World Usability Day Stuttgart: Easy. Better. Usability!

Aims
The main aim is to promote and establish the importance and advantages of Usability in people’s minds. A special aim is to awaken the public, i.e. people with no or little experience in this field. Moreover,  professionals from related areas like design, software development and web engineering are important target groups.
Usability is shown to be a professional discipline with economic importance by representatives from academia as well as companies experienced in this field. Examples demonstrate how the participation of users can enhance the development of attractive and intuitively usable products.

Events, Exhibits, Presentations and Panel Discussions
The agenda is made up of presentations, events, panel discussions and attractive exhibits.

16 short presentations give an overview on different aspects and fields of usability in practice. Additionally we selected three up-to-date topics for panel discussion with experts and the audience. The discussion „Cars get more and more intelligent – but do they get more usable?“ focuses on the requirements and information load of advanced driver assistive systems (ADAS) and in-vehicle information and communication systems (IVICS) and their relationship to usability. “Web 2.0 – chances and challenges for usability and accessibility” describes the changing perception and usage behaviour of the web and the emergence of new online-applications. The panel “Are mobile phones future devices for anything but coffee brewing?” discusses the trend of convergence of devices, the challenges of cross-channel application and service provision, and the consequences for usability.

21 exhibitors from industry, and academia present current research projects and development projects with hands-on opportunities in a big exhibition and allow visitors to try out usability methods like eye-tracking. Another interesting event is the online mini-conference on “International User Experience Studies”. International usability partners (IUP) engage in an online discussion about cultural and organizational differences in usability tests with participants from France, Great Britain, Italy, and China.

Detailed information on the World Usability Day in Stuttgart is available on www.worldusabilityday.de/stuttgart.

Supporters, cooperation partners, and sponsors

The patronage of the WUD 2006 in Stuttgart is the Lord Mayor of the city of Stuttgart, Dr. Wolfgang Schuster. The adult education centre Stuttgart (VHS Stuttgart) is cooperation partner and supports the event by providing appropriate locations and by promoting the event.

The event is sponsored by:

Web-Systemhaus Lightwerk

Bassier, Bergmann & Kindler, Digital Sales and Brand Specialists GmbH

DaimlerChrysler Group Research

Intuity

STAR Group

Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG

User Interface Design GmbH

5gestalten GmbH – angewandtes Informationsdesign | Access Technologies Group | ad kommunikation, Büro für Ausstellungen und Kommunikation | CO4 Communications – interaktives Kommunikationsdesign | dmc digital media center GmbH, Internetagentur und Systemhaus | Fraunhofer IAO | GUI Design | Harman/Becker Automotive Systems | Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart | Hochschule Esslingen | Hochschule Heilbronn |
Meyer-Hayoz Design Engineering Group | MFG Baden-Württemberg | NAVIGON AG | VHS Stuttgart | VITERO GmbH, Stuttgart | Voice-Insight | webgrrls.de e.V.