Usability - Making Life Easy?

The value of usability is more or less uninamously accepted, however inventing, planning, designing, developing, producing, and delivering user-fiendly tools that have a benificial impact on our lives is not as straightforward as one may hope. The WUD 2009 in Jyvaskyla attempts to emphasize this fact and examine facilitators and obstacles to usability initiatives in research and practice.

The WUD event in Jyvaskyla will be held in the spirit of global concern - local impact, dedicated to creating a forum where various stakeholders in the field meet and exchange experiences and ideas. The event particularly intends to attract representatives from industry, and the official language will be Finnish. It consists of short presentations on "user psychological design", a Nokia  case, and a critical take on emotional design. There will be a poster session to disseminate and discuss R&D-results and best practices. Finally, there will be a panel discussion entitled "Usability, an important issue, but...". The event closes with a relaxed "get together" and cocktail.

"Finding a common language and striving towards mutual understanding and collaboration accross disciplines is seen as key for our shared global project of building the future world of human technology", reminds Sacha Helfenstein, event organizer and senior researcher at the University of Jyvaskyla.