Interactive Usability at Saint Louis Science Center

This event consists of volunteers including both usability professionals and students of local universities who will facilitate a variety of activities intended to raise awareness of user-centered design. The activities are intended for people of all ages and everyone is welcome to attend. Participants of these activities will consist of any visitors to the Saint Louis Science Center on World Usability Day.

The Science Center has agreed to host this year's event so visitors can learn about the way usability engineering and user-centered design affect their everyday lives. This event complements the Science Center's technology exhibits and engineering programs.

These are the activities that will take place at the Saint Louis Science Center:

Saint Louis Science Center Website Informal Testing

This exhibit will be set up like a traditional (yet informal) usability test. The purposes of this exhibit are to teach the public how usability testing works while at the same time gather practical user feedback to determine the current strengths and weaknesses of the Saint Louis Science Center website. Recommendations for site improvement based on what is learned during the day will be provided to the Saint Louis Science Center.

International Icons

Participants of this activity will be presented with a variety of icons that are used in the United States and abroad. Participants will be asked to guess what each icon stands for and will learn how cultural differences can lead to different designs of icons and the messages they convey.

Icon Pictionary

In this activity, participants will be presented with a set of tasks or ideas and then be asked to draw an icon representing that idea.. Other participants will be asked if they can interpret the icons.  This will instigate discussion of how to convey a message or idea in an icon.

Alarm Clock Alley Rally

This activity will involve participants interacting with 4 or 5 different standard alarm clocks. Participants will be asked how much time they believe it will take them to accomplish what should be a simple activity - setting an alarm for a specific time. The participants will be timed during the activity and after it is completed, the guessed times will be compared to the. actual times. This will lead to a discussion of how a simple task can be made complicated without user-centered design.

Government Preparedness Icons: Card Sort

Participants of this activity will be presented with a variety of icons that are used by the government to prepare the citizens for unexpected Biological, chemical, nuclear radiation threats. Participants will be asked to guess what the icon stands, what message they convey and will be asked to sort the icons according to their threat category.

University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) LITE Lab

This exhibit will include two posters and one demo.

The first poster will be about a UMR's student's usability research about a video game called "Journey to the Wild Divine."  This is a video game that people actually operate via a device that detects heart rate and respiration. There will be a demo of this video game using the device.

The second poster will address another UMR student's research surrounding using multiple monitors and usability.

Informational Posters

Alongside the activity tables, there will be various educational posters aimed at describing to the general public what usability is and how it affects them. Volunteers will explain the content on the posters to interested participants.