UPA rises above Heatwave and Awkward Customers with Management Games

The London UPA meeting this month took place on one of the hottest evenings of the year, when no sooner did one put water to the lips but it seemed to glow off the skin. Caroline Jarrett of Effortmark and Christine Elgood of Elgood Effective Learning decided to offer a light, witty and interactive session on "Human Skills for Working With Awkward Customers" - consequently none of the brave crew who ventured on after work in such intemperate conditions actually melted to their seats. Work combined some gentle thinking about client barriers to effective designing, with simple management games. There were sweets as prizes.

The theme "awkwardness" was defined as nitpicking, providing vague or changing specifications, indecisiveness, or providing too limited resources. But awkwardness was also seen to be a perception, varying between different people.

The evening focussed on two conditions: woolly vision and limited resources, and attendees were broken into small groups and given puzzles to solve to illustrate these.

Conclusions arrived at to improve each situation included, for woolliness: listening closely, avoiding cherrypicking from what is presented, using good questioning skills and setting a timetable. For working with limited resources, ideas included: piloting and prototyping your approach with simple records of what you tried and why, estimating and evaluating, taking more responsibility (for instance offering a choice rather than requesting a shape for a project) and, if all else fails, binning the project.

Study: Mobile Web sites need Improvement
Source: CNET, 13 October 2008
 
A new study suggests that the usability of many mobile Web sites still needs improvement.

Better Usability makes Online Backup more Appealing
Source: UN, 11 October 2008
 
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IBM Task Modeler version 6 now Available
Source: Unknown, 10 October 2008
 
The latest release of IBM Task Modeler is now available for download. This includes many new features to support efficient and collaborative task analysis and synthesis.

Caroline's Corner: Design to Read - Designing for People who do not Read easily
Source: Caroline Jarrett, 9 October 2008
 
Reading is a skill many of us take for granted. Chances are that if you’re reading this, you’re one of the lucky ones who read easily.

Bill Buxton to change Microsoft from within
Source: The Register, 8 October 2008
 
"Last year Steve Ballmer said to 85,000 employees 'If you don’t change and you don’t go in this direction, we’re dead, and I don’t want to die.' I wanted to go hug him when he said that."

New Report: Innovative Marketing in the Digital World
Source: E-consultancy, 7 October 2008
 
A new report from E-consultancy provides a distillation of ideas and suggestions provided by digital marketing experts.

Linking Industry with Academia
Source: unknown, 6 October 2008
 
Customer experience research consultancy, fhios, based in London, has just launched an innovative internship programme, aimed primarily at postgraduate students.

Online Travel Booking: What influences Consumers?
Source: Webcredible, 4 October 2008
 
What influences consumers when booking a holiday? How can travel companies offer the best user experience?

Getting the Word out
Source: UN, 3 October 2008
 
I SAID, I'M ON THE TRAIN... Voice recognition technology can now translate all those pesky garbled voicemails into manageable text messages.

Mobile hardware outpaces Software and User Capabilities
Source: ComputerWorld, 2 October 2008
 
The main issue dissuading users from employing all the capabilities of their mobile devices is the complexity involved in operating them.