MikePadgett.com

Belgium Usability Day

— I attended an event marking the Belgian contribution to World Usability Day 2008.”

I attended a seminar last night that represented the Belgian contribution to World Usability Day.

The conference was hosted by interactive agency Emakina and the theme set by the global organisers Usability Professionals Association was Transportation.

The agenda consisted of presentations on traffic congestion, user experience in online airline booking and social networking.

Usability and traffic congestion

The opening presentation from Joannes Vandermeulen, concerning how usability could contribute to the resolution of traffic congestion, was both curious and interesting.

Vandermeulen compared the current, systemic approach to traffic management with the possibilities of adapting Swarm theory, wondering aloud how direct communication between car drivers might resolve jam situations.

The online airline

So far, so good. Next we heard about an Emakina case study in which the latter had presented client Brussels Airlines with what it called a “user experience mission”.

The idea is to method act the process of booking and taking the flight, from website to take-off, so that the user experience can be considered not as an isolated online transaction but rather in the context of a larger process in which users engage with the brand. Hence the trip to Lisbon.

Of course I appreciate the sincerity of the thinking here, yet it does sound nevertheless like a marvellous jolly too – pity I’ve never had an airline industry client (though some orgs would be more preferable than others: could you imagine doing a user experience mission for SkyChefs?).

Feeling unsociable about the social web

After the break, there followed two presentations on the subject of social networking. Unlike Laurent Goffin, who was riffing enthusiastically about the “social web”, I’ve been unable to retain quite the same level of enthusiasm lately.

And here’s why. As far as social networking’s concerned, I’m right in the middle of yet another perennial cycle in which:

• I have embraced change;
• I have seen opportunities;
• I have accepted that it will have implications for my work;
• I have begun to implement it;

All good. But now, two or three years later, the cycle has predictably evolved:

• My clients have now heard a few acronyms and buzzwords;
• My clients can talk of nothing else;
• My clients call me in and tell me that I must embrace this new and exciting change, discover its opportunities, accept that it will have implications for my work and start to implement it;
• My clients insist on a [insert the social network du jour that's très à la mode] presence

Don’t misunderstand me, I love my clients: they do their thing, they pay my bills and they fill my day with endless amusement. But sometimes they behave like kids. This is the result of having baby boomers in senior management.

In a way, you could visualise this cycle in the same way as Joannes Vandermeulen described wave theory in traffic jams. Think of me as the blue car and it makes perfect sense.

Rant over, but what does social networking have to do with transportation?

And finally

There’s always a risk that this type of event, managed by a company, can end up being a glorified advertising campaign for the host. Whilst Emakina made reasonable efforts to avoid this situation, I did find myself wondering about what other contributors – myself included – might have offered, especially since we were told there had been numerous submissions.

Perhaps with a wider range of contributors there might have been more focus on the theme of transportation, in which I was particularly interested after the recent issue of UX. There might also have been some discussion of media other than the Internet.

Fundamentally, what’s most important is that this event – the Belgian edition of the global initiative – continues to grow. This year’s audience was quite impressive and very encouraging. If I’m around next year, the UPA‘s designated theme matches my competences and I hear about it soon enough, then I’ll certainly consider making a submission!