Activities & Resources

Free activity instructions and downloadable materials

Each of our activities has been thoughtfully developed by usability practitioners, evaluated on-site during World Usability Day, and vetted by the Museum of Science, Boston. We provide them here in their entirety, at no cost to support your educational or World Usability Day efforts. Enjoy!

On this page: Activities | Signage | Give Us Feedback

World Usability Day Activities

These activities are offered free of charge for your use in educational settings. This list is in flux, not all events have content yet.

2008 Activities

• The Alarm Clock Alley Rally
  Individual and group competitions to set alarm clocks.
• Doors to Usability
  An interactive examination of doors and why their design can be unintentionally misleading.
• The Evaluation Station
  Product reviews conducted by usability experts for community-based organizations and non-profits.
• The Great Sock Sort
  Individuals or groups learn affinity diagramming by sorting socks into categories of their own devising.
• Instruction Blocks
  Individuals attempt to follow three sets of directions that each employ different instructional techniques.
• MIT Media Lab Touchscreen Voting Machiness
  Test out current and enhanced, research-based touchscreen voting machines.
• Remote Control SuperUser!
  Individuals or groups design a remote control to help a superhero save the day.
• Road to Usability
  A display illustrating a product's evolution from sketch to final design.
• Tag Team!
  A team activity focusing on the importance of applying clear tags to online photos and files. Tagets efficiency and accessibility

Past Activities

• Cell Phone Warrior
  How gr8 r u? An individual or team activity where participants race to examine cell phones and discuss their usability.
• City SignWalk
  An outdoor examination of public signage.
• Facing Fonts
  Individuals match typefaces with photos of children in costumes.
• Toystore Affinity
  Older individuals or groups learn affinity diagramming by sorting toys into categories of their own devising.
• Usability R.A.C.E. (Rolling, Accellerated Contextual Examination)
  Teams scour the city interviewing conducting intercept interviews with passersby.

Signage

We created welcome signs to orient visitors to tWorld Usability Day and individual signs to identify and explain each activity. Download our signage to modify for your use. Links to activity signs are on the activity pages.

• Download the Boston 2007 Welcome sign (1.7M PDF)

Please note:

• All signage PDFs are compatible with Adobe Illustrator CS and can be altered as needed.
• All the files contain outlines of fonts. There is no live type.
• If you need to set new type, the font is "Georgia" which is available on most computers.
• The blue and green colors can be found in the "Color Swatches" palette.

Special thanks to Jon Follett of HotKnifeDesign for generating these signs, and to The MITRE Corporation for printing and mounting them.

Try the Activities, Give Us Feedback

We encourage your feedback! Did these activities support your educational efforts? Have you enhanced them in any way? Did your activity inpire a comment, video clip, or other reponse that would inform others, bring a smile or a heartwarming tear? Let us know and we will add your experiences to this website for the benefit of others. Email feedback to: volunteer@upaboston.org.