Seeing what people do and hearing what they say is the heart of usability research. But what’s the brain doing? We used eye-tracking technology to watch hundreds of people’s eyes as they used the Web, doing a plethora of different tasks and using different websites. Seeing exactly what the user is looking at – and not looking at – is like getting to sneak into his brain for a little while. Kara Pernice will discuss how she conducted this research and present some of the findings from it. She is the co-author with Jakob Nielsen of the upcoming book, Eyetracking Web Usability .

Speaker: Kara Pernice , Director of Research, Nielsen Norman Group

Pernice heads the NN/g’s East Coast operations. She has more than 14 years of experience in evaluating usability in the areas of collaboration, document management, graphics and multimedia, database design, and handheld devices. 

More recently, she has studied more consumer-oriented products such as digital cameras, cell phones, and cappuccino makers. She has also been a user interaction designer for products ranging from Web calendar applications, to dictation devices for radiologists, to server monitoring programs.

Before joining NN/g she established successful programs at Lotus Development, Iris Associates (an IBM subsidiary), and Interleaf. Pernice has been involved in planning and designing state-of-the-art usability labs and has conducted hundreds of lab studies;, many remote studies, field studies, and surveys. She may be best known for practicing and championing the use of video in usability, as a tool for analyzing, presenting, and teaching.

Pernice chaired the Usability Professionals' Association 2000 and 2001 conferences, and served as 2002 conference advisor. She holds an M.B.A. from Northeastern University and a B.A. from Simmons College.

Where: 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10005 (Pine and Nassau) View map of the event location

When: October 16, 2007
Registration: 6:00pm to 6:30pm (refreshments served)
Presentation: 6:30pm to 8:00pm (includes Q&A)
Networking: 8:00pm to 8:30pm
Dinner: 8:30pm to whenever

Please note that dinner is an optional, post-event social activity and is not included in the event fee. It will be the responsibility of each individual who chooses to attend the dinner to pay for their own food, drink and any other expenses that may be associated with the dinner.

Cost: See ticket prices at top of page (Pre-payment online required.)

Refundable until noon, Thursday, October 18, 2007 (2nd day after the event) by sending a request to RSVP@nycupa.org .

Transferable on or before noon Monday, October 15, 2007 (day before the event) by sending a request to RSVP@nycupa.org. You must notify us, and get a confirmation, of this transfer or it will not be valid.

Members of our parent organization, the UPA (the Usability Professionals' Association), must join the NYC chapter to qualify for member rates.  We encourage everyone to join our parent organization, though you do not need to do so to become a member of our chapter. You can learn more about our NYC organization or learn about our parent organization .