Martin Colbert presented at this year’s CHI conference – the largest ever with around 3,000 delegates.  The overheads are very similar to those tried out during last year’s DCPP module.  The original paper was written with ex-MSc student Angela Boodoo, now a senior content strategist, at EBay Europe (see her on linkedin).  Many thanks to the member of the audience who took this photo (from somewhere towards the back !), and the other who asked, ” What is a content strategist?”

Martin at CHI 2011, Vancouver

From Search to Discovery – a talk by Tony Russell Rose, Endeca

Date: Monday 11 April 2011, Time: 18.30 for 18.45 to 20.00

Venue: Microsoft Research, Cambridge ( Map & address – note that Cambridge is just 45 minutes from Kings Cross but you will need to get a taxi to get to Microsoft Research, or pack a Brompton).

Abstract

The landscape of the search industry is undergoing fundamental change. In particular, there is a growing realisation that the true value of search is best realised by embedding it in a wider discovery context, so that in addition to facilitating basic lookup tasks such as known-item search and fact retrieval, support is also provided for more complex exploratory tasks such as comparison, aggregation, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and so on. Clearly, for these sorts of activity a much richer kind of interaction or dialogue between system and end user is required. This talk examines what forms this interactivity might take and discusses a number of principles and approaches for designing effective search and discovery experiences.

Organised by Martin Colbert, you can sign up for this FREE event on eventbrite

What Contexts make users Click?

Martin Colbert’s Google Research Award

a display ad: what context will make users click the advert below?

Web users soon get used to display adverts, and learn to ignore them, so many sites resort to attention-grabbing advert designs or deceptive page layouts to boost click through rates. This is a problem for us, because the user experience is impaired.  More importantly, it also deters the use of online information.

Is there a way of increasing the persuasivenss of display adverts, without also reducing the usability or credibility of the host site? This project explores this possibility by studying the context in which the advert is displayed, and its effects upon user experience, rather than the design of the advert itself.  Perhaps, we should improve the quality of information on the site, the relevance of the advert to the user’s task, and the credibility of the advert selection process.

More information and how to apply

We are delighted to have been approached once again by UI Centric inviting  DMK Students to apply for one of a number of Internships as  Information Architects, Interface Designers and Web Authors, all of which will lead to a full time job. They will start as soon as possible and complete their Final Project in the workplace