World Usability Day

The second Thursday of November is a professional holiday for everyone involved in usability: the simplicity and ease of use of products and services On this day, under the slogan “Making Life Easy!”, World Usability Day (WUD) is celebrated The date was established in 2004 on the initiative of Elisabeth Rosenzweig, then president of the Association of Usability Professionals World Usability Day was first held in 2005: 115 events were organized simultaneously in 35 countries with the participation of 8,000 people To coordinate the implementation of WUD on a planetary scale, the organization of the same name, World Usability Day, was created with headquarters in Boston On the community website (worldusabilitydayorg), participants register their future events, attract sponsors and volunteers, and store an archive of past events The Community Charter, in particular, states: when it comes to errors when using modern devices or online services, it is incorrect to say that these are human errors, “user errors” Technology today is too complex A mobile phone should be as easy to use as a doorknob Internet technologies that provide infrastructure for distance education, healthcare, work, e-commerce, communication, entertainment, communications with government agencies and other areas must, first of all, serve people They should improve our lives, not be a source of stress or danger due to poor quality or ill-conceived design “User errors” means that the services or products were not easy to understand or easy to use Developing efficient, reliable, secure and easy-to-use technologies for all aspects of modern life requires a united and coordinated effort from both developers and consumers Every year, World Usability Day brings together professional communities and public organizations for a common goal: to ensure that software products and services needed in everyday life are easy to use and accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities On this day, conferences, seminars, exhibitions and other events are held at which software developers, designers, owners of Internet resources, equipment manufacturers discuss usability issues, share experiences, talk about their products, etc Every year one is chosen scope of information technology For example, in 2007 the topic of WUD was health IT usability 40 thousand people took part in 41 countries In 2008 - in the field of transport (50 thousand participants in 43 countries), in 2012 - usability of financial systems, etc The World Usability Day community primarily focuses on IT in the areas of education, healthcare, communication, entertainment, government affairs, security, and privacy WUD events have been held in Russia since 2007 Among IT specialists, the term User eXperience (UX) is often used It includes all aspects of user interaction with a specific IT product, and usability is only one of these aspects In 2012, the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) was renamed UXPA - User Experience Professionals Association International