Usability Company's Catriona Campbell named as One of the Great

Catriona Campbell, chief executive of The Usability Company has been named as one of Internet Magazine's 50 most influential people in the UK internet industry.

The magazine organises an event at which its nominated Top 50 influential people can meet each other and other guests. Photos from this year's meeting will appear on the cover accompanying a feature in the June issue of Internet Magazine.

Nominees are mostly business people in charge of a Web service or a design company. Usability has never been celebrated as specifically before.

Campbell was delighted by her inclusion, using the time spent amongst so many of the industry's key people to evangelise: 'Usability and HCI was discussed by me as much as possible to everyone I met. To be able to discuss usability with the CEOs and MDs leading the UK internet industry was fabulous!'

Andrew Pinder, the UK Government's E-envoy, attended as guest of honour this year. He commented that the past 12 months have been tough for the UK internet industry and 'this year, more than ever, it is vital to highlight these British success stories'.

This year's women included Katherine Everett, New Media Controller at BBCi; Karen Thomson of AOL; Fiona Coughlan, CEO of Europe Macromedia; Kate Drewett, MD of Moonfish and Martha Lane Fox, MD of Last Minute.com as well as Campbell.

Campbell is co-founder of The Usability Company, set up in the last couple of years after several years working in the corporate sector and pushing user centred design. She is also a founding member of the Usability Professionals Association, UK and a practitioner rep to the British HCI Group. She is one of two usability experts assisting the E-Envoy’s office produce the new Government web standards for the UK and sits on a review committee amending the ISO 18529 International Standard for Human Centred design for UK government.

Why 'The 10 Commandments of Web Design' are Complete Baloney
Source: SitePoint, 5 July 2008
 
Further to our earlier discussion...

Local Council Websites: Good, but no Cigar
Source: Webcredible, 4 July 2008
 
The 'Local Council Websites: Good, But No Cigar' report evaluates the top 20 Socitm council websites against 20 best practice usability guidelines.

Why does the OK Button say OK?
Source: Gerry McGovern, 3 July 2008
 
Most times I come across the OK button, something not-OK has happened.

The 10 Commandments of Web Design
Source: Business Week, 2 July 2008
 
To try and make sense of it all, BusinessWeek.com canvassed a broad range of Internet luminaries to discover the design rules they live by right now.

Bill Gates' email rant at the Usability Team
Source: Crunch Gear, 1 July 2008
 
The Seattle P-I has tracked down an old e-mail from 2003 that Bill Gates sent out to members of the Windows Usability team.

Can a better User Experience also be a Greener Experience?
Source: Catalyst Resources, 30 June 2008
 
By improving the user experience of its web collaboration software, Catalyst made it easier for clients to work in productive teams without travelling the globe.

The Spread of Telepresence Technology
Source: Tech News World, 28 June 2008
 
Rising energy costs and green concerns are fuelling a huge increase in demand for videoconferencing, collaborative software and virtual telepresence technology.

UK Usability market worth more than £200 million by end of 2008
Source: eConsultancy, 27 June 2008
 
The UK Usability market will grow by an estimated 20% in 2008 to a value of £214 million, according to research published this week by e-consultancy.

Research suggests growing importance of Usability to UK Businesses
Source: Business Strata, 26 June 2008
 
Integrated software for lead generation and marketing is valuable, but only as long as it's usable.

Web 2.0: Too Smart by a Half?
Source: Computer Technology Review, 25 June 2008
 
Will the Web 2.0 generation’s epitaph be, “They died with their options open?”