Date: April 5, 2006
Speaker: Chris Bond, User Interface Consultant, — Portland General Electric
One of the most difficult challenges in the usability field is getting clients to realize just how much of a difference usability can make. But every so often, a project comes along that provides the opportunity to demonstrate immediate, tangible savings. Improvements to a Customer Information System (CIS) at an electric utility resulted in decreasing call processing times by approximately 1 minute, resulting in a net savings of 10 FTEs (reduced the need for new hires and related training).
About the speaker
Chris Bond is responsible for leading usability efforts across the corporation for CIS improvements, web development and IVR design. As an active member of the Human Factors Society and the Usability Professionals’ Association he promotes usability in systems design as a guest speaker in various forums. He has written a number of articles on usability and developed several user interface guidelines for web page design and automated telephone systems. PGE currently serves over 770,000 customers in northwest Oregon.