December Web Con Workshop: What Dungeons and Dragons Taught Me About Usability Testing

After DM-ing my first Dungeons & Dragons campaign, I realized that running a usability test and running a D&D session had a lot in common: you do a lot of perpetration, figure out how to schedule around multiple busy people's schedules, ask people to complete different tasks, and then have to sit back and resist the urge to jump in with the solution as they hopefully don't accidentally set everything on fire. All this can be a lot to deal with, but I've got some tips make your UX process - and your adventure - less stressful.

Speaker bio: 

Kelly Delahanty is a User Experience Designer at the University of Illinois System, creating enterprise applications used by university staff, faculty, and students. She is a member of the U of I's IT Caffeine Break planning committee as well as the Women in Technology (WIT) leadership team, where she organizes the monthly WIT Roundtable discussion series. In her free time, she enjoys drawing, writing, reading, and gaming. She's only DM-ed one D&D campaign, but she's been playing on-and-off (i.e. struggling to schedule ongoing sessions with a group of busy adults) for over a decade.