[webmin-l] [OT] Free Stanford web-based seminar on user interfaces for Admins

[Barry <we...@i1...>]

Hi All -

Given the recent uptick in support by Open Country for webmin, and Paul 
Cubbage's recent call for ideas into what the future Webmin might look 
like, I thought this is on topic...

Paul - I am not sure if you are in the Bay Area or not, but if you are, 
these seminars are generally open to attend in person...there might be a 
wealth of info for OC's own products there too.

Best,

Barry

*************************************************************
Stanford Seminar on People, Computers, and Design (CS547)
                 http://hci.stanford.edu/seminar
Gates B01 (HP Classroom) and SITN, 12:30-2:00pm PDT (UTC 19:30)
Video: http://scpd.stanford.edu/scpd/students/courseList.asp CS547
*************************************************************
Friday, October 7, 2005

Luke Kowalski, Oracle
    v12...@ya...

TITLE: Administrators Anonymous - UCD, TCO, LCM, and other interventions

ABSTRACT:
The lack of focus on administrative interfaces often comes from 
management's mandates to prioritize end user facing screens ahead of 
anything else. The number of "eyeballs" is greater for the end user 
screens than admin screens. It is also easier for all stakeholders, 
including interaction designers to understand the domain of an e-mail 
application than it is to grasp things like complex system monitoring, 
visualization of clickstream data, or the tools needed to bridge 
interdependent systems. However in more complex software, this initial 
emphasis on the end user turns out to be a short lived priority. The 
more significant costs of running software are often associated with 
installation, configuration, deployment, maintenance, and upgrade. 
Often, this is referred to as LCM, or Lifecycle Change Management. 
Industry estimates state that the budget for LCM can be 2-4 times as 
large as the initial license cost of enterprise software. More 
information is needed about how administrators work to manage these 
systems and what business and integration problems they are trying to 
solve. UCD, or user centered design can help answer these questions.

The administrator is often a misunderstood user type. Experts have 
recently started to shed light on this subject. As reported in this 
forum by Rob Barrett of IBM Almaden, administrators cling to their 
shells, scripts, and other command line utilities. We create GUI tools 
for them, but is that what they really need to lower the Total Cost of 
Ownership (TCO) of software, or to be more efficient when communicating 
with each other? What are the real frustrations in a given admin's day 
and how can Human Computer Interaction practitioners help them?

This talk will focus on better understanding administrators and what 
design solutions and techniques work. I will present more information 
about the latest user classifications I found in mid-to large scale 
companies. Their user profiles vary in terms of technical skill, 
breadth, and responsibility. I will also talk about a study of only 
DBAs, where my team saw a large difference between self reported and 
observed data concerning their real tasks.

Practical case studies of software ecosystems that these admins inhabit 
will be showcased throughout this talk. While sometimes unexpected, the 
tools and techniques that an HCI practitioner, or any software designer, 
can deploy will decrease the frustration, complexity, and cost 
associated with enterprise software deployment. The bridging of 
technical and organizational silos will often be required, and designers 
will need to extend their role in order to bring about any significant 
change and make life (and command line withdrawal) easier for 
Administrators Anonymous.

**********************************************************
Luke Kowalski is the Corporate UI Architect at Oracle Corp. His role 
serves to bridge the user interface design groups at Oracle and he works 
as an evangelist for effective UI technology, on legal aspects of user 
interfaces, business context, and cross-divisional information 
architecture integration. Prior work includes begging for money at 
startups as director of UI and Web, a longish stint at Netscape's Server 
User Interface Group, as well as other odd HCI jobs to fill out the 15 
years in practice. He holds several UI patents, a CPE Certification, and 
two Masters Degrees, one from Pratt Institute, and another from Columbia 
University. His PhD in Divinity cost him $5 from http://www.ulc.org/ and 
allows him to park in the minister spot in front of hospitals. He has 
also published book chapters and articles and spoke at the Nielsen 
Norman Group conference in Sydney in 2002.

**************************************************************
NEXT WEEK: October 14, 2005 - Jeffrey Heer, UC Berkeley Computer Science
    he...@cs...
   Presiding Over Accidents: Techniques for Designing Directive Interfaces
    http://hci/seminar/abstracts/05-06/051014-heer.html

**************************************************************
The mailing list for these seminar announcements is
pcd...@li..., which is managed by an automated server. 
For
information on subscribing or unsubscribing, see
http://hci.stanford.edu/lists.html
For information about HCI at Stanford see http://hci.stanford.edu