World Usability Day Press Releases

A live webcast plenary session to open World Usability Day 2007 in Boston has just wrapped up. You can watch a recording here: http://tinyurl.com/37p5zv

At the login screen, enter your name. “Recording key” should be left blank.

For more highlights from World Usability Day 2007, check out the World Usability Day Community site! 

Please note: you must download the Microsoft Office Live Meeting Software prior to the webcast. We recommend that you download the software well in advance of the webcast. These instructions (.doc) will guide you through the process.

Our closing session, which will be webcast live on November 8th at 6:00 pm United States Eastern Standard Time (11:0 pm GMT!), will feature an address from Redmond, WA, entitled “Learnings from the Healthcare Industry:  Trends, challenges and directions for best principles”.   Microsoft’s Andrew Kirby and Linda Walmer talk about challenges and progress in this area, including what we can all do in the effort to create and apply best practices in this domain.  Andrew Kirby is Director of the National Health Service Common User Interface project in Microsoft’s Solutions Development team in the UK.  Linda Walmer is User Experience Director in the Health Solutions Group at Microsoft, located in Redmond, WA.  (And Bill Gates even chimes in with a taped closing statement!)  

To read and post more event highlights, go to the World Usability Day Community site! 

With less than a month to go until World Usability Day 2007, now is the time to:

Here’s how:

• Create a local event – energize your company, community, university or collaborate with your local UPA Chapter or business association. Sign up to mailing list to get more information.
• Be a Sponsor – get recognized as a leader. See our 2007 Sponsorship Opportunities!
• Volunteer – be part of our team globally or locally.  Sign up now for event leader info, announcements, and volunteer opportunities.
• Sign the World Usability Day Charter – show your support now!  www.worldusabilityday.org/charter.
• Submit a story about Healthcare and Usability for our website – share your experiences. Send them to us now.
• Sign up for our email newsletter – keep informed of the latest news and information. Sign up to our general newsletter.
• Get more information about World Usability Day – spend some time on our website and if you have questions you can email or call Caryn Saitz, executive director at caryn@worldusabilityday.org , 617.905.5691.

The UPA International Conference in Austin hosted the kick-off event for World Usability Day 2007 on June 13 with a program entitled “ Healthcare Usability in the Trenches.”  The theme for World Usability Day 2007 is Healthcare.

The program featured Jason Rossback, Zoll Data Systems, Theo Mandel, Ph.D, Interface Design and Development, LLC, Janine Purcell from the Veterans Health Administration and Ed Israelski from Abbott. Additionally, Elizabeth Rosenzweig Founder and Director of World Usability Day and Caryn Saitz, Executive Director discussed exciting upcoming plans for 2007. 

This program was sponsored by Techsmith.

United States 

Governor Proclaims November 14 "New Jersey Usability Day"
"When you can’t use a product, who you gonna call?  UsabilityNJ, the local chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association, for one." [ More ] 

NPR Celebrates "Make Things Easier Day"
"Today is World Usability Day, a day to promote intuitive engineering and user-friendly design. National Public Radio commentator and humorist Tim Bedore is all for it, if only we could come up with a better name..." [ More ]

World Usability Day: A Challenge for Everyone, by Elizabeth Rosenzweig
From the current issue of the Journal for Usability Studies. "Every citizen on our planet deserves the right to usable products and services. It is time we reframe our work and look at a bigger global picture." [ More ]

SIGCHI Endorsement
"...World Usability Day allows us to share our experiences, tools and techniques, and hopes and promises, with people who might not know that usability is their right." [ More ]

CNN Headline News Interview with Elizabeth Rosenzweig
Recorded in the morning of World Usability Day 2005.

Download the attached mp3 file, and listen with any MP3 player.