A Snapshot of the World Usability Day in the UK

As part of the Usability Professionals’ Association's (UPA) first annual World Usability Day today (3rd November 2005), there is a rolling series of events for the 36 hours as it stretches from Australasia, China and the Philippines to a session at the DUX 2005 (Designing for User Experiences) conference in San Francisco.

As an example, here is what the UK chapter of the UPA has been organising:

The UKUPA 2005 Awards
As part of World Usability Day, we'll be holding an evening event in Central London at which we will present the UK UPA 2005 Awards. Full details will be available shortly.

Date: Thursday, 3 November
Venue: Central London
Time: 6.30pm onwards
Cost: To be confirmed

Usability Round Table
Featuring usability leaders from the UK discussing key topics. A summary will be published as a report by E-consultancy, and the event will be covered in the press and on the UK UPA web site. (I shall be participating in this event - ed.)

The 2005 User Experience Directory
We will be publishing a 12-page usability supplement in New Media Age magazine on 4th November sponsored by RecruitMedia and Conchango.

Experience the Test and Test the Experience
System Concepts usability team are inviting you to visit them at 2, Savoy Court, London WC2R 0EZ, to ‘Experience the Test and Test the Experience’. For more information please visit www.system-concepts.com or email leslie@system-concepts.com.

Free Usability Testing
Foviance (formerly The Usability Company & WebAbacus) will be opening their lab up for free Usability Testing on 3rd November from 9.30-17.00. For more information, please email toni.mccloggan@foviance.com or call 020 7843 6727

Web Design for Usability Tutorial/Workshop
Syntagm will be running a training course on 3rd November to celebrate World Usability Day. Full details at www.syntagm.co.uk/design/webdesign.shtml.

Loughborough University Events
To mark World Usability Day, there will be two presentations covering topics of usability and ergonomics, Introduction to User Centred Design presented by Lada Gorlenko, IBM, Warwick and Ergonomics and the design of products presented by Meg Galley, President of the Ergonomics Society. The event is open to University students, staff and members of the public.

Location: The Cope Auditorium
Time: 1.15 till 3.30pm

You are welcome to turn up for this event. For further information contact:
Martin Maguire, Loughborough University, m.c.maguire@lboro.ac.uk or Lada Gorlenko, IBM, lada@acm.org

Associated Link: Details of UK activities

Six Metrics for Managing UI Design
Source: Russell Wilson, 28 August 2008
 
A proposal of six metrics to be used for managing a user interface design department.

Don't Judge a Form by its Cover
Source: Formulate Information Design, 27 August 2008
 
The saying "don't judge a book by its cover" reminds us that looks are deceptive. It turns out that this idiom applies to forms too.

Beijing Olympics - special State of the eNation report
Source: www.abilitynet.org.uk, 26 August 2008
 
In this special report AbilityNet asked disabled users to try out the Beijing Olympics website in our interaction lab.

It's Who You Know (Or Don't)
Source: Stanford Magazine, 23 August 2008
 
Online social networks are powerful and ineffectual all at once.

Winning Considerations for Interactive Content
Source: UXMatters, 22 August 2008
 
Rich options for interactively presenting content also come with a challenge.

Microsoft sees end of Windows era
Source: BBC, 20 August 2008
 
Microsoft has kicked off a research project to create software that will take over when it retires Windows.

News you can Use
Source: Gerry McGovern, 18 August 2008
 
When the homepage is dominated by news you are not necessarily communicating more.

Feeling Through your Computer
Source: Discoveries and Breakthroughs Inside Science, 16 August 2008
 
A newly designed device lets computer users feel the texture and movement of what they are seeing in front of them.

User interviews - A basic Introduction
Source: Webcredible, 15 August 2008
 
It's surprising how few people have a real understanding of who's using their site.

Helping Visitors find Information
Source: UN, 13 August 2008
 
A new report outlines the key findings from surveys that explored factors which influence the quality of online experience.