graphic designers, because it reveals
that the former group is clearly vital to the development of usable visual
information, and offers solutions that benefit both "textual" designers
and "visual" designers alike.

Date & Time:
Friday, December 14, 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM

Location:
Crowne Plaza North Dallas/Addison Hotel
14315 Midway Road
Addison, Texas

Reservations: (lunch and casual breakfast included):
http://www.stc-dfw.org/pages/intuitiveimages_reserv.htm

UPA and STC members (deadline 5:00 PM, December 10): $115 
Guests (deadline 5:00 PM, December 10): $145 
Students (deadline 5:00 PM, December 10): $75 
UPA and STC members late registration (December 11-13): $135 
Guests (December 11-13): $145 
Walk-ins (day of event, December 14): $200 

This is a real bargain folks. Patrick gave a similar presentation at the
UPA Conference in Austin this summer and the cost was over $500! You don't
want to miss this event!

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©2007 Lone Star Community of the Society for Technical Communication
http://www.stc-dfw.org/

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