November 8, 2012 is World Usability Day.
World Usability Day was begun in 2005 by what is now known as the UXPA (User Experience Professional Association).
"Held annually on the second Thursday in November, World Usability Day promotes the values of usability, usability engineering, user-centered design, universal usability, and every user's responsibility to ask for things that work better. The day adopts a different theme each year. Organisations, groups or individuals are encouraged to hold events to mark the day, optionally according to that year's theme." (Wikipedia)
As stated on WorldUsabilityDay.org, usability is "about "Making Life Easy" and user friendly. Technology today is too hard to use. A cell phone should be as easy to access as a doorknob. In order to humanize a world that uses technology as an infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, government, communication, entertainment, work and other areas, we must develop these technologies in a way that serves people first."
As an organization committed to its' customers and to making their life easier, its imperative that we pay attention to this aspect of usability and make room for it to be an intrinsic aspect of our products. By utilizing usability in our approach to product development and design, we are ensuring that these products-no matter the medium of delivery- are developed and designed in a way that keeps our customers at the center of the process.
This video from WorldUsabilityDay.org offers a great explanation and background on the importance of usability.
from WorldUsabilityDay.org
To learn more about what's happening around the world for World Usability Day, please check out the World Usability Day Homepage
