Cambridge Usability Group

Wednesday 17th June - Prof. David MacKay - Hands free writing (and more) - Dasher and Nomon

The problem with polymaths is that they are often extremely busy doing important stuff. We are extremely fortunate that David MacKay, a Professor of Natural Philosophy (Physics) at Cambridge University, has agreed to give us this unusual talk outlining credible and creative tools for entering text without using a keyboard.

David often seems to be on telly and in the media at the moment talking about the topic of his excellent free book Sustainable Energy - without the hot air. Here's an excellent video related to the book called How Many Lightbulbs?. This is a chance to hear him talk about some other cool stuff he has done in the field of Human-Computer Interaction and Accessibility. You can expect an unusual and thought provoking talk. Date: Wednesday 17th June 2009 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). Registration: The event is FREE and you do not need to be a UK UPA member to attend. Please use the Eventbrite service to register.

ABSTRACT

I'll describe a couple of communication systems based on information theory, both of which allow fast communication with minimal muscle movements.

First, Dasher - over ten years old now - uses a navigational metaphor to embody an idea stolen from data compression, arithmetic coding. Hands-free writing is possible in any language, using head-tracking, gaze tracking, or one or two switches.

Second, Nomon, created this year by Tamara Broderick, provides a general way of using a single switch to communicate, which is faster and requires fewer gestures than standard Grid methods.

(you can get an introduction to Dasher and Nomon on the Inference Group's new Videos web page.

Excellent talk by Caroline Jarrett & Slides

Caroline Jarrett did us an excellent talk on Label Placement in Forms and brought along Steve Krug too. Steve joined Caroline for the questions and they did an excellent double act. About 45 people attended and most seemed to enjoy the show.

Caroline's slides were requested and they are available on Slideshare.

Francis Rowland, of Cambridge University Design / UX group has done an excellent write-up of the evening and Caroline has responded. Nice!

Thanks all for coming! Thanks also to Tim Regan/Microsoft for hosting us and also to the other committee members Jo Fruud and Martin Colbert who helped make the evening happen.

Tuesday 19th May - Caroline Jarrett - Label placement in forms (and other time-consuming controversies)

We are delighted to announce Caroline Jarrett as our next speaker. Caroline is a world expert on Form Design. In this talk, Caroline will use eye-tracking data, and her many years experience of designing and testing forms, to give you ideas of where to put labels on forms and get us thinking about form details such as required field indicators and colons on labels.

Caroline Jarrett started to work with forms when delivering Optical Character Recognition systems to the then Inland Revenue. The systems didn't work very well, and it turned out that the problems arose because people made mistakes when filling in forms. She developed a fascination with the challenge of making forms easy to fill in, a fascination that shows no signs of wearing off over 15 years later. During this time Caroline has worked with the Open University, Cancer Research UK, the Ministry of Justice (HM Courts Service), the Financial Services Authority, the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge. Caroline is Co-author of Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability the companion volume to Ginny Redish's hugely popular book Letting go of the words: Writing web content that works. "The humble form: it may seem boring, but most of your website's value passes through forms. Follow Jarrett & Gaffney's guidelines, and you'll probably double your online profits." Jakob Nielsen, Principal, Nielsen Norman Group

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Tuesday 19th May

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).

Registration: The event is FREE and you do not need to be a UK UPA member to attend. There is no registration but in the unlikely event that we fill 120 seats, they will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

If for any reason we have to cancel the event we will post this information on the Cambridge Usability website in advance (we have not cancelled one yet though).

Our thanks to Microsoft Research Labs for their sponsorship of this event.

Resources from Ben Shneiderman's Information Visualization talk

Ben's talk was a real treat. He are some resources related to the talk that you might like.

Slightly older version of the slides...
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/pubs/presentations/InfoVizKnowDiscovery-NASA.htm

Ben was filmed doing a similar talk at a French University shortly before his Cambridge Talk. You can get that here...
http://www.digiteo.fr/Digiteo_rediffusion_seminairebenshneiderman_2009

Handouts
HCI Websites Handouts

Book flyer - Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction

3 Websites that keep Ben engaged for hours
http://infosthetics.com/
http://flowingdata.com/
http://dataspora.com/blog/about/

Thursday 5th March - Ben Shneiderman - Information Visualization for Knowledge Discovery

We are thrilled to announce that Ben Shneiderman will be presenting on the subject he is perhaps best known for, 'Information Visualization', on Thursday 5th March at the fantastic Microsoft Research facility in Cambridge.

