On November 11, I went to the Usability Day events at the University of Minnesota. I thought I might be able to glean some tidbits for the MIRC communities – but then I thought that others might be interested in the notes too. I didn’t take notes like I do for policy meetings – but very rough notes that I hope are helpful for anyone who might be developing a community online.

Presentation: “User Centered Design Link Labeling Methods”
• Josh Carroll, Usability Consultant, OIT

This presentation was a comparison of Web-based versus Face-to-face link labeling activities. Or can you glean information organization and labeling tools from traditional in-person searching for online searching?

Here are a few hints for making sure the terms you use in links are the best terms:

• Links names should ID info they link to
• Situate the link context so users can infer info
• Graphics
• Intuitive info hierarchy
• Usability testing

Adding Content Description is a help.
Get terminology before you sort info on info-rich sites

He mentioned a site that I found helpful: www.websort.net

Presentation: “Accessible and Usable Documents”
• Phil Kragnes, Computer Accommodations Specialist, OIT

How to work with usbale documents – I thought this session might be most useful for MIRC communities – and maybe anyone looking to posting information that will be shared – especially if you think you will be sharing infrmation with people with visual impairments. I think the video of this presentation is most valuable. I hope it comes through – what you’re hearing on the video is the “speak aloud” softweare that folks with visual impariments migth use to “read” a document. Specifically you’ll see the software hear the blank space surrounding the document title.

The U of M has a resource to help their folks: http://accessibility.umn.edu/ – it lists various document formats, the potentinal accessibility barriers inherent in each format and best practices for overcoming barriers.

I think the key is to remember that anyone with a visual disability will use software that “reads” a document to them. Most oducment software tools (Word et al) has a range of tools that helps you format and organize your documents – using those tools will help to make the document more accessibe. Using the spacebar and hard returns to format a document will make it less accesible.

It takes a little more time – or maybe it takes time to make it a habit to do the right thing – but I hope the video demonstrates howlong it takes speak-aloud software to read a title page that has been created sloppily – by using the hard return to center. (I’m as guilty as anyone on that one.) But I thought that including the video on how spending 30 second in creation can save minutes of reading time if/when someone uses assistive technology to “read” your document might help us be more cognizant of the power of the creation tools.

The speaker noted that improper use of heading tags can be a killer for accessibility. This is an interesting note because I think many web developers use heading tags and style sheets (CSS) as a short cut for formatting – and search engine optimization sort of rewards such use. But the fact that this is a potentnial problem for accessibility, it’s soemthing that will probably change for SEO over time.

Tour of Usability Lab

We got a fun tour of the Walter Library Usability Lab. They do a lot of web site testing because not only can they facilitate focus groups but they can track what you’re looking at on a screen. Someone asked if there were any lessons learned from watching so many web usability tests. The tour guide reminded us that visitors look at other sites more often than they will ever look at yours. How you adhere to or stray from the conventions that others are using (other in general, in your industry, in your part of the world) will determine usability.

Presentation: “Listening to Your Data”
• Chris Moellering, Technical Writer, OIT

Steps for better design:

• Focus Groups
• Usability Evaluations
• Web Analytics
• Surveys
• Compettive Analysis

I think much of the presentation goes back to the tour guide’s advice of going with conventions. Listen to what people tell you they want – but also watch them. Sometimes people don’t know what they want; sometimes they don’t want to tell you.

Presentation: “Search Engine Optimization (SEO)”
• Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Writing Studies
• Stuart Blessman, Student, Scientific and Technical Communication

OK I didn’t take great notes here because I do SEO a lot – but here are some keys I remember:

• Social media is a conversation
• Use terms your audience would use to find you on your site.