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NNGroup and Me: A Tale of Two Tickets

Guest Article by Chris McEvoy

The day I went to London

On Wednesday 13-November-2002, I attended the Intranet Usability tutorial on the London leg of the NNGroup 2002 Usability Week tour.

This was the description of the tutorial on the nngroup.com when I booked it on the 25th August 2002:



As the day wore on I began to realise that it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I had assumed that we would be seeing some video clips from real intranet usability sessions as well as taking part in exercises where I would get the chance to interact with my fellow delegates. In fact what we got was a presentation consisting of a summary of the Intranet Usability Guidelines that had just been published by nngroup, which were also included in the hand-outs for the tutorial.

A few days later I was worried that senility was setting in, so I checked my documentation and found that my memory wasn't playing tricks with me. I then checked the nngroup site and found that the description of the tutorial had been changed to remove any references to videos or exercises:



but my Intranet Design Annual had exactly the same description as the old web page, so I knew I wasn't going mad.

The mails

 here is the mail I sent to nngroup:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Chris McEvoy
Sent: 19 November 2002 08:28
To: XXXXXXXX
Subject: Intranet Usability Tutorial Questions

XXXXXXXXX,

I attended the Intranet Usability tutorial on Wednesday Novermber 13th in London and was very disappointed.

Here is the description of the tutorial from the Agenda (old version) and Page 160 of Intranet Design Annual 2002: "Format: This full-day tutorial comprises lectures, exercises, and some video highlights from the usability testing sessions." (At time of writing the 'old' version of the agenda can still be found in the Google cache).

On the day itself we were given a presentation of a cut-down version of the NNGroup Intranet Usability Guidelines. There were no exercises and no video highlights from the usability testing sessions.

At the weekend I checked the NNGroup Site and found that the agenda had been changed to: "Format: Full-day tutorial with lectures presenting lessons, statistics, and examples from the usability testing sessions."

I understand that there may have been good reasons to change the format, but the fact that you didn't inform anyone of the changes and actively tried to cover them up is disgusting.

If I had known that the format of the tutorial had been changed I would have re-considered attending as I have had to spend over £800 of my own money to attend this tutorial. As I had already bought the 2001 and 2002 Intranet Design Annuals, I effectively paid £800 for a copy of the Intranet Guidelines ($248 value), and the chance to ask a couple of questions.

I have a number of question that I would like answered:

1) Was the Boston tutorial the same as the London one?

2) When and why was the format changed?

3) Why weren't we informed that the format had changed?

4) Why didn't you offer people the chance to cancel their places when you decided to change the format?

5) Will you be offering compensation and apologising to people who attended the London tutorial assuming it would follow the original format?

6) Will you be informing the Silicon Valley delegates of the changes to the format BEFORE they attend on December 10th?

I have waited a few days before writing to you to see if I calm down, but I am still very angry about the treatment we received.

You might like to 'edit' this alertbox article to cover your tracks more thoroughly.

10 Best Intranets of 2002 - 3 Sep 2002 
"I believe this is the first time ever for a public seminar to present data and video from user testing of this many intranets."


Chris McEvoy
-----------------------------------------------------------

And here is the reply I received the next day.
( Top marks for the rapid response.)

-----------------------------------------------------------
From: XXXXXXXXXX

 
So what's wrong with that?

The reply dismissed most of my questions and implies that they couldn't be bothered to tell me about the rather sweeping changes to the format of the session because they were too busy getting the report ready for publication.

The reply also insinuated that my complaints were invalid because no-one else had complained (talk about 'blame the user'). The reason other people didn't complain probably had something to do with the fact that the vast majority of delegates were sent by their employers. They didn't have to pay for the event, and were paid for the time they spent there. If I was in that situation I might not have complained, but it's a bit different when it's your own money.

I think that the reply ignored most of my questions and was written very carefully to avoid admitting any wrong-doing or liability.

Even after nearly two weeks I am very angry and feel cheated. The funny thing was, I didn't even ask for my money back, I just wanted an explanation and an apology. Is that too much to ask? 

 
What about the other ticket?

While in London I took the opportunity to see Michael Moore live at the Roundhouse. Luckily it was Michael Moore the American satirist that I saw rather then someone with the same name from Slough who works a plumber.

Whilst I am unable to recommend the Intranet Usability Tutorial to anyone, I can recommend the Michael Moore show without any reservations.

As well as getting what you expect, it's also more than then ten times cheaper than a nngroup tutorial !

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