"Making Life Easy!"

World Usability Day, November 13, 2008 , is an international event for everyone who's struggled to use a product, bought a device or toy based on its looks alone, or tried to walk in the "out" door.

Moreover, it is also a unique opportunity for practitioners to capture real data from visitors to be used in conjunction with data captured during the first World Usability Day to support the development of safer and more effective products.

In addition, each of the activities at Boston's World Usability Day event are provided on this website, free for the benefit of individuals, organizations, and cultural institutions to use to support their own educational, usability-related or World Usability Day efforts.

The Local Effort

Boston's tie-in activities to World Usability Day will be on November 13th, 2008 at the Museum of Science, Boston. This Earth Day style event is raising the visibility of usability engineering and the importance of user centered design in product development.

The Boston event is being organized by the Usability Professionals' Association Boston Chapter (UPA Boston) with the support of BostonCHI, BostonIA, the MIT Media Lab, and other usability-aware organizations, learning institutions and companies.

UPA Boston's efforts are being spearheaded by the UPA Boston Advisory Board, which is made up of:

• Chris Hass, President
• Margy Bergel, Vice President
• Susie Robson, Treasurer
• Greg Raiz, Secretary

Public relations for Boston's event are being coordinated by Caryn Saitz in conjunction with the international PR firm Weber Shandwick Worldwide.

The International Effort

The worldwide World Usability Day 2008 effort promotes the value of usability engineering and the belief that every user has the responsibility to ask for products and services that support straightforward, safe, and enjoyable use. The international effort is being organized by the Usability Professionals' Association (UPA), which is the parent group for UPA Boston.

Internationally, World usability Day will feature 36 hours of activities at the local level around the globe, all occurring on November 13, 2008 .

The UPA, UPA chapters, and allied organizations will all hold events, revolving around a common theme: "Making life easy!" This year World Usability Day has a special focus on accessibility and inclusion.

Why is World Usability Day Unique?

The importance of usability in product and service development is not trivial. It is intimately connected to education, healthcare and safety. Tools and systems that are usable are more effective in teaching students. Healthcare professionals can be more confident with safer and more understandable tools and thereby provide better quality healthcare to their patients. Government institutions can rely on easy to use and understandable voting machines to insure accurate and democratic elections.

World Usability Day is a chance for individuals, product developers, product purchasers, parents, and schoolchildren to learn about what it takes to develop a product or service that is easily understandable, safe, satisfying to use and effective for its intended purpose. Activities will promote awareness of usability careers which frequently span technical, managerial, and design fields. Practitioners will learn (or reaffirm) techniques and cutting-edge methodologies for enhancing product development cycles.

Usable technology makes a difference to everyone, everywhere around the world. Find out how you can help as a volunteer.