Feedback from Power to the People

govisadvert-v20-red-verticApologies to my regular subscribers – I’m not keeping pace with my goal of two blogs a week. Part of the reason is the return of my dj turntables (I sold them in 1999 – now they’re back!), gathering and stacking firewood for the winter (which we’re told is “still coming”), and my work at Provoke which is entering an exciting new phase with new designers, new clients – and soon – new premises.

Three weeks ago Bob Medcalf, Elyssa Timmer and I held our first ever full-day workshop ‘Power to the People’. It was ambitious – we’d only ever done short presentations in the past, felt we had to live up to the precident set by the likes of the experienced presenters at Webstock, and were unsure how people would react.

Anyway, we’ve finally gotten around to compiling the feedback and here it is:

What was good about Power to the People?

Very useful, relevant workshop. Really enjoyed it.

Good balance of presentations vs. interactive work.

Good pace, knowledgeable.

Good use of interactive sessions.

Content, presenters, activities, tools.

Really useful information, clear, concise.

Good practical ideas to take away and implement on my site.

You’ve put users back in the forefront of my mind where they should be.

Good interactivity, plenty of exercises.

Good overview of UCD. Activities were good.

Good to break and work on real examples.

All components were very interesting. Hope to use it.

What was bad/needed improvement?

Better to end middle section before lunch – hard to regain momentum.
[Zef: I agree]

Some more lead-in to the exercises. Clearer modeling of expectations. Some more scaffolding’¦
[Zef: Good points, next time we’ll look at having a running theme to better link the activities]

Screen saver set for longer time. It came on during activities.

Emphasis on doing this yourself…quite specialist research. Maybe stress the need to commission it?
[Zef: Our goal was to allow you to start doing this yourself in-house or have a better idea of the process when you do work with specialists – of course, I’d love to hear from you if you want to commission a job!]

Could possibly have more resources to take home?
[Zef: Next time we’ll point you to some resources. Meantime try here and here]

Unclear how conceptual model fit in – how to use practically.
[Zef: I’ll look into this point, thanks for the feedback]

More pointed on where to get more resources e.g., sample test plans, sample template.

Some more exercises in large groups to develop more significant outputs.

Did Power to the People meet your expectations?

Yes

Yes – especially usability testing

Surpassed them

Great info! and met expectations.

Definitely

Would you recommend Power to the People to a friend?

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes definitely!

Yes definitely!

Yes for sure!

So will we be doing it again?

Yes, maybe… probably – if we do it’ll be a bit later this year – watch this space!