World Usability Day Nov 3rd Options

[radiorental]

Sorry if this has been posted already, I performed a search and could see anything relevant. Anyways I say this article on bbc news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazin...ine/4393468.stm

And followed the link to the Usability professionals site (never heard of them before. http://www.upassoc.org/worldusabilityday/

Just a heads up in case this went under someone's radar. I'll refrain from commenting on the upassoc.org website usability standards.

[cre8pc]

I'm a member of the UPA. Yes, the web site is always under criticism. However, it contains a huge wealth of information and the organization itself has yet to fail in my expectations.

WUD is intended to bring awareness to the importance of making things work. Oddly enough, though it is my field, I haven't been promoting it as I'm sure I should be. It's mostly a time issue - I have packed days as it is.

For those that do follow links about WUD, they'll soon discover the UPA is not just about web site usability. Far from it.

What works for one person does not mean it works for somebody else. Much of the education about usability is simply about that and why that matters to the bottom line.

[radiorental]

I know you've probably heard this a million times before... I didnt dig in to any of the links on the site and assumed it was just another org making money from membership fees and doing little else useful for professionals.

This assumption was based soly on the WUD front page, once I saw the imagemap tabs and the WUD table with illegible text I felt if they cant get that right then what useful information could they possibly have to offer me.

I'm not trying to drag you in to an argument, or get you to defend the website. But you couldnt deliberately create a better example of how to turn users away. I will go back and look more closely but I would refuse to become a member on the priciple that they dont practice what they preach

[cre8pc]

I would have no need to argue with you. I was surprised the first time I saw the site too. It's a basic jump off site, I felt. I get more from other sites, like HFI.

The UPA org offers a print publication that's usually pretty informative, and they help folks network, as well as there are local chapters and from what I can tell, there's a lot of activity from those local folks.

Another thing to keep in mind is that usability doesn't just cover web site design. There's software and hardware design segments, which is what I think Usability Day is more focused on. And accessiblity...

[bwelford]

There's a good BBC item here on World Usability Day and on The secret of making things work

[Brandon_Cstone]

Happy Usability Day everyone! I just started a new full time job where I'm a web developer for an already thriving e-business (with a physical storefront too). I'm curious how much an e-commerce site would benefit from the added effort of making it very friend for those "other" browsers like screen readers, etc. How can I find this out? My stats only tell me "other browsers, and doesn't list them specifically. I've only been on for less than a week, but I can tell just by looking through the code that they haven't given it any thought in the past.

Brandon

[bragadocchio]

I hope that there is a World Usability Day in 2006, because I'm a little disappointed by World Usabilty Day 2005. I may have to try to get something going locally for next year.

My disappointment is probably because there is only one Usabilty Day event happening in my State, and even though it is taking place in my town, it's a closed event, meaning that only members of the corporation hosting it, or their consultants, can participate.

You can see where events are taking place here:

http://www.worldusabilityday.org/

There are, however, a number of events that are taking place online, and are open to people regardless of where they are located:

http://worldusabilityday.org/taxonomy/term/186

I'm curious how much an e-commerce site would benefit from the added effort of making it very friend for those \"other\" browsers like screen readers, etc.

Your stats are only telling you about the people who are trying to visit your site now. If the site was more accessible to handheld devices, you might just get more traffic from them.

There's a nice series of articles on building sites to be more friendly to small screens that you might want to take a look at. Three of the projected four parts have been published, and it's shaping up to be a nice resource.

Mobile Web Design: The Series

Here's a link to part three, which came out last week, and isn't linked to from the above link yet:

http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000577.html

It has a great number of links to other handheld resource sites, too.

This is one of the links from the first part, which is pretty good:

10 Reasons to Publish to Mobile

[cre8pc]

As I was writing about the event for my blog, I was also thinking of what usability is. I touched on it in the blog piece, but I had to shut myself up.

Ask anyone who calls me on the phone and asks an innocent question like. "So Kim, what is usability?" and I start rambling and giving examples. So many things come to my mind that either I shut myself up, or hopefully they do.

This very thing just happened on Tuesday. The man was asking about SEO, but dared asked how usability helps or compliments SEO efforts. And, once again, I became babble mouth.

Am off to the High Rankings SEM seminar now. I'll let the speakers to the talking.

Happy Usability Day. Hug your computer. It's doing its best to serve you.

[radiorental]

The example I give which most people can relate to is the few ATM machines that give you your cash before returning your card.

User goal: get cash
Work flow
1)enter card
2)enter pin
3)make request
4)receive cash = Goal acheived.
5)Walk away absent mindedly with card still in machine.

You can even get the person to describe the workflow for you which draws them in to how relevent good design is to them as opposed to something that simply holds up product development.

[bwelford]

You may find the following web page of interest:
http://worldusabilityday.org/usabilitystories
Usability Stories - Stories Make It Real