Cross Post: The ABC interviewed me about being a Usability Specialist

About a year ago the ABC interviewed me about being a Usability Specialist. They came and videoed me up at the usability lab I use, my home office and even speaking at a conference. It was all quite fun.

Anyway, today I accidently found a photo of myself on the ABC Science website with a link to the interview with me. You can read about my job and watch the video interview here

Technorati Tags: customerexperience, hci, idealinterfaces, information architecture, interview, iphone, judge, marketing, mobile, momo, Sydney, thoughts, TV, ui, usability, video

Mobile people who don’t understand mobile

“But if you claim to be [a mobile] professional and haven’t at least read about the iPhone a year after its release you should be shot.”
Stilgherrian on Mobile Content World and the fact that the audience I gave my iPhone User Experience talk too, weren’t familiar with the iPhone.

I obviously agree with him and thus why I proposed the talk.
I see it as an opportunity

Technorati Tags: conference, customerexperience, idealinterfaces, industry, iphone, mobile, Sydney, thoughts

Tweets from Mobile Content World

Check out a couple of the tweets from Mobile Content World yesterday.
I spoke on the iPhone user experience and it was scary to realise how many people in the audience (at a mobile conference) hadn’t seen the iPhone or the full benefits.

Technorati Tags: Apple, conference, customerexperience, iphone, mobile

The ‘Web Directions South: User Experience’ website is up

Web Directions South: User Experience is “a full day two track conference, plus an optional extra day of workshops, focussing on concepts, technologies and techniques for building great user experiences on the web.

Whatever your role – designer, developer, IA, product and project manager all the way to CIO and CTO – this will be an exciting day of informative, stimulating content to send you home even better enabled to build the web.”

There is a great speaker list:
* Andy Budd (Clearleft) – Interaction design and usability
* Robert Hoekman Jr (Miskeeto) – User experience evangelist
* Lisa Herrod – User testing
* Emily Boyd (Remember the Milk) – Ajax techniques for great user experiences
* Cameron Adams – Frontiers of Javascript (workshop)
* Donna Maurer – Getting content right
* Jackie Moyes (News Digital Media) – Turning research into products
* Steve Baty – Analysing research data
* Mathew Patterson (Campaign Monitor) – Designing for email

I will be speaking on the Mobile Web User Experience
“Historically the mobile web has been a terrible experience, but things are starting to change. Really! We are now at the point that the mobile web is becoming easier to access, both on-deck & off-deck, there’s useful & tailored services out there, and killing some time on the train home doesn’t cost more than your weekly train ticket. We’ll check out the latest and greatest in the world of mobile web and what makes them different from the others. We will also cover the important things to keep in mind for making a better mobile web customer experience.”

Early bird pricing is available until April 11!

Technorati Tags: conference, customerexperience, idealinterfaces, mobile, ui, usability

MoCo News on my Voice of the Consumer Panel @ MCW

As part of Mobile Content World Australia I was once again invited to run the Voice of the Consumer Panel, where I interview six consumers in front of the conference. James at MocoNews has some notes

Technorati Tags: conference, customerexperience, idealinterfaces, industry, mobile, Sydney, usability

Microsoft Mobile & Embedded DevCon 2007

MEDC Australia – 15th May 2007
“You want to take advantage of the latest technology to enhance your business, but people don’t always behave the way you expect, especially when dealing with new technology. Expert advice and good functional design at the outset will maximise your opportunity for higher returns and improved business success. Oliver Weidlich (idealinterfaces.wordpress.com) is a usability design expert and international speaker and this will be a session with a difference!”

Technorati Tags: conference, idealinterfaces, industry, information architecture, Microsoft, mobile, Sydney, usability

The AIMIA MCIDG AMPLI Report

Well after a number of months of planning, piloting, writing, analysing etc, last Tuesday Marisa and I launched the 3rd edition of the Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index. We had a great turn out. We changed the format for the event this year; I presented the high level findings and then there was a panel to discuss it. It worked well and the panelists provided some great perspectives on the findings. It was also great to hear that internal figures and private survey by 3 and News Ltd found very similar results in the areas that the surveys had in common.

