Whether designing a website, a document, or an application, professional writers have to think about who will use the final product and how they will use it. Is the website easy to navigate? Is an instruction manual readable? Is the interface intuitive? Usability is a key part of the design process, and it is honored each year during World Usability Day.
World Usability Day (WUD) was started in 2005 to ensure that services and products important to life are easy to access and simple to use. This year’s event takes place on November 10 and the theme is Education: Designing for Social Change. Events will focus on how Design Education will help develop products and services that will impact social change.
Programs will examine all products and services used for teaching how usable design impacts the world, whether it’s close at hand (organizations), surrounding us (particular cultures/communities) or from a global view. . . how does something designed in China, Scotland, India or the United States, for example, have impact on other nations around the world? WUD will explore and celebrate Design Education – designing with an intentional outcome of sparking change in how people behave, communicate, and do things in the world; and examining the concept of cultures and how culture impacts usability.
Last year, more than 40,000 people in 44 countries participated in World Usability Day. Here are some ways you can get involved this year:
- Find an event near you
- Participate in a real-time crowdsourced usability test and other online events
- Share your story about usability
- Sign the World Usability Day Charter
- Join the Usability Professionals’ Association
- Become a member of the Usability and User Experience Community for the Society of Technical Communication
How do you make things easier through usability and user-centered design?
