World Usability Day is 20 days out. Are you doing anything to celebrate?
If your work involves usability or user experience, you should be!
This is a great chance for us to make some noise and help spread the word that usability matters and that there are people like us who spend our time trying to make life easier!
At Flow, where I work, we’ve organised a little project we call MakingLifeEasy.org
Here’s the general idea.
On World Usability Day and in the lead up, we’ll be out on the streets of London tying balloons to the worst offenders. We want people across the world to do the same. Participants are encouraged to photograph the scene and either add it to our Flickr group, or email it to us (hello [at] makinglifeeasy.org) and we’ll post it to the website where we’ll be collecting votes for the Usability Hall of Shame and the Usability Hall of Fame.
We’d LOVE you to get involved. There’s a few things you can do.
- Help get more people involved! If you have a blog, give us a shout out and send people our way to participate. If you have a Flickr account, come join our group and invite all your friends!
- Share your examples of the best and the worst of usability where you live (or visit or holiday!). Add photos to the group or drop us an email and we’ll add your submission to the website and potentially to the Hall of Fame or Shame
- Cast your vote! Take a look at the website and have your say in what *really* drives you crazy and what you really love.
Stay tuned for the announcement of inductees to the Usability Hall of Fame and Shame on 14 November 2006 – World Usability Day.
Meanwhile – I encourage you to make the most of the opportunity that this day and the lead up offer to put the spotlight on Usability and User Experience. Help us make a noise and raise awareness and – ultimately help us make life easy!