In search of Sustainability: World Usability Day 2009

Welcome to World Usability Day 2009!

The aim of World Usability Day is to increase the public's awareness of the need to design services and products around human life to ensure they are simple and accessible. World Usability Day is now in its fifth year, with over 200 events planned across 133 countries on November 12th. This year's events will focus on our impact on the environment and designing for a sustainable world.

To mark the event, User Vision is running a series of thought-provoking activities at its head office in Edinburgh. The company hopes to create a dialogue about sustainable design while entertaining visitors to its usability testing suite. User Vision is calling for improvements in environmentally sustainable design as part of its work for World Usability Day 2009. In the run up to the day, the company will be conducting expert evaluations of four price comparison websites to assess how easy or difficult the user experience journey is for those wanting to switch to or compare green energy options.

On World Usability Day itself, the experiment will be extended and attendees will be offered the chance to test the usability of these websites themselves. This will be done on the internet and on mobile phones using advanced eye tracking technology, to gather real insights from end users. The findings will be analysed and reported and the final results revealed after World Usability Day.

This year's activities include:
- Tackling climate change on mobile devices:
See how easy (or difficult) it is to join a community working to reduce carbon emissions using a mobile phone.
- Calculating your environmental impact online:
Use online calculators to see how you can save money and reduce your carbon footprint using a range of websites. Let us know which gives you the better online experience.
- Testing how easy it is to recycle: Is it really as easy as following instructions? Is it learnable? See how to classify items into the correct recycling bins.
- Controlling your radiator settings from one device: Save energy by using a 'Honeywell Zoning Device'. Using this interface, see if you can set a different temperature in each room.
- Testing the accessibility of carbon offsetting sites: See live usability tests of disabled users using a range of carbon offsetting websites.
- Learning about sustainability for disabled users: Watch a video of a disabled user to find out how they manage their recycling.

Chris Rourke, User Vision's Managing Director explains why his company is taking part in the event: "WUD is a great way to show and educate our clients about how to see things from a user perspective, and how to walk in the user's shoes," he said. "We have tremendous experience in this area, having worked with clients such as Emirates Airline, BBC, DirectGov and the NHS, for the past 10 years." He added: "World Usability Day highlights why it is vital to make the modern world work for us and to ensure that parts of society don't get left behind by the pace of change or poor design. This year's theme is particularly exciting as it's imperative that we find ways to make it easier to protect our environment."

Associated Link: User Vision at World Usability Day

Advice on Designing Mobile Sites and Apps
Source: Poynter Online, 18 March 2010
 
Series of useful tips from a recent panel discussion.

Website Usability and Conversion
Source: UsabilityBlog, 17 March 2010
 
Useful presentation on the relationship between website usability and conversion.

Tips for Usability Testing with Children
Source: Econsultancy, 16 March 2010
 
Not even chocolate will help you here.

The Hygiene Factor of Usability
Source: inspireUX, 15 March 2010
 
Is it true that usability can no longer take us 'beyond lack of dissatisfaction'?

The Business Benefits of building Accessible websites
Source: Econsultancy, 13 March 2010
 
There’s a good business case for making your website more accessible to the UK’s disabled community.

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
Source: BBC, 12 March 2010
 
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The Net generation, Unplugged
Source: The Economist, 11 March 2010
 
Is it really helpful to talk about a new generation of "digital natives" who have grown up with the internet?

Rewriting the Human-Computer interaction Handbook
Source: CIOL, 10 March 2010
 
Indrani Medhi of Microsoft Research India has developed text-free user interfaces (UIs) to allow any illiterate or semi-literate person on first contact with a computer, to proceed with minimal or no assistance.

Lip reading Mobile promises End to noisy phone calls
Source: BBC, 9 March 2010
 
A prototype device shown off at CeBIT could allow people to conduct silent phone conversations.

Games User Researchers band together
Source: UN, 8 March 2010
 
The number of UX professionals in gaming has reached critical mass.