Most people reading this will know Ben Shneiderman. Last year he was recognised as one of the founding fathers of the field of Human-Computer Interaction with a whole special edition of the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction honouring his contribution to the field. This talk is a great opportunity to come along and hear what Ben has to say about Information Visualization. Date: Thursday 5th March 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). Registration: The event is FREE and you do not need to be a UK UPA member to attend. Please use the Eventbrite service to register. Please be aware that there are limited places so registration in advance is essential.

ABSTRACT
Interactive information visualization tools provide researchers with remarkable capabilities to support discovery. By combining powerful data mining methods with user-controlled interfaces, users are beginning to benefit from these potent telescopes for high-dimensional data. They can begin with an overview, zoom in on areas of interest, filter out unwanted items, and then click for details-on-demand. With careful design and efficient algorithms, the dynamic queries approach to data exploration can provide 100msec updates even for million-record databases.

This talk will start by reviewing the growing commercial success stories such as www.spotfire.com, www.smartmoney.com/marketmap and www.hivegroup.com. Then it will cover recent research progress for visual exploration of large time series data applied to financial, medical, and genomic data (www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/timesearcher ).

Our next step was to combine these key ideas to produce the Hierarchical Clustering Explorer 3.0 that now includes the rank-by-feature framework (www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/hce). By judiciously choosing from appropriate ranking criteria for low-dimensional axis-parallel projections, users can locate desired features of higher dimensional spaces. Finally, these strategies of unifying statistics with visualization are applied to network data and electronic health records (www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/lifelines2). Demonstrations will be shown.

BEN SHNEIDERMAN (http://www.cs.umd.edu/~ben) is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Founding Director (1983-2000) of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory (http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/) at the University of Maryland. He was elected as a Fellow of the Association for Computing (ACM) in 1997 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2001. He received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.

Ben is the author of "Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction" (5th ed. March 2009, forthcoming) http://www.awl.com/DTUI/. With S. Card and J. Mackinlay, he co-authored "Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think" (1999). With Ben Bederson he co-authored “The Craft of Information Visualization” (2003). His book “Leonardo’s Laptop” appeared in October 2002 (MIT Press) (http://mitpress.mit.edu/leonardoslaptop) and won the IEEE book award for Distinguished Literary Contribution.

30th January - Informal Get Together

There will be an informal gathering of the Cambridge Usability Group for a chat and a few beers on Wednesday 30th January – starting around 7.30 at All Bar One in Regent Street. Adaptive Path are visiting Cambridge from the West Coast and will be joining us. All are welcome!

Rachel Jones (of Instrata in Cambridge) who many of you will know from her talks for the group has promised to be there early and bag a table...so look for her!

Look forward to seeing you there.

Masterclass in User-Centred Design

29th November, Møller Centre, Cambridge

Instrata is offering a 1-day intensive workshop on user-centred design. You will receive a basic grounding in a variety of techniques such as ethnography, lead users, personas, scenarios, prototyping and evaluation. You will learn when to use the techniques and what their benefits are. Most importantly, you will learn to apply the techniques through a series of exercises to the product or service you bring to the workshop. This could be a software application, or a mobile or web application, or a physical product.

The workshop is aimed at those of you that have taken on a usability or interaction design role within your organisation and wish to learn more.

Cost
Full price: £325 + VAT per person
Two or more delegates from an organisation: £300 + VAT
Members of the Cambridge Network: £300 + VAT

All prices include lunch, refreshments and handouts.

Contact Anita at anita@instrata.co.uk if you wish to register for this event or to find out about future courses.

