The CHIFOO PDX UX Scavenger Hunt

All over the world, World Usability Day, November 11, is celebrated with events of some sort. It hopes that people will go out in the world and explore their man-made landscape. This year the celebration focuses on communication. CHIFOO is holding a UsabilityHunt, where hunters look for very usable (and also horrible) examples of things humans have made to communicate a concept or an action.

This is a scavenger hunt in which photos of the items found are uploaded to the UsabilityHunt site during the time frame of the contest. Each photo must be tagged as described below.

Please note: Keep people out of the photos. The photos become public property and can be used forever by both CHIFOO and Tumblr for any purpose.

Name of the event: CHIFOO PDX UX Scavenger Hunt
Event Starts: 12:01 AM Pacific Time, Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Event Ends: 4:00 PM Pacific Time, Thursday, November 11, 2010

Prizes and no host Party: 7:00 PM till later, November 11, 2010
Bridgeport Pub, 1313 NW Marshall Street, Portland, OR 97209

HOW THE USABILITY HUNT WORKS

Anyone can enter.

TO ENTER AND REGISTER: go to http://www.chifoo.org/ and then click on the register link. (You may also go directly to the Online Registration Page.)

You will be notified by email of your acceptance and official name.

HUNT SITE: http://usabilityhunt.tumblr.com/

TO SUBMIT YOUR ENTRIES: Posts will only be accepted by e-mail.  The contest e-mail submission address will be distributed to all official registrants by 12:01am Wednesday Nov. 10.  See How to Submit Entries for specific instructions.

INDIVIDUAL HUNTERS CAN WIN PRIZES. You can suggest your hunter name or you will be given a hunter name upon sign up.

TEAMS CAN PARTICIPATE. Five or less people can be on a team. Teams can win team prizes. The team leader can suggest a team name or the team will be given a team name upon sign up.

There will be 15 main groups in which photos may be submitted. Each group is broken into a good example category and a bad example category. So there are 30 categories in all.

Category Tags and explanations will be e-mailed to all registered participants at 12:01am on Wednesday morning, November 10.  Category tags and explanations will also be posted to the Scavenger Hunt Web site at that same time.

RULES FOR EACH PHOTO SUBMISSION

Photos must be digital and submitted to the usabilityhunt.tumblr.com site via e-mail. Photos can come from cell phones, digital cameras via the web, and screen shots.

The only entries considered as valid will be photos submitted during the times of the hunt.

Each photo must be for one usability item, and tagged for a specific item/category. If two or more items are in the same photo, then multiple photos must be submitted, each tagged with a different item/category.

All photos must be tagged in the Subject line with a #teamname and a #category, followed by a caption explaining its value as a good or bad usability example.  See How to Submit Entries.

To win any prize, hunters must pass the First Hurdle.

First Hurdle, Individual: In order to win any prize, an individul must submit photos for at least 10 of the 30 categories, and the submissions must be approved by the judges. If no Individual submits for at least 10 categories, the First Hurdle number may be reduced by the judges.

First Hurdle, Teams: In order to win any prize, a team must submit photos for at least N of the 30 catagories, and the submissions must be approved by the judges. The N varies by the number of people on the team, as follows: 2 members, N=12; 3 members, N=14; 4 members, N=16; 5 members, N=18. If no team of a given team size reaches its FirstHurdle, then the N for that team size is reduced to a lower number by the judges, so that one or more team(s) of that size pass the First Hurdle.

Later Hurdles:

Prize criteria for specific photos or types of photos will be posted at the UsabilityHunt site upon the start of the Hunt.

Typical prizes:  Prize for the largest number of individual approved submissions by an individual. Two substantial prizes for Individual hunters will be given. CHIFOO membership for one year to each of the winning team’s members, and to a winning individual. O’Reilly book titles.

5 raffle tickets for the January 2011 CHIFOO Meeting to each person who participates by submitting at least one usability photo.

Terms of participation in CHIFOO UsabilityHunt

Release: By entering, you agree to release CHIFOO and their officers, directors, employees, agents, and affiliates from liability of any kind or nature or for any loss, claims, damages, or injuries of any kind associated with participation in this UsabilityHunt or acceptance or use of any prize. Except where prohibited, participants consent to the use of their submissions (and of their image if included in a submitted photo) for advertising, publicity purposes, and use on the CHIFOO web site, without notice or further compensation. If for any reason the UsabilityHunt is not capable of running as planned, including due to tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, human error or any other causes beyond the control of CHIFOO that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the UsabilityHunt, CHIFOO reserves the right in its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the UsabilityHunt and to select winners from among the eligible entries received prior to such failure.

Tumblr, the site where photos are submitted, also has Terms of Submission, as follows:

You have permission to post this.
You represent and warrant that you own all rights to any content submitted. You will indemnify and hold harmless this site, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, customers, vendors, hosts, officers and employees from any liability, damage or cost (including reasonable attorneys. fees and cost) from (i) any claim or demand made by any third party due to or arising out of any content you submit.

This site may distribute this post.
 By uploading, submitting or otherwise disclosing or distributing content for display or inclusion on this site, you give this site unlimited license in perpetuity to the content and the information therein.

Submissions:  Limit one entry per item by a Team or Individual. Incomplete submissions will be disqualified.

CHIFOO assumes no responsibility for (a) any error, omission, interruption, deletion or defect, delay in operation or transmission, or any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by Tumblr’s website or other third party sites hosting the competition, users, entrants or other causes; (b) any theft, destruction or alteration of submissions, or any unauthorized access to submissions; (c) any problem with or technical malfunction of any telephone network or telephone line, computer on-line system, server, provider, computer equipment, software; (d) any failure or delay of any email or submission to be received by CHIFOO on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, or any combination thereof.

Right to disqualify: CHIFOO reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any individual or submitter if it finds such person to be tampering with the submission process or the operation of the UsabilityHunt, or to be acting in violation of these Rules or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner.

Agreement to official rules:  Your participation in the Competition constitutes your full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules (which may be amended or varied at any time by CHIFOO with or without notice) and CHIFOO ’s decisions, which are final and binding in all matters relating to these Official Rules, the Competition, the results, the selection of winners and no correspondence or discussion shall be entered into.