Nielsen Norman Group Usability Week

Guys, I am attending Nielsen Norman Group’s Usability Week in Chicago at this very moment.

I attended usability week in August in New York and left feeling inspired and empowered to make some real change within my company. I gained my certification that week and coincidentally enough, it was the first week they offered it. This round I will gain a speciality in Interaction Design

I spent the first half learning from none other than Mr. Bruce Tognazzini himself about Human Computer Interaction. I am also taking a course that covers intranet design. I am building so many intranet sites right now it’s just silly.  Friday will wrap up nicely with usability testing.  I have a lot of experience with usability testing already, but I have always wanted to take this course because I feel like there’s always room for improvement.

Kara Pernice is teaching my last two classes.  Two weeks ago I was in a meeting with some business partners who had strong feelings about a site I was redesigning for them.  Unfortunately, their strong feelings centred around the website they knew rather than the website they needed.  I used the F pattern as one point to help educate the room about good web design.  Kara Pernice was in the group who discovered that method of reading! Needless to say, I was a little star struck in the nerdiest of ways as I listened to her presentations.  And in case you were wondering: Yes, I did get the partners to accept my design (Thanks, Kara!).

If you ever get the chance to continue your UX education with Nielsen Norman Group, go for it.  You’ll be happy you did. And who knows, maybe I’ll see you there!