Dr Rachel Jones is the course leader. Highly experienced, Rachel is at the forefront of people-centred design in the UK. Rachel is involved in mentoring organizations and teams in ongoing innovation programs at the BBC, BT and Reuters where she brings a people-centred approach to the development of new technologies and services. Rachel founded Instrata 6 years ago, which specialises in people-centred design and provides expertise across a broad range of services and products. Clients include Microsoft, Vodafone, Yahoo, Nokia, Proctor & Gamble, Smith & Nephew, Virgin Atlantic, and the Countryside Agency. Prior to starting Instrata, Rachel was employed by two of the foremost pioneers of people-centred design techniques, Xerox EuroPARC and Sapient (formerly E-lab). Rachel has a PhD in Computer Studies, over 40 international publications and has authored 10 patents.

Terms and Conditions:
Bookings are not confirmed until payment is received in full. Once payment is received you will receive the workshop documents. All fees must be paid for in advance. You may cancel your registration up to 14 days before the seminar. Your registration fee will be refunded less a £10 enrolment charge. If you need to cancel less than 14 days prior to the seminar you may send a substitute from your organisation. Cancellations must be received in writing. In the unlikely event of the seminar being cancelled a full refund will be made, but further liability is disclaimed. It may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of Instrata to change the date or the venue.

29th October - "Shaping new mobile services: is it anytime, anyplace, on the move, in the bag or in between?"

We are delighted to welcome back Rachel Jones as the speaker at our next event. Rachel, from Instrata in Cambridge, spoke at the inaugural meeting of the Cambridge group back in March 2005. In this new talk Rachel, a recognised UK expert in people-centred design, will explore ways of thinking about new mobile services as the capabilities of mobile devices continue to grow.

Date: Monday 29th October
Time: 6.30 for 6.45
Venue: Microsoft Research, Cambridge [Map & address]

Registration: Please email cambridge.usability@gmail.com to reserve a place. The event is FREE and you do not need to be a UK UPA member to attend

Shaping new mobile services: is it anytime, anyplace, on the move, in the bag, or in between?

The mobile has moved on from a simple communication tool. It now has many capabilities, many of which are now workable from the user’s point of view. For instance, the quality of the camera is nearly as good as that of a digital camera which it will surely replace; and internet connectivity is on the way to offering acceptable access times. Such capabilities can only improve.

Over these base services, new mobile services are being developed and a variety of dictums are being vaunted for framing and envisaging them. The mobile operators talk about offering services “anytime, anyplace”. For example, the mobile internet allows the internet to become ubiquitous – we can access anything online from anywhere. User experience experts frown at this approach and advocate the importance of “context” – different services are appropriate at different times, at different places, by different people. For example, with people’s position now determinable, we could identify the sort of services people will want to use based on their location.

In this talk, I explore various ways of thinking about new services, including anytime, anyplace, on the move, in the bag and in between. I suggest that each framework both opens up and restricts the way we explore the design space and therefore the way we envisage new services. I propose that we continue to explore new frameworks to help shape our thinking.

About the speaker

Rachel Jones founded Instrata 6 years ago. Instrata specialises in people-centred design and provides expertise across a broad range of services and products, including mobile, web, television, medical, travel, and personal care services. Instrata offerings include strategic innovation, ethnographic research, user requirements understanding, design mapping and design solutions. Clients include Microsoft, Vodafone, Yahoo, Nokia, Proctor & Gamble, Smith & Nephew, Virgin Atlantic, and the Countryside Agency.

Rachel has over 20 years experience in people-centred design and has been involved in mentoring organisations and teams, managing research and design projects, and developing novel methods and tools. Rachel’s specific experience and expertise comes in selecting or developing the appropriate techniques for a project and guiding the process.

Prior to starting Instrata, Rachel was employed by two of the foremost pioneers of people-centred design techniques, Xerox EuroPARC and Sapient (formerly E-lab). Rachel spent four years at Xerox EuroPARC, which is a world leader in understanding the human and organisational aspects of technologies in use, and on reflecting this understanding in novel design. At Sapient, a leading e-commerce consultancy, Rachel was involved in developing major corporate web sites and services for mobile devices. Rachel has a PhD in Computer Studies, over 40 international publications and has authored 10 patents.

8th October - CHI @ Cambridge

Cambridge Usability Group events return after a long summer break with an opportunity to hear two excellent papers presented earlier this year at CHI 2007.

