[Sigia-l] "It's More Than ROI" - Panel, UC Berkeley, Aug 25

[Peter Merholz]

[massive cross-posting]

Announcing an exciting panel brought to you by BayCHI-East.

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It's More Than ROI: Defining the Business Value of User-Centered Design
Panel of Representatives from East Bay Companies
August 25

+ Schedule
6:30-7:00 pm–Socializing
7:00-8:30 pm–Panel
Beer and Food somewhere afterward.

+ Location
South Hall, Room 110, UC Berkeley campus
(UC Berkeley's most historic building!)
10 minute walk from Downtown Berkeley BART
5 minute walk from big available parking on Durant near Telegraph
Parking info here:
http://www.berkeley.edu/visitors/parking.html
Directions to the building here:
http://www.baychi.org/calendar/20040825/directions/

+ Panel Content
There has been a lot of discussion about the ROI of usability and 
user-centered design. Depending on your perspective, formal methods to 
calculate ROI may be the next big thing or just a distracting myth.

The panel will focus on the real world today.
  - Are companies using formal ROI calculations to assess the value of 
improvements to the user experience?
  - If not, how are usability and design resources justified in today's 
business climate?
  - What can we learn from how other practitioners are handling these 
issues today?
  - Are better approaches on the horizon?

The panel discussion will be followed by Q&A.

Our panelists will bring perspectives from a variety of business 
contexts:

Jeff English is user experience manager at PeopleSoft. Jeff will 
discuss the objective and subjective ways that the User Experience Team 
provides value to customers, to products, and to PeopleSoft.

Michael Ferguson is user experience analyst at Ask Jeeves, Inc. Michael 
leads usability, ethnography, and sundry other forms of research to 
help the Product Design Team at Ask Jeeves address business and user 
needs.

Scott Hirsch is business strategist at Adaptive Path. Scott recently 
published "Leveraging Business Value: How ROI Changes User Experience," 
an in-depth report on how design teams are currently valued within 
corporations.

Janice Anne Rohn is vice president, User Experience, at World Savings 
Bank. Janice is just completing a chapter in the second edition of Cost 
Justifying Usability, focusing on strategies and cost-benefit examples 
for UE groups to use within organizations.

Robin Krieglstein, as former senior design manager at LeapFrog Toys, 
established LeapFrog's Content Design Team and created their Content 
Standards and Guidelines program, content design training, and an 
ongoing usability research program.

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