Phoenix World Usability Day Event – November 13, 2008

Mark your Calendar!
Phoenix World Usability Day Event – November 13, 2008
Fourth Annual Global Event to Create Awareness for Usability

Arizona professionals interested in hardware/software usability and human factors are invited to attend the second World Usability Day event in Phoenix. Please join this awareness and networking event designed to grow the Arizona usability community. The event is scheduled for Thursday, November 13, 2008 from 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. Seating and refreshments are limited, so you must RSVP to attend this event. Event details are below.

The agenda is now being finalized. Presentations and/or panel discussions are planned on transportation usability experiences and case studies. This is a networking event, so local companies are encouraged to introduce themselves and describe their usability efforts. Any interested presenters should contact Theo Mandel (contact information below). This meeting is also an initial effort to form an Arizona chapter of the Usability Professionals' Association (UPA). An overview of the UPA will be presented and attendees will be able to sign up for more information on the formation of the Arizona UPA Chapter. 

Sponsors include the Usability Professionals' Association (www.upassoc.org) and World Usability Day (www.worldusabilityday.org). The local event is sponsored by the Art Institute of Phoenix (www.artinstitutes.edu/phoenix/).

A more detailed agenda will be published shortly.

About World Usability Day

The Usability Professionals' Association (UPA) has announced World Usability Day (WUD) 2008 will take place on November 13, 2008. This year's focus will be on transportation. World Usability Day 2007 was a tremendous success. UPA, along with its allied organizations coordinated over 200 events in 175 cities in 40 countries that attracted over 50,000 attendees and volunteers at worldwide site locations, as well as through webcasts online at the WUD website, www.worldusabilityday.org.

World Usability Day was founded in 2005 with a mission to increase the public's awareness of the need to make services and products important to human life easier to access and simpler to use. Global issues such as healthcare, education and government are addressed through expert forums, exhibits, events and initiatives in locations throughout the world.

World Usability Day - Phoenix Event
Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008, 6:00 - 8:30 p.m.

Art Institute of Phoenix

Cafe/Dining Room
2233 West Dunlap Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85021

** Admission is FREE **
** Food and Drink Provided **

Map and Directions:
www.artinstitutes.edu/phoenix/AboutUs/Map_Directions.aspx

RSVP Required!
Please RSVP with number of attendees, including name,
title, and e-mail address to: theo@theomandel.com

Event Schedule

6:00 p.m.:
Begin food and refreshments
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.:

(Final agenda - to be determined)
Networking, speaker and panel presentations
Door prizes (software, t-shirts, books and more...) - You must be present to win!

Contact Information

Theo Mandel, Ph.D.
Interface Design and Development, LLC
theo@theomandel.com
480.664.1202

World Usability Day 2008 for Phoenix

World Usability Day 2008 is quickly approaching on November 13. Find out where the exciting events are and how you can get involved.

We are also working on developing a Phoenix World Usability Day on 11/13/08 to create awareness for usability. For more information on how you can get involved, please contact us through this blog or contact Theo Mandel at theo@theomandel.com or 480-664-1202.

Apple App Store & Usability

The Strategy Analytics Wireless Media Lab has released, "Apple's Apps Store Success Builds on Speed, Usability, Content and Flat-Rate Data Pricing," which evaluates the usability of the recently launched Apple Apps Store, and provides insight into which applications most attract users.

Purchasing and downloading an application using the iPhone App Store is a straightforward 3-click process (excluding password entry). As a result, all participants in this evaluation exhibited high levels of satisfaction, since they were able to successfully locate and download an application.

"By making the purchase, download and installation process as simple as 3 clicks (excluding password entry), Apple's unparalleled interface rewards those who explore Apple Apps with a successful transaction," commented Paul Brown, Senior User Experience Research Analyst at Strategy Analytics. "This reinforces confidence and promotes further exploration, discovery and sales."

Kevin Nolan, Vice President at Strategy Analytics added, "By giving away relevant, useful applications for free, Apple reassures users that the Apps Store is worth exploring for useful, quality content."

Via BusinessWire

Links of Note

Hey everybody,

A favor of you: Can you send me your top 5 usability links to your favorite sites, blogs, magazines, software, resources, etc.? I'd like to create a list of top usability links based on our collective feedback.


A few on my shortlist to get you thinking where I'm headed:

Boxesandarrows
Website Time Machine
Jakob Nielsen Useit
Nussbaum On Design
SitePoint Usability Blog


Let me know what you've been reading lately. We'll share the wealth and hopefully gain some new insights. Thanks.

UCD to User Designed: Nike ID

We're all aware of user centered design, but with emerging technologies, we can pass GO, collect $200 and watch users BECOME designers. Enter, Nike PhotoID.

The technology behind this isn't too complicated, but the experience design is interesting: see something that catches your eye, snap a picture, Nike sends you the matching shoes overlaid on your picture. Available via online ordering of course.

Masterminded by AKQA, London, NIKE PHOTOiD is a brand new mobile application which allows users to customize their own set of sneakers according to their physical surroundings. You simply take a picture of something on your camera phone (it could be anything from a piece of graffiti to an ice cream sundae) and then send this pic off to a shortcode via MMS. The NIKEiD website then picks out the two strongest colours from your image and uses them to colour your custom sneakers. Within a minute, you are sent a link with your design superimposed over the original source of pantone inspiration.

You can then save this image as wallpaper for your mobile, send it to a mate or, by entering the unique DESIGNiD at NIKEiD.com, link directly to your design to complete and actually purchase the sneakers. As one particularly over-excited sneaker-freak in our office inquired with a faint hint of dribble at the corner of his mouth: 'So I could take a picture of a grassy meadow and then it would text me a link to buy my very own Nike Grassy Meadows?' Yeap chap - that's about the long and short of it...

Via Contagious.

The Future of Design Is User Centered

This is a touch dated, but I thought I'd share in case you had not seen this. It's still quite good. IDEO’s David Kelley says that product design has become much less about the hardware and more about the user experience. He shows video of this new, broader approach, including footage from the Prada store in New York.

Meeting information

I got responses from my last post about locations and it appears that most of you would not have to travel great distances if we used the meeting space at my company's offices:

Choice Hotels International (See map below)
Western Headquarters
4225 East Windrose Dr.
Phoenix, AZ, US 85032

Again, if any of you would have extreme hardship in attending a meeting at this location, let me know.

I'll be setting up an introduction meeting in the coming weeks to give us all an opportunity to meet face to face and take a look at our initial charter and next steps.

Talk to you soon.


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