Web Standards, Accessibility & More

The fourth annual Internet User Experience (IUE 2008) conference will be held at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan the week of March 31, 2008-April 3, 2008.

Organized by the Michigan Usability Professionals Association in collaboration with Washtenaw Community College’s Internet Professional Program, the User Experience Network (UXnet), Refresh Detroit, and other sponsors, the conference provides four days of presentations,panels, training sessions, and workshops on optimizing web sites so they are effective, compelling, and profitable for businesses.

Experts in search engine optimization, online communities, and user experience management will lead sessions at the conference. Tutorials and training are also available to attendees with 1/2 day and full-day workshops before and after the main conference days.

Discounts are available for Usability Professionals Association members and several other organizations, as well as full-time non-working students.

For more information and details on registration, visit the Michigan Usability Professionals Association or the IUE Conference web sites.

Yesterday, Ross Johnson and I attended the Fourth Annual Usability and Accessibility Event on World Usability Day, (November 14) at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.

We each got a late start to the day as I slept through my alarm and Ross got stuck in traffic. It was dark and rainy morning, but we arrived at the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center in Lansing just in time. The morning was spit into two sessions and the afternoon was a string of several diverse topics. The break was excellent as pumpkin pie was provided! It also a good opportunity to meet few more usability professionals.

I had an iRiver MP3 device with me, and did some short interviews with folks (funny how a couple people did not want to be recorded). A podcast following the day’s events will be released on Web Axe next week. I suspect it will be very entertaining!

Update 11/21:
The Web Axe podcast on the Usability Event is now posted.