John Hockenberry, an American journalist best known for his work on NPR, was named Honorary Chairman of World Usability Day (WUD) 2010 today. "John is the perfect Honorary Chairman. This year’s theme is 'Communication' and there is no better communicator than John Hockenberry,” said Elizabeth Rosenzweig, founder and president of WUD. WUD's mission is to ensure that products and services important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use.

Hockenberry has won four Emmy awards and three Peabody Awards. In early 2007, he accepted a position as a Distinguished Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. He is the co-host of the daily, new morning drive news program, The Takeaway, co-created by Public Radio International and WNYC and editorial partners, the BBC World Service, The New York Times and WGBH Radio Boston. He is a contributing editor for Wired magazine, and Metropolis magazine and was named a contributor to a new magazine from Condé Nast entitled Portfolio.

It's about making our world work better.
It's about "Making Life Easy" and user friendly. Technology today is too hard to use. A cell phone should be as easy to access as a doorknob. In order to humanize a world that uses technology as an infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, government, communication, entertainment, work and other areas, we must develop these technologies in a way that serves people first…

World Usability Day was founded in 2005 as an initiative of the Usability Professionals' Association to ensure that services and products important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use. Each year, on the second Thursday of November, over 200 events are organized in over 43 countries around the world to raise awareness for the general public, and train professionals in the tools and issues central to good usability research, development and practice.

Over 150 Events Held Worldwide on November 12, 2009!

The tremendous World Usability Day community held over 150 events in more than 43 countries for World Usability Day 2009.  Check out event  pictures at Flickr.