I am also happy to announce that the full report is available for free this year and can be downloaded from the AIMIA website.
Go have a read!

I believe there is an audio recording of the event as well that will be posted at a later date.

Technorati Tags: AIMIA, AMPLI, idealinterfaces, industry, MCIDG, mobile, podcast, Sydney

AIMIA MCIDG Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index

The AIMIA Mobile Content Industry Development Group Presents the Results of the Consumer Web Survey of the Australian Mobile Content Market

The report on the 3rd Australian Mobile Lifestyle Index (AMPLI) is about to be launched and you’re invited. The AMPLI report is the only Australia-wide public report on the local mobile phone and mobile content industry. It provides key insights into who the market is, what they are using on their mobile phone, and what they want to use. The special topic for this report was mobile advertising, with some interesting results!

Panellists include:
- Angus Beattie, Carrier Relationship Manager, News Digital Media
- Annie Mackin, Head of Content, Hutchison 3G Australia
- Marisa Maio Mackay, Director – Research, m.Net Corporation
- Oliver Weidlich, Usability Specialist, Ideal Interfaces
- Jennifer Wilson, Managing Director, HWW

This report presents the results of the third edition of the Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index, a collaborative industry research project carried out during 2006 by:
- AIMIA Mobile Content Industry Development Group (MCIDG) http://www.aimia.com.au/mobile
- m.Net Corporation http://www.mnetcorporation.com/
- Ideal Interfaces http://www.idealinterfaces.com.au/

All registered attendees will receive a free copy of the report.

This year the event will involve:
- An overview of the key findings of the report
- A panel of industry figures to discuss the report findings
- Drinks afterwards to continue discussing the findings with your peers

Event Details
Date: Tuesday, March 6
Time: 4:30pm – 6:00pm followed by networking drinks at the CBD Hotel
Venue: Telstra Auditorium
Address: Level 2, 400 George St, SYDNEY 2000

AIMIA Members: $50 (inc. GST)
Non-Members: $100 (inc. GST)

Register for the event here

I am the co-author and will be presenting the high level findings and moderating the panel. Should be fun

Technorati Tags: AIMIA, AMPLI, consumerelectronics, customerexperience, idealinterfaces, industry, MCIDG, mobile, Sydney

AIMIA AMPLI Update

So… the report on the third Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index is progressing and it’s likely to be launched mid to late next month. I’ll provide an update when things firm up. Mobile Advertising was our special topic for this survey.

Two things different for this year:
1. The pdf copy of the report will be free to everyone (yes the full report, not just the Exec Summary)
2. The launch event will be more a panel discussion style to get people’s opinions on it and richer debate/insights. And hopefully it will be in the afternoon instead of those crazy early morning breakfasts we used to do…

Technorati Tags: AIMIA, AMPLI, idealinterfaces, industry, MCIDG, mobile, Sydney

Mobile Consumer Panel at ad:tech (7&8 Feb ‘07)

I’m moderating ‘The Mobile Consumer’ panel next month at ad:tech.
My esteemed panelists include: Jennifer Wilson (HWW), Sebastian Baldwin (Sensis) and Andrew Larkin (Saatchi & Saatchi)

Here’s the blurb:
“With almost 95% of all Australians having and using mobile phones, what does the future look like for marketers, advertisers and content providers to reach this massive audience? We’ll sit down with top speakers Jennifer Wilson of HWW, Andrew Larkin of Saatchi & Saatchi NZ, and Sebastian Baldwin of Sensis Wireless to talk about how Gen C, the 14 – 27 year olds, are quickly adopting new technologies on the mobile phone, how agencies are creating messaging to be distributed across this medium and how carriers are working to make distributing this information effective and informative. Join us as we discuss and compare the mobile consumer’s habits and discuss the current and future trends of what the mobile phone may look like and how marketers and agencies can get on this bandwagon.”

Should be fun.
Anything you want me to ask them, or include?

Technorati Tags: conference, idealinterfaces, industry, mobile, Sydney