Date: Monday 8th October
Time: 6.30 for 6.45
Venue: Microsoft Research, Cambridge [Map & address]

Registration: Please email cambridge.usability@gmail.com to reserve a place. The event is FREE and you do not need to be a UK UPA member to attend

The first paper and winner in the best paper awards at CHI 2007 is “Capturing life experiences: Software or wetware?: discovering when and why people use digital prosthetic memory” presented by Vaiva Kalnikaité and Steve Whittaker.

Abstract
Our lives are full of memorable and important moments, as well as important items of information. The last few years have seen the proliferation of digital devices intended to support prosthetic memory (PM), to help users recall experiences, conversations and retrieve personal information. We nevertheless have little systematic understanding of when and why people might use such devices, in preference to their own organic memory (OM). Although OM is fallible, it may be more efficient than accessing information from a complex PM device. We report a controlled lab study which investigates when and why people use PM and OM. We found that PM use depended on users' evaluation of the quality of their OM, as well as PM device properties. In particular, we found that users trade-off Accuracy and Efficiency, preferring rapid access to potentially inaccurate information over laborious access to accurate information. We discuss the implications of these results for future PM design and theory. Rather than replacing OM, future PM designs need to focus on allowing OM and PM to work in synergy.

About the speakers
Following an MA at Cambridge, and PhD at St. Andrews, Steve took various research posts either side of the Atlantic - HP Labs Bristol, The Stanford Center, Lotus Boston, Edinburgh University and finally AT&T Labs, New Jersey. In 2003, he returned to the UK to teach and research as Professor in Information Retrieval, Sheffield University. Steve continues to win research grants, file patents and publish widely. His research interests include Computer Mediated Communication, and Multimodal Interfaces.

Vaiva is a PhD student in Department of Information Studies, Sheffield University.

Our second paper, “Usability Testing: What Have We Overlooked?", by Gitte Lindgaard and Jarinee Chattratichart will be presented by Jarinee. This paper was nominated in the best paper awards at CHI 2007.

Abstract
One way to keep down the cost of usability tests is to run an optimum number of sessions - enough to reveal most of the problems, but not so many that later sessions simply duplicate the results of earlier ones. Nearly 15 years ago, Jakob Nielsen (useit.com) claimed the optimum number of users to run was 5, and this magic number was adopted by many organisations. Many empirical studies were conducted but could not overturn or fully support the claim. Many discussion panels at major HCI conferences failed to reach consensus, or close the debate. As Larry Constantine (Constantine & Lockwood, Ltd.) summarised at the last panel (held at CHI'2003), '.usability testing now appears to be a highly variable art in which the results depend on who is testing what by which protocol with which particular subjects'. In this talk, Jarinee will provide evidence that overturns this magic number 5, and suggest a new research direction for improving usability test results.

About the speaker
Jarinee Chattratichart graduated in Computer Science from Imperial College London and her PhD at Brunel University concerned the Usability of Visual Programming Languages. She has subsequently taught and conducted research at Westminster, Guidhall and now Kingston University.

Our thanks to Microsoft Research Labs for their sponsorship of this event.

Talk: Accelerating Discovery, A Grand Challenge for HCI

This isn't a CUG talk, but it may be of interest. Ben Shneiderman is talking on Monday 21/5/07 at 14:00 on "Accelerating Discovery: A Grand Challenge for HCI". There's more info at http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/7381

14th May - "Information Visualization"

The speaker at our next event will be Bob Spence, author of the textbook "Information Visualization: Design for Interaction" and Emeritus Professor of Information Engineering at Imperial College London.

Date: Monday 14th May
Time: 6.30 for 6.45
Venue: Microsoft Research, Cambridge [Map & address]

Registration: Please email cambridge.usability@gmail.com to reserve a place. The event is FREE and you do not need to be a UK UPA member to attend

Our thanks to Microsoft Research Labs for their sponsorship of this event.

"Information Visualization"

"Basically, visualization has nothing to do with computers". This title of an earlier talk by Bob Spence emphasises the fact that visualization tools must be designed to support the formation of an internal model by human users of such tools. Bob will discuss, among other features of information visualization, how the successful realisation of the benefits of visualization depends upon an appreciation of human capabilities: "Forget the technology" will summarise much of his talk.

