Press release
20th Mar 2005
Singapore

Preparation for World Usability Day

MicroUsability, in collaboration with the Usability Professionals' Association of Singapore, is working to gather a group of volunteers together to plan an event for November 3rd 2005 World Usability Day.

The goal of World Usability Day is to promote the fields of usability engineering and user-centered design. We aim to do this by encouraging, organizing, and sponsoring activities at the local level around the globe, all occurring on November 3, 2005. We envision the UPA, UPA chapters, and allied organizations all holding separate yet related events, revolving around a common theme - "Making it easy - World Usability Day", with a focus this year on e-government, while also including ecommerce and other commercial applications.  

Volunteers will be involved in brain-storming for ideas for this event. Some ideas for this has been:

1. Measuring standardized aspects of usability of Automated Teller Machines.

2. Measuring the usability of information kiosks at public transportation facilities.

3. Measuring the usability of a very busy crosswalk.

4. Measuring how long it takes to reach a person when calling customer support - Telco, Bank, ISP, Insurance etc (can also map the steps/paths taken).

5. Measure how long it takes before you receive an answer to an enquiry when sending an email to customer support via a web site - Telco, Bank, Airline etc (can also map the paths/steps taken).

6. Looking at the steps to record a show on a video recorder (an oldie but a goodie).

7. Counting the number of unused functions on your remote control (or all your remote controls in your house).

8. Counting the number of unused functions on your Microwave.

9. Mapping the steps it takes to buy a ticket via an automatic ticket
machine to catch public transport.

If you would like to be involved as a volunteer, let us know what activities you'd like to organize for this day. In the spirit of encouraging you all to leverage your individual strengths and interests, we want you to feel free to organize whatever activities you feel will work best for your constituency.

To participate as a volunteer, write to upa@microusability.com

Please e-mail info@microusability.com for comments and feedback.

About the UPA

The UPA is a global organisation of over 1600 usability professionals, dedicated to improving usability best practice, ensuring that usability professionals work together, and increasing awareness of usability to both Governments and organisations.