MakingLifeEasy.Org and Red Balloons on the Streets of Auckland & Wellington

Confusing cash machines, parking meters, unclear signs, frustrating websites - poor usability is everywhere and it gets in the way of life. Sometimes it is just annoying. At other times it stops us doing what we need to do. Sometimes it can even be dangerous.

On World Usability Day (and in the lead up), we will be going out on the streets of Auckland and Wellington to document some of the worst offenders and the best examples of usability and user experience.

As we come across examples of good and bad design, we will tie our balloons to them, photograph them and post them to the Making Life Easy website to ensure that the statements continue to be made long after the balloons disappear.

World Usability Day and Making Life Easy are initiatives to let people know that they shouldn’t be putting up with average or bad design and poor usability. If they’ve ever asked themselves “Why doesn't this work right? What am I supposed to do with this now?"”, they should know that they are not alone. Come and join us in this initiative!

Join us!

On Tuesday 14th November, we'll be heading out for a lunchtime ‘urban safari’. In Auckland, we'll start at 12.00pm from Vulcan Lane, and in Wellington, we'll start out at 12.30pm from Civic Square. You won’t miss us: we’ll be the ones with the red balloons. Contact justine[at]userfaction.com (AKL) and sam[at]optimalusability.com (WLG) to register your interest..

This is a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness about usability in our everyday lives – AND a great team exercise for any development team – highlighting that poor design is all around us, but that good design principles are easy to apply… Check out Flow’s (the initiators of this project) experience…