About the speaker:

From the unlikely schoolboy hobby of telephone exchange design Bob Spence became a designer of electronic circuits. Then, in 1968, he realised the enormous potential that interactive graphics held for engineering design, a realisation that led via research and development to the first (1985) commercially available interactive-graphic circuit design facility. His work in Human-computer Interaction also led naturally into information visualization, and along the way Bob was the co-inventor of the first Focus+Context technique (the Bifocal Display) and the Attribute and Influence Explorers. An influence upon his work in information visualization came from his parallel research into engineering design for mass production, leading to visualization tools such as the Prosection Matrix and the Influence Explorer. Bob is currently Emeritus Professor of Information Engineering at Imperial College London and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He presents courses on Information Visualization around the world: “have course, will travel”. He has just published the textbook "Information Visualization: Design for Interaction" (Prentice Hall, 2007).

5th February - "Selling Usability to Business"

*** NEW DATE ***

We are delighted to welcome Dan Benatan as the speaker at our first event of 2007.

Date: Monday 5th February
Time: 6.30 for 6.45
Venue: Microsoft Research, Cambridge [Map & address]

Registration: Please email cambridge.usability@gmail.com to reserve a place. The event is FREE and you do not need to be a UK UPA member to attend

Our thanks to Microsoft Research Labs for their sponsorship of this event.

An overview:

While it seems that there is an increasing awareness of usability in business, we still have an uphill struggle getting management commitment and finding budgets. It may be that we tend to get in our own way. Our own convictions about the obvious ‘rightness’ of usability work and user-centric design can blind us to the hard-nosed business justification we need. Having held senior executive roles in financial services, Dan had this need firmly in mind when he developed his intranet assessment model. The model specifies a balanced approach to three different aspects; Impact, Usefulness and Usability. The assessment uses inputs from end-user testing, end-user interviews, stakeholder interviews and heuristic review.

Dan will talk about the model with a specific emphasis on those components that help achieve business acceptance.

About the speaker:

Dan Benatan will be familiar to regular attendees. He is now working with LBi – the largest full service digital agency in Europe as a senior business consultant.

Dan has worked in the field of Computer Human Interaction (CHI) since the late 70’s and has designed highly usable applications, largely in call-centre environments, for industry in the UK and abroad. He left IT for a time, spending 12 years at senior level in Financial Services, mostly in product and organization development and communications. Dan established Comprehensive Web Consulting in 2002 to build on his earlier work at Giga Information Group on Web, intranet and extranet effectiveness and usability. Dan has advised several of the world’s leading companies and written on effective e-Business practices, web analytics and applications usability.

14 November 2006: World Usability Day

Nottingham Univeristy is hosting a World Usability Day event - "Usability - different applications; a common purpose". They have some interesting presentations lined up (I'm particularly curious about "Farmer Buckley's exploding trousers"). Full details are on the atttached flyer if you would like to go along...

Midland World Usability Day

9th October - "The Four Pleasures: Usability and Beyond"

We are delighted to welcome Professor Patrick Jordan as the speaker at our next event.

Date: Monday 9th October
Time: 6.30 for 6.45
Venue: Microsoft Research, Cambridge [Map & address]

Registration: Please email cambridge.usability@gmail.com to reserve a place. The event is FREE and you do not need to be a UK UPA member to attend

Our thanks to Microsoft Research Labs and The Technology Partnership plc for their sponsorship of this event.

An overview:

Products and services should bring pleasure to those who use them and profit to those who create them. To do this effectively they must connect with the consumer in a compelling manner. Effective innovation means designing products that meet both our practical and emotional needs. It speaks to our personalities and values — our hopes, fears, dreams and aspirations. If we are to connect fully with consumers then we have to fully understand them. Having a deep and thorough understanding of people is the key to designing the products and services that people will want to buy and that they will find useful and enjoyable.

This presentation outlines a framework for understanding people holistically. It is called ‘The Four Pleasures’.

This framework has been applied to the design and marketing of many of the world’s most successful products and services across all market types and sectors. It is used by many of the world’s leading brands including: Microsoft, Starbucks, Ford, Nokia, Gillette and Proctor and Gamble.

