Canberra Interaction Design HF Group kicks off

This month saw the inaugural meeting of an "Interaction Design: The Human Factor" group in Canberra. 48 people representing almost every major government department, as well as many from private industry, gathered for the first session. Canberra is the seat of government in Australia, for those on this side of the world and rusty on world capitals.

Ash Donaldson, user experience designer and CHI-SIG Representative for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) says he, Donna Maurer and Sharon Dowsett formed the group because there is a large community of people developing systems in Canberra. 'The impressive response and subsequent attendance reflects a desire to design and deliver better systems. The purpose of these sessions is to serve a number of groups. We want to make this forum as practical and useful as possible.'

He identifies, in the Usability/HCI/Human Factors realm, beginners and practitioners; academics; and anyone else involved in creating softwareincluding business analysts; project managers; team leaders; software engineers; strategists; and decision makers.

He is calling for volunteers in helping to run the group. 'Since we are not often always in the same state at the same time, and since we are not the only experienced practitioners in the ACT, we would like to hear from anyone who would like to help.'

The first meeting dealt with the topic of "Don't listen to users? Why not? Tips for requirements gathering". This produced a wealth of discussion and advice, some of which is displayed on a holding page (linked below) prior to the group setting up a full website.

The next session will be held on the 4th of December. Donaldson suggests that anyone in the area who has come across a particular user-centred design problem at work, or would like to know more about a certain area, drop him a line at ash@produxi.com.

Associated Link: Interaction Design: The Human Factor

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