In The News
World Usability Day Gets Off to a Quick Start
Boston, MA: July 3, 2011 – Education: Designing for Social Change is the theme for World Usability Day (WUD) 2011, Nov. 10. “World Usability Day 2011 will focus outwardly on how usability impacts our organizations, our cultures, and our world,” said Elizabeth Rosenzweig, Newton, MA, founder of WUD.
OHO Interactive (OHO), Cambridge, MA, was the first U.S. company to register an event. Beyond Usability: Creating Applications that Connect with Users will be held at the Microsoft New England Research and Development (NERD) Center at 1 Memorial Dr. Cambridge MA. It’s currently featured on the World Usability Day website which launched in mid-June.
“Business to business applications are truly going in the direction of business to consumer applications as user expectations for quality user interfaces are growing exponentially,” said Jason Smith, Chief Creative Officer and Managing Partner at OHO, the event’s keynote speaker. “Companies need to meet those needs or risk poor user adoption, lots of support tickets and poor productivity as well as user dissatisfaction. We’ve seen in our own practice what a difference a thoughtfully designed user interface can make.” To read details about the OHO event visit Events by Country.
Although WUD isn’t until November, other registered worldwide events are in Austria, Brazil, Columbia, Iran and Mexico.
This year’s events and forums will focus on how Design Education will help develop products and services that will impact social change. Programs will examine all products and services used for teaching how usable design impacts the world, whether it’s close at hand (organizations), surrounding us (particular cultures/communities) or from a global view. . . how does something designed in China, Scotland, India or the United States, for example, have impact on other nations around the world? WUD will explore and celebrate Design Education – designing with an intentional outcome of sparking change in how people behave, communicate, and do things in the world; and examining the concept of cultures and how culture impacts usability.
John Hockenberry: 2010 Honorary Chair
John Hockenberry, an American journalist best known for his work on NPR, was Honorary Chairman of World Usability Day (WUD) 2010. "John was the perfect Honorary Chairman. WUD2010's theme was '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.
