Usability research at a user conference

[Lisa Goldberg]

Conferences can be great opportunities to gather feedback and update users
on products. I set up one of these sessions about a year ago.

I was working as a UX Manager/IA at the time. I took another designer and
the requirements manager with me. We were testing paper prototypes for two
days (each session lasted an hour). We got on the schedule and our contacts
helped spread the word. Our goal was to test two people at once but
sometimes we had three participants. To our surprise we actually had to turn
some people away--we had been worried that no one would show up.

I moderated the tests and the designer acted as the "computer." The
requirements manager took notes, or I did. If people had questions about the
product, they could talk to the requirements manager after the session to
discuss their concerns and learn about upcoming features. It was very useful
to have someone from the requirements team at all the sessions. From a
usability perspective we learned a great deal and we were also able to
promote some of the new features.

I have also used conferences for one-on-one user testing with a computer and
focus groups, but the paper prototype testing was the most productive
session I've run at a conference.

Lisa
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