STC introduces another certificate course to our lineup in early 2013, with Usability Testing Essentials: Hands-on Workshop and Best Practices, presented by Carol Barnum. The course starts on 8 January and takes place every Tuesday through 26 February, from 10:30 AM–Noon EST (GMT-5). While this is the first time STC offers the course, Barnum has a rich history in the subject. "I’ve been teaching a course like this at my university for almost—gasp!—twenty years," she stated. "And I’ve written two books on the subject. But I’ve never taught the course fully online, so this will be a first for me."
Whatever job you hold, user experience is—or should be—a part of it. That’s why usability testing is such a good fit for technical communicators. Technical communicators are the voice of the user, so why not also be able to share what we learn from users by observing how they work with our products? We learn from them, educate ourselves and other product stakeholders about who our users are and how they interact with our products, and make our products better as user experience improves. What’s not to like in this picture?
Whether you are self-taught, unschooled in the topic, or looking to upgrade your skills, this certificate course will take you step by step through the process of planning and conducting a test, analyzing the results, and reporting them—with the goal of educating yourself and other stakeholders on the user’s experience and advocating for more testing, more often. You will work in small teams on a project of mutual interest and share the results with the rest of the attendees. With lots of discussion to help digest the material and learn from each other, you will progress through the stages of planning, testing, and reporting. Your deliverables will reflect a fully developed test project that you can share with others to promote your skills in usability testing.
"If you want to know what we’ll cover in eight, fast-paced, highly interactive weeks," Barnum explained, "the short answer is everything—everything related to planning and preparing to conduct a usability study, then analyzing and reporting the results. You’ll end up with a great portfolio of your work products to show all that you have learned and all that you can do to uncover and understand user experience."
STC’s certificate courses explore subjects in-depth over the course of several weeks. In addition to the practical work skills that you will develop, participating in a certificate program provides you with a unique, live opportunity to learn directly from an instructor and to also exchange ideas and tools virtually with the other participants in the program. The courses are $595 for members, $995 for nonmembers, and $295 for student members. See www.stc.org/education/online-education/certificate-courses for our full lineup and to register for Usability Testing Essentials: Hands-on Workshop and Best Practices.
