presenting: Mr. Stan

Boston's UPA (Usability Professionals Association) is growing stronger and stronger - which is pretty sweet for all the parties involved. We just had our annual mini-UPA conference, where my coworker Sarah and I presented on the exciting subject of intranet standards. We had a pretty good turnout - maybe 80 people or so. I kicked things off by comparing intranets to undergarments ("everybody has them, they serve a useful support function - but nobody talks about them; plus, you can't see somebody else's unless you're their friend - or unless you pay them").

From there, we laid out our dirty laundry, and discussed how the mess that we call our intranet developed. Sarah explained how introducing a CMS system can be similar to trying to fix Boston roads the Big Dig way, and I tried to demonstrate what we're doing to clean up our morass. All in all, I though it was a good session - and the rest of the presentations were pretty sweet as well, not as academically-inclined as CHI's, but rather practical and even inspiring.