The ‘four pleasures’ divides human experience and motivation into the following four areas:

• Physio-Pleasure: This is to do with the body - pleasures derived from the senses. In the context of products physio-pleasure would cover, for example, tactile and olfactory properties as well as ergonomic issues.


• Socio-Pleasure: This is the enjoyment derived from relationships with others. Products and services may help to enhance or facilitate particular social situations and may confer social or cultural status on the user.


• Psycho-Pleasure: This type of pleasure refers to people’s cognitive and emotional reactions, including their reactions to the products and services that they use.


• Ideo-Pleasure: This concerns people’s values. It is important that the values embodied in products and services are consistent with the values of those for whom they have been designed.

The presentation will be illustrated with many examples of products and services that have been designed using this framework. These have proved to be extremely successful commercially as well as a huge hit with users. By understanding people holistically and designing to meet their needs we can create products and services which will have a significant and positive affect on both individuals and society as a whole. They will be a joy to use and will bring success to those who manufacture and supply them.

About the speaker:

Professor Patrick W. Jordan is an international brand, design and marketing consultant, author and professional speaker. His methods and ideas have influenced the design of many of the products that we find in our homes, cities and workplaces. Pat is Owner and CEO of the Contemporary Trends Institute [CTI], an international trends and branding consultancy. Recent clients of CTI include: Starbucks, Gillette, Microsoft, Proctor and Gamble, Unilever, Nokia, Samsung, Philips Electronics, Masterfoods, Rexam [the world’s largest packaging company] and the US and UK governments.

Pat is a former Vice-President of Symbian, where he was also head of design. Symbian is the world’s largest mobile-communications consortium, jointly owned by Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, Psion, Ericsson, Sony and Panasonic. Prior to that he was Head of the Trends and Identity Group within the Domestic Appliances and Personal Care divisions of Philips, Europe’s largest electronics company.

Pat has over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals, books and conference proceedings. He has written or edited 6 books, including Designing Pleasurable Products (Taylor and Francis 2000) which has become a standard design and marketing text within both industry and academia and the bestseller How to Make Brilliant Stuff that People Love and Make Big Money Out of It (Wylie 2002).

Pat has a visiting lectureship at London College of Fashion and Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design and a guest lecturer at numerous universities in many different countries. Pat is on the advisory board of Delft University where he reviews and advises on the university’s design research agenda and is a non-executive director of Sense Worldwide a leading international trends bureau. Pat is head of the Trends and Strategy section of the Industrial Designers Society of America and was the youngest holder of the Nierenberg Chair at Carnegie-Mellon University, the most prestigious appointment in US design education.

3rd July - “Case Study: Making Tesco.com Accessible”

Our speaker at this meeting will Nick Lansley, IT Manager at Tesco, introduced by Julie Howell from RNIB.

In his presentation, Nick Lansley explores how Tesco.com became conscious of the need to offer its vision-impaired customers a usable and accessible grocery web site, and shows the path the company has taken from the early days of two separate sites (one for sighted customers and one for visually impaired customers) to today’s brand new integrated service with two “skins”.

Date: Monday 3rd July
Time: 6.30 for 6.45
Venue: Microsoft Research, Cambridge [Map & address]

Registration: Please email cambridge.usability@gmail.com to reserve a place. The event is FREE and you do not need to be a UK UPA member to attend

About the speakers:

Nick Lansley is a founder member and IT New Technologies Specialist at Tesco.com. He has been working in IT systems for 18 years and today looks to see how new technologies will make the Tesco.com service better for customers and simpler for staff.

Julie Howell is the Digital Policy Development Manager at the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB). She works with policy makers, information architects, manufacturers and software designers, businesses across all sectors and government agencies to ensure the accessibility to disabled people of digital information products and services. Julie was a founder member of the NHS Care Record Development Board (CRDB), working to ensure the accessibility to disabled people for the forthcoming NHS Care Records Service. She is a member of the NHS Direct New Media Committee. Julie is of Technical Author of a new BSI specification for accessible website design, 'Publicly Available Specification 78: Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites'. She is the current holder of the New Media Age Effectiveness Award for 'The Greatest Individual Contribution to New Media'.