World Usability Day Events girdle the Earth

The first World Usability Day takes place tomorrow, 3rd November. It was created by Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) 'to help everyone know more about the ways to help create a better user experience of our world'.

There is a rolling series of events for the 36 hours of the day as it stretches from Australasia, China and the Philippines to a session at the DUX 2005 (Designing for User Experiences) conference in San Francisco. The World Usability Day webpages include three ways to find out what is going on:
* On an interactive map
* In the hour-by-hour guide to all 36 hours
* Alphabetically by country (linked below)

Further, to help illustrate the practical application of usability, the association has been collecting stories about "everyday usability". You can send in your own stories of how technology 'may (or may not) be making it easy for you'.

"Stories Make It Real" stories range from tales of TV remote controls in Australia to washing machines that talk to blind people in the States, to India, where a call for papers about "usability in unexpected places," produced news of work on a brick carrier concept for rural laborers. (If you have a story to share, send it to usabilitystories@gmail.com.)

Some highlights of the day include:
• Participation by cabinet-level leaders in Italy, and many other important government officials around the world.
• An event at the Boston Museum of Science, featuring hands-on usability testing exhibits for children of all ages, which will coincide with the opening of the Museum’s new “Star Wars” exhibit.
• Author Ben Shneiderman’s talk in Bremen, Germany on “Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies.”
• In New Zealand, usability demonstrations by 12-year-olds on breakfast TV.
• Israeli usability experts going all over their country with introductory presentations on usability in dozens of development organizations.
• Free, online conferences with well-known usability experts.
• Several cities in India offering events that focus on advances in usability, a key driver in India’s economic development.
• At Dartmouth College in the United States, a conference designed to help people understand how principles of usability can be applied to benefit all kinds of learners.

And as a nice touch on the WUD site (http://worldusabilityday.org/about), there is a countdown to 7am on 3rd November in New Zealand, the kick-off.

Associated Link: Round the world listings for World Usability Day

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